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BABYLONIAN LIFE
AND HISTORY
1 X
E. A- WALLIS BUDGE, M.A. (CANTAB.)
ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM
THIRD EDITION
WITH MANY ILL USTRA TIONS
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 PATERNOSTER ROW, 65 ST. PAUt S CHURCHYARD
AND 164 PICCADILLY
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and that which i
done is that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under th
, 9.
INTRODUCTION.
THE following pages have been written with the view
of offering to the Bible student, in a small compass, a
little of the history of Babylon, her thought, religion,
and manners, and consequently the means whereby he
may understand better some of the allusions of ,the
prophets and Bible historians. When they wrote, they
knew they were addressing a nation fully acquainted
with the knowledge necessary for the understanding of
their words. We inhabitants of the West are obliged
to have recourse to whatever contemporaneous records
we can find for the explanation of the history of the
time which is not clearly stated in the Bible. Conse
quently the notices of Bible events and Bible history
which are obtained from the nation which had so much
to do with the Jews are of particular value.
The cuneiform writings possess one wonderful attri
bute, and that is, they are records of events written at
the time of their occurrence. Manuscript histories can
be tampered with, letters altered or erased, additions
inserted, whole parts cut out, and, starting with every
thing correct, a careless scribe will make mistakes that
after generations will never be able to put right. For
6 INTRODUCTION.
example, in the oldest Egyptian papyri, words, and even
whole chapters, are written in such a way as to prove
that the scribe cannot have understood what he was
writing. Fortunately, alterations in these cuneiform
documents have been rendered impossible, because
they have been buried under the dust and dirt of
centuries, out of the reach of the hands alike of the
destructive Arab and Tourist/ and, in a measure,
unaffected by the hand of slowly but surely destroying
Time.
The decipherment of the clay tablets is not by any
means easy; the unbaked, which have recently been
brought to England from Babylon and Sepharvato, being
peculiarly hard to copy. The writing is complex and
difficult, and in many cases the sharp edge of the writing
has been sadly rubbed, while the wedge itself is partly or
wholly filled in with dust and silica. When the tablets
are dug up they are wet and brittle; when they dry,
they often fall into dust or crumble away slowly.
Very much that has been done in cuneiform decipher
ment is quite certain, but there is much that is still
uncertain. The small body of cuneiform scholars is
working hard to clear up these doubts, some of which
day by day disappear. We greatly need more sylla
baries and bilingual tablets, on which we may find the
words explained which at present are unknown. A
little patience and forbearance too from those who are
sceptical as to the results obtained from cuneiform
decipherment are necessary ; when cuneiform has been
studied as long as Greek and Latin, there will be very
little in it unknown.
INTRODUCTION. 7
The differences and discussions among Assyriologists
which occasionally appear in English and foreign
journals should not be used as an argument against
the general truth of the decipherment of the Assyrian
inscriptions, for in many cases .they only deal with
philological details which in no wise affect the, main
structure of the interpretation. It is true that much
remains to be done for Assyrian grammar and lexico
graphy. When new texts are brought to light it is very
probable that alterations in mir ideas respecting the exact
signification of some words will have to take place ; but
the more Assyrian is studied the more will it be evident
how well and thoroughly the early labourers in the field
of Assyrian research did their work. The general system
and plan of work thought out by Sir Henry Rawlinson,
and his immediate followers, Hincks, Norris, and Oppert,
ijll never be overthrown; and it is upon the broad
foundation laid down by these scholars that every one
else has built.
See what the decipherment of the Assyrian inscrip
tions has already done for Bible history I It has told us
of the land of Abraham ; it has given us a version of the
story of the flood ; it has told us of Babylon and Nineveh ;
it has brought us face to face with Sennacherib, Tiglath-
Pileser, Sargon, and Esarhaddon ; it has revealed to us
the home, the language, and the thought of the haughty
Nebuchadnezzar ; it has given us some of the beliefs,
superstitions, religion, learning, and wisdom of the fellow
citizens of Abraham, the friend of God ; it has caused
us to know intimately a branch of the great Semitic race
akin to the Jewish nation from which sprang the Christ,
and it carries us back through the long dark vista of
8 INTRODUCTION,
centuries and shadowy time to a period when mankind
was learning its letters, and step by step was slowly
advancing to civilization.
The meanings of many of the names of the cities and
countries mentioned in ,the Bible are now made clear,
as are also the meanings of the names of the kings and
titles of officers. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar is Nebo pro
tects the landmark/ Nabopolassar is ( Nebo protects the
son/ Nabuzaradan is c Nebo gave a seed, Sargon is c the
established king/ Esarhaddon is Assur gave a brother/
Sennacherib is the moon-god increases brothers/ Tiglath-
Pileser is confidence is the son of the Sharra temple */
Chedorlaomer is f the landmark of Lagamar/ Rabshakeh
is chief of the princes/ Tartan is the mighty son/ and
so on.
It is necessary to refer here to the inscription of
Sargon I. of Sippara, and to state plainly that the
opinions of Assyriologists are divided as to its antiquity.
A deeply learned French scholar denies that the first
character in the name is rightly read, and says that the
form of the name is not what it should be ; and with
this latter statement a famous English Assyriologist
agrees. The arguments, however, which they briijg
forward are not conclusive, in my opinion, although
future discoveries may prove them to be right. In
favour of the inscription there are many points ; among
others, the form of the characters of the inscription and
the inscription itself, and above all the date given
by Nabonidus in his cylinder. The Assyrians $nd
Babylonians kept a good and strict reckoning of events
1 Schroeder, Die JCeilinschnftm und das AU& Testament) p. 240.
INTRODUCTION, 9
past, and their general correctness goes to show that
there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the state
ment of Nabonidus. Moreover, the date is found on
more than one cylinder clearly and carefully written.
The king could have no object in giving a false an
tiquity to his kingdom, or rather in limiting it to the
time of Naram-Sin and Sargon I. There were kings
of Babylon before this time ; why then did he choose
these two monarchs, when he might have chosen others
of greater antiquity, if he had wished merely to say
that his kingdom existed for ever? Finally, I think
that the evidence we have leads one to the conclusion
that the inscription is of the period of about B.C. 3800.
If in future days new inscriptions come to light, and
sufficient evidence to the contrary can be brought for
ward, I for one will cheerfully give up the belief in what
I now think a fact.
The land that is to-day a howling wilderness was
once a flourishing country ; its cities were queens, and
their inhabitants were the richest of the rich. But now
its cities are ruined, its temples desolate, their gods
broken, and the makers have passed away together
with their works. European travellers tell of the desola
tion and misery of the land ; the wretched Arab prowls
around the mounds which are the ruins of the former
cities ; the ancient highways of the country are empty,
its emporiums are closed, a nd want, misery, and scarcity
are the kings of the land to-day. It is a land with no
share in the world s progress, a land given over to a
superstition, the utterly corrupt and debased form of its
ancient pagan religion, with its belief in genii, ghosts,
ghouls, and monsters. What was good in it has
10 INTRODUCTION.
departed, with its might, its power, and its glory. The
wood devil* dances there, and, as Isaiah 1 prophesied,
it is the home of the satyr and the screech-owl. God
has forsaken it, and its glory has perished.
In this little book but few references by name have
been made to the works of other Assyrian scholars, as
the space allowed would not admit of it. Here, however,
I take the opportunity of expressing my obligations to
every scholar who may find his work used or quoted.
My thanks are also due to Dr. Richard Garnett, of the
British Museum, for reading the proof-sheets of the book,
and for his thoughtful suggestions.
As new excavations are made in Babylon, new facts
will be brought to light, and it is hoped that these will
be embodied in this work from time to time.
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.
1 Isaiah xxxiv. 14.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
BABYLON ACCORDING TO THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS.
PAGE
Babylonia. Its great antiquity. Extent of country. Name derived
from capital city. Its old name. Names of Babylon in the in
scriptions and their meanings. Meaning of Babel. Talmudic
discussion thereon. Its situation. Its size. Its \valls and their
names. Translation of a long Nebuchadnezzar inscription obtained
from two barrel cylinders in the British Museum. Nebuchadnezzar
rebuilt the Tower of Babel, col. I, line 53. List of temples of
Babylon. He wrote an account of them. Nebuchadnezzar s prayer.
The two great temples of Babylon. Meaning of their names.
Birs-Nimrud the siteiof Borsippa. Babylon andBorsippa according
to the Talmud. Their bad name among the Jews. Remains of
Nebuchadnezzar s buildings. The tower in seven stages. Their
colours, etc. Plajn of JDuru the same as the plain of Dura of
Daniel.- Euphrates. Its name. Sippara the Biblical Sepharvaim.
Its name and meaning. River Tigris and Nineveh 17
CHAPTER II.
BABYLON ACCORDING TO THE CLASSICAL AUTHORS.
The statement of Herodotus about Babylon. Views of other Classical
authors as to its size and extent. Its gates, houses, streets, defences,
and walls. Temple of Jupiter Belus. Comparison of these
accounts with those of the cuneiform inscriptions. Extract from
East India House inscription. Nebuchadnezzar used cedar covered
with gold for the ceilings of his temples. Inscriptions of this
monarch near Riblah. Want of definite history concerning his
Syrian, campaigns ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 29
J2 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM ABOUT B.C, 3800-1330.
PACK
Method of reckoning time in use among the Babylonians. The
eponym canon. Sir H. Rawlinson s discovery. Rimmon-Nirari I.,
B.C. 1330, caused his inscription to be dated. Contract tablets.
Extract from eponym canon. The Assyrians kept a strict^, account
of events. Image of the goddess Nana. Babylonians ma.de their
calculations by the help of astronomy. Nabonidus mentions
Naram-Sin, who reigned 3200 years before his time. Inscription
of Sargon I., B.C. 3800. Extract from inscription of Nabonidus,
Legend about Sargon. Babylonian kings Naram-Sin, Ur-Bagas,
Dungi, Ismi-Dagan, Libit-Istar, and others. Hammurabi, the good
king. His canal, his good policy. Contract tablets dated in his
reign. Revival of commerce in Babylonia. The kings his suc
cessors. Tablet giving list of kings after the flood , 34
CHAPTER IV.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668.
Rise of the Assyrian Empire under Rimmon-Nirari, B.C. 1330.
Translation of his inscription. Extent of his empire. Tiglath-
Pileser I. His immense kingdom. His hunting expeditions in
Lebanon. Rise of the Jewish power under David and Solomon.
Assurnasirpal, king of Assyria. Shalmaneser II. Tribute of Jehu.
The bronze gates of Balawat, Wars between the Assyrian and
Babylonian kings. Sargon of Assyria sends the Tartan against
Ashdod. Hezekiah and Merodach-Baladan.-- Sennacherib 1 . His
wars with Merodach-Baladan. Sennacherib destroys Babylon.
Terrible damage to buildings and libraries. The; boast of the
Rabshakeh. Sennacherib s death. Esarhaddon, the kind and
merciful king. His respect for the Babylonian temples. Trans
lation of an inscripti on in Babylonian ... , ? . 46
- CHAPTER V.
THE FALL OF NINEVEH. NEBUCHADNEZZAR. B. a 668-560.
Assurbanipal s wars with Elam. His care for the libraries. Fall of
Nraeveli, The vengeance of the Babylonians.- Nebuchadnezzar s
Wai:, with the Egyptians. Josiah, king of Judah, Nebuchad-
ne^zfirs buildings and canals. Inscription on a bronze step The
slt f l> of Tyre.The destruction of Jerusalem and captivity of its
pwteflt Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. Biblical names of Adam
Abel, Abraham, and Methuselah found on the tablets 67
CONTENTS. 13
CHAPTER VI.
THE CUNEIFORM ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON BY
CYRUS. THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO IT. B.C. 560-530.
PAGE
Rab-Mag. Nabonidus, king of Babylon, and Belshazzar, master of
the army. Cyrus. Rise,, of his power. Death of the mother of
Nabonidus. Chief events of the years of the reign of Nabonidus..
Extract from an inscription of this monarch. His researches.
His restorations of the temples. Nabonidus a sun-worshipper.
Arrival of Cyrus at Babylon. His cylinder. Part of cuneiform
text relating to the capture of Babylon. Translation of it. Cyrus
the shepherd, the good king. His conciliatory policy. His
kindness to the Jews, His restoration of the, cities and temples.
Bible account of the fall of Babylon. Belshazzar s feast 76
CHAPTER VII.
BABYLON UNDER THE RULE OF THE PERSIANS, AND UNDER
SELEUCUS.
Babylon under the Persians. The proclamation of Cyrus to the Jews.
Darius, Cambyses, and Gomates. Sir Henry Rawlinson s trans
lation of the Behistun Inscription. Extract therefrom. Kindness
of Darius to the Jews. Confirmation of the decree of Cyrus.
Xerxes gave the Jews permission to build the walls of Jerusalem.
Philip and Alexander the Great, kings of Babylon. Babylon under
Seleucus. Extract from an inscription of Antiochus. Lack of
historical cuneiform inscriptions after this period. Gradual decay
of Babylon. Prophecies relating to its fall 90
CHAPTER VIII.
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE.
Babylonian wedge-writing. Manner in which the characters were
written. Comparison of signs. Cuneiform signs were once
pictures. Compound signs. Polyphony of the characters. The
syllabaries in two and three columns. Bilingual lists of words.
Bilingual reading books. Method of making tablets. Their shape,
size, colour, and texture. Writing instrument. Babylonian mathe
matics. Their method of counting. Extract from a table of cube
roots. Babylonian astronomy. Translations of their reports.
List of months. Names of gods to whom they were dedicated.
Invention of the calendar. Babylonian observatories. Comets".
Eclipses. Ma"gical tablets. Incantations. Belief in evil spirits
14 CONTENTS.
PAGE
current in the time of Isaiah. Contract tablets. Seals of witnesses,
nail marks, Phoenician and Greek signatures, etc.- Translations of
two slave contracts. The banking firm of Egibi and Son. Great
importance of these dated documents.- The latest dated contract
tablet, Dr. Oppert s translation of it Text of a contract tablet.
Translation. Translation of contract tablet of the xyth year of
Nabonidus. Translation of a Babylonian boundary stone or
landmark. Omen tablets. Portents. Standard inscription.
Cylinders, their shape, number of sides, etc. Discovery of cylinder
of Assurbanipal, containing 1,300 lines. Gistubar legends 104
CHAPTER IX.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
Babylonian belief in spirits. Their pure belief degenerated. The
Greeks borrowed from their myths, Difficulty of reducing their
religion into a system. Babylonian Trinity, Anu, Ea, and Bel.
Marduk, the son of Ea. Marduk, the saviour of mankind. Ea
taught men learning and knowledge. Ea received through Marduk
the prayers of man. Istar, the lady of war. Her two forms.
Her search after Tammuz in Hades. Her address to Esarhaddon,
Hymn to Istar. Extract therefrom. Ea the supreme god, the
originator and maker of all things* The ship of Ea. His weapons
and power. Sun-god worship. Tablet representing worship thereof.
Hymns to the sun. Sin, the moon-god, Ninip, Nergal, Nebo, and
Rimmon. The seven evil spirits. Babylonian hell and heaven.
Enjoyments of the Babylonian after death. Description of hell, the
land of no return. Tiamat Her rebellion against the gods,
Marduk, the son of Ea, sent to do battle with hen- His armour.
The fight. Paraphrase of the Babylonian account. Tiamat, the
prototype of the c old serpent/ the devil. Temptation of Adam.
Babylonian seal giving representation of it. Babylonian account
of the Creation. The penitent sinner ... 125
CHAPTER X.
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND ART.
Religion? duties of great importance, Babylonian names. Cremation.
^"War. Commerce. Slavery. Reading and writing. Engrav-
rag. The Babylonians good builders 148
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Fight between Merodach (Bel) and the Dragon [Frontispiece].
Stone object bearing the name of Sargon, king of Sippara, B. C. 3800 40
Contract Tablet and its Case, bearing the name of Rim-Sin, B.C. 2300 43
Stone object containing an Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar L, B.C. 1120
(about), recording a grant of privileges to Ritti-Marduk, king of
BIT-KARZIYABKU. Found at Abti-Habbah (Sepharvaim) by
Mr. H. Rassam 5 1
Inscription on the edge of the Bronze Step, bearing the name of
Nebuchadnezzar 7 1
Bronze Step (?) of Nebuchadnezzar II. 7 r
Babylonian Contract Tablet with Seal-impressions, dated 8th day of
Sebat, accession year of Neriglissar, king of Babylon 77
Terra-cotta Cylinder containing the History of the Capture of Babylon
by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia 83
Terra-cotta Cylinder of Antiochus, king of Babylon, B. c. 280-261 ... 99
Scene from the so-called e Sun-god Tablet/ representing priests and
king adoring the Sun s disk or image. About B.C. 900 133
Babylonian Seals I 53
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
CHAPTER L
BABYLON ACCORDING TO THE CUNEIFORM
. INSCRIPTIONS.
Babylonia. Its great antiquity. Extent of country- Name derived from
capital city. Its old name. Names of Babylon in the inscriptions and
their meanings. Meaning of Babel. Talmudic discussion thereon.
Its situation. Its size. Its walls and their names. Translation of a
long Nebuchadnezzar inscription obtained from two barrel cylinders in
the British Museum. Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the Tower of Babel, col. I,
line 53. List of Temples of Babylon. He wrote an account of them.
Nebuchadnezzar s prayer. The two great temples of Babylon. Meaning
of their names. Birs-Nimrud the site of Borsippa. Babylon and
Borsippa according to the Talmud, Their bad name among the Jews.
Remains of Nebuchadnezzar* s buildings. The tower in seven stages.
Their colours -, etc. Plain of Duru the same as the plain of Dura of
Daniel. Euphrates. Its name. Sippara the Biblical Sepharva im.
Its name and meaning. River Tigris and Nineveh.
, very far back, at a period involved and shrouded
in the mists of antiquity, the city of Babylon began its
existence. No exact date can be assigned to this event,
but, judging by the evidence gained from the inscriptions,
it must have been at a time when all the nations around
were in a state of rude barbarism. Egypt existed, no
doubt, and had already become a settled empire, and its
people had reached a remarkably high state of civiliza
tion. At present is seems as if these two peoples, the
Babylonians and Egyptians, were the only nations who
Jiave left definite traces of their very early civilization.
B
1 8 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
In later days Babylonia was comprised between the
3oth and 36th parallels of latitude, and the 43rd and
5 ist degrees of longitude. What its extent was in the
very early days of its career is unknown.
The name Babylonia is derived from its capital city.
Its old name was Kaldu, the people were called Kaldai,
I. e, the Kasdim of the Old Testament. They took their
name from an ancestor called Chesed 1 , just as the
Hebfews took theirs from Eber, the Hittites from Heth,
and many others. Still more anciently it was designated
by the two names Sumir and Akkad, i.e. South and
North Babylonia. Babylon, the city, is called by various
names in the inscriptions. They are as follows :
2, A
3. 53
4 .
& Stf <^ in Assyrian
The first name reads KA DINGIRRA Kl, that is,
gate -H of god + the place, meaning the place which
is the gate of God. The second name reads TINTIR
Ki, that is, the wood of life. The third is E KI,
and means, according to some scholars, the house
par excellence-, according to others, the hollow. 1 It is
quite true that it can mean hollow/ but the Babylonian
meant that it was the most important dwelling-place in
the world, in fact, the metropolis of the universe. The
two forms of the name given under No. 4 are simply
translations of No. i, and are read, bab Hani and
bti&rilu respectively. The mere look of the name
^jj^^y-fcjjiy <Jg[ tells what it means. The first sign
&;a representation of a gate with its posts and bars,
second represents a star, the third is the sign of
, genitive case, and the fourth is ^Iways 4 added fcfixsjc
name of a country. The form Babylon o^r J3at>$|
1 Gen. xxii. 22,
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 19
commonly met with in our Bibles is derived from the
Assyrian Semitic translation of the Akkadian ka
dingirra-ki. .
Babylon or Babilum (in Assyrian) means, then 3 e the
gate of God/ It has been generally stated that Babylon
means confusion/ but the inscriptions prove this to be
incorrect ; the history of the matter is that the Semites
made a pun upon the name of the city. There is a root
in Hebrew, bdlal, which means to confuse, to mix/
and from this word they derived the name Babylon,
because the confusion of tongues took place there. It
will be remembered that in a Talmudic discussion the
question, Why is Babylon so called ? was asked. Rabbi
Johanan replied, c Because it is confused in Scripture, in
Mishnah, and in Talmud. 3 And the Rabbi explained the
words e dark places in the verse c He nath set me in
dark places 1 / by saying that it meant the doctrine of
Babel/
The name c gate of God is the designation (among
others) of the city from the earliest to the latest times
upon the monuments. Babylon was situated upon tfefe
River Euphrates, above Borsippa. It was called f M%
dwelling-place of the god Bel/ and the town tf
Marduk/
Unfortunately no very trustworthy account of the
size of Babylon has come down to us. Only one thing
is certain, and that is that it was of enormous extent.
Every historian differs as to his measurements, as will
be seen in the following chapter ; when huge numbers
are given the suburbs of the city are probably taken
into consideration. fTThe* city was surrounded by two
walls, the one called Imgur-B^l, the other Nimitti-Bel.
They are mentioned by Herodotus. The outer wall is
said to have been built by Belus, and repaired by
NebuchadnezzarJ
The following is a translation made from two barrel
cylinders which came to the British Museum in 1878;
1 Lam. ill 6.
B 2,
20 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
it will give an idea of the extent of the works under
taken by Nebuchadnezzar the Great.
COLUMN I.
i. Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon,
3. the exalted prince, the worshipper of the god Marduk,
3. the supreme lord, the beloved of the god Nebo,
4. the unwearied prince of the gate,
5. the restorer of the temple SAG-ILI, and the temple
ZIDA,
6. who to the god Nebo and the god Marduk his lords
7. worship has performed before their persons,
$. the exalted one, who causes the ituti to be deep, the
messenger of the great gods,
9. the eldest son of Nabu-pal-usur (Nabopolassar),
10. the King of Babylon am I,
n. Prince Marduk, the great lord, then caused me to
hold firmly
12. a sceptre (?) to rule the people [as a] shepherd ;
13. to restore the fortresses, and to renew the temples
14. greatly he encouraged me.
15. I put my trust in Marduk, my lord, my judge,
16. fiis supreme fortress, the citadel his high place, [the
walls]
17. Imgur-Bel, Nimitti-Bel
1 8. I caused to be completed over against [their] great
fortresses.
ip ; Upon the threshold of its great gates,
30. mighty lords (gods)
aa, and [images] of poisonous snakes
% I set up,
a$. the wMoti .never had any king my predecessor made.
34* Ttie qasty (jof the fortress), its ditch (moat),
5* tdtft bitumen and brick
,0. tie fetlier, my begetter, built and completed for a
bulwark (?).
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 21
37. As for me, the paths of the ancient quay
28. once, twice
39. I built up with bitumen and brick *, and
30. the quay which my father had worked at I ex
cavated.
31. I caused its foundation to be laid with huge flat slabs.
and
32. I raised up its summit like a mountain.
33. The quay of brick at the ford of the setting sun
34. within Babylon I completed.
35. The paths along the quay
36. with bitumen and brick -
37. the father my begetter had worked at ;
38. its buttresses (?) with brick
39. along the river of Sippara I bound together ;
40. and I fully completed its banks.
41. As for me, his eldest son (i. e. eldest son of
Nabopolassar) ;
42. the beloved of his heart,
43. the paths along the quay
44. with bitumen and brick,
45. in addition to the quay which my father had made,
I renewed. %
46. In the temple of SAG-ILU the kissra I set.
47. The palace of heaven and earth, the seat of tran
quillity,
48. E KU-A, the shrine of Bel, the temple of the gbds,
and of Marduk,
49. the gate of Hilisud, the seat of the goddess
Zirpanitum^
50. and the temple of ZI-DA, the dwelling-place of the
divine king of heaven and earth,
51. I caused them to be covered with shining gold, and
52. I made them brilliant as the day.
53. The temple, the foundation of heaven and earth, the
tower of Babel
54. I built anew.
1 I. e. he built two layers of brickwork.
22 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
55. The temple of ZIDA, the eternal, the (temple)
beloved of Nebo
56. I built anew within Borsippa, and
COLUMN II.
1. with gold and sculptured stones
2. I made [it] like the brilliance of heaven.
3. I caused it to be covered over with durable cedar and
gold
4. up to the ceiling of the great temple of Life. The
shrine of Nebo
5. I caused to be erected before those three.
6. The great temple, the temple of the * lady of the
headland within Babylon,
7. the temple (called) he gives the sceptre of the
world, the temple of Nebo of Harie,
8. the temple of Namgan, the temple of the wind
within Kumari,
9. the temple of the dwelling before the temple of the
lady of heaven, near the fortress
10. I rebuilt within Babylon, and
11. I reared up their ^ummits
12. the which never had any king my predecessor done.
13. Four thousand cubits square, the citadel with walls
14. towering and inaccessible,
15. the everlasting fortress of Babylon at the ford of
the rising sun.
1 6. I caused to surround.
17. I dug out the moat, I emptied away the water that
had gathered there,
i$v,I made its bed of bitumen and brick, and I excavated
19. the quay which my father had worked at,
t, the lofty fortress with bitumen and brick
I built up like a mountain upon its sides.
22. The height of the fortress of Borsippa thoroughly
23, I rebuilt.
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 23
24. The quay and the moat [lined and built] with
bitumen and brick
25. I made to surround the citadel for a protection.
26. For the god Turkit, the lord, the breaker of the
weapons of my enemies
27. I rebuilt his temple within Borsippa.
28. The temple of the Sun, the temple of the Sun-god
of Sippara,
29. the temple the established seat, the temple of the
god
30. of the city Batz,
31. the temple of the eyes of the god Anum, the temple
of the god Dar
32. of the city of the planet Venus,
33. the temple of heaven, the temple of Istar of Erech,
34. the temple of the Sun, the temple of the Sun-god of
Larsa,
35. the temple of KIS-KUR-GAL, the temple of the Moon-
god of Ur,
36. these temples of the great gods
37. I rebuilt ; and
38. I caused their beautiful adornments to be completed.
39. The restorations (or furniture) of the temples of
SAG-ILI and ZIDA,
40. the new places of Babylon
41. which more than before
42. I have made extensive
43. and I have reared them up even to their summits.
44. An account of all my magnificent works
45. and of my restorations of the temples of the great
gods
46. above what the kings my fathers wrote
47. upon a stone tablet I wrote ; and
48. I set it up for future days.
49. The account of all my works
50. which I have written upon the stone tablet
51. with understanding mayest thou look upon
52. and upon the glorious things of the gods
24 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
53.. May [men] understand that.
54. I built the fortresses of the gods and the goddess
Istar,
55. of the great lord and of Marduk.
COLUMN III.
i. As for myself Marduk urged me on,
2,. he girded me up in heart,
3. reverently, and not failing him
4. I completed his beautiful [works].
5. [I rebuilt] (?) for the god the king of Marad my lord
6. his temple within Marad the ....
7. which had been built from a remote time ;
8. its ancient foundation stone
9. which no former king had ever seen,
10. I took hold of, I uncovered and
n. upon the foundation stone, the beloved of the Moon-
god, the king,
iz. my ancient father, I laid down its foundation,
13. I made an inscription in my name and
14. I placed it within it.
15. God the king of Marad, lord of all warriors,
16. to the brickwork which my happy hands [have
made]
17. be favourable joyfully and
1 8. my life to a far distant day
19. with abundance of glory,
20. fixity of throne and length of rule
21. to eternity do thou lengthen.
22. Sweep away the disobedient,
23. smash their weapons,
24. devastate the lands of the enemies,
25. sweep them all away.
26. Thy mighty weapons
27. which benefit not my enemies
28. may they draw near and may they fight ;
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 25
29. for the subjugation of my enemies, may they go by
my sides.
30. In the presence of Marduk king of heaven and earth
31. upon my works pronounce blessing
32. command my prosperity.
Within Babylon there were two temples of great
importance, and these were the objects chosen for
restoration by all the Babylonian kings : one was called
E-SAGILI, ( .the temple of the lofty head; 5 the other
&7T0A ^"4he teraple of life. A third temple existed,
which was called the temple of the firmament of
heaven and earth. The temple of Zida had four gates ;
one was called the gate of the rising sun ; the names
of the others are difficult to interpret, and no satis
factory translation has yet been given. This temple
was dedicated to Marduk, and is the same as that said
to be dedicated to Belus by the Greeks. Herodotus says
that the two principal buildings in Babylon were this
temple of Belus and the royal palace ; he says moreover
that the river ran between them. Now as this temple
of Belus of seven spheres was so large (being a stade 1
square), we ought to find some remains of it. The only
spot, however, where ruins are found such as one would
expect to find of such an edifice is at a place called
Birs-Nimrud, the site of the old Borsippa. This place
is eight or nine miles distant from the site of the old
Babylon, and as in a hymn we find an expression like
this, c O Bel, Babylon is thy dwelling, Borsippa thy
crown, it leads us to suppose that Borsippa was in
cluded in Babylon. In the Talmud, Babel and Borsippa
are mentioned together as places which do harm to the
law. The question is asked, What is Borsippa? that is,
What does the word mean? Now just as the Jews
made a pun on the name Babylon, so they made one
on Borsippa, and the answer is given, Borsippa is, l bor
shappel i. e. a dry well. This question is followed up by
1 I. e. 606 feet 9 inches.
26 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
another : Why is the place called Borsippa ? Because
it is like a cistern whose waters are dried up ; that is, it
makes a man forget all that he has learnt, and they said
that the air of the tower caused forgetfulness or oblivion.
Elsewhere they said, c We call Borsippa Babel, and Babel
Borsippa.
At Babel there is a huge oblong mass of unbaked l
brick i TO feet high; the north, south, east, and west
sides are 200, 183, 200, and 136 yards long respectively.
Remains of a facing of burnt brickwork are still to
be found at the base, and in the tunnels which were
excavated by Sir A. Layard. These burnt bricks bear the
name of Nebuchadnezzar. The one stage that remains
is coated with blue slag, the other stages have decayed.
The mound called Amram, which is uoo yards in
length and 800 in breadth, is probably the ruins of the
ancient palace. At Birs-Nimrud, however, there are
ruins which "may be parts of the temple of Belus.
They consist of a large mound, whose north-west,
south-east, north-east, and south-west sides are 643,
643, 420, and 376 feet long .respectively. Its height is
133 feet, and upon its top there is a large mass of
brickwork. This huge edifice was built in seven stages.
The first stage is 272 feet square, and 26 feet high ;
originally its colour was black. The second stage is
230 feet square, and 26 feet high ; it was orange-coloured.
The third is 1 88 feet square, and 26 feet high ; it was
coloured bright red. The fourth is 146 feet square, and
15 feet high ; it was coloured bright yellow. The fifth
was 104 feet square, and 15 feet high ; it was coloured
pale yellow. The sixth is 62 feet square, and 15 feet
high ; it was coloured dark blue. The seventh is 20 feet
square, and 15 feet high ; it was silver-coloured. These
stages were dedicated to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun,
Venus, Mercury, and the Moon respectively. We have
in the British Museum fragments of coloured glazed
bricks from this spot. This temple was called the
1 See Rawlinson s Herodotus, vol. ii, p, 577,
CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 27
Seven Spheres according to some, and the Seven
Lights according to others : its ruins were thoroughly
excavated and examined by Sir Henry Rawlinson, and
the above measurements are his.
In a geographical list three places in Babylon are
mentioned called Duru, and very possibly one of these
may be the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon/
mentioned by Daniel 1 . Through Babylon ran the
6 great river/ the river Euphrates. The Bible also calls
it Euphrates/ and < the river Euphrates 2 . 5 The Baby
lonian name was Purat, or P^lrat^t ; its old Akkadian
name Pi^ra-minu^ ( the great stream ; and this corre
sponds to the name given it in Gen. xv. 18, etc. Its
meaning in Assyrian texts appears to be c the water.
The explanations of the meaning of this word generally
given that are not derived from these native sources
are incorrect. The Euphrates was called the soul of
the land.
One of the most important parts of Babylon was
Sippara. It was a double town, situated upon the
left bank of the Euphrates. One part was called
Sippara of the sun-god/ and the other e Sippara of
Anunit. Its old name was Zimbir> and it became
Semiticised to Sippara. 5 Its exact meaning is uncer
tain, and the name Sippara has nothing to do with the
Hebrew word sepher, a c book/ with which it has been
often compared. Sippara is the same town as the
Sepharvaim of 2 Kings xvii. 34, 31, and the dual
termination is a reminder of the double * form of the
city. Its name in the inscriptions is ut-kip-nun-kL The
chief god of the city was Samas, or the Sun-god ; his
temple was called E-babbara, and in 2, Kings xvii. 31,
we read that e the Sepharvites burnt their children in
fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of
Sepharvaim. The Euphrates was called the river of
Sippara; and Sippara is also Called Agade in the
inscription of Cyrus, which we shall notice farther on.
1 Chap. iii. i. a Jer. xiii. 4, 5, 7 ; xlvi. 2, 6.
38 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
This name is probably the same as the Accad of
Gen. x. 10; it means according to some the fire
crown/ and may perhaps refer to the sun-god worship.
It has been recently shown that the correct reading
of the cuneiform sign for Akkad is Uru, and I think
that there is no doubt that this is the Ur from which
Abraham came. The temple of Anunit which existed
in the city was built by a king called Sagar-ak-ti-as, and
was called E-ul-bar.
Around the city of Babylon (according to Herodotus)
was a moat, and the soil which was excavated from this
was made into bricks, for the wall The builders used
hot bitumen for cement, and pieces of this bitumen,
with the impression of the king s sta mp on the brick
upon them, remain to this day, and are in the National
Collection. As to the hanging gardens, there seems to
be a representation of them upon a sculpture, and their
dimensions are known from other sources.
The next most important river in Babylonia was the
Tigris. It is called in the inscription Jdiklat or Diktat.
It corresponds to the Hiddekel of Gen. ii. 14, and
appears to mean the river with the high banks/ On
this river the city Nineveh was situated. The name is
non-Semitic, and means the dwelling-place of the god
Ninua. Each of the kings Assurbanipal, Esarhaddon,
and Sennacherib built palaces there. Other cities of
Babylonia were Borsippa, Kutha, Erech, Nippur, Ur,
and Larsa.
CHAPTER II.
BABYLON ACCORDING TO CLASSICAL AUTHORS.
The statement of Herodotus about Babylon. Views of other Classical authors
as to its size and extent. Its gates, houses -, streets, defences^ and walls.
Temple of Jupiter Belus. Comparison of these accounts with those of the
cuneiform inscriptions. Extract from East India House inscription.
Nebuchadnezzar used cedar covered with gold for the ceilings of his temples.
Inscriptions of this monarch near Riblah. Want of definite history
concerning his Syrian campaigns.
HERODOTUS tells us that the city Babylon stands on
a broad plain, and is an exact square, 130 furlongs in
length each way, so that the entire circuit is 480 furlongs.
It is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and deep
moat, full of water, behind which . rises a wall 50 royal
cubits in width, and 200 in height. And here I may not
omit to tell the use to which the mould dug out of the
great moat was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall
was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat, the soil
which they got from the cutting was made into bricks,
and when a sufficient number were completed, they
baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building,
and began with bricking the borders of the moat, after
which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using
throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposing
a layer of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the
bricks. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they
constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one
another, leaving between them room for a four-horse
chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred
gates all of brass, with brazen lintels and side posts V
Herodotus then goes on to say that the river
1 Rawlinson s Herodotus, vol. i. pp, 297-301.
30 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
Euphrates, a broad, deep and swift stream which rises
in Armenia, divides the city into two parts. The city
wall is brought down on both sides to the edge of the
stream. The houses are mostly three and four storeys
high ; the streets all run in straight lines, not only those
parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which lead
down to the water side. The outer wall is the main
defence of the city. There is, however, an inner wall of
less thickness than the first, but very little inferior to it
in strength. The centre of each division of the town
was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the
palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great
strength and size ; in the other was the sacred precinct
of Jupiter Belus, a square enclosure 2 furlongs each
way, with gates of solid brass, which was also remaining
in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was a
tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth,
upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a
third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is
on the outside, by a path which winds round all the
towers On the topmost tower there is ,a spacious
temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual
size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side.
Below, in the same precinct, there is a second temple, in
which is a sitting figure of Jupiter, all of gold/
Other historians give different lengths for the circuit
of the city. Ctesias, 360 furlongs ; Clitarchus, 365^
Q. Curtius, 368; Strabo, 385. There are also conflicting
statements as to the height of the walls of Babylon.
The statement of Ctesias goes to confirm that of
Herbdotus, for he says they were 50 fathoms high.
Pliny gives 200 feet and others 75 as the measurement.
Sir Henry Rawlinson thinks that Herodotus referred
to hands, four of which were equal to the cubit, and
does not think that the height of the walls of Babylon
exceeded 60 or 70 English feet. One thing is certain,
and that is that the defences of Babylon must have
been remarkable in their day for their strength. One
BABYLON ACCORDING TO CLASSICAL AUTHORS. 3!
of the greatest evils prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah 1
was the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,
and her high gates shall be burned with fire/
The cuneiform inscriptions do not bear out the account
of the classical writers as to the height of the walls
and the extent of the city. The chief authority on
the buildings of Babylon is the large inscription of
Nebuchadnezzar preserved in the India House. It
consists of ten columns, and is engraved on a short
column of black basalt s in 619 lines. In the first column
he gives a list of his own titles, mentions his father
Nabu-pal-usur, and speaks of his delight to do the works
of the gods Nabu, Marduk, Istar, and others. He
attributes his enthronement and origin to the god Nebo.
In the second and third columns an account of the
restoration of the great temple of Marduk, the prince of
the gods, is given. It appears that various parts of the
temple had fallen into decay, so the pious king collected
all sorts and kinds of beautiful and precious stones, and
began the restoration. He rebuilt -the gates of E-Zida
and E-Sagili, he brought cedar wood from Lebanon
(like the Jewish king Solomon) to embellish the temple ;
the inner walls he covered over with pine and lofty cedar
wood; in Borsippa he built the temple of Zida, and
parts of it he covered with bright silver. In column 4
he gives a list of the temples he built, and of their gods.
At the end of this column he mentions the two walls, an
outer and an inner, which formed the defences of his city.
He says :
66. of Imgur-Bel
67. and Nimitti-Bel
68. the mighty fortresses of Babylon,
69. which Nabu-pal-usur
70. the king of Tintirki (Babylon), the father my
begetter
71. had made, but had not completed
72. their , beauty.
1 Jeremiah li. 58.
33 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
COLUMN V.
1. He excavated its ditch (with)
2. two huge embankments,
3. with brick and with bitumen
4. he bound (lined) its interior,
5 The ditch arahti
6. he made, and
7. with buttresses (?) of brick
8. the bank of the Euphrates
9. he bound, but
10. he did not complete (his work),
The text here becomes very difficult, but is clearer
when it speaks of Imgur-Bel and Nimitti-Bel. Nebu
chadnezzar followed up his father s buildings, and joined
the parts of the fortresses which he built with those that
his father began. He built the wall of Babylon with
brick across the river westward. On the eastern side of
the river he built a fortification the like of which no
other king had ever made. It was 4000 cubits long (?).
The moat which he had built he caused to be filled with
water as deep as the ocean, to keep off insolent enemies
who were hostile to the children of Babylon.
The end of column seven gives an account .of the
building of his palace. He built the lofty place of
Royalty within Babylon; it extended from the
eastern canal to Imgur-Bel, and from the Sippara
River to the Japur-Sabu. The exact meaning of all
the words in which the description of the decorations is
given is very difficult to make out. Inside Nimitti-Bel,
the inner defence of the city, Nebuchadnezzar built a
defence 400 cubits long (?), which he completed in
fifteen days. In the eighth and ninth columns a
summary of his deeds is given, and the religious king
attributes all his glory and all his greatness to the god
Marduk, In the tenth is a prayer for the general
security of the empire, and for the long rule of the king
over the dark races,
BABYLON ACCORDING TO CLASSICAL AUTHORS. 33
For details as to the buildings undertaken by
Nebuchadnezzar the reader is referred to the translation
of the inscription given in Chapter I. There can be no
doubt as to the extent, magnificence, and beauty of these
temples and their decorations. A short time ago some
inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar were discovered at a
spot not far from Riblah ; and in them the king states
that he cut down cedar trees in Lebanon, and had the
wood transplanted to his own land for the beautifying of
the temples of the great gods his lords. Among the
ruins of Babylon there are bricks by the thousand, every
one of which bears the impression of the name of
Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, and this alone
will show how great were his building operations. From
this too an inference can be drawn as to the enormous
number of men that were compelled by him to serve
with the service of bricks/ In the Book of Daniel
Nebuchadnezzar is regarded as a builder- king, and the
inscriptions support this view most completely. The
history of other nations tells us of his wars and ex
peditions undertaken to subdue the inhabitants of
Palestine and elsewhere, but about his military exploits
the inscriptions are almost silent : the only piece of his
history at present known is found upon a small fragment
of clay about half the size of c a man s hand.
CHAPTER III.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM ABOUT B.C. 3800-1330.
Method of reckoning time in use among the Babylonians. The eponym
canon. Sir H. Rawlinsoris discovery. Rimmon-Nirari /., B.C. 1330,
caused his inscription to be dated. Contract tablets. Extractfrom eponym
canon. The Assyrians kept a strict account of events. Image of the
goddess Nana. Babylonians made their calculations by the help of
astronomy. Nabonidtts mentions JVaram-Sin> who reigned 3200 years
before his time. Inscription of Sargon 1., B. C. 3800. Extract from
inscription of Nabonidus. Legend about Sargon. Babylonian kings
Naram-Sin, Ur-Bagas^ Dungi^ Ismi-Dagan, Libit-Istar, and others.
Hammurabi, the good king. His canal, his good policy. Contract tablets
dated in his reign. Revival of commerce in Babylonia. The kings his
successors. Tablet giving list of kings after the flood.
THE Babylonian empire is certainly one of the oldest
in the world, and the question, How old is it ? has been
asked over and over again. This question is extremely
difficult to answer, even with a moderate amount of
accuracy, considering our present knowledge. It will
perhaps be well, before we begin our sketch of the
history of Babylonia, to give an idea of the way in
which the Assyrians and Babylonians managed their
chronology. They reckoned twelve lunar months to
each year, and each of these had either twenty-nine
or thirty days. Their year began about the vernal
equinox, as Mr. Smith said, the new moon next
before the equinox marking the commencement of
the new year. 5 Whenever the twelfth month ended
more than thirty days before the equinox, they inter
calated a thirteenth month. This was called Ve-Adar,
and they had also an intercalary Nisan and Elul. These
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 3800-1330. 35
two latter, however, are only found on Babylonian dated
tablets. The first year of a king s reign was reckoned
from the new year s day after his accession to the
throne; though there are instances in which this rule
has not been adhered to. Now just as there were
archons at Athens and consuls at Rome who were
elected annually, so among the Assyrians there was a
custom of electing one man to be over the year whom
they called Kmu> or eponym. Generally each district
and important town had its limu^ so there is no doubt
that the custom was widespread and well known.
Babylonian and Assyrian documents were more gene
rally dated by the names of these eponyms than by
that of the reigning king.
A common way of reckoning in olden times was by
referring to some important event which at that time
was well known. An instance of this is given in the
Bible 1 , where we read of the words of Amos which
he saw concerning Israel two years before the earth
quake.
In 1862 Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered the frag
ment of the eponym canon of Assyria. It was one of
the grandest and most important discoveries ever made,
for it has decided definitely a great many points which
otherwise could never have been, cleared up. Fragments
of seven copies of this canon were found, and from
these the chronology of Assyria has been definitely
settled from B.C. 1330 to about B.C. 620. There is an
historical inscription of Rimmon-Nirari I. in the British
Museum (for a translation of it see page 46), which is
dated on the side by the name of the eponym of the
year about B.C. 1330. After the fall of the Assyrian
empire, about B.C. 630, the dated Babylonian contract
tablets serve to keep our reckoning correct down to a
few years before the birth of Christ. The following
extract from the eponym canon will explain itself :
1 Amos i. i.
C 2
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
B.C. Name of eponym.
753 Assur-nirari
752 Samsi-ilu
751 Marduk-salim-anni
750 Bel-dayan
749 Samas-mukin-durug
748 Rammanu-bel-ukin
747 Sin-salim-anni
746 Nergal-nasir
745 Nabu-bel-usur
the king of Assyria
the tartan
chief of the palace
rab-litur
the tukulu
the governor
governor of Rezaph
governor of Nisibin
governor of Arbaha
Principal events of
the year.
peace in the land.
peace in the land.
peace in the land.
peace in the land.
expedition to Zimri.
expedition to Zimri.
peace in the land.
revolt in Calah.
Tiglath-PUeser ascend
ed the throne on the
1 3th day of lyyar.
He marched to neigh
bourhood of the river
in the month Tisri.
The historical inscriptions of the Babylonian and
Assyrian kings often give notices of events which took
place a great number of years before. For instance,
Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, tells us in his large
inscription that he made an expedition into Elam.
Now Kudur-nantmndi, an ancient king of Elam, had
carried off from Assyria or Babylonia the image of the
goddess Nana. While Assurbanipal was in Elam the
goddess put it into the heart of the king to carry her
image back into E ANNA 1 , or the temple of heaven.
The king, mindful of the wishes of the goddess, carried
back the image which had been brought to Elam
one thousand six hundred and thirty-five years before.
Assurbanipal reigned from about B.C. 668 to B.C. 626
(about), and therefore a very good guess can be made
at the date of this raid of Kudur-nantwndi, king of
Elam, upon Babylon. It must never be forgotten that
the Babylonians were a nation of star-gazers, and that
they kept a body of men to do nothing but report
eclipses, appearances of the moon, sun spots, etc., etc.
1 It must be borne in mind that E means temple/ which would be
read in Assyrian bitu. When prefixed to the names of cities and countries,
it means place or house, and is the same word as Beth in the names of
places in the Bible. For example, Beth-letem, Beth-boron, Beth-shemesh,
Beth-el, Beth-dagon, etc.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 3800-1330. 37
Their calculations then may be relied upon for a large
imount of accuracy generally.
Now this brings us back to the earliest date we are
ible to fix in the history of Babylonia. A king called
Nabonidus began to reign over Babylon about B.C. 554>
and as he was anything but a warlike king he appears
to have spent his time in meditation and retirement.
He appeal s also to have been an archaeologist and an
enthusiastic student of antiquity. He was a votary of
the Sun-god 3 and adorned his temple with the most
beautiful decorations. He caused several cylinders of clay,
most important to us, to be inscribed; giving an account
of all his works and pious deeds to the gods, and the
greater part of them were brought in fragments to Eng
land by Mr. Rassam in 1883. Among other things, he
tells us that he uncovered the part of the temple which
Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, had made, and that he
saw the inscription which the Assyrian king had caused
to be put there. Nabonidus did not remove it, but, in
accordance with the request upon it, he cleansed it, and
offered up sacrifices. He then put the inscription back
in its place, together with one of his own, and restored
the place to its former condition 1 .
Nabonidus then made excavations under the temple
of the Sun-god, the judge of heaven and earth, in
Sippara, which Nebuchadnezzar, a preceding king, had
made. He sought for the foundation stone, but found it
1 The concluding lines inscribed on a large cylinder of Assurbanipal in
the British Museum read thus :
Col. 10, 1. 109. May he whomsoever, among the kings my descendants Assur
and Istar shall proclaim for the dominion of the country and its
people,
no. when this temple of Riduti has become old and decayed
in. may he repair its decay, the inscription in my name, my father, and
112. my grandfathers, an everlasting royal seed, may he look upon, the
chamber (altar) may he cleanse,
113. may he offer up sacrifices, may he place (my inscription) with his own.
114. And may the great gods whose names are written down in this
inscription
115. extend unto him power and glory even as they have unto myself.
38 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
not, and as the temple had much decayed, he brought
out the Sun-god and. placed it in another temple
Nabonidus made further excavations, and having gone
to a depth of 15 square or earth cubits he made a great
discovery. As his account of it is of such importance to
us and to chronology generally, I quote his own words :
LINE COLUMN IL
55. 5?T sr TC >> *@r *f spj ^y
bit su - a - tim ad - Id - e - ma.
that temple. I excavated
56. tfT; T- -^ .gT >gy H *fl<y ^ y ^ ^y
te-me" en- su la - bi - ri u - ba - -ma
ancient foundation stone / sought,
15^ ammati ga - ga - ri
fifteen square cubits
57. * *ar *r- ^IT -tT yy r- -n ^r
u - sap ^pi - il ma te-me-en - na
/ dug down [for] the foundation stone of
T -~nr HP- < gp r 3> H^ ^
D.R Na - ram D.P. Sin abil D.P. sar - gi - na
Naram-Sin the sdn o f Serffm
58. iRrm <r- rr r- ^-T^T.R^^T ET
3^1000 .+ 2x100 mu-an-na-mesma-na-ma
> three, thousand two hundred years no
sarra a-lik mah - ri - ya li . { . mu ."
^^ my predecessor had seen.
In other words, Nabonidus, king of Babylon du<x
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 3800-1330. 39
accepted as correct, it fixes the date of the very early king
Naram-Sin, and it also gives his father s name. We have
at present no notice of an anterior date or king.
A very short time ago a small, perforated, oval-shaped
object, made of mottled, pinkish-grey, hard stone, arrived
at the British Museum. It was found to contain a
legend in what is called technically line Babylonian
writing, that is, writing in which the characters are
formed more by lines than by the ordinary wedges.
This style of writing is found upon stone gate sockets
of the earliest times, and goes back to a period in the
history of the nation when they were beginning to
discontinue the use of the hieroglyphic or pictorial
system of writing, which was found too cumbrous and
difficult. The legend transcribed into ordinary Baby
lonian reads thus :
5H Zf >*>>-, * Sargon
$* . fcJnT the King
king of
Agade
to
the Sun-god (Samas)
iri Sippara
have dedicated.
The stone was brought from Sepharvai m (Abu-
habbah), and was discovered by Mr. Rassam. It is of
the utmost importance, for it is an inscription without
doubt made by the father of Naram-Sin, the Sargon
mentioned in the inscription of Nabonidus.
Now Nabonidus began to reign about 554 B.C., and he
says that Naram-Sin reigned 3,200 years before his time;
these two numbers added together make a total of
3,7 JJ4 years, which is the date of Naram-Sin s building
thp temple of the Sun-god at Sippara. Here, then,
40 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
fairly accurate chronology begins. It would be absurd
to suppose that there were no Babylonian kings before
Sargon or Naram-Sin ; the only difficulty in the matter is
to estimate the number of years which must havejpassed
STONE OBJECT BEARING THE NAME OF SARGON, KING OF SIPPARA, B.C. 3800.
before the Babylonians had arrived at the high state of
culture and civilization necessary to enable them to
produce such an object as that described above. The
stone is most beautifully drilled and polished, and the
characters are carefully and remarkably well executed.
^Babylonian history, then, as known to us, begins with
Sargon I., king of Agade, B.C. 3800.) A curioijs legend
is extant respecting this king, to the effect that he was
born in a city on the banks of the Euphrates, that his
mother conceived him in secret, and brought him forth
in a humble place ; that she placed him in an ark of
rushes and closed it with pitch ; that she cast him upon
:he river in the water-tight ark ; that the river carried
lim along; that he was rescued by a man called Akki,
vho brought him up to his own trade; and that from
:his position the goddess Istar made him king. Sargon I.
vas a .mighty warrior, and in chariots of bronze passed
hrough difficult countries. He rebuilt the palace at
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 3800-1330. 41
Agade, and the temple dedicated to the goddess Anunit.
Naram-Sin conquered a city called Apirak, and made
wars in a country called Magan. The name of the king
of Magan is lost, so it is impossible to say where this
country was, as there are three different lands of Magan
mentioned in the inscriptions.
The most important king who reigned after Naram-Sin
was called Ur-Bagas. He built in the city Ur a temple
to the Moon-god Sin, and also at Larsa a temple dedicated
to the Sun-god } and at Nipur and Lagas he reared up
many fine building and temples.
A king called Dungi reigned after Ur-Bagas over
Babylonia, whose chief works were building a tower at
Ur, a temple at Erech, and repairing some of his father s
works. There are in the British Museum some bronze
images and a mutilated torso in black marble of this king.
The next rulers of Babylonia we find sprang from
Karrak, a city which became of great importance under
the ruling hands ;of Ismi-Dagan and Libit-Istat, After
these kings, several patesi or viceroys (as the word is
translated) ruled, making Zergulla their seat of royalty
and government. The most important among these was
Gudea. There are to be seen very many fine cylinders
ind inscribed cones which were made in his reign.
Another very important king was Simti-Silhah, who
:ame from Larsa. He appears to have been an Elamite,
and under his rule Larsa became a most important city.
His son, Kudur-Mabug, and his grandson, Rim-Agu,
carried out his policy, and succeeded in making them
selves masters of a large part of Babylonia. A list of
kings of Babylonia following after Rim-Agu gives the
following particulars of this period :
Sumu-Abi reigned 15 years.
Sumulau ... ... ... ,, 35
Zabu, son of Sumulau, built
the temples of Samas and
Anunit, in Sippara ... 14
42 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
Abil-Sin, son of Zabu ... reigned 18 years.
Sin-Muballit, son of Abil-Sin ., 35 9 ,
About B.C. 2100 a powerful king (some think him a
Kassite), called Hammurabi, made war against Kudur-
Mabug and his son, Rim-Agu. He defeated them and
became master of all Babylonia. Rim-Agu appears
to have called in the aid of the Elarnites, for a tablet is
. dated:
day of Sebat, in the year
when Hammurabi the king in the service of Anu
and Bel marched victoriously
and overthrew the king of Elam and Rim-Agu.
Hammurabi was a devout, pious, and broad-minded
king. He repaired the temple of every god, and dug a
huge canal for the benefit of the people of Sumir and
Akkad, which he called Hammurabi, the benefactor of
mankind. Commerce must have revived considerably
under his rule, for there are a very large number of con
tract tablets in the British Museum dated in his reign.
The contract, or deed of sale, was written on both sides of
a flat piece of clay, which piece of clay was then covered
over completely with other clay, and upon this the deed
was again inscribed. It must have been about this time
that Abraham went forth from Ur of the ChaldSes.
Hammurabi reigned 55 years. He was followed by
Samsu-iluna, his son, who reigned 35 years. Ebisum
was the next king, he reigned 25 years. He had a son
called Ammi-satana, who reigned 25 years. The next
two kings were called Ammi-sa-duga and Samsu-satana,
who reigned 21 and 31 years respectively. There are
no details of the reigns of these kings. On a bilingual
tablet lately discovered there are nearly a hundred kings
names given ; and some day, when the other parts are
discovered, it is hoped that it will be possible to recon
struct the chronology of that early time with accuracy.
The names of the kings who reigned subsequently to
CONTRACT TABLET AND ITS CASE, BEARING THE NAME OP.RIM.SW, B. c. 2300.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 3800-1330. 45
the commonly accepted date of the Flood are given, they
are : I Sin, a Sin, 3. Amil-Gula, 4. Samas-
nasir, 5- Amil-Sin, 6. Amil-Samas, 7. Sapin-mat-nukurti,
8, Muabbid-Kissati, 9: Abil-Ea-sar-mati, lo. Abil-Bel-
usum-same, ii. Sargina, is. Bau-ellit. The first part of
the column is broken off. It is to be noticed that the
above names are Semitic.
About 1700 years B.C. we find a Kassite dynasty ruling
in Babylon, the first king of which was called Agu-kak-
rimi, the son of Tassi-gur-umas. His sway extended
over Babylon, Asnunak, Padan, Alman, and Guti. He
was king of Kassi and Akkadi, and he restored the
temples of the gods Marduk and Zir-panitum. He also
prays to Anu and Anunitum, Bel and Beltis, Ea and
Damkina, to grant him a long life. About the year 1450
we find a king called Kara-Indas ruling over Babylon,
and he made a covenant with Assur-bil-nisi-su, the king
of Assyria, regarding the boundaries of their dominions.
The next king, Burna-Buryas, reigned about B.C. 1425
He likewise made a covenant of peace with Bursur-Assur,
the then king of Assyria. Burna-Buryas is called
4 king of Gan-duniyas/ a district which has been
identified by some with the Garden of Eden. He
married Muballitat-Serua, the daughter of Assur-uballit,
king of Assyria. His son was called Kara-Hardas, and
he reigned over Babylon. During his reign (we are told
by a tablet of synchronous history), men of the Kassi
revolted and slew him/ and they placed Nazi-bugas,
the son of nobody/ upon the throne. The Assyrian
king went to Babylon to take vengeance upon the
murderers, slew Nazi-bugas, and placed the son of
Burna-Buryas, Kuri-Galzu, upon the throne. Mili-
Sipak, or Mili-Sihu,the son of Kuri-Galzu, next reigned,
and after him Merodach-Baladan I. reigned. Mr. Smith
attributed to this king a boundary-stone which is now
in the Museum. This king was attacked by Bel-Nirari,
king of Assyria, and was defeated.
4 6
CHAPTER IV.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-568.
Rise of the Assyrian Empire under Rimmon- Mr ari, B.C. 1330. Trans-
lation of his inscription. Extent of his empire. Tiglath-Pileser f.-l
His immense kingdom. His hunting expeditions in Lebanon. Ri^ e O f
the Jewish power under David and Solomon. Assttrnasirpal kin? of
Assyria. Shalmaneser XL Tribute of Jehii.The bronze gates of
Balawat.Wars between the Assyrian and Babylonian kings Sarpon
of Assyria sends the Tartan against Ashdod.Hwekiah and Merodach-
Baladan. Sennacherib. His wars with Merodach- Baladan.- Senna-
c/ienb destroys Babylon. Terrible damage to buildings and libraries
The boast of the Rabshakeh. Sennacherib s death. Esarhaddon, the kind
and merciful king. His respect for the Babylonian temples. Translation
of an inscription in Babylonian.
ABOUT B.C. 1330 the kingdom of Assyria began to be
powerful and mighty. A most enterprising and spirited
ruler called Rammanu-Nirari held sway, and he has left
us an account of his conquests in a beautifully executed
inscription dated in the eponymy of Shalman-Karradu.
As it^is not very long, and is a good specimen of an
Assyrian historical inscription, I reproduce here Professor
Sayce s translation of it.
OBVERSE.
1. RIMMON-NIRARI, the holy Prince, appointment of
god,
2. the holy conqueror, established by heaven (and)
earth (and) the gods,
3. establisher of fortresses (and) demolished buildings
4. of the host of the Cassi, Gutium, Lulumi,
5. and Subari, destroyer of all
6. enemies above and below, the trampler
7. on their countries from Lubdi (?) and Rapiku
8. to the confines of Zabidadi and Nisi,
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 47
9. the (remover) of boundaries and landmarks,
10. the (overthrower) of Kings and Princes
11. (whom) the gods ANU, ASSUR, SAMAS, RlMMON,
12. and ISTAR to his feet subjected ;
13. the supreme worshipper of BEL.
14. The son of PUDIL, established by BEL,
15. Vicegerent of ASSUR, the conqueror
1 6. of the lands of Turuci and Nirkhi
17. as far as the frontiers of \&s> furthest castles,
1 8. ruling the mountains and the forests
19. of the frontiers of wide Gutium,
20. of the Gunukhlami and the Suti,
21. their streams and lands ;
22. the remover of boundaries and landmarks.
23. The grandson of BEL-NIRARI,
24. worshipper of Assur also, who on the army of the
Cassi
25. laid his yoke, and the spoil of his foes
26. his hand captured, the remover of boundaries
27. and landmarks. The great-grandson
28. of ASSUR-YUBALLIDH, the powerful King
29. whom as a worshipper in Bit-Kurra I fixed.
30. The restoration and peace of his kingdom
31. to distant regions like a mountain he extended ;
32. the sweeper away of the armies
33. of the widespread Subari,
34. the remover of boundaries and landmarks.
35. At that time the ascent to the temple of ASSUR my
Lord,
36. which (was before) the gate of the men of my country.
REVERSE.
1. and the gate of the stars (called) Judges,
2. which existed in former times, was decayed, and
3. was stopped up and was ruined ;
4. this place I selected,
5. its strength I took,
48 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
6. with clay and sand 4 gurs I cemented,
7. I made, to its place I restored,
8. and my inscription I placed
9. for future days. The future Prince
10. at the time (when) this place
11. shall grow old and decay
12. its ruins let him renew; my inscriptions (and) my
written name
13. to its place let him restore. The god ASSUR
14. his prayers heareth. Whoever my written name
15. shall erase and his own name shall write,
1 6. and the record of my inscription shall cause to wash
out,
17. fo destruction shall devote,
1 8. in the flood shall lay, in the fire
19. shall burn, in the water shall lay,
30. with the dust shall cover,
3,1. into a house underground, a place not seen,
22. shall cause to descend and place,
23. then I appoint these curses :
24. (even) the enemy, the stranger, the wicked one and
the injurer,
25. the hostile tongue, and whosoever
26. a rival shall urge on and excite,
27. and whatever he devises he shall accomplish.
28. ASSUR, the mighty god, who dwells in the temple of
Kharsak-kurra,
29. the gods ANU, BEL, HEA, TSIRU,
30. the great gods, the spirit of heaven,
31. (and) the spirit of earth, in their ministry,
32. mightily may they injure him, and
33. with a grievous curse quickly
34. may they curse him ; his name, his seed, his forces
35. and his family in the land may they destroy ;
36. the glory of his- country, the duration of his people
37. and his landmarks, by their august mouth,
38. may it go forth, and may RlMMON in inundation
39. malign inundate (with) whirlwind,
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 49
40. may the wind dry up, and amongst his offspring
41. destruction, want of crops,
42. curse (and) famine in his country may he lay, with
rain his country like a whirlwind may he fill,
43. to a mound and ruins may he turn ; may RiMMON
in his evil devouring his country devour.
44. (Dated) the month Mukhur-ili, the soth day, during
the eponymy of SHALMAN-KARRADU.
After the time of Rimmon-Nirari the history becomes
doubtful, and all that is known with certainty is that
Tukulti Ninip, king of Assyria, conquered Babylonia.
Following in his steps, the Assyrian king Assur-Danan
attacked and defeated Zagaga-suma-iddina, king* of
Babylonia, and captured the cities of Zaba, Irriya, and
Agarsal.
The next king of Babylonia appears to have been Bel-
zakir-iskun ; and during his life the Elamites made
several fierce attacks upon Babylonia, under the leader
ship of Kudur-nan-hundi.
About this time Nebuchadnezzar the First became
king of Babylon, and he made three wars against Assur-
ris-isi (or Him), king of Assyria. The particulars of the
first campaign are not given ; in the second we read
that Nebuchadnezzar burnt his baggage and retreated ;
and in the third he was defeated by the Assyrians, and
forty of his chariots taken. Assur-ris-isi was the grand
son of Assur-Danan, and the father of Tiglath-Pileser I.,
king of Assyria, who reigned about B.C. 112,0. With
Tiglath-Pileser I., Marduk-nadin-ahi, the next king of
Babylon, fought; h*e marched into Assyria, pillaged the
temples, and carried off the images of the gods Ram-
manu (Rimmon) and Sala. Tiglath-Pileser, however,
gathered together his army, made an attack on Babylon,
and captured it, overrunning at the same time all Baby
lonia. He captured both parts of the city Sippara, also
Upe and Rapiku.
Under the powerful rule of Tiglath-Pileser I., Assyria
50 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
became a truly mighty empire. He attacked and de
feated on all sides the nations that had rebelled after the
death of his father. His armies marched through diffi
cult countries, and crossed the rivers on rafts of inflated
skins. He penetrated as far west as the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, and he records that he went into a
ship at Arvad, and killed a dolphin. During his journey
through the Lebanon forests and mountains he slew
one hundred and twenty lions and many other animals.
He cared also for the well-being of his people, for hei
re-cut the canal which Assur-Dartan had. made to brind|
water to the city Assur, and put it in good repair. H<p
undertook various buildings, and from one of the towers:
which he made for one of these were obtained three|
cylinders which record the principal events of five years*
of his reign. After this king s death (which took place"
about B.C. i TOO) Assur-bel-kala ascended the throne of
Assyria, Marduk-sapik-kullat being king over Babylonia.
When the latter died the Babylonians set Rammanu-
abla-iddina, son of nobody/ upon the throne.
A very important inscription of this monarch exists
on a fine large white stone, which records that a grant
of land was made to Ritti-Marduk, king of Bit-Karzi-
yabku, in this reign. An English translation was
made by Mr. Pinches and myself, and appeared in the
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology for
April, 1884 : a copy of it is given below.
Translation of an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar I.,
B.C. 1 1 20, recording a grant of land and privileges to
Ritti-Marduk, king of Bit-Karziyabku :
1. When Marduk the king of the gods sent Nebuchad
nezzar the glorious prince
2. the mighty, the offspring of Babylon, the chief of kings,
3. the warlike ruler, the governor- of Eridu
4., the sun of this country rejoicing his people,
5. protector of the boundaries, the establisher of the
sons [of Babylonia],
STONE OBJECT CONTAINING AN INSCRIPTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR I., B.C. 1120 (ABpux),
RECORDING A GRANT OF PRIVILEGES TO RlTTI-MARDUK, KING OF BlT-KARZIYABKU.
FOUND AT ABU-HABBAH (SEPHARVAIM) BY MR. H. RASSAM.
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 3
6. the king of justice who judges with righteous
judgment,
7. the warlike MAN who to make battle increased his
army,
8. the bearer of the mighty bow, fearless in battle,
9. who with his weapons struck down the power of the
country of Lullubi,
to. the subduer of Phoenicia, the spoiler of the Kassites,
[i. the anointer of kings, the prince, the beloved of the
god Marduk
C2. [the words Marduk the king of the gods sent (see
line inform this line in the texi\
13. he sent forth his weapons to revenge Akkad.
4. From Der the fortress of the god Anu
15. he made destruction for the distance of thirty kasbu
(i. e. sixty miles).
1 6. In the month, the month Tammuz, he took the road,
17. the burning (?) blazed like fire,
1 8. and covering (?) the roads there sprouted forth under
growth (or jungle)
19. there was no water of any sort, the places thereof
were destroyed.
20. The strength of the great horses remained,
21. and the zeal of the warlike hero returned.
22. The mighty king went forward, the gods sustained
him,
23. and Nebuchadnezzar marched on, none opposing him.
24. He turned not back from the strength of the field,
the wooden growth he cut down.
25. Ritti-Marduk lord of the house of Bit-Karziyabku,
36. who his fortress, Bit-Imitti,
27. (to) the king his lord he did not give up he burnt
i his fortress.
28. The strong king marched speedily, he captured as
far as the bank of the river Ula.
29. The kings of every region gathered together, they
made battle,
30. (and) among them the fire blazed forth.
54 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
31. The face of the sun was darkened by their clouds of
dust,
32. the hurricane collected itself, the storm broke.
33. In the storm of their battle
34. a hero, the possessor of a chariot, could not recog
nize the companion with him.
35. Ritti-Marduk, lord of the house of Bit-Karziyabku,
36. who his fortress, Bit-Imitti
37. (to) the king his lord he did not give up he burnt
his fortress,
38". he feared not the battle, he marched to the enemy,
39. and to the enemies of his lord he came down with fury.
40. By the comtnand of the gods Istar and Rimmon,
lords of battle,
41. evil surrounded him, then to the king of Elam his
country was subjugated.
42. But king Nebuchadnezzar took his part powerfully ;
43. he captured the land of Elam and spoiled its goods.
44. When he returned to Akkad with glory and joy of
heart,
45. he looked favourably upon Ritti-Marduk, lord of the
house of Bit-Karziyabku,
46. who with those hostile and inimical to the king his
lord [had contended].
47. As regards all the cities of Bit-Karziyabku, of the
land of Namar,
48. which by a former king had been freed, through
enemies, against their agreement, had come under
the boundaries of Namar,
49. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, his lord, restored, and
50. the king pacified the princes, [he gave] the cities
their freedom as in days of old.
51. In the whole boundary of the country of Namar, the
% messengers of the king,
52. and the chief, the governor of Namar, shall not enter
the city,
53. no master of the horse, foals, or mares,
54. shall cause to go into the midst of the cities ;
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 55
55. taxes of oxen and sheep by the king and governor
of Namar shall not be taken,
56. a measure (?) or homer of fodder (?)
57. an ass shall not be given to the tax-gatherer,
58. stallion keepers shall not enter the city,
59. stallions shall not be taken among the mares, (and)
60. the fruit of the plantations and the sakal trees shall
not be cut down.
COLUMN II.
1. The castle of Bit-Samas and of the city Ilu-Ba&
shall not be made,
2. the bridge shall not be made, the road shall not be
opened.
3. From the people of Nipur, (and) of Babylon, for the
army of the king,
4. as many as dwell in the cities of Bit-Karziyabku,
5. whether in town or whether in country, a seizure of
men shall not take place.
6. From the time when the god Tuk (?) spoke to him
in the boundary of the country of Namar,
7. Nebuchadnezzar king of multitudes, the cities of
Ritti-Marduk,
8. the son of Karziyabku, all the ground of the land of
Namar,
9. freed for future days, and the multitudes dwelling in
those cities
10. he appointed for a compensation to the chief, the
governor of Namar,
11. at the freeing of those cities.
Here follows the list of witnesses :
i a. Nazi-Marduk son of Kurkame the kalu (i.e. man) of
Akkad.
13. Arad-Nana the son of Damik-Rammanu the recorder
of the land.
14. Marduk-kudurri-usur the priest of BeL
5<5 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
15. Tfibiyaenna the captain.
1 6. Ardu-taris-biti the son of Zabri, the man of the
palace gate.
17. Samas-nadin-sumi the son of Atta-ilu-ma the
governor of the city Isin.
1 8. Bau-sum-iddina the son of Hunna the governor of
Babylon.
19. Balatsu-Gula son of Arad-Ea the prefect.
20. Marduk-ken-abli son of Himile the satam of the
treasure-house.
21. Arad-Gula the son of Kalbi governor of Usti.
22. Tdb-asab-Marduk the son of E-saggil-zir governor of
the land of Halman.
23. Bel-nadin-sumi the son of Kirban the governor of
Namar.
24. And Nebuchadnezzar the prince of Namar are the
witnesses.
25. The scribe who wrote this tablet was [called]
Bl-tabni-bullit, the GASSU.
26. When in future days
27. whoever among the sons of Kirban, or anyone else,
28. shall be appointed to the governorship of the land of
Namar,
29. or to the prefectship of the land of Namar, small
[and] great all there are [of]
30. the cities of Bit-Karziyabku,
31. which the king in the boundary of the country of
Namar has freed,
32. shall not fear the king and his gods, and shall bring
[them] back and establish the [old] boundary
33. and shall destroy the name of god and king, and
another shall write,
34. whether a sdkla or a sdkka, or a sama, or an evil
man,
35. shall instigate, and shall destroy this tablet with
stones,
36. (or) with fire shall burn, or in the river shall sink, or
" shall hide-it in a field unseen :
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 57
,7 that man, may all the great gods, whose names are
recorded in heaven and earth, _ _
38. curse him angrily, may God and king mightily
my nng o heaven and earth, and the goddess
Gula, the mighty one of the house of righteousness,
40. destroy his landmark, expel his seed.
41. May Rimmon, the great chief of heaven and earth,
lord of watercourses and rain,
42. fill up his rivers with slime.
I* May he establish hunger and want for him, and
44 may oppression, degradation, and evil, by day and
by night, be bound to him, and
45. may he press down his hand upon the inhabitants]
of his wretched city.
46. May Sumaliya, lady of the shining mountains,
47. she who dwells on the heights, and walks upon the
48. may "Smmanu, Nergal and Nana, the gods of
49. m^ku, and Supu the son of the temple of the
50. may the D |od Sin, and the lady of Akkad, the gods
of the house of Kirban,
51. may the great gods, in strength of heart,
*2. for evil destine him, and
53. may another become master of the house which he
shall build, [and may he be] _
54 a sharp goad in his side, and a running m his eye.
" May he bow down his face to his conqueror,
56 .may he not accept his weeping from him,
57. may he cut off his life speedily;
58. by the destruction of his house may his hands enter
59. mly^LLe. the conqueror] send afflictions to him as
long as his life lasts, . ,
60. and as long as heaven and earth exist may he expel
his seed.
58 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
Simmas-Sihu (or Sipak), the son of Iriba-Sin, next
reigned for seventeen years. The Elamites pillaged
Sippara in his reign, and did great mischief. His suc
cessor was Ea-mukin-ziri, son of Kutmar,^ who^ reigned
for three months. Next came Kassu-nadin-ahi, son of
Sappai, who ruled for six years, and after him E-Ulbar-
sakin-sumi, son of Bazi. He reigned for fifteen years, his
brother Ninip-kudurri-usur reigned for two years, and
another brother, whose name is uncertain, for three
months. An Elamite dynasty then assumed the govern
ment of the country for six years.
The history is again doubtful until the time of
Merodach-Baladan II., a son of Iriba-Marduk. We
find that a king called Sibir marched into Assyria and
destroyed a city called AdliL A king called Nabu-
sum-damik next reigned, but he was defeated by Ram-
manu-Nirari, of Assyria. After Nabu-sum-damik we find
a king called Nabu-suma-iskun ruling over Babylon,
who likewise was defeated by the Assyrian king. An
Assyrian king, Tukulti-Ninip IV., then ruled Babylon
for seven years.
About this time the Jewish nation and kingdom rose
to great power under David and Solomon. Curiously
enough, none of the nations around were powerful
enough to attack or to harm the kingdom of David after
his defeat of Hadar-ezer, king of Zobah. Egypt was
quiet, and the unfriendly Assyrian little by little lost
all his importance until the empire revived under Assur-
nasir-pal.
While Assur-nasir-pal was ruling over Assyria, Nabu-
abla-iddina held sway in Babylonia. He joined in league
with the Suhi, and they attempted to resist the power of
the Assyrian king. They were, however, unsuccessful,
and were defeated after two days battle. Zabdan, the
brother of the king of Babylon, was taken captive,
together with the chief of the host, Bel-pal-iddina. The
leader of the Suhi and seventy of his followers fled by
way of the river. Afterwards the Babylonian king made
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 59
a treaty with Shalmaneser II., king of Assyria, the son
of Assur-nasir-pal, who was now dead. This king was
a votary of the Sun-god, and in the so-called { Sun-god ?
tablet he relates that a wicked enemy, called the Sutu,
had invaded Babylon before his * t time, had attacked
the temple of the Sun, and had wrought considerable
damage and destruction therein. Other kings before
his time had executed several considerable repairs, but
no one had done so much as he did. He apportioned a
fixed revenue from the royal farms for the support of
this temple, and presented the priests with valuable
garments.
The .next legitimate claimant to the throne was
Marduk-suma-iskun, the son of Nabu-pal-iddina, but it
was also claimed by an usurper called Marduk-bel-usati,
who, aided by the populace, took possession of the country.
The Assyrian king, Shalmaneser II., took the part of the
lawful heir to the throne, and marched to his assistance.
The heir fled to Halman, but was followed by the
Assyrians and slain ; the rebel was defeated at Gan-
nanati by the Assyrian king, who then marched to
Babylon. It must not be forgotten that it was this king
who made Jehu, the son of Nimshi, pay him tribute ;
and on the black obelisk, which stands in the British
Museum, the picture of Jehu kneeling down doing rever
ence to the Assyrian lord may be seen. This king
erected most magnificent gates covered with plates of
bronze, having in relief upon them beautifully executed
scenes from his wars and expeditions.
Bau-ahi-iddin and Marduk-balatsu-ikbi were the next
kings of Babylon. Little is known of either save that
the latter was king during the reign of Samsi-Rammanu
over Assyria, who made many raids on Babylonia. In
one of these raids he took Dur-papsukal, and in
another he defeated the Babylonian army. Babylonian
history is now silent as to the names of its kings ; but we
know from the annals of the sister kingdom Assyria,
that many expeditions were made by its kings, Rammanu-
60 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
Nirari III.., Shalmaneser IIL, and Assur-Dan . against
Babylon. Rammanu-Nirari III. was the son of Samas-
Rimmon, who died about B.C. 812. Shalmaneser III.
made three expeditions against Babylon between the
years B.C. 783 and B.C. 767.
Here comes a blank in Babylonian history for about
twenty years, and the next king we find to be Nabu-nasir.
No mention is made of him in the inscriptions, but he is
brought to light by Ptolemy s canon. Tiglath-Pileser III.
was king of Assyria during his reign, and he captured
* the fortress of Kuri-galzu (a town built by an early
Babylonian king of that name), together with that part
of Sippara dedicated to Samas, the Sun-god. The people
of these places, he tells us, he took away to people his
city of the fortress of Assur/ which he had founded.
Nabu-nasir died about B.C. 734, and was succeeded by
Nabu-nadin-ziri, who reigned two years. He in his turn
was succeeded by Nabu-suma-ukin, who reigned but a
few weeks. The inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser, the king
of Assyria at this time, seem to point out that there
were many important chiefs living in Babylonia each
maintaining his city and army. He mentions three,
Nabu-usabsi, Zakiru, and Ukin-ziru. This latter chief is
probably the Chinzirus of Ptolemy, who appears to have
become sole king of Babylonia about B.C. 730. The
canon of Ptolemy inserts the name Ilulaeus (Assyr. Ulaa)
after Ukin-ziru. For the last two or three hundred years
Babylonia had been the scene of perpetual fights and
battles, at one time winning, at another losing. The
energies of the people had been strained to their highest
pitch to maintain their position, but little by little the
Assyrian power had dominated until the Assyrians had
become masters of the country.
But now a new king of Babylon arose called Merodach-
Baladan, or Marduk-pal-iddina, i. e. Marduk gave a son.
He was the son of Yakin, the Yugaeus of Ptolemy s
canon, and appears to have been a man of great ruling
ability. In arms he was no match for the great Sargon,
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 6l
king of Assyria, who began to reign about B.C. 732, for
about B.C. 712 we find him sending an ambassador to
Hezekiah to solicit aid against him. He then sent to
Humba-nigas, the king of Elam, and supported by him
the Babylonians rebelled. The Assyrian king, Sargon,
conquered them and ravaged the country. This is one
of the most interesting periods of Assyrian history, for
the great king of Assyria comes into very close contact
with the Jews. Isaiah in his twentieth chapter tells us
that he sent his Tartan to besiege Ashdod, and took it ;
and on a , fragment of clay cylinder of Sargon a most
graphic description is given of the means taken by the
Assyrian king to capture the city. The siege took place.
B.C. 711, and the following is Sargon s account of it :
In my ninth expedition I went to Philistia and
Ashdod, and to the land beside the Great Sea (i. e. the
Mediterranean).
Azuri, king of Ashdod, hardened his heart against
bringing tribute to me, and he also sent to the kings
round about who were unfriendly to Assyria, and worked
wickedness. I shattered his power over his people, and
carried off spoil (??). After this I appointed his brother
Ahmuti to be lord of the realm. I fixed the taxes and
tribute which he should pay to me like the other
kings round about him. His wicked people, however,
hardened their hearts against the payment of tribute ;
they revolted against their king, and because he had
been loyal and good to me they drove him away. After
this they established Yaman, a usurper, in the kingdom ;
and they seated a man who was not the lawful heir on
the throne of their lord. They assembled their forces
for war, and they fortified the town against me. They
made an excavation like a ditch all round the city to a
depth of 34 feet, and into it they directed all the springs
of the city, to form a moat. All the inhabitants of
Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab, dwelling by the sea,
whose duty it was to bring gifts and offerings to
Assur my lord, spoke treason. These people and their
6*2, BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
rebellious chiefs carried their presents to Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt a monarch who could not deliver them
and entreated his assistance. Then I, Sargon, the
majestic prince, the worshipper of Assur and Merodach,
jealous for the honour of Assur, passed over the Tigris
and Euphrates at their flood time. Yaman, who relied
upon himself, and who would not submit to my authority,
heard of the advance of my expedition to the land of
the Hittites ; and the might of Assur overwhelmed him.
He fled to Meroe, near Egypt, to a far-off place, and was
no more seen.
Hezekiah did not support Merodach-Baladan, who
then sent to Kudur-Nahhunte, king of Elam, and they
became allies. Having prepared his army, he made
strong his fortifications to resist the march of Sargon of
Assyria. But his city Dur-athara was captured, himself
put to flight, and obliged to seek refuge in his own
country Beth-Yakur. On the road thither he retreated
to a city called Ikbi-Bel, and Sargon having captured
Babylon marched against it. Merodach-Baladan and
his followers forsook Ikbi-Bel and took refuge in Dur-
Yakin, which they strongly fortified. This was useless,
however, for Sargon took the city and" carried oft
Merodach-Baladan and all his family.
Sargon died B.C. 705, and was succeeded by his son,
Sennacherib. He reigned quietly for two years, when
a man called by Eusebiu s Hagisa (probably Marduk-
zakir-sumi of the inscriptions) came to the throne,
Sennacherib being deposed* Merodach-Baladan gathered
his armies together, attacked this rebel and slew him.
He then set himself upon the throne. Sennacherib
reassembled his armies and marched from Nineveh
, against him, and utterly routed Merodach-Baladan at
the city of Kisu, and compelled him to seek refuge in
Guzummanu. Afterwards he gathered together what
ever people were willing to follow his fortune, and led
them to a district called Nagitu, down by the Persian
Gulf, where he died an exile. Sennacherib placed upon
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 63
the throne of Babylon a young man called Bel-epus.
Another Babylonian rebel arose called Suzub, the son of
Gahul, but Sennacherib soon suppressed him and ravaged
his country. He was taken captive and sent to Nineveh.
Sennacherib was now occupied in trying to destroy
Merodach-Baladan s settlement in Nagitu; and, while
labouring for this object, Suzub escaped, and, aided by
the king of Elam, marched to Babylon and became
king. He was routed by the Assyrians and obliged to
keep in hiding, but soon after he gathered together
another army and again taking Babylon, proclaimed
himself king. He met the Assyrian army in battle at
Halub, on the Tigris ; he was utterly defeated, and the son
of Merodach-Baladan, Nabu-sumu-iskum, who had joined
him, fell into the hands of the victorious Assyrian army.
Suzub fled, and Umman-Minanu, his helper, the king of
Elam, retreated to his own kingdom.
Sennacherib s account of his attack upon Hezekiah,
king of Judah, is so important, that we give a translation
of it here :
In my third campaign I marched against the land
of Chatti. The terror of my majesty and lordship over
whelmed Elulaeus, king of Sidon, and he retreated to
the sea, and I subjugated his land. The supremacy of
the arms of Assur, my lord, overwhelmed Great Sidon,
Little Sidon, Beth-Zitti, Sarepta, Mahallib, Ushu,
Ekdippa, Akko, and his strongholds, his fortresses,
his lands, and his garrison submitted to me. I set
Eth-Baal on the throne, and I imposed upon him a
fixed annual tribute. Menahem of Samsimurna, Eth-
Baal of Sidon, Abdiliti of Arvad, Urumilki of Byblos,
Mitinti of Ashdod, Pudil of Ammon, Chemosh-Nadab
of Moab, Malikram of Edom, and all the kings of
Phoenicia and the sea-coast made offerings unto me
and kissed my feet. I carried away the gods of the
ancestors of Sidka king of Askelon, who had not
submitted to my yoke, himself, his wife, his sons, his
daughters, his brothers, and his relatives, to Assyria.. I
64 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
set Sarludari, the son of Rukibti their former king, over
them. I imposed tribute upon him, and he became
tributary. Continuing my expedition, I marched against
Beth-dagon, Joppa, Bene-Berak, and Azuru, cities be
longing to Sidka, which had not submitted to me at the
right moment I captured these, and carried away spoil
from them. The hearts of the chief priests and of the
people of Ekron, who had cast into iron bonds their king
Padi, who was a faithful vassal of Assyria, and had
delivered him to Hezekiah of Judah, who threw him
into prison, feared, and they called to their aid the
governors of Egypt, with countless numbers of archers,
chariots, and horses belonging to the king of Miluhha.
I did battle with them before the city of Altaku, and
defeated them. The commander of the Egyptian host,
the sons of the Egyptian king, and the commander of
the host of the king of Miluhha, I captured alive with
my own hand. I advanced against the town of Ekron,
I slew the ringleaders of the rebellion, and I transported
those of the inhabitants who had taken part in it ; the
rest of the people I pardoned. I caused their king Padi .
to leave Jerusalem; I set him upon the throne and made
him tributary to me. Hezekiah, the king of Judah,
however, did not submit to me. I besieged and captured
forty-six of his towns and innumerable garrisons in their
vicinity, and I carried away 200,150 of their inhabitants
as^ spoil. Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem ; I
raised mounds against him. The towns from which I
had transported the inhabitants I separated from his
territory, and diminished it by giving them to Ashdod,
Askelon, Ekron, and Gaza; I increased their annual
tribute. The terror of the majesty of my might over
whelmed Hezekiah, and I carried away as spoil thirty
talents of gold, eight hundred talents of silver, precious
stones, ivory seats and couches, skins of animals, rare
woods his daughters, his wives, and his retinue, to
Nineveh.
Sennacherib s vengeance upon Babylon was most
BABYLONIAN HISTORY FROM B.C. 1330-668. 65
severe. He pulled down the temples, removed walls
and towers, and hurled them into the river Araxes.
Everything capable of being destroyed he destroyed.
It is very hard to form even an idea of the damage
which this king must have done. . In Babylon was the
accumulated learning of ages and of hundreds of gene
rations of the children of men. The libraries were the
repository of all the science and knowledge which the
most civilized of the Semitic races had. The books of
astronomy and observations of the heavenly bodies were
all there, in addition to their beautiful collection of myths
and stories of the childhood of the world. With every
other great building, the libraries must have suffered,
and very possibly many of the stones and legends which
have supplied the other nations of the world with the
groundwork of their mythology, perished under the
needlessly cruel vengeance which t Sennacherib wreaked
upon the city, * the gate of God.
Every one is familiar with the boastful speeches of
the Rabshakeh 1 (in Assyrian &Zm |>- ^ft^ fc<), and
without doubt they were the very words which the king
himself had commanded to be spoken. In deeds he was
cruel, in speech haughty, and every word of his inscrip
tions breathes the spirit of his boast, I am the mighty
king, the powerful. 3
Sennacherib deposed Bel-epus, and raised to the Baby
lonian throne his son, Assur-nadin-sumi. The particulars
of these battles belong properly to the history of Assyria,
but it is necessary to touch upon them briefly for the
right understanding of the history of Babylon. Assur-
nadin-sumi reigned about six years, and was succeeded by
Nergal-edir, who, in his turn, was succeeded by Musesib-
Marduk. Sennacherib was murdered about B.C. 68 1,
and his son, Assur-nadin-sumi, whom he had appointed
over Babylon, had died about B.C. 694. Another son,
Esarhaddon, came to the Assyrian throne B. c. 680, but,
meanwhile, a son of Merodach-Baladan, called Nabu-zir-
1 2 Kings xviii. 19-35.
E
66 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
napisti-esir, had seized his father s dominions near the
Persian Gulf, and wished to rule Babylonia. The sons of
Sennacherib after his death quarrelled as to the succession.
While this quarrel was going on Nabu-zir-napisti-esir
attacked the city of Ur, which was ruled over by Ningal-
iddina. His siege was unsuccessful, however, for Esar-
haddon, having defeated his brothers, marched against
him, and Nabu-zir-napisti-esir was compelled to take
refuge in Elam. His brother, Nahid-Marduk, submitted
to Esarhaddon, and was appointed by him to the govern
ment of the sea-coast. The judicious king, Esarhaddon,
went to Babylon and began to repair the damages which
his father had done. He not only was merciful and
kind, but he did his best to show that he honoured the
ancient city Babylon. He built ten temples there, and
there are inscriptions in the British Museum in Babylonian
as well as in Assyrian, which go to prove that he wished
to conform to the usages of the people and their kings as
far as he could. . His mild but firm policy pacified the
excitable and angry -breasts of the various tribes ever
ready for war, and rendered his short reign of thirteen
years very glorious. During his reign he associated his
son, Assurbanipal, with him in the kingdom of Assyria,
and left the government of Babylon to another son,
Samullu-sum-ukin or Samas-sum-ukin.
o 7
CHAPTER V.
THE FALL OF NINEVEH. NEBUCHADNEZZAR.
B.C. 668-560.
AssurbanipaTs wars with Elam. His care for the libraries. Fall of
Nineveh. The vengeance of the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar s war
with the Egyptians. Josiah) king ofjudah. Nebuchadnezzar s buildings
and canals. Inscription on a bronze step. The siege of Tyre. The
destritction of Jerusalem and captivity of its people. Nebuchadnezzar and
Daniel. Biblical names of Adam, Abel, Abraham, and Methuselah
found on the tablets.
FOR ten or a dozen years we have peace in the land.
After this a king of Elam, called Urtaki, made a league
with Bel-basa, king of the Gambulu, and began to make
war against Assurbanipal and his brother. Assurbanipal
hearing of this, sent an army to fight these kings, and
it succeeded in driving Urtaki back into Elam, which
country he subsequently conquered and placed Umman-
igas, a son of Urtaki, upon the throne. Another serious
trouble now awaited Assurbanipal. His brother s spirit
chafed at the idea of his being in subjection to him,
and knowing that the king of Elam was ill-disposed
to Assurbanipal, the sacrilegious monarch opened the
treasuries of the temples of the gods Bel, Nebo, and
Nergal, and taking out their gold and silver he sent it
to Umman-igas, the king of Elam, and prayed for his
assistance to make a war against his brother, Assurbani
pal. The Elamite king was quite ready to take up arms
against his benefactor, and raising a large army, he,
together with the Babylonian king, began a series of
desperate and fierce wars. The Elamite king had no
sooner left his city on this expedition, than his own son,
Parritu, rebelled, and, attacking his father, slew him,
sending his head as a present to Assurbanipal. He,
however, followed the policy of his father Umman-igas,
E 3
68 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
and joined the Babylonian faction. The Assyrian army
conquered the Babylonian king and his ally and took
Babylon about B.C. 648. The king set fire to his palace,
and perished in the flames.
Assurbanipal severely punished the insurgents, but
one Nabu-bel-zikri, the ruler of the sea-coast, a grand
son of Merodach-Baladan III, found his way to Elam,
and took refuge with Inda-bigas, its king, who, being
well disposed to Assyria, sent an ambassador to its
king to inform him of the event. -Naturally enough,
Assurbanipal demanded that Nabu-bel-zikri should be
delivered up to him. Before this request could be
brought to the Elamite king, he and his family had been
slain by Umman-aldas, who had ascended the throne.
Assurbanipal sent to this new king, demanding that
Nabu-bel-zikri should be given up ; he, fearing this
insult, called for his armour-bearer, and they ran each
other through with their swords. Umman-aldas, the
king of Elam, sent the body of Nabu-bel-zikri, together
with the head of the armour-bearer, to Assurbanipal.
Samas-rsum-ukin reigned over Babylon about twenty
years, and was succeeded by Kandalanu, who reigned
about twenty-two years.
Then followed peace until about B.C 626, when
another revolt broke out in Babylonia, and the Assyrian
king sent a general called Nabu-pal-usur to quell it.
Nabu-pal-usur was a general of great ability and tact ;
and the government of Assyria appear to have made
him Governor of Babylon on account of the skill which
he showed in ruling Babylon and suppressing the
rebellion. He afterwards became king of Babylon, and
made it great and mighty, as in days of old. When,
however, he found that he had armies under his own
control, and the power to do with them as he pleased,
he it^xt turned his successful troops against their old
enemies the Assyrians. The Babylonians were only too
glad to assist their vigorous leader Nabu-pal-usur in
his meditated attack upon Nineveh. Instead of being
THE FALL OF NINEVEH. 69
the general in the service of the government of Assyria,
he now became a most formidable rival and opponent of
its king. Assyria had been the ruling power for some
time, but her power and her glory were diminishing,
and she found herself powerless to resist or control
the iron-willed rule of her opponent, Nabu-pal-usur
(Nabopolassar). He was wise enough to see that Assyria
could not be completely crushed by one nation, and
he therefore made a league with Pharaoh Necho, of
Egypt, and asked the Median king, Cyaxares, to give
his daughter Amytes to Nebuchadnezzar, his son, to
wife. Thus a league was made, and about B.C. 609 the
kings marched against Assyria. They suffered various
defeats, but eventually the Assyrian army was defeated,
and Shalman, the brother of the king of Assyria, slain.
The united kings then besieged Nineveh. .During the
siege the river Tigris rose and carried ,away the greater
part of the city wall. The Assyrian king gathered
together his wives and property in the palace, and
setting fire to it, all perished in the flames. The
enemies went into the city and utterly destroyed all
they could lay their hands upon.
With the fall of Nineveh, Assyria as a power practi
cally ceased to exist. The Babylonians remembered the
Vengeance taken upon them by Sennacherib, and the
destruction he wrought ; and there is very little doubt but
that Nabopolassar took care to avenge this treatment.
About this time Josiah, the king of Judah, went out
with his small army against the Egyptian hosts x . The
fate of this courageous, fearless monarch is known to all,
and needs no repetition here.
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim 2 , Nabopolassar, king
of Babylon, sent his son, Nebuchadnezzar, to make
war against the Egyptians; war, for some reason or
other, having been declared. While Nebuchadnezzar
was carrying out the instructions of his father, news
reached him of the death of Nabopolassar ; he therefore
1 2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30. 2 Jer. xlvi. 2.
yo BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
hastened back to Babylon to receive his father s crown.
The battle which Nebuchadnezzar fought with the
Egyptian king took place at Carchemish about B.C. 608.
When Nebuchadnezzar reached Babylon he found
that the throne had been kept for him. When he had
become established in the kingdom he set his various
captives, Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Egyptians, at
work to make Babylon the greatest city in the world.
And as a builder he remains almost unsurpassed. He
surrounded Babylon with two huge walls, an inner and
an outer. The outer wall he simply repaired, but the
inner he built entirely. He reared a huge palace in
fifteen days 1 , and dug the great canal, the remains of
which Sir Henry Rawlinson traced from Hit to the
bay of Graine, a distance of nearly 500 miles.
INSCRIPTION ON A BRONZE STEP OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR,
i. H
D;P. Na - bi- um - ku - du - ur - ri - u - su - ur
Nebuchadnezzar
sar -ka - dingi - ra - ki
the king of Babylon (the gate of god)
2 . {i >^2>-3?T ^M 5
za- ni - in E SAG ILI u E zi ,- DA
the restorer of the temple Sagili and the temple Zida
3. -^^r ^w w m f ^m EESST
ablu asaridu sa D.P. Nabu . - abla
the eldest son of Nabu -pal-
u - su - ur sar ,tin- tir - ki a- na - ku
usur the king of Babylon (the seat of life) am /.
4- Tf ^"T f ^T ^ ssT x ^ * T^ -TT<T
a - na D.P. Na - bi- um bil - ni si - i - ri
For the god Nabo, the supreme lord
1 See Col. 8, line 63, of his large inscription, and this is mentioned by
Berosus.
THE FALL OF NINEVEH. 73
5. ^ -< "iT *
mu - sa - ri - ku u - um ma- la * ki - ya
fo tengthener of the day of my rule (or kingdom]
6.
E - zi - DA bit - su i - na Bar - si - pa ki
E-Zida his temple in Borsifpa
< <T- ssTT Srif &- fifl
es - si - is e - pu - us
tf/w / built (made)
After Nebuchadnezzar had returned from Syria,
Judaea threw off his yoke together with Phoenicia,
expecting help from the king of Egypt. He marched
at once against Tyre, but was unable to take it. He
therefore left an army encamped before the city, and
went to Jerusalem \ Jehoiakim, who was king of Judah
at that time, rebelled (a Kings xxiv. i) ; and although
he afterwards submitted, it was to no purpose, for
Nebuchadnezzar put him in fetters and established
Jeconiah in his stead 2 . Soon after Nebuchadnezzar
came to Jerusalem again, removed Jeconiah from the
throne, carried him to Babylon, and made Zedekiah
king in his stead 3 . The Babylonian king, however, met
with much resistance from the Tyrians, for it took
thirteen years to capture the city. So good an historian
as Mr. Grote thinks it never was taken ; Jeremiah and
Ezekiel both prophesy its downfall 4 , and speaking
generally it seems impossible that iron-willed Nebuchad
nezzar should be defeated in this matter, having all his
army and the whole naval force of Phoenicia to help him.
Three years before the fall of Tyre, however, and in
the ninth year of Zedelciah, Jerusalem rebelled, hoping to
obtain assistance from the new king of Egypt, Pharaoh
1 Compare 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6 ; 2 Kings xxiv. 1-6.
3 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8.
3 2 Kings xxiv. 11-17.
* Jer. xxvii. 3-6 ; Ezek. xxvi.
74 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
Hophra 1 , and with this end in view the Jewish king,
Zedekiah, sent messengers to Egypt. But before help
could come from this quarter Nebuchadnezzar had
besieged Jerusalem 2 , and hearing that the Egyptian
force was on the march, he raised the siege and went to
do battle with it. Some say that Pharaoh Hophra was
defeated, others that he retreated as the Babylonians
advanced. Nebuchadnezzar returned to the siege of
Jerusalem, and after two years the city surrendered in
the nineteenth year of his reign 3 . Zedekiah s eyes were
put out and he was carried to Babylon 4 . Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed the temple, the city and its walls, and trans
ported the greater part of the people to his own land 5 .
A few years after this he again marched through
Syria and Palestine into Egypt to make war with the
Egyptian king, ravaging the country far and wide. As
usual he was successful, and obtained much spoil and
many captives 6 . Nebuchadnezzar is the subject of the
liveliest interest to us, for it was this king that threw
the three children into the fiery furnace ; and it must
never be forgotten that he was very kind to the prophet
Jeremiah. Daniel was called 7 Belteshazzar; this is
probably a corruption of Beltis-sarra-usur, i. e. Beltis
protects the king 8 .
The question has been asked over and over again, Is
Daniel s name found in the inscriptions ? The answer is,
1 Jer. xxxvii. 5-11 ; Ezek. xvii. 15-20. The Biblical Pharaoh Hophra
(otherwise known as Apfies) is the $tjft [ O I * $ ^ J or
%S- ( j[ "O | of the Hieroglyphs.
2 Jer. xxxvii. 5,
3 Jer. lii. 12.
4 *I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans, yet shall he
not see it, though he shall die there. 1 Ezek. xii. 13.
5 Jer. lii. 12-30 ; 2 Kings xxv. 8-12.
Compare Jer. xlvi. 3, 13-26; Ezek. xxix. 17-20; xxx. 10-26; xxxi.
11-16.
7 Dan. iv. 8.
s In cuneiform it would be >
THE FALL OF NINEVEH. 75
No ; but this fact is easily explained. When an eastern
king performed any great work or deed, or carried on
any war, not only his own share in the labour, but the
share of his generals was attributed to him, and every
one s glory became merged in that of the monarch.
There is no reason whatever why the name may not be
found in future days when all Babylon is excavated.
Many another Biblical name is found on the tablets, for
example, A bramu Abraham/ Adamu Adam/ Ablu
c Abel, Muttt,-sa-ili (the man of god), Methuselah, and
so on. When Sennacherib and his mighty army besieged
Jerusalem, the Rabshakeh did all the work, but his
name is not even mentioned in the account of the siege
written by the king s orders. When Sargon besieged
Ashdod, the Tartan did all the work, but the king
claimed the glory. So, however great a man Daniel was
in Babylon, and however important his work, it is not
likely that Nebuchadnezzar would concede to him his
due and mention his name. The plain of Dura
mentioned in Daniel is probably one of the districts in
Babylon which are called in the inscriptions Duru,
i.e. fortress.
Nebuchadnezzar died after a reign of 43 years, and was
succeeded by his son, Amil-Marduk (the Evil Merodach
of the Bible), B.C. 563. It is necessary to mention
that the form of this monarch s name, Nebuchadrezzar
(Ezek. xxvi. 7 ; xxix. 18, 19; xxx. 10), is the more
correct according to the inscriptions : for
and
CHAPTER VI.
THE CUNEIFORM ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF
BABYLON BY CYRUS. THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO
IT. B.C. 560-530.
Kali-Mag. Nabonidus > king of Babylon, and Belshazzar, master of the
army. Cyrus. Rise of hi spottier. Death of the mother of Nabonidus.
Chief events of the years of the reign of Nabonidns. Extract from an
inscription of this monarch. His researches. His restorations of the
temples. Nabonidns a sun-worshipper. Arrival of Cyrus at Babylon.
His cylinder. Part of cuneiform text 7 f elatingto the capture of Babylon.
Translation of it. Cyrus the shepherd] the good king. His con
ciliatory policy. His kindness to the Jews. His restoration of the cities
and temples. Bible account of the fall of Babylon. Belshazzars feast,
EVIL MERODACH, after a reign of two years, was
assassinated by his sister s husband, Nergal-sarra-usur
or Neriglissar. Some think that he was the Nergal
Sharezer, the Rab-Mag, who was with Nebuchadnezzar
at the siege of Jerusalem \ He reigned three years, and
died B. C. 55^5. Rab-Mag is in Babylonian rub a etnga,
the glorious prince/ His son, Labasi-Marduk (the
Laborosoarchod of Ptolemy), succeeded him, and was
assassinated after "a reign of nine months.
The next successor to the throne was Nabu-Nahid,
Nabonidus, the son of Nabu-balat-su-ikbi, who began
to reign about B.C. 556. And now slowly but surely the
Babylonian empire began to decay. Cyrus was be
coming a powerful king, and the inertness of Nabonidus
prepared the way for his future capture of Babylon.
Nabonidus dwelt in the city Tema, and to his son
Belshazzar was entrusted the care of the army. In the
first year of the reign of Nabonidus we find that he made
1 Jer. xxxix. 3 nnd 13.
ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 79
war with a king whose name is lost ; in the second there
was a slight rebellion in Hamath. In his third year he
went to a country called Ammananu. In his sixth year
Cyrus, the king of Anzan, went to a country whose name
is lost. Hearing of this, the soldiers of Astyages revolted
in this year, and delivered him into the hands of Cyrus.
On the cylinder of Nabonidus, quoted further on, the king
says that Cyrus himself conquered Astyages ; but the
statement which makes the soldiers of Astyages deliver
their king into the hands of Cyrus agrees with that of
Herodotus. Cyrus was pushing on his fortunes rapidly,
for he captured the royal city in Ecbatana, and carried
the silver, gold, furniture, and goods which he had taken
there to Anzan, In the seventh year of his reign
Nabonidus was still in Tema, while his army was in
Akkad. We have no notice of what took place in the
eighth year. In his ninth year he was still in Tema, and
his army was in Akkad. In the month Nisan of this
year the mother of the king died ; there was mourning
for three days and much weeping. Cyrus, the king of
Anzan or Persia, gathered his army together, crossed the
Tigris by Arbela, and went to attack a king who lived
there. In the tenth year, B.C. 549, Nabonidus was in
Tema, and the army in Akkad. The priests made
sacrifices to the gods of Babylon and Borsippa, asking
for peace. In this year, on the aist of Sivan, Cyrus
marched from the land of the Elamites into Akkad. Of
the eleventh year of Nabonidus we know little, save that
the king was in Tema, the army in Akkad, and that they
sacrificed victims to the gods presiding over Babylon and
Borsippa, entreating peace. The tablet which gives
these particulars also tells us that the god, c Bel did not
go to Babylon/ nor did Nebo come forth during these
years, which means that even the worship of the gods
began to be neglected. This would make the priests
angry, and as they were a caste which always carried
great influence, it makes us wonder why the king dared
to offend them.
80 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
In the seventeenth year of Nabonidus (B.C. 539) Cyrus
captured Babylon ; but we must give some notice of
the work of Nabonidus before we deal with this event.
Some little time ago Mr. Rassam brought to England
fragments of some Nabonidus c cylinders. 5 One of these
is a very important document, and we shall describe here
briefly its contents. The cylinder is in three columns,
and contains 159 well-written lines. He begins by
calling himself the son of Nabu-balat-su-ikbi, the mighty
prince. It appears that an enemy called the Sabmanda
had gone to Harrari and had destroyed the temple of
the Moon-god 3 The god Bel wished Nabonidus to
undertake the re-erection of this temple and the re-
establishment of the city, and Marduk and Sin, the
Moon-god, appeared to him in a dream and told him
what Bel desired. The following is Nabonidus own
account of the matter :
15. In the beginning of my long reign, Marduk the
great lord and Sin
16. the illuminator of heaven and earth, the strengthener
of all showed me
17* a dream. Marduk spoke with me (saying)
1 8. Nabonidus, king of Babylon, with the horses of thy
chariots
19. rear up the walls of E-hulhul and of Sin the great lord,
20. fix the dwelling-place within it.
^ i . Reverently I spoke to the lord of the gods Marduk,
22. that house of which thou speakest I will build.
23. The Sabmanda of which thou spealcest destroyed it,
strong was their might.
24. Marduk spoke with me saying the Sabmanda of
which thou speakest
35. they, their country and the kings going by their side
shall not exist.
26. In the third year with his small army
27. he made Cyrus the king of Anzan his young servant
to go;
ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 8r
28. he overthrew the wide-spreading Sabmanda, he
captured
$9. Astyages king of Sabtnanda and took his treasures
to his own land.
Nabonidus began the Work of restoration, and brought
his army from Gaza, for the purpose. He tells us that
Assurbanipal, the son of Esarhaddon, had restored it in
his time. During the excavations for the necessary
repairs of the foundations, he found the cylinders which
had been deposited by Shalmaneser II. (who reigned
about B.C. 860) and Assurbanipal. Nabonidus gave all
his energies to the work, and had the bricks made like
white marble/ i.e., he glazed them white. He set
figures of the god Latimu on each side of the doors
of the temple. He then had the image of the Moon-
god brought from Su-anna and placed it in the shrine
at flarran. He made an inscription, which he set
side by side with that of Assurbanipal, which he tells
us he saw. Having done his duty to the Moon-god 3
he next speaks of the Sun-god at Sippara. Nebu
chadnezzar, it will be remembered, had restored the
temple, but this inscription tells us that he looked for
the cylinders and found them not. Forty-five years
after this restoration Nabonidus looked for them, and
found them not. Thinking that the image of the Sun-
god had been placed in the wrong shrine, Nabonidus
had it removed and set in another temple. After this he
tells us that he excavated as much as eighteen cubits.
and found the foundation stone of Naram-Sin, the son
of Sargon, Which for three thousand two hundred years
no king going before me had seen/ He goes on to say
that Samas, the Sun-god, the great lord of E-parra,
revealed to me the house f the seat of the joy of his
heart. 5 The king was very pleased with this success,
and he c sacrificed a victim.
The pious king next restored the temple of Anunitum
in Sippara), the lady who walks before the gods;. 5 it
8s BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
was called E-ulbar. While excavating for the founda
tions he found two foundation stones of earlier kings,
namely those of Sagasalti-Buryas and Kudurri-Bel. This
remarkably interesting cylinder ends by a prayer to the
gods Samas and Anunit.
This brings us back to the tablet containing the annals
of the reign of Nabonidus. After the eleventh year we
know not what took place, for the tablet is broken,
and we are at a loss for details until the seventeenth
year of the reign of Nabonidus, of which year the tablet
gives us information. The period of the inertness of
Nabonidus appears to be over ; the gods were brought
forth and sacrifices were made, all the images of the
gods they could find were taken in procession around
Babylon, and only those of Borsippa, Cutha. and Sippara
were allowed to remain in their places. The tablet of
annals gives the following account of this year :
* At the end of the month Elul (August) the gods of
Akkad, who we;re above the atmosphere, came down to
Babylon. The gods of Borsippa, Cutha, and Sippara
came not down. In the month Tammuz (June) Cyrus
made battle in Rutum against .... of the river Nizallat.
The men of Akkad made a revolt The soldiers took
Sippara on the I4th day without fighting, and Nabonidus
fled away. On the i6th day Gobryas, the governor
of Gutium, and the army of Cyrus came to Babylon
without any opposition. Afterwards, having bound
Nabonidus, he took him to Babylon. At the end of the
month Tammuz the rebels of Gutium closed the gates of
E-sagili ; but neither in that temple nor any other temples
of the country was there found a weapon for its defence.
In the month Marchesvan (October), the 3rd day, Cyrus
came to Babylon, the roads were dark before him.
He made peace to the city and promised peace to all
Babylon. Cyrus appointed Gobryas to be governor in
Babylon together with others. From the month Kislev
(November) to the month Adar (February) they brought
back to their shrines the gods of Akkad, , whom Nabo-
TEKRA-CQTTA CYLINDER CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON BY
C\RUS THE GREAT, KING OF PF.RSIA.
F %
ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 85
nidus had sent down to Babylon. In the month of
Marchesvan (October) the dark, the nth day, Gobryas
.... and the king (Nabonidus) died. From the
27th of the month Adar (February) to the 3rd day of
the month Nisan (March) there was weeping in Akkad.
All the people were free from their chief 1 . On the
4th day Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, in the Temple of
the Sceptre of the-World, established a festival.
This is the brief history of the conquest of Babylon
as recorded in the annals ; and it will be easy to see that
it was brought about by other things than force of arms.
There was a revolt among the troops of Nabonidus, and
he fled, hence Sippara was easily taken, and the rebels
who shut themselves up in E-sagili were without arms,
therefore they were subdued without difficulty. There
is a fragment of a cylinder in the British Museum which
was drawn up by the command of Cyrus, and which
gives his account of the taking of Babylon 2 . As this
famous record is so important, a paraphrase is here
given :
The first few lines of the fragment are much broken,
and only a few words are readable, but the general
import of them seems to be that under the care of
Nabonidus the rites of the temples were discontinued,
and that the ordinary offers and sacrifices were left
unperformed. At this Merodach, the lord of the gods,
grieved, and the gods left their respective shrines. At
the sacred feasts which were celebrated within Kal-anna,
Merodach did not appear, he had taken himself away
to other peoples. Merodach was kind to the people of
Sumir and Akkad, and he returned, and rejoiced all the
countries. He sought out a king for himself who would
perform according to the heart s desire of the god what
ever was entrusted to his hand. He proclaimed the
1 Compare Job iii. 19.
2 In the inscriptions of Nabonidus no mention is made of any restoration
of the temple of Marduk by him, and it seems that he neglected entirely
the worship of this very favourite deity of Babylonia. This would of
course arouse the indignation of the priests of Marduk.
86
P
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BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
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ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 87
renown of Cyrus, the king of Anzan (Persia), throughout
the length and breadth of the land, and he proclaimed
his glory to all. He made all the people of Gutium,
whom he had gathered to his feet, and all the dark
races whom he had caused his hand to take, to dwell
under law and righteousness. Merodach, the great lord,
directed his (Cyrus 5 ) hand and heart ; he lived happily.
The god commanded him to make the march to his city
Babylon, he made him take the road to Tintir (Babylon),
the forces of Cyrus marched like a cloud and an earth
wall. His army was wide-spreading and far-reaching
like the waters of a river, his forces were without number.
He made them enter Kal-anna without fighting and
without contest ; he made breaches all round the city,
and he (the god) delivered Nabonidus, who did not
reverence him, into the hands of Cyrus. All the people
of Tintir and all the people of Akkad and Sumir, nobles
and priests who had opposed the king, he crushed
beneath him, and they carne and kissed his feet. And
then the god Merodach, who by his service makes the
dead to live, and who in difficulty and trouble aids
every one, drew near to him favourably and made known
his proclamation, saying, f l am Cyrus the king ....
the great king, the mighty king, king of Tintir, king of
Sumir and Akkad, king of the four regions of the earth,
the son of Cambyses, the great king, king of the city
Anzan, grandson of Cyrus, the great king, king of the
city of Anzan, great-grandson of Teispes, the great king
of the city of Anzan, of the ancient seed of royalty,
whose dominion (reign) Bel and Nebo had exalted
according to the beneficence of their hearts/
After Cyrus entered Babylon with joy and gladness,
he enlarged the royal palace, the seat of royalty, and
Merodach, whom the Babylonians had grieved, daily re-
j oiced the heart of h is follower. His wide-spreading forces
were spread over the land peacefully, and he repaired
the cities and made joyful the children of Babylon.
Cyrus was careful to repair immediately the temple of
88 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
the god Merodach, and the god was pleased to approach
him favourably. All the kings of Phoenicia and round
about brought their tribute, and kissed the feet of Cyrus.
He restored the shrines and dwelling-places of the gods
of the towns of Agade, Isnumnak, Zamban, and else
where. The gods of Akkad and Sumir, which Nabo
nidus had brought from their shrines for the final festival,
Cyrus restored to their places. The last line or two of
the inscription tells us that he prayed daily to Nebo
and Bel that they would be pleased to prolong his days,
to bless the decree for his prosperity, and that Merodach
would regard him as his faithful follower and son.
Such is the account given of this remarkable fragment
of the fall of Babylon. It will be remembered that the
old historian Herodotus tells us that Cyrus drained the
river Euphrates nearly dry by means of a canal running
into a lake, and that the Persians marched up through
the river gates, which were carelessly left open by the
Babylonians. No mention of this is made in the in
scriptions ; but there is no reason why Cyrus should not
have had recourse to this means as well as to fighting.
We have mentioned that Nabonidus had entrusted the
charge of the Babylonian army to his son Belshazzar,
and the Bible tells us that he was slain on the awful
night of the capture of Babylon. It makes no mention
of Nabonidus. Josephus says, and when Neriglissar
was dead the kingdom came to Baltasar, who by the
Babylonians was called Naboandelus, and in another
part of his book he calls Nabonidus Nabonnedon/
Now it is evident that the father .Nabonidus and the son
Belshazzar became confused in the minds of the writers
of the histories, but one and the same king is meant.
It was natural that foreigners should consider Belshazzar
to be the king, because he was master of the army.
The Bible and Josephus record an event in this king s
life which the inscriptions and Herodotus mention not.
It is said 1 , Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a
1 Daniel v.
ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 89
thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thou
sand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded
to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father
(i.e. his ancestor) Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the
temple which was in Jerusalem ; that the king, and his
princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
In the same hour came forth ringers of a
man s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon
the plaister of the wall of the king s palace : and the
king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Belshazzar,
exceedingly terrified at this, called for all the astrologers,
soothsayers, and augurs, and demanded an interpreta
tion ; but none could read it. At last came Daniel, the
servant of the Lord, and read the awful dictum to the
king MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN, i.e. God hath
numbered thy kingdom and finished it ; thou art weighed
in the balances arid art found wanting ; thy kingdom is
divided and given to the Medes and Persians. 5 A verse
or two later we read, c In that night was Belshazzar, the
king of the Chaldeans, slain/
The Babylonians had heard for years of the conquests
of Cyrus, but they felt secure when they remembered
the walls of their city and the huge gates which broke
their line at short distances. They thought of their past
conquests, of their glories, of their old lines of kings; and
were insolently secure in their hearts. The prophets of
Israel denounced Babylon in their prophecies ; all nations
took up the cry of joy at her downfall, and the cry
Babylon is fallen 5 resounded from city to city, and
from one end of the earth to the other.
CHAPTER VII.
BABYLON UNDER THE RULE OF THE PERSIANS,
AND UNDER SELEUCUS.
Babylon under the Persians. The proclamation of Cyrus to the Jews.
Darius, Cambyses, and Co??iates. Sir Henry Rawlinsorfs translation of
the Behistim Inscription. Extract therefrom. Kindness of Darius to
the Jews. Confirmation of the decree of Cyrus. Xerxes gave the Jews
permission to build the walls of Jerusalem. Philip and Alexander the
Great, kings of Babylon. Babylon under Seleucus. Extract from an
inscription of Antiochtis. Lack of historical cuneiform inscriptions after
this period. Gradual decay of Babylon. Prophecies relating to its fall.
IT fared better, however, with Babylon under the
merciful hands of Cyrus than it did when Sennacherib the
king of Assyria was the conqueror. " Cyrus, the tolerant
king, restored its temples, and made its inhabitants to
dwell in peace and safety ; he re- organised the religious
services in its temples, and endeavoured to make the
people regard him as a kind reformer more than as a
conquering king. He was a generous protector of the
Jews, and obtained the glorious appellation of My
shepherd/ and My anointed 1 / from the Lord God
of Hosts, Who also spoke by the spirit of prophecy in
Isaiah, and gave an exact description of the siege:
Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose
right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him ;
and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before
him the two-leaved gates ; and the gates shall not
be shut : I will go before thee, and make the crooked
places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of
brass, and cut in sundef the bars of iron : and I will
give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches
of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the
Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of
Israel. For Jacob My servant s sake, and Israel Mine
1 Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. i.
RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 91
elect, I have even called thee by thy name : I have
surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me. I am
the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besi de
Me : I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me :
that they may know from the rising of the sun, and
from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the
Lord, and there is none else 1 /
Under his rule we are told * Daniel prospered V
When Cyrus had arranged the affairs of Babylon, he
turned his attention to the Jews, and in his first year 3
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia,
that he made a proclamation throughout all his king
dom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith
Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath
given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and He hath
charged me to build HinV an house at Jerusalem, which
is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people?
his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem,
which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God
of Israel (He is the God) which is in Jerusalem. And
whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth,
let the men of his place help him with silver, and with
gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill
offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. -Not
only did Cyrus speak from the heart to the Jews, but he
brought forth the vessels of Jehovah (which Nebuchad
nezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to the house of
his gods), thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers
of silver, nine-and-twenty knives, thirty basons of gold,
silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and
other vessels a thousand, altogether 5,400 vessels, and
handed them over to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah 4 .
The actual decree which Cyrus made as to the re
building of the temple is given in Ezra vi. 3-5. and is,
4 Let the house of God at Jerusalem be builded, the place
where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations
thereof be strongly laid ; the height thereof threescore
1 Isa. xlv. T-6. 2 Ban. vi. 28.
3 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, -23 ; Ezral 1-4. * Ezra i. 7-11.
93 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTOR^
cubits and the breadth thereof threescore cubits, with
three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber ;
arid let the expenses be given out of the king s house.
And also let the golden and silver vessels of the
house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of
the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto
Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple
which is at Jerusalem, every one to his place, and place
them in the house of God/ Josephus tells us that Cam-
byses, the son of Cyrus, was unfavourable to the Jews
and stopped the building ; but in the reign of Darius the
original decree of Cyrus was confirmed, and the building
proceeded. Thus were confirmed the prophecies of
Jeremiah, recorded in the various parts of his book 1 .
Cyrus, being himself a monotheist, was no doubt much
attracted to the Jews with their one Almighty Jehovah ;
but for all that he was most tolerant to the other
nations who believed in many gods. It is generally
thought that Cyrus was the sole king of Babylon after
he had captured Babylon. Daniel, however 2 , says, and
Darius, the Median, took the kingdom, being about
threescore and two years old ; and Josephus tells us
that both Cyrus, the king of Persia, and Darius, the king
of Media, made war with Nabonidus.
It is a very hard matter to settle the question as to
who this Darius was, for the inscriptions make no men
tion of him, and if he reigned his reign could only have
been for a few months, as the canon of Ptolemy places
Cyrus first year B.C. 538. There has been much argu
ment on this point ; some chronologists make this Darius
to be Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus, others say- he
was Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, others say he was a
Median prince, and some say he was a general in the
army of Cyrus, while a few think him to be Darius
Hystaspes. The arguments which have been brought
forward to prove these various theories it would be use
less to repeat here, for it would occupy too much space,
and when given nothing would be proved. We must
1 Jer. xxv. 12 ; xxix. 10; xxxiii. 7-14. 2 Dan. v. 31.
RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 93
wait, and perhaps when Babylon is excavated we shall
find tablets which will offer a solution of the mystery.
The Babylonian contract tablets make no mention of the
name of this Darius the Median.
* Cyrus died B.C. 530, and his son, Cambyses (who had
been associated with him during the last year or two of
his reign), reigned in his stead. Whatever reason there
may have been for disaffection among the Babylonians
under the reign of Cambyses is unknown ; it has been
thought that they wished to do away with their Persian
lord and his rule. Shortly after his ascending the throne
he made an expedition into Egypt, about B.C. 537, and
conquered it.
Cambyses had left a Magus in charge of the affairs of
Babylon, and this Magus with his brother, also a Magus,
revolted. Some time previously Cambyses had murdered
his brother Bardes or Smerdis ; and Patizithes> one of
these Magi, knowing this fact, and having a brother very
like the deceased BardeSj determined to make him per
sonify him. " Then Patizithes persuaded his brother that
he would make all straight for him and set him on the
throne. He then sent heralds in all directions saying
that Bardes, the son of Cyrus, was king in the place of
Cambyses. The news was announced by a herald to
Cambyses, who was with his army in Assyria, and who
then thought that Prexaspes, whom he had appointed to
kill his brother Bardes, had deceived him and had not
slain him. After a little consultation Cambyses under
stood the real state of affairs, and resolved to set out
immediately against the Magus. The story goes that
while leaping on his horse to begin his journey, the blade
of the sword wounded his thigh, and the bone became
diseased, and the thigh mortifying he died, having reigned
nearly eight years. The name of the Magus who
assumed the power was called Gomates, and it is said
that he treated the people with great kindness ; he was,
however, slain by Darius. ,
Soon after the Babylonians revolted under the rule of
Nadintu-Bel, who pretended, to be Nebuchadnezzar, the
94 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY,
son of Nabonidus. Darius at once marched against
Babylon and defeated the rebels in two battles. The
rebel chief, Nadintu-Bel, was captured in Babylon by
Darius and put to death. Darius, in his Behistun in
scription, translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson, gives the
following statements about the revolt of Gomates :
He who was named Cambyses, the. son of Cyrus of
our race, he was here king before me. There was of
that Cambyses a brother named Bardes ; he was of the
same father and mother as Cambyses. Afterwards
Cambyses slew this Bardes. When Cambyses slew
.Bardes it was not known to the state that Bardes was
killed. Then Cambyses proceeded to Egypt. When
Cambyses had gone to Egypt the state became wicked ;
then the lie became abounding in the land, both in Persia
and in Media and in the other provinces.
"Afterwards there was a certain man, a Magian,
named Gomates. He arose from Pissiachada, the moun
tain named Arakadres, from thence ; on the I4th day of
the month Viyakhana (the i2th month) then it was that
he arose. To the state he thus falsely declared : " I am
Bardes, the son of Cyrus, the brother of Cambyses." Then
the whole state became rebellious ; from Cambyses it went
over to him both Persia and Media and the other pro
vinces. He seized the empire; on the 9th day of the month
Garmapada (the 5th month) then it was he thus seized
the empire. Afterwards Cambyses, killing himself, died.
The empire of which Gomates the Median dis
possessed Cambyses, that empire had been in our family
from the olden time. After Gomates the Magian had
dispossessed Cambyses of Persia and Media and the
dependent provinces, he acted with his own party (?) he
became king.
e There was not a man, neither Persian, nor Median,
nor any one of our family, who could dispossess of the
empire that Gomate^ the Magian. The state feared
him exceedingly. He slew many people who had known
the old Bardes; for that reason he slew the people "lest
they shall recognize me that I am not Bardes, the son
RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 95
of Cyrus." There was not any one bold enough to say
auo-ht against Gomates the Magian until I arrived.
Then I prayed to Ormazd ; Ormazd brought help to
me. On the loth day of the month Bagayadish (the 1st
month) then it was, with my faithful men I slew that
Gomates the Magian and the chief men who were his
followers. The fort named Sictachotes, in the district
of Media, named Nisaea, there I slew him ; I dispos
sessed him of the empire. By the grace of Ormazd I
became king ; Ormazd granted me the sceptre.
Darius restored all the temples which the rebel
Magian had injured or destroyed, and established the
royalty of the old Achaemenian line. He gives his
genealogy thus: My father was Hystaspes ; of
Hystaspes the father was Arsames; of Arsames the
father was Ariyaramnes ; of Ariyaramnes the father was
Teispes; of Teispes the father was Achaemenes. On
that account we have been called Achaemenians.
There are eight of my race who have been kings before
me, I am the ninth. 5 Sir Henry Rawlinson gives the
royal line in a double series provisionally thus :
i Achaemenes.
I
2 Teispes,
3 Cyrus. 7 Ariyaramnes.
I I
4 Cambyses. 8 Arsames.
5 Cynis the Great. (Hystaspes.)
6 Cambyses. 9 Darius.
Hystaspes appears to have been a private person, and
he certainly played a secondary part in the war of his
son Darius against the rebellious Parthians. Darius
conquered Gomates the Magian, Atrines the Susian,
Nadintu-Bel the Babylonian, Martes the Persian,
Phraortes the Median, Sitratachmes the Sagartian,
Phraates the Magian, Veisdates the Persian, and Aracus
the Armenian, each of whom personated some one else
96 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
and pretended to be a king. This Aracus, or Arahu,
personated Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabonidus, in
the year 515 B.C. He was the son of Handita, and his
rebellion took place at a town called Duban. It was
probably in the reign of this Darius that Daniel was cast
into the lions den.
Darius was most kind to the Jews, endorsing and
confirming the decree of Cyrus which allowed the Jews
to rebuild their temple. He added to the gifts which
Cyrus had ordered to be made, and appointed them
Young bullocks and rams and lambs, for the burnt
offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil,
according to the appointment of the priests which are at
Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail ;
that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the
God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and of
his sons 1 . The prophets Zechariah and Haggai lived
during the reign of this king. We find Babylonian
contract tablets dated in the thirty-fifth year of the reign
of Darius, which fact goes to prove that his reign was
long and successful. Under him Babylon remained an
important town ; but it became absorbed entirely into
the Persian kingdom. Darius died about B.C. 485, and
was succeeded by his son Xerxes, who was favourable
and tolerant to the J.ews. Josephus tells us that this
was the king who gave Nehemiah permission to go and
build the wall of Jerusalem.
No cuneiform documents have yet been discovered
which give the history of Babylon at this period, and
therefore we have to rely solely upon the statements
made by the classical authors on the subject. The con
tract tablets, however, again come to our help, and record
the names of Philip of Macedon and his celebrated son,
Alexander the Great, and this shows that the latter was
considered the legal king at the time the documents were
made. We must wait until Babylon is thoroughly exca
vated for fresh light concerning its history at this time.
Seleucus became king of Babylon after the death
1 Ezra vi. 9, 10.
RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 97
of Alexander the Great, and with him the era of the
Seleucidae begins. At present nothing is known of him
from the cuneiform inscriptions. He died about B.C.
281-380, and his son, Antiochus, reigned in his stead.
This king was, as he styles himself, the eldest son of
Seleucus the Macedonian/ the king of E-ki (Babylon).
He restored the famous temples of SAGILI and ZIDA,
and his pure hands * brought the bricks for this
purpose from the land of Hatim. On the 2oth day
of the month Adar, in the 43rd year of the Seleucian
era (i.e. about 270 years B.C.), he laid the foundation of
the temple in Borsippa dedicated to the god Nebo, the
eldest son of Marduk, the offspring of the god Aneana,
the queen, the opener of the hands of (her) offspring.
The wife of Antiochus was called Stratonice, and his
son was called Antiochus after himself. The small
cylinder which gives the above facts uses the Greek
word k&klos under the form ku-uk-ht.. This is very
important, for it shows that the Greek had so far
influenced the Babylonian at that early age as to
cause him to use Greek words to express what he could
have expressed so easily in his own Semitic tongue.
Antiochus prays Nebo, the eldest son, to grant and
establish by thy command the prosperity of Antiochus,
Seleucus his son, and Stratoirice the queen. He
reigned from about B.C. 281-380 to B.C. 261-360. Like
Cyrus, he had the good policy to restore the temples of
the gods, and to sacrifice to the ancient divinities of
the nations which it was his lot to conquer.
This little cylinder was brought to England^ by
Mr. Rassam from Babylon, and the writing upon it is
the most curious and complex of all the various styles
and kinds of Babylonian varieties. The cylinder is
figured on page 99, and as the writing is so curious, we
have reproduced a few lines of it with a transcript in
ordinary Babylonian and Assyrian, that the reader may
be able to observe how different the style is ; a trans
literation and translation are also added. Though the
account of the reign of Antiochus given upon this
G
9# BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
cylinder is very short, yet it is most valuable, for it shows
that Antiochus wished to conciliate the Babylonians by
rebuilding their temples, and also to restore to the city
a little of its former glory.
CYLINDER OF ANTIOCHUS.
r
D.P. An- ti - --ku- us . sarru rab - u
Antiochus king great
sarru dan - nu sar kissati sar
king great king of multitudes king of
SQ^ X ><
E - ki , sar matati
Babylon king of countries.
3- \\ ^ S^ Sf?!
za- ni - in E - Sag - ili
restorer of E - Sagili
E - zi - da
- Zida
ORDINARY BABYLONIAN.
T Hf- ^ 4- Hi ^H<T zg> IT-
D.P, An - ti - ku - us sarru. rab- u
Antiochus king great
2. 6fc> 8ff? 9*. J$fc> ^ Sj^Spf^c^yV
sarru dan-nu sar kissati sar E - ki sar -matati
king great king of multitudes king of Babylon king of countries.
3.
za- m - m E - Sag - ili u E - Zi - da
restorer of E-Sagili and E-Zida.
TERRA-COTTA ^CYLINDER OF ANTIOCHUS, KING OF BABYLON. B.C. 280-261.
RULE OF THE PERSIANS. IOI
ASSYRIAN*
D.P. An ti - * - ku - us sarru rab - u
Antiochus king great
2.
sarru dan - nu sar kissaii sar E - ki sar matati
king mighty king of multitudes king of Babylon^ king of countries*
3 . H^^MM ^^in&XH^MnOTH^HT
2a-ni- in E - SAG ILI u E - Zi - da
restorer of E-Sagili and. E-Zida,
Thus* little by little, Babylon faded away; and the
city with a venerable and hoary antiquity was at last
broken and utterly crushed by the Persian and the
Greek. For ages had Babylonia been a battle-ground
for contending nations ; she had looked on and seen
nation after nation vanish and disappear. Ages before
Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees, was Babylon
a city ; she was flourishing when Joseph arid his people
were in Egypt ; before Homer sung or Romulus founded
his city she was an established power. Her mythology,
distorted, formed the base for the beautiful superstructure
of the Greek myths and fables ; her learning and know
ledge furnished food for the minds of the nations her
successors, and, together with Egypt, she taught the
nations around their letters. Her children were always
insolent ; in the infancy of their nation they dared to
make a tower whose top should reach unto heaven/
A notice of this event is recorded in the Assyrian
inscriptions, for we read : Small and great mingled on
the mound, Babylon went to sin corruptly. Their work
they laid down all day long, of their tower they made
an end entirely in the night. In his anger he poured
out secret counsel, and set his face to scatter abroad.
He gave a command to make their counsel of none
effect/ After they had become a mighty nation they
dared to brave the threats and denunciations which
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets hurled against
102 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY,
them. Babylon was the home of luxury and refine
ment, and her children only cared to toil for self-grati
fication and delight. Isaiah in his prophecy called her
the -golden city 1 / and with his majestic language
describes her downfall, saying : Thy pomp is brought
down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the
worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee/
And of her king he says : * How art thou fallen from
heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning I how art thou
cut doAvn to the ground, which didst weaken the nations !
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God : I
will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the
sides of the north ;, I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds ; I will be like the Most High/ And the prophet
goes on : The fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of
Lebanon. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet
thee at thy coming V And again Isaiah says : Come
down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon,
sit on the ground : there is no throne, O daughter of the
Chaldeans : for thou shalt no more be called tender and
delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal : uncover
thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass
over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea,
thy shame shall be seen : I will take vengeance, and I
will not meet thee as a "man .... Sit thou silent, and get
thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans : for
thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms 3 .
The renown of Babylon filled the earth; but her
haughtiness and pride brought along with them their
own punishment. Her king, Nebuchadnezzar, trod down
the land of Palestine, and wasted Jerusalem with fire and
sword ; he sacked the temple and brought out from
thence the vessels of the Lord, and marched back to his
capital with joy and glory. He made the captive Jews
assist in building the walls of his town, and probably the
"walls of the temples of his pagan gods. His fate and
1 Isa. xiv. 4. 2 Isa. xiv. 8, and following verses.
3 Isa. xlvii. 1-3, 5,
RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 103
the fate of his city have been accurately described by
Jeremiah in his book, saying : f And Babylon shall be
come heaps, a -dwelling-place for dragons, an astonish
ment and an hissing, without an inhabitant. Her- cities
are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land
wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man
pass thereby. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I
will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath
swallowed up : and the nations shall not flow together
any more unto him : yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at
Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. Thus saith
the Lord of hosts : The broad walls of Babylon shall he
utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with
fire ; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in
the fire, and they shall be weary V
We, the people of to-day, see how very surely all these
threats have been fulfilled. We look for Sodom and
Gomorrah, and their place is not known, and but for
the enterprise of our nation and the inscribed bricks of
Babylon, its exact site would still remain unnoticed and
unknown. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the
beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be as when God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to
generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ;
neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But
wild beasts of the desert shall He there ; and their houses
shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell
there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts
of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and
dragons in their pleasant palaces : and her time is near
to come, and her -days shall not be prolonged V
The prophet with his God-directed voice pronounced
the fate of the city : and it has come to pass ; God cursed
the land, and can it recover ?
1 Jer. 11.37,43,44,49,58.
2 Isa. xiii. 19-22.
104
CHAPTER VIII.
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE.
Babylonian wedge-writing. Manner in which the characters were written.
Comparison of signs. Cuneiform signs were once pictures. Compound,
signs. Polyphony of the characters. The syllabaries in two and three
columns. Bilingual lists of words. Bilingual reading-books. Method
of making tablets. TJieir shape, size, colour, and texture. Writing
instrument. Babylonian mathematics. Their method of counting.
Extract from a table of cube roots. Babylonian astronomy. Translations
of their reports. List of months. Names of gods to whom they were
dedicated. Invention of the calendar. Babylonian observatories. Comets.
Eclipses. Magicaltablets. Incantations. Belief in evil spirits current
in the time of Isaiah. Contract tablets. Seals of witnesses, nail marks,
Ph&nician and Greek signatures, etc. Translations of two slave contracts.
The banking firm of Egibi and Son. Great importance of these dated
documents. The latest dated contract tablet. Dr. Oppert s translation of
it. Text of a contract tablet. Translation. Translation of contrac^
tablet of the \^th year of Nabonidus. Translation of a Babylonian
boundary stone or landmark. Omen tablets. Portents. Standard,
inscription. Cylinders, their shape, number of sides, etc. Discovery of
cylinder of Assurbanipal, containing 1,300 lines. Gistubar legends.
^o
/
"
groups of wedges in Babylonian writing which
form syllables were originally pictures of objects. At
first, when but few inscriptions were inscribed, they were
carefully done, and bore some rudje resemblance to the
objects copied. It is uncertain what material was used
or writing upon besides stone, metal, clay, etc., but that
"the cuneiform writers had a substance which they used
for the purpose besides these is certain, and this is,
perhaps, represented on a sculpture in the ^British
Museum (Assyrian Gallery, No. 84). An official is por
trayed noting down the amount of spoil upon a scroll
made of sdtrie material. Trie word $ften translated
papyrus is called in Babylonian likMsi, and has the
determinative for wood before it, which shows that it
was some vegetable substance. Now when da^; became
th& material generally used for writing purpbsis, it was
found difficult to form circles ; and therefore tlif ^original
picture of the sun, i.e. Q, in wedged became \^>. This
even was found difficult to write, and consequently we
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 105
find the Assyrian form of this to be *|. As the scribe
wrote from left to right (the wedges being in a slanting
direction), custom gradually discarded all the wedges
that could not be written easily in this direction, with a
few exceptions. The following small table of characters
will show how the forms of the characters varied, and
how they became simplified. In column i a few of the
characters are given, selected from inscriptions of the
early Babylonian empire. Column 2 gives a short list
of characters found on the inscribed clay cylinder of ,
Antiochus, B.C. 380. Column 3 shows the ordinary form
of Babylonian writing as found upon contract and other
tablets ; and column 4 the ordinary Assyrian as found
upon the tablets of Assurbanipal s library.
1. 2.
3.
4.
B.C. 20OO.
B.C. 280.
ORDINARY
BABYLONIAN,
NINEVITE
OR
ASSYRIAN.
Hf-
sr
In some cases the character still shows what the
v r they originally represented was. Thus ^ ******
I06 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
sented a star, and the home of a star, i.e. the heavens ;
it is also placed before a god s name. The sign for
gate was ^5==^ the wedges at the ends representing
posts, and those joining them cross-bars. Sometimes
two signs are placed together to express a word, and
their two meanings added together give a new one.
Thus d^= represented a circular object, and ^ meant
thirty ; but 5$^ meant month/ -called after the
round moon and its thirty days, tjyfy means house/
and fcV., great ; but pfff f f- means palace/ or
great house. -^tJ means mouth/ and U water;
but v means to drink/ >->f- can be called dingir,
sa, essa, ana, etc. ; only when it is read ana it means sky
OE heaven ; when sa, c star; when dingir^ c god ; -when
essa, divinity of corn (?). (It is very difficult at times
to discover the right reading of the signs having this
quality of polyphony, and hence we find the same king
called Assur-izir-pal, Assur-akh-bal and Assur-nasir-pal
by different scholars. This diversity of reading has un
fortunately been made a strong ]point of by the adversaries
of cuneiform decipherment ; but thanks to the discovery
of new texts these difficulties vanish day by day.
The Babylonians and Assyrians drew up what are
technically called syllabaries/ that is, lists of words,
signs, objects, and sentences. At times we find them
in two columns, and in two languages, thus :
(i.)
(*)
tTT
<fr
and often in three columns, thus ;
In i the signs in the right-hand coluipn explain the
single jigR in the left as meaning c destiny/ while the
smaller signs are a.^oss showing that it is to be read
Zipl when used with tm s meaning. No. 2 gives a short
sentence of two words in Akkadian, and explains them
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 107
in Assyrian as meaning c the going forth of the sun.
No. 3 has the character to be explained in the middle
column, the signs on the right hand read katamu, and
show that the sign meant cover, while those on the left
tell one that its sound is dnl.* -Syllabaries in three
columns have been found written in Akkadian, Sumirian,
and Assyrian. The bilingual lists were exceedingly
useful to foreigners who came to Assyria, and they were
used by the native children and others; and to us
to-day they are among the most important necessaries
for the right decipherment of the inscriptions.
The quantity of tablets that were drawn up in two
languages must have been enormous. Indeed,, at one
period nearly all documents were thus written. But,
though these syllabaries were necessary and explanatory
for the students of Assyrian or Babylonian and Ak
kadian, yet there was another indispensable, and that
f *was a reading book. Some of these have come down
to us among other things, and the following is an extract
from one of them :
a price.
his price.
for his price.
for his price he fixed.
a complete price.
an incomplete price.
his complete* price.
his incomplete price.
for his complete price.
for the ending of his incomplete price. (Tablet K 46-)
Among the last collections of unbaked clay tablets
that came from Babylon were trial tablets, i.e. -tablets
upon which the scribe exercised himself in writing short
sentences, and on others lists of signs ; and the^sight of the
ill-formed and badly-written attempts remind one of the
first attempts of children of to-day in their copy books.
Jt requires no great stretch of imagination to picture the
little Babylonian boy with his oblique eyes and thick
I08 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
form bending over his piece of moist clay, laboriously
%and clumsily impressing his wedges thereon. Human
nature is so persistently the same.
And now we must speak of the manner in which the
tablet was formed. Fine clay was selected, kneaded
and moulded into the shape of the required tablet. One
side was flat, and the other rounded. The writing -wa
then inscribed on both sides, holes were pricked in the
clay, and then it was baked. The holes allowed the
steam which was generated during the process of taking
to escape. It is thought that the clay used in some of
the tablets was not only well kneaded, but ground in
some kind of mill, for the texture of the clay is as fine
,as some of our best modern pottery. The wedges
appear to have been impressed by a square headed
instrument. So much for the writing materials and
Vejementary matters; we now come to the literature itself..
" Babylonians were essentially calculators, as their"
astrology required. A wedge, \, represented I, two
wedges, 2, and so on. < = 10, <[< = 20; ]*- = too; and
^ x - or ^f>- = r ,000. In Babylonian the year 1884
would be |<y>- ]f$ y>~ y V- The wedge f represented
60 as well as one. Tables of squares and cubes were
found at Senkerek ; the Square of 60, 3,600, was given,
vtfhich shows they had need of these high numbers for
some kind of reckoning. An example will make this
clean
T !B? T H l$= !y > I is the cube of i
W TT <*o. ,,8 2
^ TTT do, 27 3
TV V do.- 64 4
W da 125 5
* W do. 216 6
^ do. 343 7
W do. 512 8
.-^ do. 729 w ,- 9
fi < do. i coo ,, ; 10
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE, 109
Astronomy mixed with astrology occupied a large
number of tablets in the Babylonian libraries, and Isaiah
refers to this when he says 1 to Babylon, Thou art
wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the
astrologers (the viewers of the heavens, Marg\ the star-
gazers, the monthly prognosticates, stand up/ The
largest astrological work of the Babylonians contained
seventy; tablets, and was compiled by the command of
S argon of Agade, thirty-eight hundred years before
" Christ. It was called the < illumination of Bel. Their
observations were made in towers, c ziggtirate? The
following are specimens of their purely astronomical
portents and reports :
(i.) The star Marbuda passed into an eclipse.
The star of the Upper Sphere aforesaid causes
fog and rain.
The star Lula portends extended mists.
The star of the Wolf portends tempest.
The star of Mars to the Double-Star is oppo
site ; the prince dies.
The star Nin-si portends a complete life.
The stars at sunrise are for windy rain and flood,
(3.) The report of Nabu-kul-la-ni.
The M6on and the Sun were seen with one
another on the i6th day: king to king
hostility sehds 3 etc.
(3.) The sixth day of Nis*an
the day and the night
were balanced (i. e. equal).
(There were) six kasbu of day
(and) six kasbu of night.
May Nebo and Merodach
to the king my lord
draw near.
This latter report refers to the vernal equinox. They
divided the day equally into two parts, and assigned
six kasbu to each ; one kasbu equalled two hours of
1 Isa. xlvii. 1 3,
110 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
time. The Babylonian year was divided into 1 2 months
of 30 days each, with an intercalary month every six
years. Every seventh day was a rest day, and on these
days it was forbidden to do certain things. Each day
was lucky or unlucky, and was under the protection of
some god. A tablet calendar in the British Museum
(76 ii 17. 2389) gives all the lucky and unlucky
days in the year. The following are examples of
astronomical reports and portents :
1. The Moon and the Sun are balanced. The country
is established. Food
2. continuously in the mo uth of the people continues.
3. The king of the land the throne perpetuates.
4. The Moon and the Sun are separated. The king of
the land enlarges (his) ears.
5. (The report) of Sumai.
No. II.
1. The Moon and the Sun are balanced. The country
is established.
2. Daily food is in the mouth of the people.
3. The king of the land the throne perpetuates.
4. The Moon and the Sun are separated. The king of
the country the ear
5- enlarges.
6. The fourteenth day of the Moon and the Sun with
one another are seen.
7. The face (is) firm, the heart of the land good,
8. the gods of Akkad
9. or prosperity
10. devise.
n. Joy is in the soldier s heart.
12. The heart of the king (is) good.
13. The cattle of Akkad
14. in the desert safely lie down.
15. (The report) of Istar-sum-esses.
No. III.
1. The Moon and the Sun are balanced.
2. Daily food is in the mouth of the people.
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. Ill
3. The king-of multitudes the throne perpetuates.
4. The fourteenth day (the Moon) is seen.
5. A favourable wind. Prosperity
6. to the king my lord. In the midst of a cloud
7. (the moon) goes. We did not see (it).
8. The Moon at its appearance in clouds was hidden.
9. Rain comes down.
i o. There is fog (?) and movement.
1 1 . The Moon at its appearance piles the sky (with clouds).
13. Rain falls.
13. In a thick cloud it is seen ; and
14. (this is the report) of Nebo-akhi-erba.
No. IV.
1. The Moon out of its reckoned-time is seen.
2. The tariff is small.
3. The twelfth day with the Sun it is seen, and
4. contrary to their calculated time the Moon and the Sun
5. with one another are seen.
6. A strong enemy ravages the land.
7. The king of Akkad under the enemy is placed.
8. The twelfth day with the Sun (the Moon) is seen ; and
9. the twelfth day it is seen ; and evil to Akkad,
10. prosperity to Elam and Phoenicia.
11. Evil to Akkad it (is).
13. (The report) of Balas"i.
The months were called after the signs of the Zodiac,
and each was dedicated to some god. The following is
a list :
was dedicated to Anu and Bel.
Ea.
Sin.
1. Nisannu
2. Aim
3. Sivanu
4. Duzu
5. Abu
6. Ulnlu
7. Tasritu
8. Arah-samna
,9, Kislimu
10. Tabitu
n. Sabatn
12. Addaru
[March]
[April]
[May]
[June]
[July]
[August]
[September]
[October]
[November]
[December]
[January]
[February]
Arafcu-mahru (the intercalary month).
Adar.
c The Queen of the Bow.
Istar.
Samas.
Merodach.
Nergal.
Papsukal.
Rimmon.
The seven great gods.
JI2 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
The Akkadians invented the calendar, and for their
time were great astronomers. They built observatories
in all the great cities, and reports like the above were
regularly sent to the king. They were the inventors of
the Zodiac. They found out that the sun was c spotted,
and they knew of comets. During the reign of Nebu
chadnezzar I. it is related that ( a comet arose whose
body shone like the day, and from its brilliant body a
tail like the sting of a scorpion extended/ They were
able to calculate eclipses, and had long lists of them,
for they were supposed to portend future events. There
are fragments of two planispheres in the British Museum
with figures and calculations inscribed upon them. The
ecliptic was called the yoke of the sky, and the
Milky Way the long road; such was the wisdom of
the Babylonians.
Geology was represented among the Babylonians by
lists of stones, earth, etc., and Geography by lists of
countries and lands. From a tablet brought to the
Museum in 1881 it appears that their cardinal points
were rather different from ours, our N.W. being their N.,
S.W. their W., S.E. their S., and N.E. their E. Natural
history was represented by lists of animals, insects, and
birds, drawn up in two languages. The history given in
the former pages of this book is derived from their own
records. If we except the physical sciences, it can easily
be proved that the greater part of our learning was
known to them.
Another very important branch of Babylonian litera
ture was formed by the magic tablets. There were
whole series of these in their libraries, arranged upon
shelves, and each tablet bore as a colophon its number
in the series and the -first words of the first line. The
Babylonian must have passed his life in perpetual terror
of evil spirits and demons, and so we find addresses to
every kind and sort of spirit to avert evil from the reciter.
There is a large incantation tablet in the Kouyunjik
Gallery of the British Museum which gives a number
of formulas ending with O spirit of heaven, mayest thou
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 113
exorcise ; O spirit of earth, mayest thou exorcise. The
sentences implore protection against the evil spirits
which cause sickness in the different parts of the body.
The first three paragraphs entreat the compassion of the
spirits of heaven and earth generally, the fourth prays
the spirits to avert the ulcer spirit, the fifth is against the
1 sickness of the head and disease of the heart/ the sixth
is against the evil eye and evil breast, the seventh
entreats the spirits of heaven and earth to exorcise the
demons which were supposed to attack children ; and so
on to the end of the tablet. Two other paragraphs are
worthy of note, the sixteenth and twenty-seventh ; the
former directs the placing of the god of a sick man
before the rising sun, or the figure of a propitious bull,
to free him by its influence from his sickness ; the latter
prays to Ninkigal, or Proserpine, to expel the evil spirit
from the sick man, and to put a beneficent one in its
place. The tablet concludes finally with the sick man
by an offering of grace and peace, like refined copper,
becoming pure. May the Sun-god give that man life.
Marduk, eldest son of the abyss, peace, and happiness
be to thee. O spirit of heaven, mayest thou exorcise ;
O spirit of earth, mayest thou exorcise/
The belief that evil spirits took possession of human
bodies was current in our Lord s time, for we read 1 , And
in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of
an unclean devil ; and other allusions to this demoniacal
possession are scattered throughout the Bible. In
Isaiah s time, too, the belief was prevalent, and these
baneful spirits were supposed to dwell particularly in
desert places. Isaiah says 2 , The screech owl also shall
rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 5 The
word -translated screech owl is liliih> and the same
word is found in Babylonian; it means the night spirit/
which was especially malignant and harmful. The
Rabbis have many stories about her.
Another very important branch of Babylonian litera
ture is formed- by the contract .tablets. The Semite
1 Luke iv. 33. 2 Isa. xxxiv. 14,
H
114 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
was always a trader, and was always able to lend money
or produce to his more needy brother or foreigner. The
historical documents, indeed, reveal the immense wars
undertaken by the various kings, and the other tablets
record their learning, either actual or theoretical ; but
these tablets open to our view the very innermost work
ings of their commercial business. One serious draw
back exists, and that is that very many of the words are
quite unknown to us. Contract tablets are of all shapes,
oval, oblong, square ; their colour varies, sometimes
black, then brown, dark and light, and all intermediate
shades. Sometimes they are baked, often they are not.
We have many thousands in our national collection, as
many as 5,000 were unpacked at one time. They record
loans of money and produce, the sale of houses, fields,
and wheat, marriage deeds and dowries, sales of slaves,
notices of loans paid, promissory notes, and all sorts
and kinds of traffic carried on by one Babylonian with
another. At times we find that the contract tablet has
been placed in a clay envelope, and upon the outside a
copy of the contract within has been inscribed. There
is in the British Museum a fine collection of these, which
belong to a period as far back as 2400 B.C. On the
one side (obverse) the contract and contracting parties 5
names are stated, on the other (reverse) comes the list of
witnesses, and at the bottom follows the date, the name
of the king and his country. Often these tablets bear
impressions of the seals of the witnesses ; the poor
impressed the mark of his nail. Often we find signatures
in Phoenician, sometimes the reverse is in Greek, and
jupon one tablet we find some curious writing which at
present no one has been able to make out. As the tablet
is interesting we give a translation of it :
i; E-sagila-lissi son of Nabu-kusur-su, Bel-balat-su
2. son of Nidintum, and Ina-E-sagila-lilbir son of Bel-
< ederu
3. in the joy of their heart, Nana-Babili-sininni, their
servant
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 115
4. whose ^ right hand with the name of Ina-E-sagila-
lilbir the slave dealer
5. son of Bel-ederu, is inscribed, for one maneh eight
shekels of silver
6. refined, for the price complete to Urmanu
7. son of Lisir they have given*; the money one maneh
eight shekels of silver
8. refined, the price of Nana-Babili-sininni, the servant
of the men
9. E-sagila-lissi, Bel~balat-s*u and Ina-E-sagila-lilbir
10. by the hands of Urmanu have received.
11. In the day when a claim upon Nana-Babili-sininni
12. the servant of the men, is made, E-sagila^lissi
13. Bel-balat-s"u, and Ina-E-sagila-lilbir,
14. the slave dealer, the amount (?) have collected (?) and
15. to Urmanu shall give.
REVERSE.
16. Witnesses : Bel-upahhir son of Bel-balat-su ;
17. Bel-Iddin, son of Ikubu ; Nabu-iddannu,
1 8. son of Nabu-balat-su ; Sua, the son of Nadin ;
19. Nabu-balat-su, son of Umas ; Bel-eres, son of Samsaa.
[Here follows the line of unknown characters.]
si. Ea-epus, the scribe, son of Nabu-ludda ; Babylon,
22. month Adar, day eleventh, year 23rd Artaxerxes
king of countries.
That is to say, Urmanu bought the female slave Nana-
Babili-sininni for one maneh and eight shekels of refined
silver from the three men, E-sagila-lissi, Bel-balat-su,
and Ina-E-sagila-lilbir* and a clause is inserted whereby
it is provided that if any one claims the slave Urmanu
shall receive compensation.
The above and the following translations are specimens
of slave contracts, which were made by my colleague,
Mr. Theo. G. Pinches.
i. Sum-iddina, son of Sula", son of the priest of Gula,
%. an the joy of his heart, Itti-Bel-guzu
3. his servant, whose left wrist to the name of Meskitu
H2
Il6 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
4. his wife, is inscribed, for one (and) two-thirds of a
mana
5. of silver by the one shekel piece coined, for the com
plete price to
6. Iddina-Nabu, son of Nabti-pi-sin, son of the black
smith
7. he has given. The day when a claim upon this slave
8. be made, Sum-iddina the slave shall forfeit, and
9. to Iddina-Nabti shall give. The silver, one and two-
thirds
10. of a mana which is by the one shekel piece, coined,
the price of
11. Itti-Bl~guzu his servant, Sum-iddina by the hands >
of Iddina-Nabu has received.
12. Witnesses : Bel-iddin, son of Nabft-rimanni, son of
13. Sin-naslr ; Nabti-usur-napistu, son of Nabti-sum-sir
14. son of Nabunnaa ; Nabft-sab-sunu, son of Bl-aki-
irba, son of TunS. ;
15. Kiribtu, son of Lisiru, son of Blu-Usumgallu ;
1 6. Kuddcla, son of Marduk-irba, son of Sin-kudurri-usur ;
17. Irba-Marduk, son of Gula-zir-tpuS, son of the priest
of Gula ;
1 8. Nabft-uhi-u son of Nabft-kissir, son of Ilu-damur ;
19. Alj-iddin, son of Bli-Sunu, son of Egibi ;
m Bl-temenna (?) son of Sum-ukur, son of
ai. Nergal-balit, son of Arad-Gula, son of Irani ;
22. Nabu-bullitsu, son of Basia, son of Siatu ; Bel-iddin,
23. son of Nabu-usitik-urri, son of the Chaldean. In the
dwelling
24. of Meskitu, daughter of Bel-lumur, son of Rammanu-
sea, wife of Sum-iddina s
25. the seller of the slave. Bel-idannu, the scribe, son of
Buzazu, Babylon, month Adar, day i6th, year 2oth,
26. Darius, king of Babylon, king of countries.
In Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar there
lived a man called Egibi, and he was the founder of a
firm of bankers who made it their especial business
to carry on the commerce of the city. We have au
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 117
enormous number of the documents of this firm,
beginning in the reign of Esarhaddon, and going on
through the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, Na.bonidus 3 and
other kings down to the time of Darius. The tablets
are dated month after month and year after year, and thus
they afford us a sure method of fixing the chronology
of that very uncertain period of history. There is a
small contract tablet in the Museum at Zurich, dis
covered by Dr. Oppert, dated in the 5th year of Pacorus,
king of Persia, who reigned about the time of Domitian.
There is a little dpubt about the reading of one of the
characters in the name, but if it is correct, it will prove
that the use of cuneiform did not fall into decay until
after the Christian Era. I give here Dn Oppert s trans
lation of the curious little document ;
Owed 40 tetradrachma.
Larassib, son of Bel-akhe-irib will pay into the hands of
Zir-Idih,
son of Hablai, in the month lyar, 40 tetradrachma, in the
temple of the Sun, in Babylon.
Witnesses : Urrame, son of Puya ; Allit, son of Airad ;
Kistar, son of Sinam ;
Zir-Idin, son of Hablai, writer.
Babylon, in the month of Kislev, the 3rd day, in the 5th
of Pikharis, King of Persia.
In the British Museum, however, there are tablets dated
in the 2t8th year of the era of Arsaces, that is, B. c. 29.
Some have tried to show that Egibi is the Babylonian
form of Jacob, which would lead one to suspect the
family to have been Jews ; but this is not certain at
present. The following is a copy of one of the contract
tablets in Babylonian characters dated in the 6th
century B. C. : ..
OBVERSE.
Literally translated, it reads :
i. Bel-hai-iddin an4Nabu-ahi-bul-lit the sons of E-sagili-
suma-epus , >
Il8 BABYLONIAN" LIFE AND HISTORY.
3. the son of Sin-damak and the woman Rimat their
mother, daughter
3. of Suzub son of the * priest of the altar/ in the joy
of their heart,
4. Nabu-e-du-ahi, the woman Bani-tum-umma his wife,
5. the woman Klsrinni and the woman Gisinni his
sister(s)
6. in all four people, for two manehs of silver for the price
7. complete to Nabu-ahi-iddin the son of Sula
8. the son of Egibi has given, bu^it H-hi-i pa-kir-ra-nu
9. and mar ban-u-tu of the people Bel-ahi-iddin
10. and Nabu-ahi-bul-lit the sons of E-sagili-suma-epus
11. the son of Sin-damak and the woman Rimat their
mother have brought
1 2. one but double they bring.
REVERSE.
i. Witnesses: Nabu-epus-ahi the son of Suzub son of
the altar priest
3. * . . -ridu the son of Marduk-nasir the son of the
priest of the god,
3. Marduk-basu-anni the son of Bani-ya the son of
Ellat-nahid
4. the son of Dup-zir the son of Nergal-ukin the son of
e Sin heard my prayers/
5. Bel-iddin the son of Bel-sibsi the priest of the god
Zariku
6. Rimmon-ibni the son of Zariku-zir-epus the son of
the priest of the god Zariku
7. the scribe Ri-mut the son of Nabu-suma-iscun the
son of Gahul.
8. Babylon, month Elul, day i6th the year of accession
9. Neriglissar king of Babylon.
The passages in italics are difficult to understand, and
the above will serve to show the curious idiom of this
class of documents. It should be stated that these tablets
were kept in jars. The amount of interest charged for
the loan of money, silver } iron, etc., was either three, four,
or five per cent.
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 1 19
1*
If
W
C/3
U
1
ft
^
-in:i
> .
mEt &2
130 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
CONTRACT TABLET, I;TH YEAR OF
ii manas, 18 drachmas of silver, a deposit, sealed and
assured, the price of the house of Bel-rimanni, the son of
Musezib-Bel, son of Da-Marduk, which Bel-ahe-iddin
the son of Marduk-zir-ibru, son of Egibi, buys ; and this,
sum of money, n manas 18 drachmas of silver, is
entrusted to Nabu-ahe-iddin, son of Egibi. The owner
of the house will remain in possession as long as Bel-
ahe-iddin, the purchaser of the house, whose son is dead,
does not actually take possession of the house, for this
deposit (the option shall last) for four years.
After the death of Bel-ahe-iddin and Nabu-ahe-iddin,
to whom the deposit is entrusted, Bel-rimanni (shall
receive) his deposit. Itti-Marduk-balat, the son of Nabu-
ahe-iddin (shall repay) it, but if he, the actual holder,
does not give back nor render the deposit, they shall
bring him before the tribunal of the chief magistrate and
judges, to Zirya, the intendant (?) of the temple Saggal,
and he will say thus: the inheritance of the property,
including the deposit, belongs to his (i. e. the testator s)
son ; Zirya will decide, that he does not know this, kind
of inheritance of the testator s property, nor about the
right of taking possession of it, as if the deposit would
belong to the son. Itti-Marduk-balat will render it with
his seal in presence of Kiribtu, the magistrate, Edir-Bel,
the magistrate, Nergal-afr-usur and Zikir-ukin, the judges,
and will give it to Bel-rimanni.
Da-Marduk, the scribe, son of Banu-^in-ilu.
The "royal city of Babylon, in the month Elul, the 5th
day, the i7th year of Nabonidus, king of Babylon.
The seal of Nergal-ah-usur, the judge (the impres
sion is rather effaced) ; the seal of Zikir-ukin, the judge
(represents a priest standing before a large bird, over
which is a star).
The seal of Kiribtu (a priest standing before an altar,
over which on the top of a pole axock is seated).
The seal of Edir-Bel, the magistrate ; a priest standing
1 J. N. Strassmaier, Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.> vol. vii. pt. 3, p. 407.
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 121
before an animal seated on an altar, behind which two
poles are standing.
Sometimes Babylonian legal documents were inscribed
on large stones, which then formed landmarks. Such a
stone is generally inscribed on one side with the agree
ment, names of witnesses, and a whole string of curses on
the person who shall dare to move it, and on the other
are figured in relief various gods and signs.
The Michaux stone is a fair specimen of this kind of
document, and I therefore give Dr. Oppert s translation
of it :
COLUMN I.
Twenty hin of corn is the quantity for seeding an
arura. The field is situated near the town of Kar-Nabu,
on the bank of the river Mekaldan, depending on the
property of KlLNAMANDU.
The field is measured as follows : Three stades in
length towards the East, in the direction of the town of
Bagdad ; three stades in length towards the West,
adjoining the house of TUNAMISSAH ; one stade fifty
fathoms in breadth towards the North, adjoining the
property of KlLNAMANDU ; one stade fifty fathoms up
in the South, adjoining the property of KlLNAMANDU.
SlRUSUR, son of KlLNAMANDU, gave it for all future
days to DUR-SARGINAITI, his daughter, the bride of
TAB-ASAP-MARDUK, son of INA-E-SAGGATU-IRBU (the
pretended), who w wrote this ; and TAB-ASAP-MARDUK,
son of INA-E-SAGGATU-IRBU, wfe> wrote this in, order to
perpetuate without interruption the memory of this gift,
and commemorated on this stone the will, of the great
gods and the god SERAH/
COLUMN II.
Whosoever in the process of time, among the brothers,
the sons, the family, the men and women, the servants-
both male and female, of the house of KlLNAMANDU,.
either a foreigner, or a "guest, or whosoever he may be
(or any One else), who will_detrqy this field, who will
123 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
venture to take away the boundary-stone, of will vindi
cate it : whether he consecrate this field to a god, or earn
it for his superior, or claim it for himself, or change the
extent, the surface, or the limits, that he reaps new
harvests (crops) ; or who will say of the field with its
measures, * There is no granter ; whether he call forth
malediction and hostility on the tablets ; or establish on
it any one other who change these curses, in swearing :
1 The head is not the head ; and in asserting : e There
is no evil eye ; whosoever will carry elsewhere those
tablets ; or will throw them into the waters ; will bury
them in the earth ; will hide them under stones ; will
burn them with fire, will alter what is written on them,
will confine them into a place where they might not be
seen ; that man shall be cursed :
May the gods ANU, EL, HEA, the great goddess, the
great gods, inflict upon him the utmost contumely, extir
pate his name, annihilate his family.
May MARDUK, the great Lord of eternity without
end, bind him in fetters which cannot be broken.
May SAMAS, the great Judge of heaven and earth,
judge his unpunished misdeeds, and surprise him in
flagrant deeds.
May SlN, the brilliant (Nartnar] who dwells in the
sacred heavens, clothe him in leprosy as in a garment,
and give him up to the wild feasts that wander in the
outsides of the town.
May ISTAR, the Queen of heaven and earth, carry him
off, and deliver him for vengeance to the god and the king.
May NlNlP, son of the zenith, son of EL the sublime,
take away his larids, funds, and limits.
May GULA, the great Queen, the wife of NlNIP, infiltre
into his bowels a poison which cannot be pushed out, and
may he void blood and pus like water.
May BIN, the great Guardian of heaven and earth, the
son of the warrior ANU, inundate his field.
May SERAH destroy his firstbolfi ; may he torture his
flesh and load his feet with chains.
May NABU, the supreme Watcher, strike him with
BABYLONIAN WRITING AND LITERATURE. 123
misfortune and ruin, and blast his happiness that he not
obtain it, in the wrath of his face.
May all the great gods whose names are recorded on
this tablet, curse him with irrevocable malediction, and
scatter his race even to the last days.
The class of tablets inscribed with omens is verjN
interesting, and reveals many of the strange ideas and
beliefs of the Babylonians so long since passed away.
Omens were drawn from births, dreams, animals, birds,
and geometrical figures. The following are specimens :
(i.) If a dog to the palace goes, and on a bed lies down,
that palace none with his hand takes.
If a dog into a temple enters, the gods to the country
grant no favour.
If a black dog into a temple enters, the foundation of
that temple is not stable. * x
(2.) When a woman bears a child and its jaws are want
ing, the days of the prince are long ; that house
is destroyed.
When a woman bears a child and its lower jaw is
wanting, the produce of the country for a year is
not brought down.
There have come down to us from the old Babylonians
many isolated tablets, the description of which would
occupy too much space, and which when described
would only interest the specialist. The tablets which
interest us most are of course the historical, and as their
contents (as far as they relate to Babylonia) are given in
the chapter on Babylonia, a description of their form
will suffice here. The Assyrian kings wrote the annals
of their wars and victories in lines across the huge
sculptures which adorned their palaces. Assyrian and
Babylonian kings were fond, too, of having brief notices
stamped upon the bricks of their palaces ; but the usual
form the royal historical documents took was that of a
prism, or cylinder/ asf|t is technically called. The large
ones have usually six sides, but the finest one of Assur-
banipal has ten. Some of these documents take the
124 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
form of. a barrel, on which are two Or more columns.
When a king built a palace it was customary for him to
bury one of these in each of the four corners ; and it is
owing to this that we have so many perfect ones remain
ing. Occasionally they are solid. That of Assurbanipal
mentioned above has a curious history. Once, when
men of the great excavator, Mr. Rassam, were digging,
they came to a stop, for they had dug Some time and
had found nothing. They asked, c Shall we go on ? Mr.
Rassam said, e Yes, clear that little pile away. 5 They
began to do this, and found the pile to consist of bricks.
On opening it they found the noble cylinder containing
1,300 lines standing upright; it is the finest in the
British Museum. These cylinders are of wonderful
value. It was a fragment of a cylinder of Sargon which
ptoved beyond all doubt that Sargon went and besieged
Ashdod, as Isaiah, had said in his twentieth chapter.
Historical records are also written upon tablets, like the
rest of the literature.
, A small but remarkably interesting class of literature
is composed of the so-called Izdubar Legends. The
world has already taken great interest in the e Deluge
tablet which gives the account of the Flood, and which
is one of the series. There were twelve tablets in this
series, fragments of five or six of which are in the British
Museum. Though they are written in Assyrian, yet the
run of thought and many of the expressions -give proofs
that, they are only translations from the very late Akka
dian. The stoiy of the Flood is told sometimes in the
third, and sometimes in th$ first person, and the same
idea is given occasionally in different language. There
existed Babylonian copies of this story, for there are
ragments of them to be seen in the British Museum,
giving important variant readings. Every one knows,
low Jong, tradition lives in the Orient, and how it is
^ndgBown from generation to generation. Who shall
>ayjfei; how long these stof ie^re current before they
\rr^ written down ?
CHAPTER IX.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION.
Babylonian belief in spirits. Their pure belief degenerated. The Greeks
borrowed from their myths. Difficulty of reducing their religion into a
system. Babylonian Trinity, Anu, Ea, and Bel. Marduk, the son of
Ea. Marduk, the saviour of mankind. Ea taught men learning and
knowledge. Ea received throtigh Marduk the prayers of man. fstar, the
lady of war? Her two forms. Her search after Tammuz in Hades.
Her address to Esarhaddon. Hymn to Istar. Extract therefrom. Ea
the supreme god, the originator and maker of all things. The ship ofEa.
His weapons and power. Sun-god worship. Tabl&t representing
worship thereof. Hymns to the sun. Sin, the moon-god, Ninip, Nergal,
Nebo, andRimmon, The seven evil spirits. Babylonian hell and heaven.
Enjoyments of the Babylonian after death. Description of hell, the
c land of no return. Tiamat. Her rebellion against the gods.
Marduk, the son of Ea^ sent to do battle with her. His armour. The
fight, Paraphrase of the Babylonian account. Tiamat, the prototype of
the old serpent j the devil. -Temptation of Adam. Babylonian seal
giving representation of it. Babylonian account of the Creation. The
penitent sinner.
WITH our present knowledge it is most difficult to give
anything like a perfect account of the religious views of the
Babylonians. All that can be done is to gather together
the statements made in the texts about the gods, and
draw our own conclusions ; whether they are right or
wrong, texts discovered in the future will decide. The
greater portion of the texts relating to the mythology
and religion of the Babylonians is in the Assyrian Nine-
vite character, and these of course are copies of older
tablets. As is well known, the great literary king, Assur-
banipal, caused tablets of all kinds to be copied founts
library at Nineveh : it is thought as mucn for Apolitical
reasons as for the sake of learning. " Babylon w&s a city
iii his time hoary with age, and thither we imagine
people flocked to teijn ,the wisdom that, was their,
.glorious heritage fr< Hby gone generations. In Assur-
time his brother, Samullu-suma-ukina, was l^ing
n, tributary of course to him; but he rebpe4
136 BABYLdjJIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
and after some difficulty Assurbanipal subdued him and
took the city again. It is extremely probable, then,
that he caused all these tablets to be copied and taken
to his city Nineveh, that henceforth there should be no
need of the learned to resort to the aged city of Babylon,
and there, together with the priests, to foment other
rebellions.
J"At whatever period the Babylonians formulated their
religion, they started with pure and good ideas ; at first
they began by worshipping^the spirit of objects in Nature,
but in latter days the esoteric view of a god was lost,
and the utmost confusion prevailed. Their worship
gradually degenerated into the lowest and worst possible
forms of Nature-worship. * It is certain that the greatest
Greek, philosophers borrowed largely from the old Baby
lonian mythology and philosophy. ^ The first trouble
that besets any attempt to reduce the religion to order
is the enormous number of gods enumerated on the
lists.- Mr. Renouf, speaking of the Egyptian Pantheon, -
said that he once tried to count the number of gods in
it, but they were so numerous that he gave it up. The
same may be said of the Babylonian Pantheon. \ At
one time one god was a greater favourite with the
nation than another, and the cult of the god or gods
which the old Babylonians preferred in the early days
of their empire frequently fell into disuse and neglect in
after times. The most important ennead among the
Babylonians was as follows :
Male Element. Female Element. Offspring,
Anu Anat Rimmon.
Ea Damkina Samas.
Bel Beltis Sin.
The oldest Babyknian Semitic inscription that we
have, namely, that of Sargon I., B.C. 3800, mentions the^
Sun-god of Sippara. The very ytrly bricks and cones
speak often of the god Bel, whoWppears to have been
worshipped to the last days of the empire. He was one
of the great Trinity of Anu, Ea, and Bel ~ r tbei* * wives,
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 127
:>r feminine elements, were called Anat, Beltis, and
Damkina ; and Jeremiah 1 says, { Bel is confounded, Merq-
dach is broken in pieces, which goes to prove that his
worship was widespread and very important among the
Babylonians, and his downfall the signal of the destruc
tion of the city. He is mentioned by Isaiah 2 , and again
in Jeremiah z . He was the Jupiter of the Romans, and
the Zeus of the Greeks. There appears to be a confusion
between Bel and Merodach (the names occur together
on a tablet which applies numbers to the gods), and
the temple dedicated to Merodach (as we know by
the inscriptions) is the temple of the Belus of the
Greeks.
But Merodach himself now claims attention. He was
the son of Ea, the c god of the abyss. He was the lord
of life and light, and the greatest and best names were
o-iven to him. With the Oriental fire has ever been the
object of adoration, and as the signs which form his
name mean either the circle, or radiance of the sun,
it is not hard to see that the god was a solar hero. His
old name meant, the god who orders good for man
kind/ His worship goes far back into the early days of
Babylonia, for the hymns addressed to him which have
come down to us are written in the ancient Akkadian,
and our translations are made generally from the
Assyrian translation appended * His father Ea was
the personification of all knowledge and learning ; the
omnipresent and omnipotent Marduk (Merodach) was
\the god < who went before Ea, and was the healer and
toediator for mankind. t PC revealed to mankind the
/knowledge of Ea ; in all incantations he is invoked as the
o-od mighty to save against evil and ill. He was the
healer of men troubled with evil spirits and diseases, he
taught man how to exorcise demonvafrd he offered to
his father Ea the prayers of penitent man. He was,
pecans* the brightest and best of the conceptions of
the Babylonians, for ft s sole duty in the Pantheon was
to^how rr^ercy to mankind. To the last days of th$
. s Jer. li. 44-
128 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
empire his name was revered and his temples kept in
order. His ^ife was called Zirpanitum.
Another lofty conception was that of the goddess
Istar, c the lady of battles. Nineveh boasted an Istar ;
and Arbela also. She was the spirit or goddess of the
planet Venus ; and a debased form of her worship was
carried on by the Jews, who called her Ashtoreth x . Her
husband was called Tammuz, and she went to seek him
in the c land of no return. An allusion is made to him in
Ezek. viii. 14, where it says, There sat women weeping for
Tammuz. 3 It was the good goddess Istar that appeared to
Assurbanipal in a dream the night before a battle, and
told him that he should be victorious. The king sacri
ficed to the goddess Istar of Arbela, and he made a
prayer to her in which he recalled to her mind the
benefits that she had bestowed upon his father Esar-
haddon ; he told her that the enemy Teumman had
spread out his forces against him, and then entreated
her to crush him and overcome him in battle. That night
a seer slept and had a vision, and he went to the king
saying, Istar of Arbela drew near me surrounded with
glory on the right hand and on the left. She held a bow
in her hand with the string stretched by an arrow pointed
for battle. Her face was fixed, and she was in pain
concerning thee, even as a mother bringing forth. Istar
the beloved of the gods has decreed a decree saying thus,
Whither thou goest I will go ; I will guard thee, and I
will cause thee to obtain the desire of thy heart. Before
thee the enemy shall not stand in battle, neither sliall hg
oppose thy steps/
And farther back, when the father of this same king,\
Esarhaddon, was in trouble and grief because of the war
-brought against him by his brothers, the goddess Istar
spake to him by the oracle of Arbela, saying :
( Fear not, O Esarhaddon,
I am, (as) Bel, thy strength
I will ease the supports of thy heart.
1 i Kings xi. 33.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 139
Each of the sixty great gods my strong ones
with his life will guide thee,
the Moon-god at thy right hand, the Sun-god at
thy left.
Upon mankind trust not 1 , bend thine eyes upon me,
I am Istar of Arbela.
And again :
Mighty legions which devise against me,
before thy feet
I cut them in pieces.
Thou, thou,
art king of kings/
During the reign of Esarhaddon a very beautiful little
tablet was made which we now have in the British
Museum, its number is S. 954. It contains a hymn to
the goddess Istar, and is written in the two languages
Akkadian and Assyrian. The reading of some of the
lines of the obverse is difficult and doubtful, but the
reverse is sufficiently clear to show the meaning of it,
and it will serve as a specimen of the best hymns of this
kind. The translation is that of my friend Professor
Sayce :
1. Thou who as the axis of heaven dawnest, in the
dwellings of the earth her name revolves ; my
begetter.
2. As Queen of heaven above and below may she be
invoked ; my begetter.
3. The mountains fiercely she hurls into the deep ; my
begetter.
4. As to the mountains, their goodly stronghold (art)
thou, their mighty lock art thou ; my begetter.
5. May thy heart rest ; may thy liver be magnified.
6. O Lord Ami, the*mighty, may thy heart rest.
7. O Lord, the mighty Prince (lit. mountain) Bel, may
thy liver be magnified.
8. Istar, the Lady of heaven, may thy heart rest.
1 Compare Psalm cxlvi. 3 ; cxviii. 8, 9.
I
130 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
9. O Lady, Queen of heaven, may thy liver (be
magnified).
10. O Lady, Queen of the House of heaven, may thy
heart (rest).
u. O Lady, Queen of the land of Erech, may thy liver
(be magnified),
is. O Lady, Queen of the land of the four rivers of
Erech, may thy heart (rest).
13. O Lady, Queen of Mountain of the World, may thy
liver (be magnified).
14. O Lady, Queen of Temple of the Resting-place of
the World, may thy heart (rest).
15. O Lady, Queen of Babylon, may thy liver (be
magnified).
16. O Lady, Queen of the Memorial of Nana, may thy
heart (rest).
17. O Queen of the Temple, Queen of the gods, may
thy liver (be magnified).
1 8. Prayer of the heart to Istar.
A cuneiform tablet mentions an Istar of Erech/ but
very little is known of her. The sky-god Anxi is gene
rally mentioned among a number of gods, but no especial
worship appears to have .been paid to him.
Ea was another god of great importance in the Baby
lonian Pantheon. He was the father of the _ mighty
Merodach, and to the Babylonians was the personification
gf wisdom and secret knowledge. He was the soul that
ftrvaded all, which animated all, and he is often invoked
in tha bilingual hymns as the spirit of earth. He -had
no ftf her, but was self-begotten, and perpetually renewed
himself from the watery element which formed his home,
for he is always called 6 the lord of the abyss or deep.
He was the god that knew how to frustrate the powers
of the demons and spirits, for he knew their secrete; and
by, the intervention of no other god could their attacks
be warded off., In a tablet containing warnings to Jthe
king against injustice >Ea fills the place of avenger, for
we are told, if the king avenges not according to the
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 13!
law of his country, the god Ea, the king of destinies, is
hostile to his destiny and Replaces him by another. On
the other hand, 4 if the king avenges according to the
writing of the god Ea, the great gods seat nim in stability
and the praise of justice/ Together with his wife, Dam-
kina, he was the originator of all created moving things ;
he was c the spirit of the earth/ and Damkina was the
substance ; her name means * the lady of the great earth,
and she was the personification of the mass of the earth.
It has been said that his name means * habitation, i. e.
the dwelling-place of created things, and so he has been
compared with the Noah of the Bible. The Babylonian
hymns attribute to him a ship unparalleled by fate, in
which he sailed over the sea to the help of his son
Marduk when he was fighting Tiamat. It was in this ship
that Ea saved Sisithrus from the flood, as we are told in
the account of it. Among other attributes of Ea we find
him called a warrior, and he was furnished with armour
made of all sorts of precious stones. His .principal
weapon was one with seven rays and fifty faces, which
turned every way destroying the bodies of the fighters,
which reminds us of the flaming sword which turned
every way mentioned in Gen. iii. 24. The serpent is one
of his forms, and he was represented as having seven heads.
The worship of Samas, the Sun-god, was widespread
and his votaries numerous. He was called < the king
of judgment/ the son of Ea ; his wives names were
Malkit, Gula, and Anunit. The cities in which his wor^
ship was particularly favoured were Larsa or Senkeretr,
and Sippara in Babylon, where he was associated with
Anunit, Marduk, and Zirpanitum. In the - tablet of
warnings to kings alluded to above we find it stated that
if the king smites the son of the city of Sippara and
gives him to another, the Sun-god, who judges heaven
and earth, shall^ppoint another judge in -his country and
a just prince, and a just judge instead of unjust ones.
This agrees with his title of king of judgment His
worship was very old, and goes back to a time when the
great powers of Nature were worshipped. The c Suri-
:> , I 3
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
god of Sippara 5 was evidently a well-known deity in
the time of Sargon, B.C. 3800, for he mentions this god.
and no other. One of his truest and best votaries was
Nebobaladan, the king of Babylon, who began to reign
about B.C. 900. There is a fine tablet in the British
Museum made by the order of this king, which contains
six columns of beautifully executed Babylonian writing,
and also a picture of the worship of the Sun-god. It is
figured on the opposite page. The god is seated upon a
square seat (having carvings of two figures on one side)
set in a pillar-supported porch, and holding in his hand
a ring and a short rod. Above is written the crown 1
of the Sun-god, the .... of the Sun-god, and
above this are three circles, which represent the new
moon the Sun, and Istar or Venus. Two lines of writing
run above the roof which read the Moon-god, the Sun-
god and Istar in 2 Before the pillar stands a
stool with legs supporting a figure of the disk of the .sun.
It appears to be supported by cords which are held in the
hands of two attendant spirits by the roof. Three figures
stand with their faces towards the disk : the first, a priest,
is holding the stool by his left hand while with his right
he grasps the left hand of the second figure, the king,
whose right hand is raised in adoration to the god. The
third figure follows at a short distance with both hands
raised in adoration. Above the heads of the three
figures run the three lines of inscription, which read the
image of the Sun-god, the mighty lord, the dweller in
the Temple of Parra (or Bara) which is within Sipparal^
HYMNS TO THE SUN.
I.
i. Magical incantation.
, %. Sun, from the foundations of heaven thou art risen ;
3. thou hast unfastened the bolts of the shining skies :
4. thou hast opened the door of heaven.
1 I.e. disk. This may be also read the disk of the sun-god and the
rays from his eyes.
a The meanings of the words which occur here on the tablet are not
known.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 135
5. Sun, above the countries thou hast raised thy head,
6. Sun, thou hast covered the immensity of the heavens,
and the terrestrial countries.
II.
1 . Lord, illuminator of the darkness, who piercest the
face of darkness.
2. Merciful God, who settest up those that are bowed
down, who sustainest the weak.
3. Towards the light the great gods direct their glances,
4. the archangels of the abyss, every one of them, con
template eagerly thy face.
5. The language of praise, as one word, thou directest it.
6. The host of their heads seeks the light of the Sun in
the South.
7. Like a bridegroom thou restest joyful and gracious..
8. In thy illumination thou dost reach afar to the
boundaries of heaven.
9. Thou art the banner of the vast earth.
10. O God! the men who dwell afar off contemplate
thee and rejoice.
Side by side with Samas, the Moon-god, Sin, held a
prominent place in the Babylonian Pantheon ; he was
the personification of the moon, and the eldest son of
Bel. Though we Westerns regard the moon as a femi
nine and the sun as a masculine object, the Orientals
(like the Germans) held just the opposite idea, namely,
that the moon is masculine and the sun feminine, for the
latter is called the lady of the world. In the Hebrew
text of the Bible the sun is regarded as of common
gender. The wife of the Moon-god was called Nana,
but the moon is represented as a female, hence arose
the idea of her hermaphrodite nature. Her chief city
was Ur, and her daughter s name was Istar.
The other principal gods, Ninip, Nergal, Nebo, and
Rimmon, call for little comment. Ninip was the god of
the planet Saturn, and was the Hercules of the Baby-,
Ionian Pantheon ; he was both the son and husband of
Beltis. He was, perhaps, the modern representative of
136 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
the Akkadian god Nindar, e the night sun. Nergal
was the god of the planet Mars, and his name forms part
of the name Nergalsar-eser, i.e. Nergal-sara-usur, Nergal
protects the king/ Rimmon was the son of Anu, and
the governor of heaven and earth. He represented
generally the atmosphere, the storm, and the tempest,
and his commonest name is the inundator. 5
The god Nebo 1 was also called Nusku, and his wife was
called Tasmit. He was the god of the planet Mercury,
the lofty intelligence 3 and the lord of Tablets ; his
chief city was Borsippa. This god is usually mentioned
(together with the goddess Tasmit) in the colophons
of tablets as the being who gives s broad ears to
the king that he may understand knowledge, and the
writing upon the tablets is regarded as the secrets of
Nebo.
In addition to the number of gods which the Baby
lonians worshipped, we find them much addicted to, the
belief in spirits, and this to so great an extent that the
prayers and incantations against them form a very large
portion of their religious literature. Every man, accord
ing to their belief, began his existence possessed of some
spirit, and everything in Nature had its spirit, good or
bad. It was the duty, then, of a man to propitiate this
spirit if bad, and if good to endeavour to make it serve
him. \<The Babylonian saw the mass of the sun, the
moon, etc., and he worshipped its spirit ; but in later
days this higher idea was lost, and nothing but sun
worship pure and simple remained. To the Babylonian
the spirit of the overflowing river, which desolated his
lands and destroyed his property, was an evil spirit, and
had to be exorcised; the- evil spirit which gave him.
pains, aches, and diseases was regarded as a devil, ana
was prayed against accordingly. We can trace ^tjhis
belief very distinctly in the Bible. In Matt. xii. 22,%e
read of a e dumb man possessed with a devil ; the
daughter of the woman of Canaan 2 was grievously
vexed with a devil. 3 There were seven spirits which
1 Isa. xlvi. i. 2 Matt. xv. 22.
13E BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 137
s imagined to be more wicked and deadly
than any others. They were the objects of awe and
terror to them. They appear to have been storm-clouds
originally, anq were supposed to attack the moon during
an eclipse. A ! hymn tells us that during the eclipse of
the moon, thei Sun-god fled away and* Istar went to the
highest heaveln. 3 The god Bel, the father of the moon,
saw the attack of the evil spirits upon his son, and sent
Nebo, the Mercury of the Greeks, to ask the assistance
an,d advice of Ea, the lord of wisdom. Easent the lordly
Merodach to dcKbattle with these dreadful spirits, and
by his fiery and brilliant armour he completely defeated
them, even as he 5id Tiamat. These evil spirits were
born and reared in trie mountains of the sunset and the
dawn ; but, however powerful, they had no part in the
hierarchy of heaven, for we read
6 Among the gods their couch they have not.
They went to the depths of the earth, and their dominion
extended to highest heaven. In a large tablet contain
ing incantations we find a description of them, and though
it has been quoted often before, it appears necessary to
give a translation of the part relating to them T \ere. It
reads :
c Seven are they, seven are they I
In the abyss of the deep seven are they,
In the brightness of heaven seven are they.
In the abyss of the deep in a place was their growth.
Male they are not, female they are not.
Moreover the deep is their pathway.
Wife they have not, child is not born to them.
Law and order know they not.
Prayer and supplication hear they not.
Among the thorns of the mountain was their growth.
To Ea are they hostile.
The throne-bearers (?) of the gods are they
Disturbers in the .... are they set
Evil are they, baleful are they. 3
The Babylonian implored every spirit in heaven and
138 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
earth to ward off the attack of the evil spirits from them,
for they were the originators of all diseases and evils.
Christ tells us of seven other spirits l whjich may enter
a man ; and we are all familiar with th<jb story of His
casting out seven devils from Mary Magdalene 2 .
There was one evil spirit which was a grqat terror to the
Babylonian, and this was the spirit of trie South-West
Wind, which brought disease and death with it. There
are four models of this monster in the IJWtish Museum
(there is another at Paris), with huge staling eyeballs and
gaunt features and lantern jaws. AmujKets were worn as
a protection against these spirits ; arfd a few of these
emblems of superstition have come/down to us, telling
us very plainly what torments tijjgfse people must have
suffered through terror of thejaffonsters of their religion.
/ This belief was current irithe early ages of the world s
/history ; the prophets knew of it, and appealed to the
nations by it ; and to-day the Arab, when praying with
his face towards Mecca, salaams to the right and to the
,left. to pacify the spirits that he imagines are present there.
L)id the Babylonians know of a heaven or a hell, a place
of torment for the wicked, or of a devil ? We will give.ali
the evidence we can from the inscriptions, and perhaps we
shall find that their Hades was not so very far different
from the Sheol, or the pit, of the Bible, nor the-devil
much to.be distinguished from the Satan we read of.
Heaven,* the place where the spirits of good Babylonians
reposed, was called the land of the shining sky/ and
was the seat of the gods. It cannot at present be decided
whether they attained the conception of one e God the
Almighty/ but it seems improbable, for to the last days
,of the duration of their kingdom, in the prayers and
histories they mention more than one god. The Jews
were the people who enunciated the grand idea of the
unity of God 3 . In the Babylonian heaven, the house of
1 Matt. xii. 45 j Luke xi. 26. 2 Mark xvi. 9 ; Luke viii. 2.
Beat. vi. 4 : Hear, O Israel ; the Lord our God is one Lord or
according to the true translation, Hear, O I&rael, the Lord our God is
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 139
life, the { land of life/ the warrior found his reward, for
he reclined on a couch, and drank pure drinks^toge-
ther with his friends and associates. iNot a strange idea
for a nation that was at war with its fellows perpetually, ,
but far, very far, from the holy conception ^of heaven of
the prophet of the New Testament, with God for its sun,
its tree of life for the healing of the nations, its pure
river of water of life, where there is no more curse, nor
sorrow, nor pain, nor death, and where God Himself
wipes away all tears.
The Babylonian conception of hell is made known to
us by a tablet which relates the descent of Istar thither
in search of her lovely young husband, Tammuz. It
has been stated that the same words for Hades, i.e. Sheol,
as that used in the Hebrew Scriptures, has been found
in Babylonian texts ; but this assertion has been made
while the means for definitely proving it do not at
present exist. The lady of the Babylonian Hades was
called Nin-ki-gal, and the place itself had a river running
through it, over which spirits had to cross. There was
also ( a porter of the waters (which reminds us of the
Charon of the Greeks), and it had seven gates. * The
tablet mentioned above tells us that
i. To the land of no return, to the afar off, to regions
of corruption,
3. Istar, the daughter of the Moon-god, her attention
firmly
3. fixed, the daughter of the Moon-god, her attention
fixed . *
4. the house of corruption, the dwelling of the deity
Irkalla (to go)
5. to the house whose entrance is without exit
6. to the road whose way is without return ^
7. to the house whose entrance is bereft of light
8. a place where much dust is their food, their meat mud,
o. where light is never seen, where they dwell in darkness
10. ghosts (?) like birds whirl round and round ^the vaults
11. over the doors and wainscoting there is thick dust.
140 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
The outer gate of this land of no return 5 was strongly
guarded and bolted, for the porter having refused to
grant Istar admission, the goddess says
Open thy gate and let me enter in ;
If thou openest not the gate, and I come not in,
I force the gate, the bolt I shatter,
I strike the threshold, and I cross the doors,
I raise the dead, devourers of the living,
(for) the dead exceed the living
There is another name for Hades, the signs which
form it meaning c the house of the land of the dead.
A gloss gives its pronunciation as Arali. Such, then, is
the Babylonian hell. It is difficult to say where they
imagined their Hades to be, but it has been conjectured by
some that they thought it to be in the west \ Whether
they believed in a final judgment or not is unknown,
as is likewise the principle which decided whether a man
should go to the land of the shining sky, or the land
of no return. The seven evil spirits dwelt in the deep,
and there appears to be some connexion between them
and the seven wicked gods which dwelt in Hades. They
were probably the companions of the awful monster
Tiamat, who made war against the godsJoTwlroEwer^re
ii.Qw.able tp give some account.
^ Tiamat dwelt in the sea, and was a kindred demon of
Bahu (the Bohu of Gen. i. 2), or disorder, and is the
prototype of the sea serpent of to-day. Recently a
piece of tablet was discovered which gave about 64 lines
of the account of the conflict between her and Merodach ;
and the following paraphrase is made from the fragment
of a tablet written in Babylonian, and two or three
pieces of an Assyrian copy. The first lines open by
saying that the gods had set Merodach upon his throne
in the dwelling of the great ones. Then follows a kind
of paean of praise repeated thus :
1 The pious Egyptian always prayed for a happy burial in the
Amenti, i.e. the West; and in the Coptic versions of the New Testa
ment tins same word amenti is used to express hell/ or Hades.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 141
c O Merodach thou art honourable also, among the great
gods
thy destiny is unequalled, thy sumgar 1 is the god Arm,
O Merodach thou art honourable, among the great gods
thy fate is unequalled, thy sumgar is the god Anu.
The narrative then proceeds with the statement that
Marduk s command is unchangeable and unalterable,
and that high and low seek his hand. A prayer follows,
which entreats that whatever goes forth from thy mouth,
O Marduk, may it be established, thy fortune not failing.
Next there appears to be a reference to the gifts of the
gods, and then another prayer saying, * in the dwelling
of the gods, at the place of their crown, may thy place
be established. Again follows a paean of praise :
Merodach thou art also the returner of our benefits,
we ascribe to thee royalty, thou hast in the assembly of
the gods the multitude of the whole of everything,
may thy command be high, may they not force thy
weapon,
may thy enemy tremble. 5
And the beautiful line of prayer, lord, who trusts
thee, do thou benefit his soul, comes next. The gods
then approve of Merodach s mission against the wicked
Tiamat, for we are told they rejoiced, they drew near
to Merodach the king, they endowed him with sceptre,
thrgne, and reign, they gave him an unequalled weapon
for destroying his enemies, and said : Go, make an
end of the life of Tiamat, and may the wind carry- away
her blood to a dismal place. The gods decreed his
fate, and made him set out on his enterprise. Now
follows the record of the equipment of the god. He
had a bow, a club, his right hand held the bow, and he
hung the skin quiver at his side. He set the lightning
before him, and filled his body with swift destruction/
Then he obtained a scimitar (or as some read net J ) to
attack Tiamat. We are told that Anu his father made
1 The exact meaning of the word sumgar is not known, but it appears
to mean protecting divinity?
142 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
the bow, and not content with all these weapons Mero-
dach made league with the south, north, east, and west
winds : he made the evil wind, the malignant wind,
the storm, the tempest, and the sven deadly winds, his
allies, and they came after him to trouble Tiamat.
The lord of the storm also lifted up his mighty weapon
and rode over the sea in his unequalled chariot of fate.
He laid hold of Tiamat and bound her fast with bonds.
But Tiamat made desperate resistance, though of exactly
what nature the fracture in the tablet forbids our
kfiowing. We find, however, that she sought out her
husband Kingu, and spread trouble upon his path,
probably because he refused to assist her in her rebellion,
and she also used incantations to effect the destruction of
Merodach. But to no purpose, for Merodach drew near
in a * warlike manner, he made his weapon approach her,
he took the evil wind and let it loose before and behind
him. Tiamat opened her mouth to engulf him, but
Merodach drove such a quantity of wind down her throat
that she could not cover her lip, he rained mighty winds
into her. Now Tiamat s heart was afraid, for Merodach
cleft her face, he raised his club, destroyed her belly, he
cut through her interior, he mastered her heart, he laid
hold of her and destroyed her life. He threw her body
down and then sat upon her. Not content with the
destruction of the monster herself, Merodach scattered
( her band of followers and swept away her assembly.
The gods that went by her side turned and fled, they
clung to one another fleeing helplessly. Merodach
destroyed their attack and broke their weapons ; they
sat down mournfully and filled the regions with groan
ing. Merodach .also made an end of Kingu, Tiamat 3 s
husband, and
c The might of the good god was completely established
over the enemy
he strengthened his hold over the rebellious gods
Tiamat whom he had laid hold of powerfully he turned
backward
the lord trampled down too the foundation of Tiamat.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 143
The next lines tell us that the north wind carried
away her blood to a wretched place. Then Merodach s
father rejoiced, and was glad when he saw this and when
the messengers brought him the news. After his labours
the lord Merodach rested and refreshed his body.
Then follows the account of how the heavens were made
bright and clear after this dreadful fight, and the text goes
on to say that the gods made the waters to come forth,
which were not coming forth. Now Tiamat was a sea
demon, and while this fight was going on she apparently
had stopped the tides from flowing, but this the god
Merodach rectified. A representation of the battle,
taken from a sculpture in the British Museum, is given
in the frontispiece.
The tablet then adds the first line of the next tablet
of the series, which reads
He made beautiful the fortresses of the gods great.
And after this comes a colophon stating that the tablet
contained one hundred and forty-six lines, an^ was
written by Nabu-beli-su Nahid-Marduk for the saving of
his life, and that it was placed in the temple of Zida.
The tablet not only gives us a valuable piece of my
thology of the Babylonians, but the colophon shows that
it was a meritorious act on the part of a pious man to
write or copy a religious book as a thank-offering to a
god. It is another form of an old Semitic idea: the Jews
wrote copies of the law each man for himself, every
king was bound to do so ; to-day the Mahommedans
write copies of their Koran. To go back to the Baby
lonian tablet, however. The story is told in very concise
and brief language, and the expressions are .here and
there somewhat obscure. The sen^e of a few of the
lines I cannot make out, owing to a number of words
the meanings of which at present are unknown. If one
puts aside the weird and mystic imagery of the Oriental
from it, it is the account of the battle of light against
darkness. Merodach is the brilliance of the sun/ and
he goes armed with the bow of his father Anu, * the sky
144 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
god, and the imd-mul-lum *, or principle of the stars and
fire ; he takes the lightning and gathers together to his
side the winds, the powers of the heavens. With this
armour he does battle against Tiamat. The Hebrew
equivalent to this word we meet with in the second
verse of the first chapter of Genesis. We read that there
was darkness upon the face of the deep, and the word
rendered deep is fhoin, i. e. Tiamat, in Babylonian.
Tiamat is represented as the abyss from whence all
things noxious sprang ; she herself is personified in the
form of a being with scales, feathers, wings, claws,
gaping jaws, and a tail, and over this hideous being the
glorious light sprang. St. John, in the Apocalypse, spoke
of the time when there shall be no more sea/ intimating
that the abolition of the sea with its monsters and terrors
was to be a part of the glorious future. In the tablet
spoken of above the line
O lord, who trusts in thee, do thou benefit his soul, 3
reminds one forcibly of various passages in the Psalms,
and reveals to us the craving of the soul of the Baby
lonian for the assistance and support of a mighty and
powerful god. Whether they had a deeper meaning
veiled under the words is hard to say, but it is not at all
improbable that the ideas of right and wrong were repre
sented by them under the symbols of light and darkness.
A curious name is given to Tiamat in the tablet, she
is called the great serpent (we have already spoken of
her shape and of her being the personification of chaos),
which reminds one of the Revelation where Satan is
called the great dragon V The Jews, too, have called
Satan the prince over chaos/ This Tiamat then is
clearly the Babylonian tempter which led man astray,
and which brought *death and destruction into the world.
There is a seal in the British Museum bearing an en
graving which seems to be a picture of the fall of man.
1 The word is rendered club ; perhaps fire stick would be a
translation.
2 Rev. xii. 7-9 ; xx. 2.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 145
It is figured on page 153, and has been published before 1 .
In the middle of the scene there stands a tree with
branches, and on either side of the trunk there is a fruit.
Seated on the right is a man, and upon the left is a
woman, behind whom stands the serpent. The tree is
the tree of life, which played a great part in the Baby-
Ionian and Assyrian religions, and was understood too
by the Babylonians to be the symbol of immortality.
As to the views of the Babylonians about the creation
we know but little, for only a few lines on this subject,
and these on a fragment of a tablet, have come down to
us. They read
When on high the heavens were not named,
and beneath, the abyss recorded not a name,
the water deep first begot them, the lady Tiamat
was the bringer forth of all.
The waters first were collected, but the clouds were not
collected together, and in the earth was not a seed.
Then none of the gods had come forth/
These words evidently refer to a time when the earth
was without form and void. 5
Apparently the pious Babylonian repented deeply at
times, for we find, the lament of one which says, .From,
the days of my youth I am bound fast to the yoke of
sin; and his conscience was at times sorely "troubled.
When in distress, through a calamity or any other cause,
he asks himself, Have I estranged father and son,
brother and brother, or friend and friend ? Have I not
freed the captive, released the bound, and delivered him
who was confined in prison 2 ? Have I resisted my god
or despised my goddess? Have I taken territory not
my own, or entered with wrong motives the house of my
fellow ? Have I approached the wife of my fellow man?
Have I shed man s blood or robbed one of his clothing?
The Babylonian could bewail his sins, iniquities, and
ignorance in very pathetic words, and the following lines
1 Smith, Chaldean Genesis, p. 91.
2 Compare Matt. xxv. 44,
K
146 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
will show how nearly the words and ideas approach
some of our own prayers of to-day ;
O my lord, my transgression is great, many are my sins.
O my god ....
O my goddess ....
O my god that knowest that I knew not, my trans
gression is great, many are my sins.
my goddess .that knowest that I knew not 3 my trans
gression is great, many are my sins.
The sin that I committed I knew not.
The sin that I sinned I knew not.
The forbidden things did I eat.
The .... did I trample upon.
My lord in the wrath of his heart has punished me.
God in the strength of his heart has overpowered me.
1 lay on the ground, and no man extended the hand.
In tears I dissolved myself, and none my palms took.
I cried aloud ; there was none that would hear me.
The feet of my goddess I embraced.
To my god, who knew though I knew not, I made
supplication.
To my goddess who knew, I made supplication.
How long, O my god ?
How long, O my goddess ?
O my god, seven times seven are my transgressions, my
transgressions are before me 1 .
My transgressions are before me, may thy judgment
give me life.
May thy heart like the heart of the mother of the setting
day to its place return 2 .
For the tearful supplication of my heart, let the name of
* eyery god be invoked 65 times.
Peace afterwards.
have now seen something about the Babylonians
gocls, bis neaven, his hell, his devil and evil spirits. We
so ^een ? .some of his best ideas and conceptions.
!;3$j(jji"prayef to be repeated ten times.
Inis prayer to be repeated five times.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION. 147
He had grand ideas about his gods, but he appears to
have feared the attacks of the evil spirits more than he
trusted in his great gods to defend him from them. At
the beginning he peopled all Nature and everything in
Nature with spirits, but by degrees he attributed more
power to some of these than to others, and hence arose
the great gods. His religion was a mixture of sub
limity and absurdity, of purity and impurity, of refined
ideas and coarse conceptions ; in short, he made the gods
in his own image. He never grasped the idea of one God
making and ruling all things, the Ruler and Governor of
nations and individuals alike, but he multiplied idols and
gods without end. This brought down Jeremiah s just
observation l , * It is the land of graven images, and they
are mad upon their idols. He was superstitious and
easily terrified by the supernatural, and was slavish in his
obedience to it. His mind was easily led captive by the -
^ pomp and religious processions, which the priests took
care to .make as attractive as possible. Jo these were
added the practices of Nature worship so strongly de
nounced in the Bible under the names- of Baal, Baal-
Peor, Astitoreth, and the groves ; and thus the mind
of ! the Babylonian was led astray, and whatever good he
had lying in his soul was crushed and blotted out. In
the day of retribution when Babylon fell his idols were
powerless to save him, as he found to his bitter cost.
Though the Babylonians asked the Jews to sing them
one of the songs of Zion, yet they profited nought by
if, neither did they learn anything of Jehovah, who^had
done mighty deeds and driven out mighty nations -for
this people. Though Daniel and the three children were
living witnesses of God in Babylon, its people repented
not, as Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.
Its gods are gone, its people, and its tributary kings, like
theif conquerors, have vanished ; there is nothing, but the
accumulated dust of centuries in the land instead of Us
former glory, and it is beholden to the -children of the
\est for the discovery in recent times of its ancient site.
Jer.l. 38.
K 2
148
CHAPTER X.
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND ART.
duties of great importance-Babylonian names. Crentat
-Commerce-Sla^
Babylonians good builders*
ONE of the chief concerns of the Babylonian was to
attend to his religious duties, and to take part in the
worship and praise due to his gods. We are ignorant
of the exact ceremonies that were carried out m then-
temples, but it seems that processions of priests bearing
the image of a god were common and frequent. The
kings richly endowed the temples with part of the spoils
which they obtained in war, and each person, according
to his ability, no doubt did the same. They craved for
a visible representation of their deities, and were not
satisfied with an invisible presence, even if they had any
conception of it. Every person, high or low, rich , or
poor took part in the Nature-worship which was earned
out under the beautiful sky of Chaldea. It is probable
that they chanted hymns and praises to their gods,
for the Babylonian copy of the fourth tablet of the
6 Creation * series, recording the fight between Merodach
and Tiamat, exhibits a rhythm and a parallelism in many
of its lines. One would think that the narrative part
was recited or sung by a few vdices, and the lines of
praise by a huge chorus in wMch eVery one joined.
Their sacred books were the so-called Qistubar legends,
Which relate that the solar hero Gistubar performed
Itvelve mighty deeds, each of which formed the subject
if a narrative, The Babylonians prayed, for their prayers
have cope idown to us., Every seventhly was a
: Sabbath, or as they put it, <a day of rest for the
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND ART. 149
heart/ A god or goddess presided over every day in
the year, and lists of the days of the months, with their
regents mentioned, have come down to us. Their repre
sentation of the Sun-god took the form of a disk, and a
beautiful woman was the type of Istar, the daughter of
the Moon-god. At the doorways of their palaces they
placed huge stone figures of a composite being, with the
face and head of a man, the body and tail of a horse,
the legs and hoofs of a bull, and the huge feathered
pinions of a mighty bird, which indicated that it had the
wisdom and intelligence of a maji, the swift body of the
horse, the fleet wings of the .eagles, and the mighty
treading down power of the*bull. These figures guarded
the footsteps of the king their maker/
The contract tablets show us that the Babylonians had
two names, one an official and the other private ; whether
any ceremony attended the naming is not known. When
the Babylonian died he was most probably burnt, and it
is thought that furnaces were always kept going for this
purpose. It has been suggested that it was into one of
these furnaces that the e three children were cast after
it had been made * seven times hotter than usual.
There are ^earthenware pots in the British Museum
which contained the calcined bones and ashes of pe^e
that were burnt more than two thousand years ago, gjk
f these pots are common and abundant in the ruins of tie
old, Babylonian cities, In the time of the Parthians they
used coffins, and of these specimens in a greenish glazed
..earthenware are still to be seen. On the death of the
Babylonian his soul went to the land of the silver -sky/
;au^ dwelt with the heroes of bygone times ^d the kings
who ruled ages before. Isaiah describes iHe home of
i these spirits in almost identical words \ The numerous
tennples must have given occupation to an enormous
!pt||nfeer of people and servants, and even the body of
Sp^sts necessary for performing the various services
fi.a;ve been large. ,
8 1 Isaiah xiv. 9.
150 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
The chief occupation of the Babylonian was war; as
soon as one king was dead, all the tributary kingdoms
tried to assert their independence. This, of course,
necessitated expeditions to all parts of the country to
put down the various rebellions. There was a set time
of the year for warlike expeditions, as we learn from
2 Sam. xi. i. The Babylonians were armed with swords,
bows and arrows, and staves ; in the later days they
had helmets and shields. Their battles consisted more
of surprises and skirmishes than what we should call
definite warfare. They showed no mercy, and once
having captured a city they destroyed it utterly, slaying
the unfortunate inhabitants and burning everything
that could be burnt. A few of the kings took the
captives to their capitals, and made them build walls
and temples, etc., for them. In besieging cities they
used scaling ladders, and men were set under cover to
dig out the stones from the foundations, that the, city
walls might fall. They used horses and chariots in
battle, but the greater part of the army must have gone
on foot. It will be remembered that the Rabshakeh
of Sennacherib offered Hezekiah horses, saying, I will
give thee two thousand horses if thou be able on thy part
to set riders upon them V A list was kept of the people
destroyed in each city, and of the spoil taken. Wars
were undertaken on various pretexts, such as rebellion
and invasion of territory ; but the kings often made raids
on slight provocation when the funds of their treasuries
were low. It was the wealth of Hezekiah s palace and
of the Temple that attracted MerodaclvBaladan and
Nebuchadnezzar ; and the riches of Tyre always made 1
it an attractive object for conquest in the eyes of the
Babylonians and Assyrians.
Many of the Babylonians were engaged in commerce,
for the Semite was always a trader, and we know for
certainty* that it was respected, inasmuch as we find that
1 Isaiah xxxvi. S.
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND ART. 151
the business of the firm of Egibi and Son was carried on
throughout all the wars and civil commotions which con
vulsed Babylon. The Babylonians made legal promises
to pay certain debts they had contracted. They bought
and sold land, and they lent money or merchandise on
interest. This business firm of Egibi and Son arranged
dowries for unwedded women, and some records of this
sort are in our national collection.
The Babylonians bought slaves, male and female, and
it appears that some of the owners went so far as to
brand their own name upon them with hot irons.
In stature the Babylonians were short and thick-set ;
they had the characteristic Semitic nose, thick lips, and
oblique eyes. Their hair was thick and curly, and of
course black ; whether they plaited or knotted it in the
way we see it represented is doubtful, for the dressing
shown on the sculptures may be for the sake of ornament.
They wore dyed raiment, probably of a brilliant colour,
girdles round their waist, and sandals on their feet
The Babylonian youth learned to read and write early.
The task of learning the huge syllabary was no easy one,
he therefore copied the characters over and over again,
until the eye, the hand, and the memory all helped him
to gain a perfect knowledge of them. Those who were
intended for priests or astronomers learnt the omens,
the astrological and the astronomical texts, and the old
Akkadian language. The king was absolute monarch ;
he heard complaints and redressed wrongs ; the, power of
life and death was in his hands. How the Babylonian
king amused himself is not known ; the Assyrian hunted
lions, etc. The Babylonian libraries were well stored
with tablets by generations gone by, and therefore they
became the centre of attraction for the literati ao& savants
pf that day. The, Babylonians were very superstitious,
and, very fearful of the evil spirits and genii, which they
imagined were always ready to attack them. .They were
great .astrologers and moderately good astronomers ; we
^jfee a very great deal to them. They drew maps upon
1-53 BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.
clay, and there are fragments of their planispheres, which
are divided into divisions corresponding to degrees, among
the treasures of our national collection.
The Babylonian was a skilful engraver upon the
hardest stones, of which the polish and smoothness is
a marvel even in the nineteenth century. The little stone
which contains Sargon s inscription (B.C. 3800) is beauti
fully rounded and smooth, the inscription being admirably
cut. They excelled in seal cutting, and delighted in
inscribing figures of the beings of their Pantheon upon
agate, chalcedony, jasper, haematite, etc. Drawings of
some of these seals are shown on the opposite page.
The Babylonians were good builders, as the ruins and
remains of their temples and walls testify. Some of
their bricks they burnt, others they sun-dried, and each
brick bore the impression of the seal of the king its
makr. Some bricks were glazed with one colour (these
were probably used to lay the foundations in damp
places), others for ornament in two or more colours, and
occasionally we find them both fluted and glazed. They
knew the use of the arch, and they used pillars in their
buildings. Their palaces were decorated with all kinds
of beautiful stones ; it has been thought that they were
but one storey high, but this is scarcely credible.
Owing to our ignorance of the meaning of many of the
architectural terms employed in their buildings, we
cannot make exact statements about them, but their
palaces and temples were very extensive. They made
plantations around them, and a little tablet gives us the
names of the various plants and trees that were in the
gardens of Merodach-Baladan. Of the houses of the
poorer classes we know nothing; their dwellings have
long since passed away. There were beautiful objects of
art in the kings palaces, bronze statuettes, glass bottles
and vases, alabaster jars, ivories with gold and beautiful
colours, though these belong probably to the later period
of the empire. The objects of art and luxury which the
Babylonians were unable to produce for themselves they
ANCIENT BABYLONIAN SEALS.
HEA-BANI STRUGGLING WITH A SAVAGE ANIMAL,
ENGRAVING ON A BABYLONIAN SEAL REPRESENTING THE TEMPTATION OF ADAM AND
EVE AND THE TREE OF LIFE.
THE BABYLONIAN HERO GISTUBAR IN CONFLICT WITH A LION,
BABYLONIAN LIFE AND ART. 155
could obtain from Phoenicia and Egypt, and no doubt
they availed themselves of the opportunity.
Every single tablet that is recovered from the mounds
of Babylonia reveals fresh facts and gives new testimony
of the enormous amount of knowledge possessed by the
Babylonians. It will be impossible to obtain an exact
idea of what they knew until all the mounds have been
excavated and all the literature read and understood.
Already there is enough work for many lifetimes ; the
quantity of work to be done is enormous, and the
labourers in the field are very few. The task of reading
the cuneiform inscriptions is a hard one, and much
patient work is necessary before it can be done ; but
surely it is a study attractive enough !
In this little book only a few of the most important
facts have been touched upon, and we have tried to .state
only such things as admit of proof and are certain. It is
self-evident, however, how very necessary the knowledge,
of the facts obtained from the cuneiform inscriptions is
for the right understanding of that part of Bible history
which relates to Babylon and Assyria.
156
INDEX.
Abel, 75-
Abil-Bel-usum-same, 45.
Abil-Ea-sar-mati, 45.
Abil-Sin, 42.
Abraham, 75.
Abu = July, in.
Accad = Ur, 28.
Achaemenes, 95.
Adam, 75.
Addaru = February, in.
Adlil, 58-
Agarsal, 49.
Agii-kak-rimi, 45.
Ahe-iddin, 116,
Airad, 117.
Aim -April, in.
Akkad= North Babylo
nia, 1 8.
Akkadian hymn to Istar,
129.
Akki, 40.
Alexander the Great, 97.
Allit, 117.
Alman, 45.
Amil-Gula, 45.
Amil-Marduk, 75.
Amil-Samas, 45.
Amil-Sin, 45.
Ammananu, 79.
Ammi-sa-duga, 42.
Amm^satarja, 42.
A-mram, mound of, 26.
Amulets, 138.
Amytes, 69.
Anat, 126.
Aneana, 97.
Anna, heaven/ 36.
Antiochns, 97 ; his cylin
der, 99.
Annnitj temple of, 27.
Anuiiitum, 45 ; her tem
ple in Sippara, 81.
Anzan, 79.
Apirak, 41.
Apries, 74.
Arad-Gula, 116.
Arah-samna = October,
n 6.
Arahu-mahru, the inter
calary month, in.
Arahu or Aracus ; he per
sonified Nebuchadnez
zar, son of Nabonidus,
96.
Arakadres, 94.
Araxes, 65.
Arbela, oracle of, 128.
Arithmetic, 1 08.
Ariyaramnes, 95.
Arsaces, the era of, 117.
Arsames, 95.
Artaxerxes, 115.
Ashdod, siege of, 61.
Ashtoreth, 128.
Asnunak, 45.
Astronomy, 109.
Astyages, revolt of his
soldiers, 79.
Assur, * fortress of, 60.
Assur-akh-bal, 106.
Assurbanipal, 67 ; cylin
der of, 123.
Assur-bel-kala, 50.
Assur-bil-nisu-su, 45.
Assur-Dan, 60.
Assur-Danan, 49.
Assur-izir-pal, 106.
Assur-nadin-sumi, 65.
Assur-nasir-pal, 58.
Assur-ris-isi, 49.
Assur-uballit, 45.
Assyria, rise of, under
Rimmon-Nirari I., 46.
Assyrian annals, 123 ;
cylinders, 124; year, 34.
Atrines the Susian, 95.
Azuri, 61.
Babylon does not mean
* confusion ; Jews play
ed on the word, 19;
Talmudic discussion on
the word, 19 ; accord
ing to Herodotus, 29 ;
size of the city, 30 ; its
name in the inscrip
tions; the gate of
God/ the house/ the
wood of life/ 19 ;
situated on the Euphra
tes ; called the dwell
ing-place of Bel and
town of Marduk, 19 ;
destruction of, by Sen
nacherib, 65 ; capture
of, by Cyrus, 76-89 ;
various statements as
to the size of. Its two
walls, 19; its antiquity,
101.
Babylonia, extent in later
times ; its old name
Kaldu, 18.
Babylonian copy books,
107 ; history, blank in,
for twenty years, 60 ;
manners and customs,
1 50-1 55 5 heaven, 138;
wisdom, 112; Sabbath,
148 ; signs, compari
son, 105.
Babylonians, antiquity of;
1 6 ; their progenitor
called Chesed,J7.
Bagayadish, 95.
Baltasar, 88. -
Bani-tum-umma, 118.
Bardes, 93.
Barrel cylinders, 124.
INDEX. T57
Basia, 116.
lambyses, his expedition
igibi, 116 ; the banker,
Bau-ahi-iddin, 59.
into Egypt, 94.
117.
Baii-ellit, 45.
Carchemish, 70.
Egyptians, antiquity of,
Bazi, ^8.
Cardinal points, 112.
10.
Behisfun inscription, 94.
Case tablets, 114.
i-Hulhul, a temple, 80.
Bel, his temple in Baby-
Ion 25.
Chinzirus, 60.
Colossi, 149.
E-ki, 97.
-ku-a, shrine of Bel, 21.
Bel and Merodach, 127.
Comets, 112.
L-Parra (or Barra), 81.
Bel-ahi-irba, 116.
Bel-akhe-irib, 117.
Bel-balat-su, 114.
Contract tablets, 113.
Cuneiform text (part 8) of
the capture of Babylon,
ponym canon, 35.
iquinox, 109.
Erech, 28 ; Istar of, 130.
Bel-basa, 67.
86.
-Sagila-lissi, 114.
Bel-edem, 116.
Cuneiform writing used
E-Sagili, 25.
Bel-ederu, 114.
Bel-epus, 63.
after the Christian era,
117.
S-Sagili-suma-epus, 118.
sarhaddon, 65.
Bel-eres, 115,
Bel-hai-iddin, 118.
Bel-idannu, 116.
Cyaxares, 69.
Cyrus a monotheist, 92 ;
makes peace with Baby-
MJlbar, 28.
I-Ulbar-sakin-sumi, 58,
Euphrates, its names and
Bel-iddin, 115, 116.
BeMumur, 116.
Ion, 82; entry into
Babylon, 87; rise of
their meanings, 27 ;
.drained dry by Cyrus,
Bel-nirari, 45-
his kingdom, 79; march
88.
Beli-sunu, 116.
Belshazzai 1 , 76.
to Akkad, 79.
Svil eye, 112.
Jvil-Merodach, 75.
Belshazzar s Feast, 88.
Bel-tern enna, 116.
Damkina, 45.
Daniel, his name no
Evil spirits, 112 ; exor
cisms against, 112 f
Belteshazzar, 74.
found in the inscrip
seven, 137*
E-Zida, a temple of Baby-
Beltis, 45*
tions. 74*
I/in n f
Bel-upahhir, 115.
Dar, a god, 23.
Ion, 25.
Belus , temple of, 25.
Belu-Usumgallu, 156.
Bel-zakir-iskun, 49.
Darius the Median, 92.
Days, lucky and unlucky
109.
Fortress of Kuri-Gako, ?
60.
Beth-Yakur, 62.
Birs-Nimrud, 25.
Bit-Imitti, 53.
Bit-Karziyabku, 50.
Bitumen, 21, 22, 29.
Black Obelisk, 59.
Borsippa, 19; Talmudic
puns on the name, 25.
Bricks from the temple
in seven stages, 26 ;
glazed white, 81.
Bronze step of Nebuchad
Deluge tablet, 124.
Demons, 112.
Duban, 96.
Dungi, 41.
Dura, plain of, 75.
Dur-athara, 62.
Dur-papsukal, 59.
Duru = Dura, Dan. iii. I
27.
Dur-yakin, 62.
Duzu=June, Hi.
Gahul, 63.
Gambulu, 67.
Gananati, 59.
Gan-duniyas, 45.
Garmapada, 94.
Geography, 112.
Geology, no.
Gisinni, 118.
Gobryas, 82.
God triads, 126. , ,
Gods, enormous nnmbe^
of, in Babylon, I2& jf,^i
nezzar, inscription up
on, and translation, 70.
Burial of the Babylonians,
149. -
Burna-Buryas, 45.
Buzuzu, ii 6.
Ea, 130.
Ea-epus, 115.
Ea-mukin-ziri, 58.
Ebisum, 42.
Ecbatana, 79.
Gomates, 93.
Gomorrah, 103.
Graine, bay of, 7ov f
Great Sea, 61.
Gudea, 41.
Gula, 115? 13^*1 ,, .
Ecliptic, 112.
Calendar. 112,
Edom, 61,
Guk-ztt-tepn^E^-
INDEX.
Guti, 45.
Jehu a tributary of Shal-
Guzummanu, 62,
mane^er II., 59.
Jewish nation, rise of,
Hablai, 117.
under Solomon, 58.
Hadar-ezer, 58.
Josiah, his death, 69.
Haggai contemporary
Judah, 63.
with Cyrus, 96.
Judea rebels against Ne
Hagisa, 62.
buchadnezzar, 73.
Halman, 59.
tfalub, city on the Tigris,
Kal-Anna, 87.
63.
Kandalanu, 68.
Hamath, rebellion in, 79.
Kara-Hardas, 45.
Hammurabi, 42.
Kara-Indas, 45.
Haadita, 96.
Karrak, 41.
Hanging gardens, 28.
Harran, 80.
Kasbu = 2 hours, 109.
Kassu-nadin-ahi, 58.
Hatinv97-
Kingu, 142.
Hell, 138; gates of, 139;
Kiribtu, 116.
river of, 139.
Kis-kur-gal, the temple" of
Hezekiah, 62.
the Moon-god, 23.
Hit, 70.
Kislimu = November,! 1 1 .
^[ystaspes, 95.
Kisrinni, 118.
Kistar, 117.
,Jcfdina-Nabu, 116.
Kisu, 62.
ikbi-Bel, 62.
Kuddaa, 116.
Tkubu, 115.
Kudur-Mabug, 41.
,Ilu-damur, 116.
Kudur-Nanhundi, 36.
Ilulaeus, 60.
Kudur-Nahiiunte, 62.
Imgur*Bel, a wall of Baby
Kudurri-Bel, 82.
lon, 19.
Kuri-galzu, 45.
Ina-E-sagila-lilbir, 114.
Kutha, 28.
Indi-bigas, 68.
Jutmarj 58.
Intercalary months, 34.
jjnterest on money, 118.
.Jrani, 116. ,\
Labasi-Mardul^, 76.
Laborosoarchod, 76.
Ir;ba-Marduk, 116.
Lahmu, 81.
Jrlba-Sin, 58.
Larassib, 117.
Jj:riya, a city, 49.
Larsa, 28.
fMah, his account of the
Layard, Sir A., his ex
^Vsbge of Ashdod, 61.
cavations, 26.
f smi^Dagan, 41.
Libit-Istar, 4 i.
fsauninak, 88.
Likhusi, 104.
Igtar^ 121; descent to
Lilith, 113.
.hell, 139^
Lisir, 115.
Itti-Bel-guzu, 115.
Lisiru, 116.
Izdtibar (Gistubar) le
Lucifer, 102.
gends, 124. t
LulavJ09.
I/illnbi, 53,
Japur-Sabu, 32,
Jeconiah, 73.
Magan, 41.
Jehoiakim, 73.
Magic tablets, 112.
Malkit, 131.
Man possessed of a devil,
113.
Marad, a god, 24.
Marbuda, 109.
Marcluk, his fight with
Tiamat, 141.
Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, 59.
Marduk-Bel-usati, 59.
Marduk-irba, 116.
Marduk-nadin-ahi, 49.
Marduk-sapik kullat, 50.
Marduk-buma-iskun, 59.
Marduk-zakii-sumij 62.
Marriage dowry, 114.
Martes, 95.
Mene Mene, 89.
Merodach, or Marduk,
127.
Merodach-Baladan II.,
58-
Merodach-Baladan, 60-
63-
Meskitu, 115.
Methuselah, 75.
Michaux stone, 121.
Mili-Sipak, 45.
Milky Way, 112.
Money-loan tablets, 1 1 4.
Months, gods to whom
each was dedicated,
in.
Moon-gocl, 135
Moon-god, his temple in
Harran, 80.
Muabbid-Kissati, 45.
Muballitat Serua, 45.
Musesib-Marduk, 65.
Mythology, 126.
tfaboandelus, 88.
^abonidus, 76 ; a sun-
worshipper, 37 ; con
tract in 1 7th year of,
120; his dream, 80;
his excavations, 81 ;
his death. 85.
N abonnedon, 88.
S"abopolassar (Nabu-pal-
usur), 69 ; the rise of
his kingdom, 68,
INDEX.
159
Nabu-abla-iddina, 58,
Nabu-ahi-bullit, 117.
Nabu-balat-su, 115.
Nabu-balatsu-ikbi, 80.
Nabu-bel-zikri, 68.
Nabu-bullitsu, 116.
Nabu-e-du-ahi, 118.
Nabu-epis-sin, 116.
Nabu-lddannu, 116.
Nabu-kissir, 116.
Nabu-kusur-su, 114.
Nabu-ludda, 115.
Nabu-nadin-ziri, 60.
Nabu-nasir, 60.
Nabunnaa, 116.
Nabu-rimanni, 116.
Nabu-sab-sunu, 116.
Nabu-suma-iskun, 58.
Nabu-surna-ukin, 60.
Nabu-sum-damik, 58.
Nabu-sum-esir, 116.
Nabu-uhi-su, 116,
Nabu-usabsi, 60.
Nabu-usitik-urri, 116.
Nabu-usur-napistu, 1 1 6.
Nabu-zir-napisti-esir, 65.
Nadin, 115.
Nadintu-Bel, 93.
Nagitu, 62.
Nahid-Marduk, 66.
Nail marks, 114.
Namar, 54.
Nana, goddess, 36.
Nana-Babili-sininni, 114.
Narara-Sin, 39.
Nazi-bugas, 45.
Nebo, his temple at Harie.
His temple called
Life, 22.
Nebuchadnezzar L, his
wars against Assyria,
49*
Nebuchadnezzar II., his
war against Tyre, 73 ;
his War against Egypt,
70 ; his kindness to
Jeremiah, 74 > "East
India House inscrip
tion, 31 ; brought wood
from Lebanon, 29 ; his
prayer to Marad, 24;
translation of two of his
inscriptions, 19, 25.
Nebuchadnezzar s city,
Babylon, 70.
Nergal, 136.
Nergal-balit, 116.
Nergal-edir, 65.
Neriglissar, 76.
Nimitti-Bel, a wall of
Babylon, 19.
Nindar, 136,
Nineveh, destruction of,
69.
Ningal-iddina, 66.
Ninip-kudurri-us.ur, 58.
Nippur, 28.
Nisaea, 95.
Nisannu= March, in.
Nusku, 136.
Omen tablets, 123.
Ormazd, 95.
Pacorus, 117.
Padan, 45.
Patizithes, 93.
Pharaoh Hophra, 74. ,
Pharaoh Necho, 69.
Philip of Macedon, 96.
Philistia, 61.
Phraates the Magian, 95.
Phraortes, 95.
Pissiachada, 94.
Planisphere, 112.
Prexashes, 93.
Promissory notes, 114.
Pudil, 47.
Puya, 117.
Rabbi Johanan, 19.
Rab-Mag, 76.
Rabshakeh, 65.
Rammanu - abla - iddina,
50.
Rammanu-NirarillL, 60.
Rammanu-sea, 116.
Rassam, H., his dis
coveries, 37.
Rawlinson, Sir H., his
discoveries, 35, 70.
Religious belief of the
Babylonians. Sum
mary, 147.
Repentance of the Baby
lonians, 145.
Riblah, inscriptions of
Nebuchadnezzar 33.
Rim-Agu, 41.
Rimat, 120.
Rimmon-Nirari I., 35.
Rim-Sin, contract tablet
of, 43./
Ritti Marduk, 50; his
wars, 50-57.
S^batu= January, in.
Sabbath, 148.
abmanda, 80. ^^
Sagasatli-Buryas, 82.
Sag-ili, a temple of Baby
lon, 20.
Sala, a god, 49.
Samas-nasir, 45.
Samas-sum-ukin, 66.
Samsaa, 115.
Samsi-Rammanu, 59.
Samsu-iluna, 42.
Samsu-satana, 42.
Samullu-sum-ukin, 66.
Sapin-mat-nukurti, 45.
Sappai, 58.
Sargina, 45.
Sargon L, date of his,
reign from Nabonidus 1
cylinder, 38; legend:
of his birth, 40.
Sargon and the siege of
Ashdod, 61.
Screech owl, 113.
Seal marks, 114.
Seleucus, 97.
Senkerek, loS.
Sennacherib, 63-65.
Serpent, the great, 144.
Shahnan, 69.
Shalman-Karradu, 46.
Shalmaneser II., 59.
Shalmaneser III., 60.
Sheol, 138.
Siatu, 116.
Sibir, 58.
Sictachotes, 95.
l6o INDEX-,
Simmas-Sihu, 58.
Sun-spots, 112.
Ukin-ziru, 60.
Simti Silhafc, 41.
Supu, 57.
Ululu* August, in.
Sinam, 117.
Sutu, a nation unfriendly
Umas, 115.
Sin-Damak, IT 8.
to Babylon, 59.
Umman-Minanu, 63.
Sin-kudurri-nsur, 116.
Suzub, 63, i r 8.
Ummanigas, 67.
Sin-Muballit, 42.
Syllabary, 106.
Ur, 28, 135.
Sin-Nasir, 116.
Ur-Bagas, 41.
Sippara or Sepharvaim,
Tabitu= December, in.
Urmanu, 115.
built in two parts ; the
Tables of squares and
Urrame/n7.
old name, name in in
cubes, 108.
Urtaki, king of Elam, 67,
scriptions, 27 ; called
Tablets, arrangement of,
Agade by Cyrus, 27.
112.
Veisdatcs, 95.
Sim, 57.
Tablets, trial, 107.
Venus, city of, 23.
Sitratachmes the Sagar-
Tammuz, 128.
Viyakhana, 94.
tian, 95.
Tartan, 61, 75.
Sivanu = May, in.
Tasmit, 136.
Wedges, 106.
Smerdis, 93.
Tasritu = September, 1 1 1.
Witnesses whose names
Snake gods, 20,
Tassi-gur-umas, 45.
are mentioned by Ne
Sodom, 103.
Teispes, 87.
buchadnezzar I., 55.
Spirit worship^ 126.
Tema, 76.
Writing, 104.
Star Nin-si, IOQ.
Star of the Wolf, 109.
Temple of seven stages,
26 ; of the Jews, re
Xerxes, 96.
Stratonice, 97.
building of, 91.
3ua, 115.
Third temple of Babylon,
Yakin, 60.
3u-anna, 81.,
25-
Yaman the usurper, 61.
Siihi, a nation, 58.
Tiamat, 140.
Yugaeus, 60.
Sula, 115, 1 1 8.
Tiglath-Pileserl, 49.
Sumaliya, lady of the
Tiglath-Pileser III., 60.
Zaba, a city, 49^
mountains, 57.
Tigris, or Hiddekel, 28 ;
Zabdan, 58.
Sum-iddina, 115.
rise of, and destruction
Zabu, 41.
Sumir, 87.
. of walls of Nineveh, 69.
Zagaga-suma-iddina, 49,
Sumif = South Babylonia,
Time, mode of reckoning,
Zakiru, 60.
18.
by the Assyrians, 34.
Zamban, 88.
Sumu-Abi r 41.
Tower of Babel, 26, 101.
Zechariah contemporary
Sum-ukur, 116.
Tradition in the East,
with Cyrus, 96.
Sumulau, 41.
124.
Zedekiah, 74.
Sun^god, repair of his
Tree of Life, 145.
Zergulla, 41.
temple by Nabonidus,
Tukulti-Ninip, 49.
Ziggurat, 109.
/ 8l;
Tukulti-Ninip IV., 58.
Zir-Idin, ,117.
Stiii-god tablet, 132.
Tuna, 116,
Zirpanitum, 128.
;Sun> hymns to, 132.
Tyre, fall of, 73.
Zodiac, 112.
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