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THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD BEFORE OSIRIS

FROM A PAPYRUS, DISCOVERED AT THEBES, CONTAINING

AN EXAMPLE OF THE SO-CALLED "BOOK

OF THE DEAD"

( One half original size Original in the Berlin Afusevm )

The Book of the Dead was the chief monument of the religious literature of
ancient Egjqpt. It was in 165 chapters ; portions of which were inscribed on the
mummy-cases and tombs, and are met with in the later Demotic Papyri. It constituted
the funeral ritual of the Egyptians ; describing, in mystical language, the adventures
of the soul after death, and the texts and prayers it must repeat in order to escape
the torments of the Egyptian Hades. The older portion, which dates back to the Old
Empire, was of a practically moral character ; the later and more mystical additions
and glosses, coming down to the time of the Persians, substituted the doctrine of justi-
fication by faith in Osiris.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE
The judgment of the dead before the god Osiris, in the subterranean hall of justice.
The scene is taken from the 125th chapter. Osiris, the judge of the nether world, is
seated in a naos. On the opposite side, the deceased, led by Ma, the goddess of truth
and justice, is introduced into the house restir.g on pillars. A pair of scales is erected
in the middle; resting on one cup of which is a handled beaker, the symbol of the heart;
on the opposite, the picture of truth, the pen. Horus and Anubis, sons of Osiris, are
weighing and looking at the tongue of the scale; above which sits the Cynocephalus
Hapi, as symbol of measure. In front of the scale, the ibis-headed Thoth, the scribe of
the gods, Is inditing the result of the weighing on a papyrus. Between him and Osiris,
a female hippopotamus, Am*am, known as the Swallower, represents the accuser of the
dead; whom Thotli defends, if he has led a just life. In the upper section of tlie hall,
the deceased is addressing a prayer to the forty-two judges of the dead, who have a
variety of heads, and each of whom carries the feather of tnith and has to pass judg-
ment concerning a special sin ; regarding which the deceased declares himself innocent
in the text.

EXTRACTS FROM PRAYERS AND PETITIONS IN THE
BOOK OF THE DEAD

" Do not imprison my soul. Do not let any hurt me. May I sit down among the
principal gods in their dwellings. If you repel me from the places of regeneration, do
not let the evil principles take hold of me. Do not let me be repelled from your gates ;
be not your gates closed against me. May I have loaves in Pu, drinks in Tepu. Grant
to me the funereal food and drinks, the oxen, the geese, the fabrics, the incense, the oil,
and all the good and pure things upon which the gods live. May I be eternally settled
in the transformations that will please me. May I be united with the gods of truth."

"I did not bid any one kill treacherously. I did not utter a lie to any man. I
did not plunder the supplies in the temple. I did not overcharge. I did not tamper
with the wefght of the balance. I was not a bully. I did not use too many words in
speaking. I did not turn a deaf ear to the words of truth. 1 did not make my mouth
work. I did not steal I was pure — pure — pure. I did not do what the gods hate. I
did not cause the slave to be misused by his master. I did not cause any one to be
hungry. I did not cause any one to weep. I did not commit adulter^-. I did not kill.
I prevailed as a man who keeps his head."

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Library of

IVERSAL HISTORY

CONTAINING

A RECORD OF THE HUMAN RACE FROM THE
EARLIEST HISTORICAL PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME ;
ABRACING A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF MANKIND IN
NATIONAL AND SOCIAL LIFE, CIVIL GOVERNMENT,
RELIGION, LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART

Com)>{ct( in fifttm l^alumt^

BY.

ISRAEL SMITH pLARE

AmiJksr if "JUusirtiitd Umvtnal History" **Com^UU Historic alCet^femdium^' '* UnjrivaUd History ^ ikt World:*

" History of tko Britisk-Bosr War," and Otkitr Woris : "Also Auikor of a Series ^ Forty

Historical Ma^s; Member of tko American Historicat.Association

REVIEWED AND ENDORSED BY FIFTEEN PROFESSORS

OF HISTORY IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, AND OTHER

PROMINENT EDUCATORS, AMONG WHOM ARE THE FOLLOWING:

Geoigb EifOiT Fbllows, Ph.D., Profeuor of European History, University of Indiana, Bloomington,
Ind.; A. P. Wimston, Late Professor of History, University of Illinois, Champaign, 111.; Wm. R.
PuKiMS, Professor of History, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Richaso Hbatk Dabnbt, A.M.,
PIlD., Professor of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; Kemp Pluiimei Battle,
A.M., LL.D., Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C; John Hanson
Thomas McPhesson, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.; Elxira
Benjamin Andkbws, LL.D., D.D., Late President of Brown University, Providence, R. I.; Rev.
Geo. M. Giant, D.D., President of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; the Late Moses
CoxT Tti.ee, A.M., Ph.D., Professor of American History, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; Wm.
ToBEBT Habejs, LL.D., United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.

3|Hu^tratc& MMtl) jHapiS, $)Drtrairs »^.nD WiOmH

,V Volume I. -Ancient History

NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

UNION BOOK COMPANY

1906

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■~7

944380A /

Th« Union Book Compant

. 1. A W COM PA N Y.

,. PpiNT/^/IS.^ff D aiNOCRS. CHICAGO

CopTTlffht, 1889, ISn, 18M and 18«7 by I. S CUn
Oopyricht, IMS by R. S PmI* and J. A BUI
Copyright, 1901 by Th« laUrnatioaBl SocUty

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THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE

STUDY OF HISTORY

BY
THE LATE MOSES COIT TYLER

Frofeuor f^ Amtricam, HUtory in Oomdl UniverHty

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THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE

STUDY OF HISTORY.

By the lATK MOSES COIT TYLEE,

I^v/eaBor of American HtMtory in Cornell UniverwUy,

In order to do justice to the claims of historical study, it can never be neces-
sary for us to depreciate those of any other branch of learning. Properly
considered, there is no such thing as rivalry between different spheres of knowl-
edge; only emulation, a noble and helpful emulation. All real knowledge is
good, being in one way or another a source of power and happiness. The
various realms of things known or knowable are but co-equal and fraternal states
in that vast confederation which we may call the republic of science. No single
member of this confederation is strong, none is sufficient, standing alone. Each
is necessary to all, aU are necessary to each.

While, therefore, no one study may assert for itself the whole of what is valu-
able, every study doubtless has its own special value; and this value, as in the
case of a study like history, it may sometimes be worth our while to place clearly
before our minds, modestly, tolerantly, and for the rightful purpose of forming
a just idea of the particular good we ought to expect and to work for, in our
pursuit of it.

Probably that use of the study of history which will first occur to most per-
sons, is the one suggested by the common conception of history as an enormous
body of facts about the past, — ^the effort to know and retain a considerable
number of these facts being regarded as a fine gymnastic exercise for the faculty
of memory. It is, indeed, quite astonishing how great a multitude of historical
details — dates, names, and other precise items about persons, cities, nations,
armies, political parties, institutions, and so forth — almost any person is capable

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yi THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY.

of carrying in his memory, if only he patiently stores and trains it in that
way. Moreover, no one wiU deny that there is much convenience and delight
in the possession of a memory like that, — a memory enriched with precise and
various historical facts, all labeled, and pigeon-holed, and ready for service at a
moment's call. Certainly, a brilliant accomplishment this, for conversation; a
weapon of victory for public speech; in hours of loneliness and suffering, a
great solace, — all of which may be seen in the cases of certain famous men in
our country who had such a memory, as John Quincy Adams, Theodore Parker,
Charles Sumner, Garfield.

On the other hand, this particular use of historical study is somewhat dis-
credited among persons of mature sense, whenever it is associated with either
of two practical mistakes, to which, indeed, yoiteg students of history are liable.
One of these mistakes arises from a lack of discrimination as to the relative value
of diflFerent historical facts ; the other from the notion that the work of memoriz-
ing historical facts is the principal part of historical study. It can hardly be
wise to make the memory serve the purpose of an old-fashioned garret in a
country house, — a receptacle for all sorts of odds and ends of property, precious
and worthless. Surely, such indiscriminate memorizing must be a waste of
energy, and the perversion of a noble faculty. What is the use of making
an effort to remember what is useless? Besides, however valuable it may be to
store the memory with well-selected dates and names and other historical items,
this at best belongs among th^ lower and more mechanic uses of history.

With these qualifications upon the primary claim put forward on behalf of
historical study, we may now pass on to consider some claims which point to
mental and even spiritual discipline of a far higher and more complex kind.

One of these higher benefits may be described as that of training the critical
faculty, through the effort to test the evidence for and against particular his-
torical facts, or what are alleged to be such. Perhaps the very hardest thing
to get at in this world is the truth, the very truth, especially the very truth con-
cerning the past transactions of the human race. From this point of view, it
is plain that the study of history is something more than the passive reading
of certain finished and fascinating books, like Livy, for instance, or Gibbon, or
Thiers, or Macaulay, or Prescott, or Parkman; it is indeed, the resolute and
attentive application of the whole mind to an immense and complicated sub-
ject, — a process which cannot be carried on very long without our running up

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THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. yij

against questions of disputed fact. To deal with these questions in a manner
to satisfy a truth-loving mind, it will be necessary for us to look keenly into
problems of conflicting testimony, of personal character, of the validity of
documents, of the meaning of words, of the right method ot construction. I
am not now speaking of the labors of professional historians, the intricacy and
arduousness of which are admitted to be great, just in proportion to the quality
of their results. Even pupils at school, however, and college students, and
the members of historical clubs, and solitary readers of history, if they would
pursue this study in the wisest and most fruitful way, must all be, to some
extent, historical critics; must be alert, inquisitive, cautious, never credulous^
always intolerant of slovenly ways; and as far as possible, they must try the
text they are reading by earlier texts, and especially by those nearest to the
times that happen to be under consideration.

Who is likely to overstate the educational value of such a method of study?
On the moral side, how great it must be! It is produced and is nourished by
a conviction of the incomparable worth and sacredness of mere truth in itself,
as against all baser stuff in the form of half-truth, guess work, fables, or lies,
and this conviction is sure to grow and to strengthen under such honest toil in
its service. On the purely mental side, how great must be the effect of, such
study, — since it calls forth and taxes powers so important as those of analysis
and comparison, nicety of verbal sense, literary insight, logical acuteness and
precision, soundness of judgment, and saving common sense.

III.

In the next place, it should not be overlooked that the mental and moral dis-
cipline involved in the study of history, is of a kind even broader and more
complex than that required-for the ascertainment and verification of particular
historical facts. That alone, as we have just seen, is a great task, calling for
fine and strong powers of mind ; it is a task that can perhaps never be perfectly
done by any finite being ; and yet, even that, when it is done as well as we can
do it, is not the end of historical study, but rather the beginning of it. For,
after you have verified and defined your facts, comes the still more subtle process
of discovering their causal relations, — ^the great play of influence among human
events, the interdependence of events, the action and reaction and counteraction
of events. Of course, to do this sort of work hastily, recklessly, with that tone
of easy infallibility which some historical students have when passing judgment
upon groups of facts in relation to the past, is probably not very hard,-

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yiii THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY.

least for persons who can do it all; but to one who realizes the worthlessness,
the misleading character, of all mere assumption in statements professing to
be historical, and how hard it must be even approximately to discover the actual
relations of events, it will be obvious that, aside from the intrinsic value of such
generalizations, is the disciplinary value of the mental and spiritual process of
arriving at them. Certainly, to generalize wisely from sound historical data,
is a great exercise of the philosophic powers; it is a test and a development
of broad-mindedness, lucidity, and vigor in reasoning.

IV.

Another benefit from historical study will occur to us, when we reflect that
such study compels one to investigate and to reason within the realm, not of the
exact and of the absolute, but of the approximate and the probable.

No doubt there is a peculiar educational value in the study of those sciences
in which the data are precise or absolute ; in which the conclusions are so, like-
wise. History, however, deals with data of a different kind, — ^with mixed deeds,
and mixed motives, and traits of character, and experiences of human beings;
looking back into the past, it draws some general conclusions from these data
and applies them to the present and the future ; it aims to formulate some gen-
eral principles relating to the collective human life of this world, to govern-
ment, to the working of the social organism. But whatever history requires
of its student or does for him, it keeps him mostly within the sphere of the
approximate and the probable. You cannot weigh a human motive or impulse
as precisely as you can a chemical substance. In much of your work as an
historian, you have to balance one probability against another, to estimate the
operation of spiritual forces, to deal with the inscrutable mysteries of personal
character. In so many parts of your work, you are obliged to reason with
caution, slowly, circumspectly, not dogmatically ; and to realize the limitations
upon the definiteness and certainty of many of your conclusions.

Well, is there any special value in such training as this? It seems to me
that, in a rather peculiar sense, this gives the very training required for real
life ; since in real life we are in the sphere not of the absolute, but of the rela-
tive, and we have to deal with the very problems which the historian has to deal
with, — ^human character, human feelings and motives, probabilities, and other
data niore or less indefinite. I would say no word to imply any disparagement
of the educational value of mathematics, for example. It has its value, unri-
valed in its kind ; but he who should apply the methods of mathematical reason-

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THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. J^

ing to the questions which come up between man and man in real life, would
often make most absurd mistakes and go far astray. Historical study, on the
other hand, is a study of human nature on a broad field, and for all ages ; it is
exactly the sort of training which helps us to know persons and affairs in real
life, the great types of human character, the limited worth of testimony, the
play of passion in interfering with reasonable and prudent conduct, the prob-
able consequences of any particular set of outward conditions. History is the
great teacher of human nature by means of object lessons drawn from the whole
recorded life of human nature.

This brings us naturally to the fifth benefit to be got from historical study, —
the cultivation of fair-mindedness as a habit, and the suppression of intellectual
partisanship with respect to all subjects whatsoever.

No one can pursue this study in the right way, or with any real success^ who
does not learn to acquire the mental attitude, not of an attorney standing for
one side of the question, but of a judge standing for what is true on both sides.
The historical spirit is the judicial spirit. However vast may be his learning,
however splendid his style, whoever writes history in a partisan fashion, spoils
to that extent the genuineness and value of his work, as any one may observe
by the brilliant examples of Macaulay and Froude.

We must not, we cannot, tolerate in history, what we are obliged to tolerate
in contemporary comment. Such comment is almost inevitably colored by con-
temporary passion, is biased this way and that through contemporary preju-
dice, through the stormy likes and dislikes that are irrepressible among men
actually engaged in the conflicts of their own time, and having great personal
interests at stake. But when it comes to history, we demand something dif-
ferent. History is the comment made afterward, when the fight is over and
ended and the combatants are cold in their graves; and the duty of history
is to hear all sides and all persons, to weigh all pleas, to sift all testimonies, to
be fair to all. If, with regard to living controversies, this attitude of fairness
between opposite persons and opinions is almost impossible to attain, it is by
no means easy of attainment even with regard to dead controversies ; it is, for
every topic in history, one of the last and choicest results of spiritual discipline.

I do not know any other study more likely than the study of history, to help
us to acquire intellectucJ poise, justice in thought and word, freedom from the
warp of undue sympathy or antipathy, the judicial habit. And this, after aU,
is a quality of great influence and esteem in this world, overriden, as it is, with

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X THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY.

partisanship of all sorts, and yet conscious that there is a mental attitude nobler
and wiser.

VI.

For the sixth benefit to be got from historical study, I would call attention
to its incomparable use in enlarging one's mental horizon.

He who does not know history must have a very limited mental horizon — a
horizon as wide only as the time during which he has lived. The whole vast
realm of the past is to him as if it never had been ; he knows only what has beeif
done and enjoyed and suflFered by the human family since he arrived here. Even
in the case of the oldest man, what is that by comparison with all the years,
decades, centuries, epochs, which have rolled over this planet before the sound
of his footstep was heard upon it, and which have been crowded with stupendous
transactions that he is totally ignorant of except by some sort of hearsay, by
broken fragments of knowledge picked up from casual tradition?

The man who knows only the time immediately around him, is in a mental
condition somewhat like that of the man who knows only the place immediately
around him — the man who has never traveled, who knows nothing of other
neighborhoods and other peoples. Such a man must have a very false notion
of himself and others; his mind can hardly fail to be full of local prejudice
and conceit ; he lacks the necessary standards by which to estimate his own size
and quality and that of the men and things around him. Such a man is neces-
sarily provincial, parochial; his intellect is the intellect of a villager. So, the
« man who knows but little of human time, except what has elapsed since his own
birth, is provincial-minded with respect to vast tracts of human experience ; his
mental horizon is necessarily limited to the petty circle of time which surrounds
his own life in the world. To such a man history comes with its power to
enlarge his own horizon by annexing to it the horizons of all the generations
before him. History is for time, what travel is for space; it is an intellectual
journey across oceans and continents of duration, and of ages both remote from
our own and vitalized and enriched by stupendous events. There is an old
aphorism to the effect that, " ignorance of what has been done in the world
before he came into it, leaves a man always a child.** This, perhaps, is but a
far-away echo of the saying of the Chinese moralist, Lao-Tse : *^ Man is an
infant bom at midnight, who, when he sees the run rise, thinks that yesterday
has never existed." To him who has not studiously opened those books which
tell of the world's yesterday, it is as though the world had never had a yesterday
— ^as though the world had begun only when he began.

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THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY. xi

There have been many attempts to define the essential difference between man
and the other animals known to us here. What is to be thought of this defi-
nition? Man is the history-knowing animal — ^the only animal that can know
the past. Therefore, our conscious and cultivated relation to the past, through
historical study, develops in us as human beings that very attribute which dis-
tinguishes us from those animals that are called the brutes.

vn.

Perhaps the most impressive consideration touching the benefit to be derived
from historical study, is the one which still remains to be mentioned: history
enables each generation of men to profit, if they will, by the experience of their
predecessors, — especially to avoid their costliest and most painful mistakes.
Without history, nearly all the practical wisdom of mankind, gained through
innumerable blunders and mishaps, would be lost, and the same blunders and
the same mishaps would have to be repeated and to be suffered over and over
again on the part of successive generations ignorant of what had happened
before.

Let us suppose that the human family should now agree that history is an
undesirable branch of knowledge; that it should no longer be cultivated or
taught ; that all the books of history which have been written, from Herodotus
down to Ranke and Stubbs and Greorge Bancroft, should be burned up, and that
no more should be written ; that even the documentary sources of history should
be destroyed. What would be the effect of this gigantic piece of Vandalism?
Of course, before many years, the men who now know something of the past
would be dead, and would have left no successors to their knowledge ; and, grad-
ually, nearly all remembrance of former times and of the men and the deeds
and the sufferings of former times, of their mistakes and triumphs and failures,
would be blotted out. Nearly all the lessons taught by the experience of the
human family would be forgotten. Consequently, to a large extent, progress
would cease; each generation, knowing but little of what men had learned
before themselves, would have to begin nearly all experiments over again; and
each generation would be liable to keep on repeating the errors of its prede-
cessors, treading over again the same round of blundering attempts and disas-
trous failures. Life itself, or what is called civilization, would still be a labo-
rious march, but it would be a march in a treadmill, wherein the feet seem to
move, and steps seem to be taken, but no advance is made.

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xii THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY.

Whenever one is inclined to rate very low the utility of historical study, it
may be well for him to recall the fact that all human progress depends on each
generation starting with the advantage of the wisdom gained and accumulated
by all previous experience, and that history is the temple in which the records
of this experience are stored. Bum down the temple, and you thereby destroy
some of the things that are essential to further progress.

People who do not know history, are apt to be presumptuous and rash in their
political methods. They go on advocating errors that were exploded ages ago ;
trying political or industrial or financial experiments that have been tried and
found futile and disastrous times without number ; taking false steps which their
ancestors had taken before them and had found to be steps toward folly and
misery ; making civilization itself to seem no longer a stream of onward progress,
but a mere whirlpool, its currents spinning with men and institutions round and
round in a fierce motion, until at last they all go down and together into some
central gulf of darkness.

One of the greatest and most inspiring teachers of history known among us
during the past forty years has for his book-plate this motto: " Discipulus est
prions posterior dies." " To-day is the pupil of yesterday." How much would
To-day know, if it were not the pupil of Yesterday? But it is chiefly through
what we call history, that Yesterday is able to communicate to its pupil the wis-
dom which it has hoarded. Moreover, it is because To-day learns wisdom from
Yesterday, that it is able to teach wisdom to To-morrow ; and it is, also, by the
same means. There are some people who have so intense an interest in the imme-
diate and tangible facts of life, that they are accustomed to sneer at the past, —
calling it the dead past. After all, however, the past is not dead, except to
persons who are ignorant of it, or who are themselves dead in their own thinikng
concerning it. Through the power of history, the past does not die ; it is gifted
with a perpetual life, and it reaches forward with a strong and helpful hand into
the times that now are and are to be.

I remember that once a student of mine, in a thesis which he was reading to
me, used a pretty figure about history. " History," said he, " is only a stem
light on the ship in which we are making life's voyage." I asked him to con-
sider whether he was quite right in describing history as " only a stem light."
Of course, even a stem light is something, but it is not all that our life-ship
needs. How about a bow light, also, — ^a light that may throw some gleam across
the waters into which we are advancing? So, even though it might hurt the
neatness of the image, we should probably improve its accuracy, by saying, that

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THE EDUtjATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY.

xui

history is not only a sten^ light, but a bow light as well : it flashes its rays far
back over those rough waters through which our ship has been ploughing, and it
throws at least some illumination forward upon the deeps of time toward which
we are about to sail.

vm.

Upon the whole, then, it may fairly be said, that by withdrawing now and
then from the present, and by making tours of studious observation into the
past, we greatly enlarge our knowledge and our capacity for knowledge; we
teach ourselves toleration, and even sympathy, for types of person and society,
for opinions and for courses of action, quite unlike our own ; we become more
truly catholic and cosmopolitan ; we become more modest, too, by realizing that
mighty persons and mighty peoples have lived in this world and left it ages
before we came into it ; we learn to understand better our own place in the gen-
eral movement of time and events, and how to adjust ourselves to both for the
greater service, for the more perfect happiness, of ourselves and others.

If, indeed, this be a just account of the matter, perhaps we shall not deem it
an extravagance to say, as was lately said by a sober-minded English critic, that
^^ history is the central study among human studies, capable of illuminating and
enriching all the rest.'*

IX.

I should be sorry to come to the end of this discussion without a word as to
the importance of arranging for the study of history upon a wise plan, that is^
upon a generous and a comprehensive plan. Perhaps in no other study are
pettiness and provincialism more incongruous than in this study. Not even
patriotism is a sufficient justification for limiting our historical readings to our
own country. We Americans have a right to be glad and proud over the strong
enthusiasm for the nation which now fills every part of it. One manifestation
of this robust patriotic ardor is to be seen in the extraodinary interest now felt
among us in American history. Never before has American history been so much
written, or so well written ; never before has it been so eagerly studied. This is
well. History, like charity, should begin at home ; but neither charity nor his-
tory should end there. Our present danger is of so magnifying the importance
of the history of our own country, as to forget the importance of attending to
that of other countries also. The present popularity of American history is
really a thing of recent growth. I can well remember when it was difficult to
convince Americans that American history was not only important but fascinat-
ing, — even by comparison with the history of modem Europe, or of ancient and
mediaeval times. Apparently, this truth has been at last so well learned by us.

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xiv THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF HISTORY.

that another truth is now liable to be forgotten, namely, the Intellectual harm
of a too exclusive study of American history. Eyen American history cannot
be properly learned, if learned altogether apart from other history. " Without
clear notions of general history," said Edward Freeman, " the history of par-
ticular countries can never be rightly understood." To no other country, per-
haps, is this remark more applicable than it is to our own. Why our ancestors
came to America, and how, and what ideas they brought with them, and what
sorts of people they were, and what they did here, and how they fared in the
land, and how they were interfered with and helped or hindered by the peoples
of western Europe from among whom they had come, and how at last they threw
off such interference, and how they have got on since then with themselves and
with the rest of the world, and how they stand to-day as regards all these mat-
ters, — are, indeed, the great topics of what we call American history, but they
are likewise topics of European history as well. We commonly think of Ameri-
can history as beginning with the year 149S. These four centuries of American
history cannot be truly known by any one who does not also know something
reaUy considerable of the histories of Spain, France, Holland, and England, dur-
ing the same time. For us to study American history as a detached and an
isolated experience. Is to study It unwisely, — so unwisely, in fact, as to insure our
failure In gr€isping its real meaning.

If, however, we cannot understand American history without knowing modem
European history, neither can we know modem European history without a fair
knowledge of the history of Europe during the Middle Ages and in the ancient
times. But how shall we know the history of mediaeval and of ancient Europe,
unless we become acquainted with the remoter races from whom these earliest
Europeans were derived, and the countries from which they came, and the ideas
they brought with them thence, and their subsequent relations therewith?

Thus, we reach the broad principle that, as there Is a certain unity in the life
of the human family, so there is a certain unity In its history also ; that no nation
has ever lived without an original kinship with other nations, without more or
less contact with other nations, without having Its destinies interfered with and
influenced by other nations. Consequently, no part of history can be truly
known without knowing something of all parts. The Ideal of the historical
student should be to know the life of his own country as a constituent part of
the general life of mankind. Thus, the study of American history must be
preceded or at l^ast accompanied by the study of Universal History.

C/^^^-x-cy Ga^ 4^^C<_

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AUTHOR'S PREFACE

TO xujfi

REVISED EDITION

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AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE REVISED

EDITION.

This " Library of Universal History " — ^the last and greatest of the author^s
series of works on the world's history — first appeared in 1890, and was the result
of years of labor on the part of the author, who produced this work himself
wholly without assistance ; and it is, therefore, entirely the author's own work,
be having had no assistants or colaborers in its preparation. In other words,
it is the author's life work.

This being a newly revised, enlarged and improved edition of the ** Library
of Universal History " — ^the work of revision being done wholly by the author
himself — ^a few prefatory remarks by him may not be out of place in this con-
nection. Circumstances and events made necessary a complete revision and
remaking of the plates of the entire work, with many new and improved features,
among which is the analytical side index found on every page throughout the
work, which serves the purpose of a full and complete table of contents.

Other important features of improvement are the smaller-sized pages and the
single-measure pages instead of the original double columns, and the plan of
having every page of the text a full and solid page of reading matter, while
all the illustrations are also full page. The valuable historical maps — many of
which were made from the author's own drawings — are retained in this revised
work.

The new archaeological discoveries in the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates valleys
are noted in their proper places in the sections on the histories of Egypt and
Chaldaea. The recent events in every part of the world are given their due
prominence — ^the events embracing the closing years of the nineteenth and the
opening years of the twentieth century.

New historical matter has been inserted in the various portions of the entire
work, and every effort has been made to make it a work fully abreast of the
times.

The author has also made a new and improved arrangement of the entire book,

which will now consist of fifteen superb volumes of no less than five thousand

ryli

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xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

pages. The subjects of the work have been thoroughly rearranged in new divi-
sions under the system of chapters and sections, so as to make the plan of the
book more logical than in the previous editions. On the whole, the chapters are
more numerous and smaller than in the former editions, so as to make the work
more logical and convenient in its topical arrangement. With slight variations,
the old chronological order of subjects has been retained in the revised work, a^nd
the synchronistic plan of the book, instead of the ethnic plan, is also preserved,
as this is generally recognized as the better method of presenting the world's his-
tory to the general reading public, either as a work for general reading or for
reference, because this plan avoids the frequent repetition necessary in a work
on the world's history based oh the ethnic plan, and because the contemporary
history of all branches of the human race can thus be held up to the view of the
general reader or the special student.

As to the educational value of Universal History there can be no dissenting
opinion. This fact has been recognized in all ages. A few quotations from
eminent men of various epochs may not be out of place in this connection :

" Not to know what happened before we were bom is to remain always a child,
for what were the life of man did we not combine present events with the recol-
lections of past ages." — Ciceeo.

^^ Universal History makes a man a citizen of all nations, a contemporary of all
ages." — Heeschell.

" Without clear notions of Universal History, the history of particular coun-
tries can never be rightly understood." — ^Feeeman.

^^ History gratifies the curiosity of the reader about the past, modifies his views
of the present, and his .forecast of the future." — Seeley.

^^ History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and
wrong." — ^Feoude.

*^ It is because to-day learns wisdom from yesterday that it is able to teach
wisdom to to-morrow." — Tylee.

Lancaster^ Pa., November 2, 190S.

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CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

ANCIENT HISTORY.

THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE STUDY OF HISTORY. ... v

AUTHOR'S PREFACE ,* xv

INTRODUCTION '. 21

CHAPTER I.— ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Section I. — The Ancient Nile Valley 37

Section IL — Sources of Egyptian History 40

Section III. — Old and Middle Empires in Egypt 48

Section IV. — ^The New Empire in Egypt 60

Section V. — Egyptian Civilization 66

Section VI. — ^Egyptian Religion and Mjrthology 92

Section VII, — ^Ancient Ethiopia 107

CHAPTER IL— CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Section I. — The Ancient Tigris-Euphrates Valley 113

Section IL — Sources of Chaldee-Assyro-Babylonian History 122

Section III. — Chaldaean, or Early Babylonian Empire 125

Section IV. — Chaldaean Civilization 133

Section V. — The Old Assyrian Empire 141

Section VI. — New, or Lower Assyrian Empire 172

Section VH. — Assyrian Civilization 218

Section VIII. — The Later Babylonian Empire 243

Section IX. — Babylonian Civilization 269

Section X. — Chaldee-Assyro-Babylonian Cosmogony and Religion... 286

xiz

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XX CONTENTS.

CHAPTER m.— PHCENICIA AND SYRIA-

Section I. — Fhcenicia and Its People 825

Section II, — ^Tyre and Sidon 326

Section III. — ^Phcenician Commerce and Colonies 330

Section IV. — ^Phcenician Arts and Civilization 383

Section V. — Phoenician Religion 336

Section VI. — ^Ancient Syria — ^Damascus 889

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INTRODUCTION.

. HisTOKY is a record of events which have occurred among mankind ;
embracing an apcount of the rise and fall of nations, and other great
mutations which have affected the political and social condition of the
human race. In a more limited sense. History is a record of the prog-
ress of mankind in civilization; and, therefore, deals especially with
those nations which have performed great achievements and exerted a
commanding influence upon the fortunes of the human race. The
Hutory of Civilization is that department of History which treats of
the progress of different nations in the arts, sciences, literature and
social culture. The Philosophy of History treats of the events of the
past in connection with their causes and consequences, and deduces
from them certain principles, which may serve as a guide to statesmen
in conducting the affairs of nations. Thus, History has been called
** philosophy teaching by example;" and, as a celebrated writer has
observed: '* Social advancement is as completely under the control of
natural law as is bodily growth. The life of an individual is a minia-
ture of the life of a nation." Sacred History is that which is con-
tained in the sacred scriptures, as distinguished from Profane History^
as recorded in other books. Ecclesiastical History is the History of
the Christian Church; while Civil or Political History deals with the
rise, progress and fall of nations.

Chronology is that department of History which treats of the pre-
cise time or date of each event with respect to some fixed time called
an era or epoch. Chronology and Geography have been called "the
two eyes of History." The one tells when, the other where, events
have occurred. Christian nations compute time from the birth of
Christ; while Mohammedan nations reckon from the Hegira, or Mo-
hammed's flight from Mecca, which event occurred in the year 6^2 of
the Christian era. The Ancient Greeks dated from the first Olympiad,
776 years before the Christian era; the Ancient Romans from the
founding of Rome, 763 years before the Christian era; and the An-
cient Babylonians from the Era of Nabon^issary 747 years before the
Christian era. No dates can be established with certainty for events
in Ancient History of any period more than five centuries before

Christ.

History
Defined.

History of

CiviUza-

tion.

Philos-
ophy of
History.

Sacred

and
Profane
History.

Ecclesi-
astical
and Civil
History.

Chronol-
ogy.

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INTRODUCTION.

Ethnol-
ogy,
Archaeol-
ogy, Phil-
ology,
Anthro-
pology.

Andant,
Medisval

and
Modem
History.

Sources of
History.

Pre-
historic
Races.

Parian
Marble.

Assyrian
Canon.

Canon of
Ptolemy.

Concerning the human race outside of nations, there Is much Im-
portant and interesting knowledge furnished by different sciences.
Among these sciences, as aids to History proper, are Ethnology, or
the science of the various races or types of mankind; Archaologt/y or
the science of the ancient works of man ; Philology^ or the science of
language; and Anthropology^ or the science which deals with man in
natural history'.

History is generally divided Into three great epochs — Ancient His-
tory, MedicBval History and Modem History. Ancient History be-
gins with the first appearance of historic records, and ends with the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, A. D. 476. Mediaeval History,
or the History of the Middle Ages, extends from the fall of Rome,
A. D. 476, to the Discovery of America, A. D. 1492. Modern His-
tory embraces the period from the Discovery of America to the pres-
ent time. Sometimes, however, the world's history is divided into only
two great periods — Ancient and Modem; Ancient History embracing
the whole period before the fall of Rome, A. D. 476, and Modem
History comprising the entire period since that event. This double
division is perhaps the more logical of the two, as ancient civilization
passed away with the extinction of the Western Roman Empire, while
modem nations and modem institutions took their rise from that point.
The triple division, however, is the more convenient, and for that
reason we shall follow it in this work.

The three sources of History are written records, architectural
monuments and fragmentary remains. Several races of men have dis-
appeared from the globe, leaving no records Inscribed upon stone or
parchment. The existence and character of these people can only be
inferred from fragments of their weapons, ornaments and household
utensils, found in their tombs or among the ruins of their habitations.
Among these races were the Lake-dwellers of Switzerland; the pre-
historic inhabitants of the Age of Stone and the Age of Bronze of
the British Isles; the builders of the shell-mounds of Denmark and
India, and the Mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley.

The discovery of monuments of great antiquity has aided vastly In
ascertaining the date of ancient events. The Parian Marble, brought
to England from Smyrna by the Earl of Arundel, contains a chrono-
logical arrangement of Important events in Grecian history from the
earliest period to 355 B. C. The Assyrian Canon, discovered by Sir
Henry Rawlinson, the great English antiquarian, consists of a num-
ber of clay tablets, constructed during the reign of Sardanapdlus, and
containing a complete plan of Assyrian chronology, verified by the
record of a solar eclipse which must have occurred June 15, 763 B. C-
The Canon of Ptolemy, a Babylonian record having imi>ortant bear-

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CELTIC ORNAMENTS OF THE AGES OF BRONZE AND IRON ,

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INTRODUCTION.

ing upon Assyrian dates, is another trustworthy ancient document,
giving important dates in Babylonian and Assyrian history. The
Fcuti Capitolmiy discovered at Rome, partly in 1547 and partly in
1817 and 1818, contains in fragmentary records a list of Roman
magistrates and triumphs from the beginning of the Roman Republic
to the close of the reign of Augustus. The Rosetta Stone^ discovered
by a French military engineer during Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt
in 1798, contains inscriptions in the Greek and Egyptian languages,
the deciphering of which has led to the discovery of a key to the
meaning of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the Egyptian monuments.
The fragmentary writings of Sanchoniathon give us some light on
Phcenician history ; those of Berosus on Babylonia and Assyria ; Mane-
tho's lists of the thirty dynasties of Egyptian kings afford us valuable
information; and the works of Herodotus, the "Father of History,"
have given us a graphic account of the ancient nations — their annals,
manners and customs, as well as a geographical description of the
countries which they inhabited.

The imposing temples and palaces of Egypt, Assyria and India
have only afforded historic materials since the diligent research of
European scholars and antiquarians has succeeded in deciphering the
inscriptions which they bore. Within the present generation the dis-
coveries of these European orientalists have added wonderfully to our
knowledge of primeval ages, and explained in a remarkable manner
the brief allusions of the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus within the last
century the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the deciphering of the
Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the labors of those learned French Egyp-
tologists, Champollion and Mariette, have given us a flood of new light
upon ancient Egyptian times; while the exhumations and discoveries
of those celebrated English archaeologists and antiquarians, Layard
and Rawlinson, in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys, have almost recast the
history of Assyria, Chaldaea and Babylonia ; and the patient explora-
tions and exhumations of that German savant. Dr. Schliemann, upon
the site of ancient Troy, between the years 1869 and 187S, have been
rewarded with the discovery of many interesting architectural remains
and furnished new illustrations of the "tale of Troy divine."

In more recent times very many new archaeological discoveries have
l>een made in the Tigris-Euphrates region and in the Nile valley by
English, French, German and American antiquarians. Thus during
the last three decades of the nineteenth century many important facts
bearing upon Chaldaean and Assyrian cosmogony and the early history
of mankind were brought to light by the deciphering of inscriptions
upon Chaldaean and Assyrian tablets by those celebrated English
Assyriologists, Sayce and George Smith. The last years of the nine-

Fasti
Capi-
tolini.

Rosetta
Stone.

Sancho-
niathon,
Berosus,
Manetho,

Herod-
otus.

Re-
Marches
of Euro-
pean Ori-
entalists.

Cham-
pollion

and
Mariette.

Layard
and Raw-
linson.

Dr.

Schlie-

Recent
Archaeo-
logical

Dis-
coveries.

Sayce and
George
Smith.

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INTRODUCTION.

Petrie.

HU-
precht

Hdbnvw
Scrip-
tniM.

Writ-
ings of
Berosas

The An-
cient Hi»-
toriana.

Grecian

His-
toriana.

Roman

Hie-
'torians.

OldTesU-
mentand
Josephus.

Chnrch

His-
toriana.

teenth century and the first years of the twentieth were marked by
many important archaeological discoveries in Egypt, bearing upon the
antiquity of that renowned land, the most important being those of
the celebrated English Egyptologist, Professor William Flinders
Petrie, among the ruins of Abydos. The last years of the nineteenth
century and the first years of the twentieth were also signalized by
the wonderful archaeological discoveries on the site of the ancient Baby-
lonian city of Nipur, by the distinguished German American oriental-
ist, Dr. Herman VoUrath Hilprecht, in charge of the four Babylonian
exploring expeditions under the auspices of the University of Penn-
sylvania.

The oldest remaining books are the Hebrew Scriptures, which, in the
Mosaic cosmogony, describe the origin of the universe and the creation
of the first pair, Adam and Eve, and their fall from a state of inno-
cence and purity ; the murder of their son Abel by his brother Cain ;
the genealogy of the patriarchs of the antediluvian period ; the destruc-
tion, by a great Deluge, of the whole human race, except Noah and
his wife and his three sons and their wives, and their salvation in the
Ark, which rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia; the vain attempt
of Noah's descendants to avert a similar punishment by building the
great Tower of Babel, and the consequent Confusion of Tongues and
the Dispersion of the human race, which led to the peopling of every
quarter of the globe by the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham
and Japheth. The writings of Berosus, the Babylonian historian, also
describe th* Creation, the Deluge and the Confusion of Tongues.
Every civilized nation and savage tribe has some vague idea of a
great flood that once covered the earth, but they all diflPer in their
details.

We have already alluded to the writings of Sanchoniathon, the
Phoenician historian; Berosus, the Babylonian; Manetho, the Egyp-
tian; Herodotus, the "Father of History,*' and the great Hebrew
lawgiver, Moses, the earliest sacred historian. Herodotus was the first
of Grecian historians. Other Greek writers of history were Thucyd-
ides, the great philosophic historian ; Xenophon, the writer of charm-
ing historical romances; Ctesias; Diodorus Siculus; Polybius; and
Plutarch, the charming biographer of antiquity. Ancient Rome pro-
duced Livy, Tacitus, Sallust and Cornelius Nepos, who have given us
the facts of Roman history. For the history of the ancient Hebrews
we are indebted to the books of the Old Testament and the works of
Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who wrote a complete his-
tory of his countrymen in Greek. Among early Christian church his-
torians were the Roman Eusebius and the Anglo Saxon, the "Venerable
Bede." The Frenchmen Comines and Froissart were celebrated chron-

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INTRODUCTION.

iclers of the Middle Ages. The Italian Machiavelli achieved fame
by his historical writings. Among modem historians have been many
who have acquired celebrity by their works. Such were the great trio
of British historians who lived in the eighteenth century — Hume, Gib-
bon and Robertson — ^whose works have ever since been regarded as
standards. In the nineteenth century England also produced many
famous writers of history; such as Macaulay, Carlyle, Grote, Thirl-
wall, Froude, Lingard, Arnold, Alison, Freeman, Rawlinson, Green,
Knight, Merivale, Milman, Hallam and others. France, in the eigh-
teenth century, had her Rollin and Voltaire; and in the nineteenth
century she produced Thiers, Guizot, Sismondi, Mignet, Michelet and
the brothers Thierry. In the eighteenth century Germany had a great
ecclesiastical historian in the person of Mosheim ; and in the nineteenth
century a host of German historians gave to the world the benefit
of their scholarly researches, among whom we may mention Niebiihr,
Neander, Rotteck, Heeren, Schlosser, Mommsen, Curtius and Leopold
von Ranke. Among American historians the most renowned have been
Hildreth, Prescott, Bancroft, Motley, Lossing and Parkman.

All traditions and written accounts point to Asia as the cradle of
the human race. According to the prevalent belief of modem schol-
ars, mankind spent its infancy in the region between the Indus and
the Euphrates, the Arabian Sea and the Jaxartes. The exact location
of the Garden of Eden, or Paradise, is not known. The Oriental
nations reckon four Paradises in Asia — one near Damascus, in Syria ;
another in Chaldsea; a third in Persia; and a fourth in the island of
Ceylon, where there is a lofty mountain called Adam's Peak.

Mankind has been classed by different ethnologists into a variety
of races or types of humanity; the most generally accepted classifi-
cation for the last century being Blumenbach's division into five races
— ^the Caucasian, or white race; the Mongolian, or yellow race; the
Ethiopian, or black race; the American, or red race; and the Malay,
or brown race. The only race which has figured in history is the
Caucasian. The history of the civilized world is the history of the
Caucasian race. The great historical nations have belonged to this
race. The only nations outside of the Caucasian race which have
attained to any degree of civilization or played the least part in his-
tory have been several Mongolian nations, as the Chinese, the Japanese,
the ancient Parthians, and the modem Tartars, Turks and Magyars,
or Hungarians, and two American Indian nations, the ancient Peru-
vians and the Aztecs, or ancient Mexicans. The Ethiopian and
Malay races have never had any history or any civilization.

The origin of nations has been involved in obscurity, which has only
quite recently been removed by the diligent study and the patient

Medisv«l

His-
torians.

The Mod-
em His-
torians.

British

His-
torians

French

His-
torians

Qerman

His-
torians.

American

His-
torians.

Asia, the

Cradle of

theHn-

manRace.

Races of
Mankind.

The Cau-
casian,
the His-
torical
Race.

Recent
Philolog-
ical Re-
searches.

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INTRODUCTION.

Branches
of the
Cauca-
sian Saoe.

The

Aryans in

their

Primeral

Home in

Central

research of modem European scholars. Investigation into the affini-
ties of the various languages has given us some new knowledge upon
this interesting and important subject. Comparing the languages of
most of the modem European nations with those spoken by the ancient
Romans, Greeks, Medes, Persians and Hindoos we observe that all
these languages had a common origin, entirely different from those
of the ancient Chaldees, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Hebrews,
Arabs and Egyptians; these latter being related to each other, but
not to those of the nations previously named. The former of these
languages are called Aryan, the latter Semitic and Hamitic; while the
Central Asian Tartar nomads have a language called Turanian.

Because of these affinities of language, modem philologists have
divided the Caucasian race into three great branches — ^the Aryan,
Indo-European, or Japhetic ; the Semitic, or Shemitic ; and the Hami-
tic. The Aryan, or Indo-European, branch embraces the Brahmanic
Hindoos, the ancient Medes and Persians, and all the European na-
tions, except the Laps and Fins of Northern Europe; the Magyars,
or Hungarians, the Ottoman Turks, and the Basques of Northern
Spain, all five of whom belong to the Turanian, or nomadic branch of
the Mongolian race. The descendants of Europeans and European
colonists in America and other quarters of the globe, of course, also
belong to the Aryan race. The Semitic branch comprises the He-
brews, or Israelites, the Arabs, and the ancient Syrians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. The Hamitic branch
included the ancient Chaldees, Egyptians and Ethiopians. The Aryan
branch is called Japhetic, because it has been supposed to be descended
from Japheth; while the Semitic branch is regarded as the posterity
of Shem, and the Hamitic branch as the children of Ham.

The name Aryan means tiUer of the soil; wherein this race has dif-
fered from the Turanian, or nomadic races of Central Asia. The
ancestors of the Indo-European nations, the primitive Aryans in pre-
historic ages, occupied that region of Central Asia in which was located
the ancient city of Bactra, the modem Balk, in Turkestan. Here
this primeval race lived and attained to a considerable degree of civili-
zation; practicing agriculture and cattle-raising, and some of the
mechanical arts, such as weaving and sewing, metallurgy, pottery-
manufacture, etc. They were also somewhat skilled in architecture,
navigation, mathematics and astronomy. They considered marriage
a sacred contract; and, unlike other Asiatic peoples, they shunned
polygamy. CliUdren were regarded as the light of the family circle,
as shown by the meaning of the names — boy, bestower of happiness;
girl, she that comes rejoicing; brother, supporter; sister, friendly.
;With regard to the Aryan, or Indo-European race it is found that

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INTRODUCTION. 27

the names of many common objects are very much alike in all the
languages and dialects spoken by these people. Thus the word house
in Greeek is domos; in Latin domus; in Sanskrit, or ancient Hindoo,
dama; in Zend, or ancient Persian, demana; and from the same root
is derived our word domestic. The words for ploughing, grinding
com, building houses, etc., are also found almost similar. This demon-
strates that these nations must have had a common origin, and that
they engaged in farming, making bread and building houses. They
also counted up to one hundred, and domesticated the most important
animals — ^the cow, the horse, the sheep, the dog, etc.; and were ac-
quainted with the most useful metals, and armed with iron hatchets.
The primitive Aryans were monotheists in religion and worshiped a
personal God. The Ar3^an, or agricultural races had the patriarchal
form of government, like the Turanian, or nomadic races of Central
Asia; but the father, or head of the family, was subject to a council
of seven elders, whose chief was king, and from whose decision there
was an appeal to heaven in the ordeal of fire and water. The Aryans
followed their leaders and kings, and fixed the distinction between right
and wrong by laws and customs. AH these facts can be proven by
the evidence of language, on the authority of Max Miiller and other
eminent philologists.

The rapid increase of the Aryan population in its primeval home Aryan
led to a division of this primitive people into three branches — one ^i^s^ito
crossing the Hindoo Koosh, overspreading the plateau of Iran and Persia,
laying the foundations of the great Median and Medo-Persian Em- Europe
pires; another moving southeastward across the Indus and becoming
the ancestors of the Brahmanic Hindoos; and a third migrating into
Europe in successive hordes, as represented by the Pelasgic, Celtic,
Teutonic and Slavonic nations, whose descendants now occupy the
greater part of Europe. These Aryan immigrants into Europe seized
the lands of the original Turanian inhabitants, whose descendants are
represented by the modem Basques of Northern Spain and the Laps
and Fins of Northern Russia and Scandinavia.

The Aryan immigrants into Europe occupied diff^erent portions of Aryans in
the continent. The Pelasgians settled in the Grecian and Italian Ei"^ope.
peninsulas of Southern Europe, and were the forefathers of the Hel- Pelas-
lenes, or Greeks, and the Latins, or Romans, the ancestors of the mod- P^ns.
em Italians. The Celts spread over Western Europe, embracing the Celts.
Iberian, or Spanish peninsula, Gaul (now France and Belgium) and
the British Isles, and became the ancestors of the Lusitanians of ancient
Portugal, the Iberians and Numantians of ancient Spain, the ancient
Gauls and Belgse, and their respective Latinized descendants, the mod-
em Portuguese, Spaniards, French and Belgians, as well as the Irish,

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INTRODUCTION.

Teutons.

Sl«-
vonlaiM.

Leader-
ship of the
Aryans.

The Se-
mitic and
Hamitic
Nations.

Diversity
of Occu-
pations
and In-
dustries

the Highland Scotch, and the ancient Britons and their posterity, the
Welsh, the Cornish and the Bretons of Western France. The Teu-
tons, or Grermans, occupied Central Europe and the Scandinavian
peninsula, and became the progenitors of the Groths and Vandals, and
the modem Grermans, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Norman-French,
Dutch, or Hollanders, and the Anglo-Saxons, or English, and their
kindred in the British colonies and in the United States of America.
The Slavonians overspread the vast steppes of Eastern Europe; and
their descendants are represented by the ancient Sarmatians and the
modem Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Servians, Bulgarians, Bosnians
and Croatians.

The Aryan, or Indo-European branch of the Caucasian race has
always plaj^ed the leading part in civilization, and has been the most
active, enterprising and intellectual in the world's history. The Ar-
yans have always been peculiarly the race of progress, and have sur-
passed all others in the development of civil liberty, the perfection of
law, social advancement, and their progress in art, science, literature,
invention, and mode of living. The Aryans alone have originated,
developed and perfected constitutional, representative and republican
government. The present and the future belong wholly to this high-
est type of human development. The Semitic branch of the Caucasian
race has been noted for religious development, having given rise to
three great monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
or Mohammedanism. The Hamitic branch were famous builders, and
their architectural structures in Chaldaea and Egypt were noted for
their massive grandeur. The Semitic and Hamitic nations, after at-
taining a certain degree of civilization, remained stationary ; and their
civilization has utterly perished.

After the dispersion of mankind into various quarters, men chose
different occupations and modes of living, according to the diversities
of their places of residence. The inhabitants of steppes and deserts,
interspersed only here and there with fertile pasture grounds, became
shepherds and roved from place to place, with their tents and herds,
thus becoming nomads, or wanderers; and their occuj^ation was the
breeding of cattle and sheep. Those who occupied favorable districts
on the sea-coast soon discovered the advantages of their situation, as
population increased and their resources developed. They accordingly
practiced navigation and commerce, and sought for wealth and com-
fort, in furtherance of which objects they erected elegant dwelling
houses and founded cities; whilst the inhabitants of less hospitable
shores subsisted by means of fisheries. The dwellers' upon plains
adopted agriculture and the peaceful arts; vhilst the rude mountain-
eers gave themselves up to the chase, and, moved by a violent impulse

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INTRODUCTION.

for freedom, had their delight in wars and battles. By taming wild
cattle, man very early procured for himself domesticated animals.

Commerce was a mighty factor in the development and civilization
of the human race and in the intercourse among nations. Those who
occupied fruitful plains, or the banks of navigable rivers, carried on
an inland traffic. The inhabitants of the sea-shores conducted a coast-
ing trade. At first men exchanged, or bartered, one article for an-
other. At a later period they adopted the plan of fixing a certain
specified value upon the precious metals, and employed coined money
as an artificial and more convenient medium of exchange. The dwell-
ers in towns occupied themselves with mechanical employments and
inventions, and cultivated the arts and sciences for the comfort, happi-
ness and refinement of life and for mental culture and development.

In the course of time nations became divided into civilized and un-
civilized, as their intellectual development was furthered by talents and
commerce, or retarded and cramped by dullness and by isolation from
the rest of mankind. Uncivilized nations are either wild hordes, under
an absolute and despotic chief who wields unlimited power over his fol-
lowers, or wandering nomadic tribes, guided by a leader who, as father
of the family, exercises the functions of lawgiver, governor, judge and
high-priest. Neither the wild hordes, under their despotic chiefs, oc-
cupying the unknown regions of Africa (Negroes), the steppes and
lofty mountain ranges of Asia, the primeval forests of America (In-
dians), and the numerous islands of Oceanica (Malays), nor the
nomadic races with their patriarchal government, find any place in
history. This subject only deals ynth those nations who have attained
to some degree of civilization and have, from similarity of customs and
for mutual advantage, engaged m peaceful intercourse with each other,
and who have made considerable progress in the science of civil govern-
ment and the development of political institutions.

The earliest civilizations were those found in the Tigris-Euphrates
and Nile valleys, in the Hindoo peninsula, and in the remote empire
of China. The exact origin of the ancient nations and civilizations
is lost in the dimness of their remote antiquity. These regions were
richly endowed by nature with the resources necessary for sustaining
a dense population ; and the earliest historic empires accordingly took
their rise in the rich alluvial lands watered by the Tigris and the
Euphrates in South-western Asia and by the Nile in North-eastern
Africa.

Historical Asia is South-western Asia. There the Hamitic empire
of Chaldapa and the Semitic empires of Assyria, Babyloma, the Syrians,
the Hebrews and the Phoenicians played their respective parts in the
world's historic drama. There the Aryan race first came upon the

Com-
merce and
Human
Develop-
ment.

Civilized
andUn-
dviUzed
Nations.

TheBarU-
eetCivU-
izations.

South-
western,
or Histor-
ical AsU.

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80 INTRODUCTION.

scene in the appearance of the great Median and Medo-Persian Em-
pires and the Graeco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and
his successors, followed bj the Parthian, Eastern Roman and New
Persian Empires. There the Semitic race again prevailed in the sud-
den rise of Mohammed's religion and the great empire founded by his
successors. There the Turanian race first played a historic part in
the conquests by the Seljuk Turks from Tartary, the two centuries of
warfare between Christendom and Islam for the possession of the Holy
Land as represented in the Crusades, the terrible scourges of the con-
quering Mongol and Tartar hordes of Zingis Khan and Tamerlane,
and, lastly, the rise of the now-decaying Mohammedan empires of the
Ottoman Turks and the modem Persians.

Northern All that part of Asia north of the Altai mountains, now known as
tral or" Siberia, is a comparatively barren region and was unknown in an-

Taranian tiquity. Central Asia, now called Tartary and Turkestan, was an-
ciently known as Scythia, and was then as now occupied by nomadic
hordes who have roamed over those extensive pastoral lands for count-
less ages, with their flocks and herds, having no fixed abodes or cities
and no other political arrangements than the patriarchal form of gov-
ernment. Accordingly, the Turanian races inhabiting that region
have played no part in history, except that the Tartar and Mongol
races inhabiting those vast steppes have at times overrun and conquered
the civilized countries of South-western and Southern Asia.

Southern Thus, excepting Egypt and Ethiopia — ^the two great Hamitic na-

and East- tions of Africa — all the ancient Oriental nations had their seat in Asia,
cm A8ia«

or India, The populous empires of India, China and Japan — ^though they con-
China and tributed their jewels, spices, perfumes and silks to the luxury of the
people of South-western Asia — were almost unknown to the ancient
Greeks and Romans; and though their art and literature are vast,
these had no influence upon the general course of the world's progress.
China and Japan are two ancient empires which have continued to
exist to this day, the former with but little change. The nations of
Farther India are almost unknown to history; while Hindoostan, the
seat of a dense Aryan population from the earliest antiquity, and one
of the oldest civilizations, as attested by vast architectural remains and
a copious religious literature, was unknown to history until Alexander's
invasion, and became successively the prey of Arabian, Afghan, Tar-
tar, Mongol, Portuguese and British conquest.
Northern, The only historical part of Africa is Northern Africa, or that part
toriGid ^^ *^® continent bordering on the Mediterranean sea and watered by
Africa, th^ Nile; and the only great nations of ancient Africa were Eg3rpt,
Ethiopia and Carthage. All the rest of the vast continent was a dark
region wholly unknown to the ancient civilized nations of South-western

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., ,^ UrNOA AND ,

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INTRODUCTIOK.

Asia and Europe ; and only within the last five centuries have its West-
em, Southern and Eastern coasts been discovered, explored, taken pos-
session of and colonized by Europeans ; while the interior has been but
partially visited by European explorers within the last hundred years,
and occupied by European nations only recently.

Southern Europe was the seat of the greatest two nations of antiq-
uity — ^the Greeks and the Romans, the Pelasgic nations of the Aryan
race — ^the former by their literature and philosophy and their political
freedom, and the latter by their laws and political institutions, influ-
encing all future European nations. The other nations of ancient
Europe were barbarians, many of whom were conquered and civilized
by the Romans. The overthrow of the Roman dominion in the fifth
century after Christ entirely changed the current of European history
by a redistribution of its population through the migrations and con-
quests of its vast hordes of Northern barbarians, who fourteen cen-
turies ago laid the foundations of the great nations of modem Europe.
America and Oceanica were wholly unknown to the ancient inhabitants
of the Old World, and have only occupied the field of history since
their discovery and settlement by Europeans within the last five cen-
turies.

History deals only with civilized man, and history proper only begins
with the origin of civilized nations and with the commencement of
historical records. Accordingly, the cradles of civilization — if not
the cradles of the human race — ^were the fertile alluvial Tigris-Eu-
phrates and Nile valleys, where, with the dawn of civilization, flourished
the old Chaldaean and Egyptian monarchies — ^the most ancient of his-
torical states of antiquity. History begins with Egypt, the oldest of
historical nations.

Civilization and human progress have in the main followed the course
of the sun. In the East arose those great nations and cities from
which other lands have derived a part of their civil institutions, their
religion and their culture. In the East, the land of the camel, the
"ship of the desert," originated that caravan trade which contributed
so vastly to human progress. To protect themselves against the rude
Bedouins, the Oriental merchants traveled in large companies, often
armed, conveying their wares upon the backs of camels from place to
place. These commercial journeys gave rise to many commercial
cities and centers of trade, occasioned the erection of store-houses and
caravansaries, and led to intercourse between distant nations and to
an interchange of productions, religious institutions and social policy.
Temples and oracles of celebrity often served for markets and ware-
houses.

Ancient
CivUized
Europe,
or Greece
and
Rome.

America

and
Oceanica

The
Cradles of
Civiliza-
tion.

Ancient
Oriental
CiviUza-
tionand
Institn-
tions.

Caravan
Trade.

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INTRODUCTION.

Oriental
Religions
and Gov-
ernment.

Character

of the
Orientals.

Asia, the
Birth-
place of
Religions
and Des-
potism.

In the East all the great religions took their rise and gained their
full development, as the Orientals have always been the most contem-
plative on all that concerns man's relations to the Deity. In the
East the patriarchal and despotic governments alone prevailed.
Where the systems of castes prevailed, the priests and soldiers con-
stituted the privileged classes, from both of which ultimately arose the
unlimited kingly power ; and the oflScers of state were regarded as
slaves and menials, without personal rights or property. The king,
who was regarded with almost as much reverence as the Deity, dis-
posed of the lives and possessions of his subjects at will. He gave
and took away at his pleasure, and no one dared to appear before him
without prostrating his body on the ground. He lived like a god, in
the midst of pleasure and enjoyment, surrounded by hosts of slaves,
who obe3'ed his wishes, executed his orders and submitted themselves to
his pleasures ; and he was surrounded by all the wealth and possessions,
by all the' pomp and splendor, of the world. In these Oriental gov-
ernments laws and human rights were nowhere; despotism and slavery
prevailed; and consequently there was no incentive to vital energy and
no capability of permanent civilization. For this reason all Oriental
states have become the easy prey of foreign conquerors, and their
early civilization has perished or remained stationary.

By original disposition, the Orientals are more inclined to contem-
plative ease and enjoyment than to active exertion ; and for this reason
they have never attained to freedom and spontaneous activity, but have
quietly submitted to their native rulers, or groaned under the yoke of
foreign oppressors. After reaching a certain degree of civilization
they submitted themselves to an unenterprising pursuit of pleasure,
and thus by degrees became slothful and effeminate. Their practice
of polygamy further promoted their effeminacy. Oriental architec-
ture was noted for its gigantic designs and its imposing grandeur ; but
it did not display the symmetry, harmony and utility characteristic
of the architecture of a free people. Slavery paralyzed every out-
ward manifestation of Oriental life.

Besides being the cradle of the human race, Asia is the birth-place
of the great religions and the home of absolute despotism. The two
great pantheistic religions — Brahmanism and Buddhism ; also the great
monotheistic religions — ^Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and
Mohammedanism — arose in Asia ; while Asiatic governments to-day are
what they have been from time immemorial — absolute monarchies, or
despotisms; no republic or constitutional monarchy ever having flour-
ished on Asiatic soil, except the insular Empire of Japan in our own
time, which has recently become a constitutional monarchy, modeled

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Europe
and Asia
Com-
pared.

INTRODUCTION.

after the British government, and the little republic said to have been
discovered recently in Manchooria by the Russians.

Europe, on the contrary, inhabited by the progressive Aryan race,
has carried poUtical institutions to the highest state of development;
civil, political and religious liberty having had a steady growth.
Asiatic civilization has been stationary, while European civilization has
been progressive. The Asiatics are passive, submissive, given to con-
templative ease and disincUned to active exertion. The Europeans
are active, energetic, vigilant and aggressive. Europe has also col-
onized other portions of the globe; the greater part of the present
populations of North and South America being the descendants of
Europeans who settled in the New World, and drove away, or assim-
ilated with, the aborigines; while Europeans have also settled in por-
tions of Africa, Asia and Oceanica. The Asiatics, on the other hand,
do not colonize ; though in recent years large numbers of Chinese and
Japanese have migrated to various parts of Oceanica and America,
not as colonists, but settling among the people of the countries to which
they had migrated.

In the Prehistoric Ages — ^that is, the ages before recorded history — Forms of
the patriarchal form of government prevailed; each father, or head ^^7"
of a family, governing the whole family. Since the formation of
nations there have been various forms of governments — Autocracy,
degpotism, or absolute monarchy, where the supreme power is vested in
the monarch himself, without any restraint or limitation ; Limited, ot
constitutional monarchy, where the power of the monarch is limited by
law or by constitutions giving the nobility, or aristocracy, and the
masses some share in the government; Aristocracy, or government by
nobles or aristocrats ; Theocracy, or government by the Church in the
name of the Deity ; Hierarchy, or government by priests ; Pure dem-
ocracy, or government by the people directly; and Representative
democracy, or republicanism, or government by the people through
their chosen representatives. There have been several kinds of repub-
lics — aristocratic, where the few have governed, and democratic, where
the masses, through their chosen representatives, are the rulers. The
best examples of pure democracy were the governments of ancient
Athens and ancient Rome, where the people themselves assembled in a
body for purposes of legislation. This form of democratic govern-
ment can only exist where a state consists of but a single city with its
surrounding territory, as in the cases of the two ancient republics just
cited; and is utterly impossible among a population distributed over
a vast extent of country^ Late in the nineteenth century Switzerland
became practically a pure democracy by the adoption of the Initiative
and referendum, by which the people petition for laws and vote for

VOL. 1.— 3

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INTRODUCTION.

Savage
Govem-
ments*

Oriental
Despot-
isms and
Castes.

Varieties

of
Religion.

Monothe-

isniyPoly-

theism.

their approval or rejection. Monarchs are called by different titles,
as Emperor, King, Prince, Duke, Sultan, Czar, Shah or Khan, if a
male ; and Empress, Queen, Princess, Duchess, Sultana or Czarina, if
a female.

The savage and barbarous tribes of Asia, Africa, America and
Oceanica are governed by their chiefs; and their governments are
simple, as were those of all the original nations, the chiefs being vir-
tually absolute monarchs and their governments being despotisms.
Even the civilized Asiatic nations have always been despotisms, the only
exception being Japan in our time. It was only on the soil of Europe,
occupied by the progressive Aryan race, that civil liberty was bom
and that the masses first obtained any share of political power. A
great hindrance to civil freedom among ancient Asiatic and African
nations was the system of castes, by which men were separated accord-
ing to their occupations and conditions, which were transmitted from
generation to generation without the slightest change. The priests,
who alone possessed a knowledge of religious customs and institutions,
and who bequeathed their knowledge to their descendants, comprised
the first caste. The soldiers constituted the second caste, and shared
with the priests the government of the people. The third caste were
the tillers of the soil, the fourth caste the artisans, and the fifth caste
the shepherds, who were universally despised. Any one who violated
the rules of caste became an outcast. The system of castes prevailed
in its purest state for the longest time m India and Egypt.

Man is naturally a religious being. A world-wide religious senti-
ment seems to prevail, but there have been many varieties or mani-
festations of this sentiment. Thus we have Monotheism^ or the belief
in one Grod ; Polytheism, or the belief in many gods ; Pantheism, or the
system which regards the whole universe, with all its laws and the
different manifestations of nature, as the Supreme Being. Many
polytheistic and pantheistic nations have made idols, or images, as
figures or representations of their deities ; and for this reason have been
called idolators, pagans or heathen. The four great monotheistic re-
ligions of the world have been the ancient Persian religion of Zoroaster,
or the religion of the modem Parsees, or fire-worshipers of Western
India; Judaism, or the religion of the Jews; Christianity; and Islam,
or Mohammedanism. The leading polytheistic religions were those of
the ancient Egyptians, Chaldseans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians,
Greeks, Romans and Scandinavians. The chief pantheistic religions
have been the two great religions of Hindoo origin — Brahmanism and
BtLddhism.

It is believed that originally monotheism was universal, but that
sometime during the prehistoric ages, after the dispersion of mankind

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THi- ui% /^^K
PUBLIC. LiHHAR)

r'^^v^/^^.~^ii.

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INTRODUCTION.

into various quarters, most nations fell into polytheism and idolatry.
Even the polytheistic religions recognize one Supreme Being, who is
superior to and above all the other deities; and for this reason all
religions have been regarded as monotheistic to some extent. There
are also some polytheistic features about all monotheistic religions, as
the belief in the existence of angels, who, as dwelling in the celestial
world, are beings superior to mortals. Among ancient nations the
only truly monotheistic religions were those of the Hebrews and the
Medo-Persians — the one a Semitic and the other an Aryan people.

From time immemorial, among pagan and polytheistic nations, there Idolatry
has prevailed the custom of making idols, or images of wood, stone,
metal or clay, to represent their deities ; and these have been fashioned
into a great variety of forms. The idol was only a visible symbol of
a spiritual conception or of an invisible power. Temples and altars
have been erected for the worship of these deities ; and sacrifices have
been offered to them, partly to appease their wrath, and partly to
obtain their favor. These sacrifices have varied in character with the
civilization of the people who have offered them. The ancient Greeks
and Romans, in their joyous festivals to their gods, socially consumed
the fruits of the earth and animals from the firstling of a flock to the
solemn sacrifice of a hecatomb (a hundred oxen). Savage tribes have
slaughtered human beings upon their altars, to appease by blood the
wrath of their offended deities. The Phoenicians and Syrians placed
their own children in the arms of a red-hot idol representing the god
Moloch.

To further delude the masses, the priests invented legends, fables and
myths about their gods, clothed them in poetic fancy, and thus orig-
inated mythology, or the science of their gods. In these legends,
fables and myths, the deeds of the different gods and their dealings
with men were described in enigmatical allusions, allegories and figura-
tive expressions. The nations with the greatest amount of creative
imagination and religious impulse possessed the richest mythology.
These stories of the gods incited the people to superstition; and the
solemn worship in the temples and sacred groves, with their mysterious
ceremonies and symbolical usages, maintained a feeling of veneration
and religious awe. To inspire in the people a feeling of the divine
presence, sacred places and temples were provided with oracles, from
which the superstitious multitude might get light into the mysteries
of the future, in obscure and ambiguous language. In this way and
by such means the priesthood swayed the masses in most countries ; and
thus secured power, honor and wealth for themselves. The people were
enslaved by ignorance, credulity, superstition and fear*

Legends,

Fables,

Myths.

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INTRODUCTION.

BRANCHES OP THE CAUCASIAN, THE ONLY HISTORICAL RACE.

1. Abyah, or Ikdo-Europeak Branch.
1. Hindoos.
9. Medes and Persians.

3. Hellenes, or Greelcs.

4. Latin, or Romanic Nations.
1. Ancient Romans,

9. Italians,

3. French,

4. Spaniards and Spanish Ameri-

cans,

5. Portuguese and Brazilians,

6. Flemings, or Belgians.

7. Roumanians, '

6, .Germanic, or Teutonic Nations.
1. Germans,
9. Danes, '\

3. Swedes, r Scandinavians,

4. Norwegians,

6. Dutch, or Hollanders.

6. English and Anglo-Americans

( A nglo-Saxons ) .

7. Scotch Lowlanders,

8. Norman-French,

6. Celtic Nations.

1. Ancient Britons, Oauls arid

Spaniards,

2. Irish, Welsh, and Scotch High-

landers.

3. Bretons {West of France),

7. Slavonic Nations. .
1. Russians,

9. Poles,

3. Bohemians.

4. Servians,

6, Bulgarians.

6. Bosnians,

7. Croatians,
II. Semitic Branch.

1. Hebrews, or Israelites.

2. Arabs,

3. Syrians,

4. Assyrians and Later Babyloni-

ans,

5. Phcsnicians and Carthaginians,
III. Hamitic Branch.

1. Chaldees, or Early Babylonians,
9. Egyptians and Ethiopians,

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""^■'■^ ^^ZJ

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TH£ Ui%' YwKK
PUBLIC LiHt^^ARY

ASTOK, LhNMA AND
TILDKN r(;UN-DAT10Nt

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CHAPTER I.
ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

SECTION I.— THE ANCIENT NILE VALLEY.

Although Asia was the cradle of the human race, the cradle of Egypt the
civilization was in the Nile valley, which, from the island of Elephan- civU-°
tine, in the Nile, northward to the Mediterranean sea, a distance of ization.
five hundred and twenty-six miles, was the seat of ancient Egypt, "the
mother of the arts and sciences.*' In Egypt we first find a civil gov-
ernment and political institutions established ; and although Egypt may
not be the oldest nation, Egyptian history is the oldest history. The
monuments, records and literature of Egypt are far more ancient than
those of Chaldaea and India, the next two oldest nations. The ruins
and monuments of ancient civilization found in the Nile valley render
that country one of the most interesting on the globe. While the
progress of other nations from ignorance and rudeness to art and
civilization may be easily traced, Egypt appears in the earliest twi-
h'ght of history a great, powerful and highly civilized nation ; and her
gigantic architectural works are the most wonderful, as well as the
most ancient in the world, showing a skill in the quarrying, transport-
ing, carving and joining of stone which modem architects may admire
but are unable to surpass.

From the earliest antiquity Egypt has been called "the Gift of the TheWile'a
Nile." From time immemorial this renowned land, in the midst of overfow.
surrounding deserts, has been one of the most fertile regions of the
globe, and was in consequence the great granary of antiquity. This
unsurpassed fertility is attributable to the annual overflow of the Nile,
occasioned by the heavy rainfalls in the uplands of Abyssinia ; so that
this mighty stream, the only river of Egypt, in its whole course
through the country from south to north, by its mud deposits renews
yearly the soil of this narrow valley, which really constituted ancient
Egypt, and whose average width, from the modem city of Cairo south
to the First Cataract, does not exceed fifteen miles. The Nile dis-
charges its waters into the Mediterranean through three distinct chan-

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Geo-
graphical

Divi-
sions and
Cities.

Ancient
Ethiopia.

nels, which branch off from each other about ninety miles from the sea,
and which enclose the region called the Delta, from its resemblance in
form to the Greek letter of that name. The Delta has always been a
region of unsurpassed fertility. The spontaneous growth of the date-
palm furnished the people with a cheap and abundant article of food ;
and the immense yield, with comparatively slight labor, of large crops
of cereals, because of the natural fertility of the soil, rendered this
region, from primitive times, capable of sustaining a dense population,
and made it the primeval seat of organized human society.

Ancient Egypt was divided into three geographical sections — ^the
Thebais, or Upper Egypt, in the south; the Heptanomis, or Middle
Egypt, in the centre; and the Delta, or Lower Egypt, in the north.
The chief city of the Thebais was the "hundred-gated Thebes,'* whose
ruins, extending for seven miles on both banks of the Nile, astonish
the modem traveler, as he gazes upon the remains of magnificent tem-
ples, splendid palaces, colossal statues, obelisks, sphinxes, tombs hewn
in the solid rock, subterranean catacombs, and the gigantic statue of
Memnon. Kamak and Luxor are the portions of Thebes which pre-
sent the most stately ruins, the most imposing being the great temple
at the former place. The most ancient city of Upper Egypt was This,
afterward called Abydos. Other cities of this section were Lycopolis,
Latopolis, Antaeopolis and Ombos. The southernmost points of Egypt
were Syene and the island of Elephantine, in the Nile. The leading
city of the Heptanomis was Memphis, on the west side of the Nile,
founded by Menes, the first Egyptian king, and whose wonderful
ancient splendor is now attested by its ruins. In the vicinity of
Memphis was the famous Labyrinth, and here also are the great Pyra-
mids of Ghizeh — ^the most imposing monuments ever erected by human
hands. Other famous cities of Middle Egypt were Heracleopolis,
Hermopolis and Letopolis. The Delta was, in ancient times, thickly
studded with cities, chief of which were Avaris, or Tanis, Sais, Bubas-
tis, Mendes, Rameses, Heliopolis, Magdolon, Pelusium, Canopus and
Hermopolis. The famous Greek city of Alexandria, on the western
side of the Delta, was, in the later days of antiquity, the metropolis
of Egypt, and from its location it became the great commercial center
of the civilized world, while being also the seat of learning and civili-
zation.

To the south of ancient Egypt, in the region now embracing Nubia
and Abyssinia, was the ancient Ethiopia, whose people had also at-
tained a high state of civilization, as is fully proven by the existence
of ruins along that portion of the Nile valley similar to those of Egypt.
On the west of Egypt was the great Libyan Desert, now called the
Sahara.

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THE ANCIENT NILE VALLEY.

Vegetable
Products.

The population of ancient Egypt is known to have been at least The
five milUons, and may have been seven millions. They belonged to the "^^^^
Hamitic branch of the Caucasian race, and originally came from Asia, tians.
being, according to the Hebrew account, the descendants of Misraim,
the grandson of Ham. They were a brown race, mild in their general
character, polished in their manners, and were by nature obedient and
religious. They were cleanly in their habits and food, and in conse-
quence were a healthy, hardy people.

The climate of the Nile valley is warm and dry. In Southern Egypt aimate.
the heat is excessive. In Northern Egypt several causes combine to
give a lower summer temperature. In the desert tracts the air is much
drier than in the Nile valley itself, with greater alternations of heat
and cold. In summer the air is suffocating, while in winter the
days are cool and the nights actually cold. Heavy rains and violent
thunder-storms are frequent at this season. At certain seasons green
herbage and flowers cover the torrent-beds after the water has flowed
into the Nile ; but the solar heat and the Khamseen^ or hot desert wind,
wither the herbage and flowers at other seasons.

The vegetable productions of Egypt are trees, shrubs, esculent
plants, grain, artificial grasses and medicinal plants. The trees are
the date-palm, the sycamore, the tamarisk, the myxa, the acanthus and
several kinds of acacias. Among shrubs and fruit-trees are the fig, the
pomegranate, the mulberry, the vine, the olive, the apricot, the peach,
the pear, the plum, the apple, the orange, the lemon, the banana, the
locust-tree, the persea, the castor-oil plant and the prickly pear.
These, excepting the orange, lemon, apridfot and banana, are believed
to have all been productions of ancient, as well as of modem, Egypt.
The esculent plants which grew wild were the byblus, or papyrus, the
Nymphcea lotus and the Lotus ccerulea. The papyrus plant, which
was used for writing, is not now found in Egypt. The cultivated
vegetables are mainly the same as those of other countries. Artificial
grasses of ancient Egypt were clover, vetches, lupins and the gUbdn
of the Arabs, or the Lathyrus sativus of Pliny.

The wild animals indigenous in Egypt were the hippopotamus, the Animals
crocodile, the lion, the hyena, the wolf, the jackal, the fox, the ich-
neumon, the hare, the jerboa, the rat, the mouse, the shrew-mouse, the
porcupine, the hedgehog, and perhaps the bear, the wild boar, the ibex,
the gazelle, three kinds of antelopes, the stag, the wild sheep, the
Monitor NiLoticus^ and the wild cat. The domestic animals were the
horse, the ass, the camel, the Indian or humped ox, the cow, the sheep,
the goat, the pig, the cat and the dog.

The birds of Egypt are the eagle, the falcon, the -^tolian kite, the
black vulture, the bearded vulture, the Vultur percnopterus, the osprey.

Birds.

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Fish.

Minerals.

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

the homed owl, the screech-owl, the raven, the ostrich, the ibis, the
pelican, the vulpanser or fox-goose, the Nile duck, the hoopoe, the sea-
swallow, the Eg3'ptian kingfisher, the quail, the oriental dotterell, the
benno, the sicsac, the swallow, the sparrow, the wagtail, the crested
plover, the heron and other wading birds, the common kite, the hawk,
the common vulture, the common owl, the white owl, the turtle-dove,
the missel thrush, the common kingfisher, the lark, and the finch.

There were different kinds of fish in the Nile ; and various reptiles
were found in the country, such as turtles, iguanas, geckos or small
lizards, the homed snake, the asp, the chameleon, and others. The
most remarkable insects are the scorpion, the locust and the solpuga
spider.

Among minerals in Egypt are many excellent kinds of stone, such
as magnesian limestone, sandstone, porphyry, alabaster, granite and
syenite. The inexhaustible supply of stone made that gift of nature
the great building material of Egypt. The different kinds of stone
were conveyed from one end of Egypt to the other by being floated
on rafts along the Nile. It was easy to float down the river the gran-
ite and syenite of the far South of Egypt to Thebes, Memphis, and
the cities of the Delta. There were few metals in Egypt. Among
these were gold, silver, copper, iron and lead. Other mineral produc-
tions were natron, salt, sulphur, petroleum, chalcedonies, carnelians,
jaspers, green breccia, emeralds, agate, rock-crystal, serpentine, com-
pact feldspar, steatite, hornblende, basanitc, actinolite and the sul-
phate of barytes.

SECTION II.— SOURCES OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY.

Native
Myths.

Manetho.

The history of Egypt dates back to the most remote antiquity.
The early Egyptians believed that there had been a time when their
ancestors were savages and cannibals, dwelling in caves in those ridges
of sandstone which border the valley of the Nile on the east ; and that
their greatest benefactors were Osiris and Isis, who raised them into
a devout and civilized people, eating bread, drinking wine and beer,
and planting the olive. For this reason the worship of Osiris and
Isis became general throughout Egypt, while the different cities and
nomes had their own respective local deities. According to Manetho,
a native Egyptian historian of the later days of antiquity, the first
rulers of Egypt were gods, spirits, demigods, and manes^ or human
souls ; which amounts to saying that the earliest history of Egypt, like
that of most other countries, is unknown or involved in the obscurity
and uncertainty of legend and fable.

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SOURCES OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY.

The history of this great ancient people has been derived from sev-
eral sources — ^the historical writings of the ancient Greek historians,
Herodotus and Diodorus, and the native Egyptian priest Manetho, and
in modem times from the deciphering of the inscriptions on the Egyp-
tian monuments and from the discovery of the records on rolls of
papyrus found in the tombs.

The ancient sources of Eg3rptian chronology are obscure and con-
flicting. The Greek historians represented the Egyptians as the first
race of men. When Herodotus visited Egypt, about the middle of the
fifth century before Christ, the native priests read to him, from rolls
of papyrus, the names of three hundred and forty-one kings, from
Menes, the founder of the monarchy, to Seti. In the great temple of
Thebes the priests showed Herodotus the wooden images of three hun-
dred and forty-five priests, who, from father to son, had held the sacer-
dotal office during the reigns of these kings. From these data Herod-
otus estimated the antiquity of Egypt to have been nearly twelve
thousand years, counting three hundred and forty generations from
Menes to Seti, with three generations to each century, and reckoning
a century and a half from the beginning of Seti's reign to the Per-
sian conquest of Egypt, B. C. 525, which latter event had occurred
about seventy-five years before the visit of the "Father of History"
to this celebrated land. According to this computation, based upon
the recorded traditions of the Egyptian priests, the founding of the
Egyptian monarchy by Menes occurred more than twelve thousand
five hundred years before Christ.

In the first century before Christ, Diodorus Siculus, another Greek
historian, also visited this renowned land, and to him the priests read
from their sacred books the names of four hundred and seventy kings,
beginning with Menes, with accounts of their appearance, stature and
actions. From the information he thus received, giving three genera-
tions to a century, Diodorus computed the founding of the kingdom
by Menes at nearly seventeen thousand years before his time. But
careful research revealed to him many errors in the traditionary rec-
ords, and his corrected accounts assign the founding' of the Old Empire
by Menes at 4800 B. C.

About three centuries before Christ, the learned Greek antiquarian,
Eratosthenes, librarian of Alexandria, copied the names of thirty-eight
Theban kings from the holy books of Thebes, which list was finished
by Apollodorus by adding the names of fifty-three more, thus giving
a full list of ninety-one kings.

In the third century before Christ, an Egyptian priest, named
Manetho, compiled a history of his country in three volumes, giving
the reigns of all the kings from the founding of the monarchy by

Greek
Sources.

Herod-
otus.

Diodorus
Siculus.

Eratos-
thenes

and
Apollo-
dorus.

Manetlio'8
Thirty
Dynas-
ties.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Tnrin
Papyrus.

Hiero-
glyphics.

RosetU
Stone.

Menes to the first Persian conquest of Egypt, 525 B. C, through
twenty-six dynasties, and through four more dynasties until the final
Persian conquest in 346 B. C, making thirty dynasties in all. This
work was afterward lost, but fragments of it were transcribed by
Josephus, Julius Africanus, Eusebius, Syncellus, and other historians,
and thus handed down to future generations. According to Mane-
tho's calculation, the founding of the kingdom by Menes occurred in
the year 5706 B. C. in the Egyptian reckoning, and in the year 5702
B. C. of the Julian calendar. Manetho's record of the first seventeen
dynasties, embracing the periods of the Old Empire and the Middle
Empire, is very obscure, on account of facts and dates found recorded
in the monumental inscriptions of that long period of over twelve
.centuries; and it is hard to decide whether the thirty dynasties were
consecutive, or whether several of them were contemporaneous. This
fact has made it difficult to fix the exact or approximate date of the
establishment of the Old Empire by Menes.

A list of the names of kings was also preserved in the Turin Papy-
rus, recorded more than a thousand years before the Christian era.
Other sources of ancient Egyptian history are the allusions made to
that country in the Hebrew Scriptures.

In the past century our knowledge of this famous land has been
immensely extended by the discovery of the art of deciphering the
inscriptions which this ancient people lavishly carved on their build-
ings and monuments, particularly their obelisks, painted on the fres-
coed insides of their tombs, and actually cut on nearly all objects of
art or use. These writings and carvings were in the character of what
are known as hieroglyphics^ a Greek word signifying sacred carvings
or priestly writing. The knowledge of the reading of these inscrip-
tions perished with the decay of ancient Egypt, and for many centuries
the term "hieroglyphics" was synonymous with everything mysterious.

The unraveling of this mystery was brought about by an interest-
ing incident. During Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798, a
French engineer, while engaged in digging the foundation of a fort
near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, discovered a stone tablet about
three feet long, on which wa^ carved an inscription in three diff^erent
characters. This tablet has become celebrated as the Rosetta Stone.
The lower of the three texts wfiis Greek, and easily translated; the
upper text was in the hieroglyphic style, while the middle text was
in a character since styled demotic, meaning the writing of the com-
mon people (from demos^ the people). Copies of this inscription were
circulated among the learned men of Europe, and after long and pa-
tient efforts the alphabet of the hieroglyphics was discovered; so that
these carved inscriptions on old Egyptian works of art and archi-

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OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 43

lecture can noW be easily and correctly read, thus giving an abundance
of new light on the history of this wonderful land of antiquity. The
Rosctta Stone was carved about 196 B. C, and was an ordinance of
the Egyptian priests decreeing honors to Ptolemy Epiphanes, one of
the famous Greek dynasty who governed Egypt during the first three
centuries before Christ, and that accounts for the existence of the
three texts on the tablet. The great task of deciphering these inscrip-
tions was chiefly the work of the noted French savant, Champollion.

On account of the obscurity and uncertainty of early Eg3rptian Modem
chronology, modem historians and Egyptologists have differed widely ^^ts."
as to the antiquity of this most ancient monarchy. The French Egyp-
tologists, headed by M. Mariette, place the founding of the First
Dynasty by Menes at 5004 B. C. The German Orientalists and Egyp-
tologists differ, Bockh fixing the date at 5702 B. C, Dr. Brugsch at
4455 B. C, Lauth at 4157 B. C, Professor Lepsius at 3892 B. C,
Baron Bunsen at 3059 B. C, and Dr. Duncker at 3233 B. C. The
English Egyptologists, at the head of whom stands Sir Gardner Wil-
kinson, regard the year 2700 B. C. as about the approximate date;
and, as it is necessary to have some fixed chronological basis, we will
follow the English view in the present work. In the last few years
William Flinders Petrie, an eminent English Egyptologist, has made
a number of new and very wonderful discoveries in Egypt, thus bring-
ing to light many new facts regarding the antiquity of that renowned
land and the founding of the Old Empire by Menes. By deciphering
many inscriptions among the ruins of the ancient city of Abydos,
Petrie established the fact that the civilization of Egypt existed many
centuries before Menes, who only established a powerful monarchy by
uniting several hitherto separate and highly civilized kingdoms.

SECTION in.— OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT.

The history of ancient Egypt has been divided into three distinctive Three
periods. The Old Empire extended from the establishment of the ^^ent
First Dynasty at Memphis by Menes, in the very earliest times, to the Egypt.
conquest of all Egypt by the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, about 1900
B. C. The Middle Empire — ^the epoch of the rule of the Hyksos over
the whole country — embraced the period from 1900 B. C, to the expul-
sion of the Shepherd Kings in 1600 B. C. The New Empire lasted
over a thousand years, from 1600 B. C. to the Persian conquest of
Egypt in 525 B. C. ; since which time this famous land has not been
governed by a native prince. The New Empire was the most brilliant
period of Egyptian history, and may be subdivided into two sharply-

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIQPIA.

Nomes.

Mene.

AteU.

Kenkenes.
Uenephes.

Third
Dynasty.

Necher-
ophes.

Tosor-
thrus.

distinguished epochs — the grand age, from 1600 B. C. to 1200 B. C. ;
and the age of decay, from 1200 B. C. to 525 B. C.

Egypt was originally divided into a number of nomes or petty states,
independent of each other, and each having for its nucleus a temple
and an established priesthood. One historian mentions fifty-three
nomes, another thirty-six. The gradual absorption of the weaker
nomes by the more powerful finally resulted in the establishment of
this first consolidated monarchy of Africa.

The first mortal king of Misraim, the "double land," was IVIekes,
who, according to Manetho, founded the First Egyptian Dynasty at'
This (afterwards Abydos), in Upper Egypt. This was the begin-
ning of the Old Empire, which lasted from the earliest times to the
conquest of all Egypt by the Hyksos, about 1900 B. C. Menes, the
first Egyptian king, conquered and improved Lower Egypt, and on a
marshy tract wliich he had drained and protected by dykes against the
annual overflow of the Nile, he founded the great city of jVIemphis,
which, for many centuries, remained the capital of the flourishing king-
dom which he had established. At Memphis Menes built the temple
of Phthah, and there were won the first recorded triumphs of this very
oldest of ancient civilized nations. On the north and west sides of his
capital, Menes caused artificial lakes to be constructed for the defense
of the city, and on the south side a large dyke protected it against the
annual overflow of the Nile. The public treasures were established
in the city, the laws were revised and the civil administration improved.
After a reign of sixty-two years, Menes is said to have perished in a
struggle with a hippopotamus, and was deified by his admiring coun-
trymen.

Menes was succeeded by his son Ateta — called Athothis, or Thoth,
by the Greeks — ^who was skilled in medicine and wrote works on anat-
omy, of which portions still exist, and who built the citadel and
palace of Memphis. Kenkenes, the third king, was succeeded by
Uenephes, who built the Pyramid of Kokome, believed to be the oldest
of all those wonderful structures, and who bore the name of the Sacred
Calf of Heliopolis. Altogether the First Dynasty comprised eight
kings.

The Third Dynasty reigned at Memphis and embraced nine kings.
The first of these was Necherophes, who is said to have conquered
Libya, the superstitious Libyans having been frightened into submis-
sion by an eclipse of the moon fits they were preparing for battle.
TosoRTHRUS, the second king of this dynasty, encouraged writing,
medicine and architecture, and introduced or improved the art of build-
ing with hewn stone, previous structures having been made of rough
stone or brick. He was known to the Greeks as the "Peaceful Sesos-

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BUILDING THE PYRAMIDS
From the Painting ^y G. Ricbter

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THK fci*. \-k\K
PUBl.f • I. ;:•!■;,-., n't

AS'IOK, i-.- N' I A AND I
TILPRN rOUNDATiONll

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OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 45

tris,*' the later two monarchs bearing that name being great warriors
■ and conquerors.

His son and successor, Sasychis, or Marcs-sesorcheres, was a re- Sasychis.
nowned lawgiver, who is said to have organized the worship of the
gods, and to have invented the sciences of geometry and astronomy.
He is likewise said to have made the remarkable law that a debtor
might give his father's mummy as security for a debt. If the debt
was not discharged, neither the debtor nor his father could ever rest
in the family sepulcher, and this was regarded as the most disgrace-
ful fate that could befall a mortal.

The monumental and more certain history of Egypt commences with Second,
the Second, Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, which reigned contemporane- ^j^ viSth
ously ; the Second at This, in Upper Egypt ; the Fourth at Memphis, I>yna8-
in Middle Eg3^pt ; and the Fifth in the Isle of Elephantine, in Upper
Eg3'pt. Of these the Fourth Dynasty, established at Memphis about
2450 B. C, was the most powerful and exercised a certain degree of
supremacy over the other two. This Memphite dynasty consisted of
eight kings, and its greatness is fuUy attested by the gigantic struc-
tures of stone which it left in Middle .^Eigypt between the Libyan
Mountains and the Nile ; so that it was the Fourth Dynasty that im-
mortalized itself as that of the Pyramid-builders, and this period is
one of the most brilliant in the history of ancient Egypt.

The great increase in the population* had placed at the king's dis- Bnilding
posal a large amount of unemployed, labor, and the natural productive- pJJ^^^
ness of the soil had given all ranks far more leisure than was enjoyed
by. any other people of antiquity. The long duration of the yearly
overflow of the Nile caused a perceptible suspension in the various
industrial channels, and allowed the sovereigns larger opportunities to
employ the labor of the people in works which might carry their fame
to countless future ages. Such were the circumstances that led to the
building of the great Pyramids — ^the most gigantic structures ever
erected by human hands, and which the kings designed for their tombs.

These Pyramids are in the vicinity of the site of the ancient Mem- Pyramids
phis, about ten miles west of the Nile, on a barren elevation, in the
sides of which were chambers hewn out of the solid rock, in which the
bodies of the ordinary dead were interred. The kingly sarcophagus
was assigned a more pretentious sepulcher under more imposing monu-
ments of stone. Gradually the heap of royal tombs assumed the form
of the Pyramids, the structure becoming, by degrees, more regular
internally and externally, so that the finished pile has been the wonder
of succeeding ages. Along the elevation west of Memphis about sev-
enty of these stupendous structures were erected. Of these, three were
specially celebrated because of their size and grandeur. These are

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oIKhttfn.

4(J ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

the Pyramids of Ghizeh, near which city they are located. They were
built in the twenty-fifth century before Christ. These three are more-
conspicuous than the remaining seven of the same group in that vicin-
ity. The oldest and largest of the three great Pyramids of Ghizeh
is that of Khufu — ^the Cheops of Herodotus — ^who was the successor
of Seneferu or Soris, the first king of the Fourth Dynasty, and the
builder of the northern Pyramid of Abousir.
Pyramid The Pyramid of Cheops was originally four hundred and eighty
feet high, but as the apex has been broken off it is now but four hun-
dred and fifty feet high. The base covers about thirteen acres, and
each side of the base is seven hundred and sixteen feet long, and the
inclination is five hundred and seventy-^four feet. The vast structure
is located exactly on the thirtieth parallel of north latitude, and its
four sides face the cardinal points of the compass. On the north side,
exactly in the middle, a rectangular opening is cut, being the entrance
of a descending passage three feet wide and four feet high. The
passage leads downward to a chamber cut in the solid rock of the
foundation, over a hundred feet under the ground-level of the bfiise.
The chamber is precisely under the apex of the pyramid, at a distance
of six hundred feet. At points in the main passage to this chamber
diverging passages lead to two other chambers, which also lie directly
under the apex of the Pyramid and above the first chamber. In these
chambers were placed the stone coffins containing the mummies of these
ancient monarchs. Upon the walls were sculptures recounting the
departed king's deeds. The door of the passage was sealed with a
stone, and the name of the dead sovereign was added to the list of
deities in the temple. Herodotus says that the building of the "Great
Pyramid" occupied thirty years, that one hundred thousand men were
forced to work upon it at a time, and that a new army of laborers was
employed every three months.
Pyramids r^Yie second of the three great Pyramids was built by Khuf u's cele-
and Men- brated successor, Shafra, and was originally four hundred and fifty-
^"** seven feet high, and resembles the Pyramid of Cheops in general pro-
portion and internal structure. The third Pyramid of Ghizeh was
erected by Menkaura, the successor of Shafra, and is only two hun-
dred feet high and thirty-three feet at the base, and the inclination is
two hundred and sixty-two feet. Some of the outside portions of this
Pyramid consist of polished slabs of granite. It has a double chamber
within, one behind the other. In the farther chamber was recently
found the sarcophagus containing the mummy of Menkaura himself,
by General Howard Vyse ; and the hieroglyphic inscription on the case
containing, with the monarch's name, the myth of the god Osiris, has

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OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES IN EGYPT. 41^

been deciphered and translated into English. It is only in recent times
that other royal miunmies have been found.

The Pyramids are built of successive layers of stone from two to six Structure
feet thick, in proportion to the size of the structure. The layers pyJun^j^g
decrease in size from the ground upwards, so that the monument ap-
pears on each side in the form of a series of stone steps receding to
the top. Diodorus says he was informed by the Egyptian priests that
the gigantic masses of stone which were used in building the Pyramids
were brought from Arabia, and were put into place by building under
them vast mounds of earth, from which the blocks of stone could be
moved into their respective places. This statement seems to be sub-
stantiated by the fact that no stone of the kind used in the construc-
tion of these vast monuments can be found within many miles from
the place where the Pyramids were erected.

Khufu and his successor, Shaf ra, oppressed the people and despised TheKings
the gods, crushing the former by the severe toils required by these Fourth
great works, and closing the temples of the latter and putting an end Dynasty,
to their worship ; but Menkaura, who was the son of Khufu, and who,
as well as his father, reigned sixty-three years, differed from him in
being a good and humane sovereign. Menkaura reopened the temples
which his father had closed, restored the religious rites of sacrifice and
praise, and put an end to oppressive labors. He was, in consequence,
highly reverenced by the people, and his name was celebrated in many
hymns and ballads. After the reigns of four more kings, known to us
only by names and dates, the Fourth Dynasty, whose eight reigns
aggregated about two hundred and twenty years, ended about ^220
B.C.

The Second Dynasty, ruling Middle Egypt from This, or Abydos, Contem-
and the Fifth, ruling Upper Egypt from the Isle of Elephantine, were ©^^^
probably related by blood to the powerful sovereigns ruling Lower tics
Egypt from Memphis, as the tombs of all three of these royal races
are found in the vicinity of Memphis. The Arabian copper mines
of the Peninsula of Sinai were worked by Egyptian colonies established
there by the Pyramid-kings, and at this period Egyptian arts and
architecture had attained their highest degree of perfection. Paint- High Giv-
ing, sculpture and writing, as well as modes of living and general
civilization, were about the same as fifteen "centuries later. The reed
pen and the inkstand are among the hieroglyphics employed, and the
scribe appears, pen in hand, in the paintings on the tombs, making
notes on linen or papyrus. In the tombs of Beni-Hassan, belonging
to this period, five different kinds of plows arc shown, and agricultural
life is fully illustrated. Thus we have figures of sheep and goats
treading seed into the ground ; of wheat bound into sheaves, threshed,

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48 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

measured, and carried in sacks to the granary ; of bundles of flax on
the backs of asses ; of figs gathered ; of grapes thrown into the press ;
of wine carried into the cellar; of the overseer and laborers in field
and garden; and of the bastinado applied to the backs of laggards.
We also have scenes of flocks and herds, of bullocks, calves, asses,
sheep, goats; and also domestic fowl, such as geese and ducks. The
making of butter and cheese is likewise shown. Other works of sculp-
ture show us the spinners and weavers at their looms, the potter work-
ing the clay or burning his ware in the furnace, the smith making
javelins and lances, the painter at work with his colors, the mason with
his trowel, the shoemaker at his bench, the glass-blower plying his art.
The various grades of domestic life are illustrated, and we see ser-
vants at work, the kitchen implements used, also domestic apes, dogs,
cats, etc. In military life we have exhibited soldiers practicing in
arms, fighting battles, battering walls and storming towns. Various
sports and amusements are likewise depicted, and we have here ex-
hibited wrestlers, jugglers, musicians, male and female dancers, fishing
parties with hooks and spears and nets. Dwarfs and deformities can
also be seen, and every condition of human life is found represented
upon imperishable tablets of stone.
Sixth and The Fourth Dynasty at Memphis was succeeded by the Sixth Dy-
Contcm- nasty about 2220 B. C. The Second Dynasty continued to reign at
Dyiias- This or Abydos, and the Fifth in the Isle of Elephantine, while the
Ninth arose at HeracleopoHs and the Eleventh at Thebes; so that
Egypt was now divided into five separate kingdoms, the Theban grad-
ually becoming the most powerful, as the Memphite was losing its
preeminence. Thus weakened by division and exhausted by the great
architectural works which had withdrawn the people from the practice
of arms, the country easily fell a prey to the barbaroi s nomad hordes
from the neighboring regions of Syria and Arabia. These entered
Lower Egypt from the north-east by way of the Isthmus of Suez about
2080 B. C, and soon became masters of the country from Memphis
Hyksos or *^ ^^^ ^^*- They were called the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. They
Shepherd carried on their conquests in the most cruel manner, burning the cities,
razing the temples to the ground, slaying the inhabitants and reducing
the women and children to slavery.
Contem- The Hyksos founded the Fifteenth Dynasty at Memphis and the
Dy^^ Sixteenth at Avaris, in the Delta, near the site of the later city of
ties. Pelusium. Native dynasties continued to reign in Middle and Upper
Egypt, the Ninth at Heracleopolis, the Fifth in the Isle of Elephan-
tine, while the Twelfth had succeeded the Eleventh at Thebes, and the
Fourteenth arose at Xois, in the Delta, in the very heart of the con-

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OLD AND MIDDLE t^MPlRES IN EGYPT.

quests of the Shepherd Kings, and maintained its independence during
the whole period of the dominion of the Hyksos.

Under the vigorous itile of the Twelfth Dynasty, Thebes rapidly
grew into a powerful and prosperous kingdom and extended its su-
premacy over the kingdoms of Elephantine and Heracleopolis, con-
quered the peninsula of Sinai and carried its arms triumphantly into
Arabia and Ethiopia. Usurtasen I. reigned over all Upper Egypt,
and under Usurtasen II. and Usurtasen III. Thebes attained its
highest prosperity. Usurtasen III. enriched the country by numerous
canals ; and monuments of his power at Senneh, near the southern bor-
der of the kingdom, still excite the wonder of the traveler. His suc-
cessor, Ammenemes III. — ^the Maris or Loemaris of Manetho, and the
Mceris of Herodotus — ^built the Labyrinth in the Faioom, the most
superb and gigantic edifice in Egypt, which contained three thousand
rooms, one half of which number were underground, and were the re-
ceptacle of the mummies of kings and of the sacred crocodiles, and are
known as the Catacombs. The walls of the fifteen hundred apart-
ments above ground were of solid stone and entirely covered with sculp-
ture. Herodotus, who visited this magnificent structure, declared that
it surpassed all other human works. He says: "The roof through-
out was of stone like the wall, and the walls were carved all over with
figures. Every court was surrounded with a colonnade, which was
built of white stones exquisitely fitted together.''

The same king constructed the Lake JVIoeris, a natural reservoir near
a bend of the Nile, which he so improved by means of a canal and
dykes as to retain, for purposes of irrigation, a large part of the
waters from the annual inundation, and thus increased the fertility of
the surrounding country.

Architecture and the arts flourished in Upper Egypt, and numerous
canals were constructed to increase the f ruitf ulness of the soil by irri-
gation, while Lower Egypt continued to groan under the oppressive
rule of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. The Thirteenth Dynasty,
which succeeded the Twelfth at Thebes, was compelled to give way
before the Shepherd Kings and to seek refuge in Ethiopia, thus leav-
ing Upper Egypt also to the mercy of the barbarous Hyksos, who
now ruled all Egypt, except Xois, in the Delta (B. C. 1900). The
barbarous conquerors burned cities, destroyed temples, and massacred
or enslaved the inhabitants. During the Middle Empire — from 1900
B. C. to 1600 B. C. — ^this barbarous race held the native Egyptians
in subjection; the Thirteenth Dynasty at Thebes, the Seventh and
Eighth at Memphis, and the Tenth at Heracleopolis, holding their
crowns as tributaries of the Shepherd Kings of the Seventeenth
Dynasty.

VOL, 1. — i

Twelfth
Dynasty.

Usurta-
sen I., 11.
and III.

Animen-
emesIII.

Laby-
rinth.

Lake

McerU.

Rule

of the

Hyksos,

or the

Middle

Empire.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Darkness
of this
Period.

This was the darkest period of Egyptian history. The Hyksos
destroyed the monuments of their predecessors and left none of their
own, so that there is a gap of three centuries between the Old and the
New Empire, during which the Holy City of Thebes was in the hands
of the barbarians; the annals ceased, and the names of kings, either
native Egyptian or Hyksos, are for the most part unknown to us.
Late writers suppose the Hyksos to have been the same as the Hittites
of Syria. After their expulsion from Egypt some of them found ref-
uge in Crete, and reappeared in Palestine about the same time that the
Israelites entered that country from the west. It is believed by some
that Joseph and the family of Jacob settled in Lower Egypt during
the reign of one of tlie Shepherd Kings; others, however, place that
event a little later.

SECTION IV.— THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT.

Ezpnl-

sionofthe

Hyksoe.

Amosis.

High Civ-
ilization.

Amnn-
ophl.
Thoth-
mes I.

Aftee their long humiliation under the oppressive rule of the Shep-
herd Kings, the Egyptian people rallied for a great national uprising
under the Theban king Amosis, Ames, or Aahmes; and the Hyksos
were driven from Eg3rpt, after a desperate contest, B. C. 1600. Then
began the New Empire — ^the most brilliant period of Egyptian his-
tory — which lasted a little more than a thousand years (B. C. 1 GOO-
SES). Amosis united all Egypt into one kingdom, with Thebes for its
capital, and founded the Eighteenth Dynasty. He married Nefruari,
the daughter of the King of Ethiopia — "the good and glorious wo-
man" — ^who held the highest honor ever accorded a queen.

For the next eight centuries Egypt remained a single united king-
dom ; and during the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties
Egyptian sculpture and architecture reached their highest degree of
perfection. During this period the hundred-gated Thebes attained
the height of its splendor. Its great temple-palaces were then built;
and numerous obelisks, "fingers of the sun," pointed heavenward. The
horse and the war-chariot were now introduced into Egypt, and the
military caste for a time held a higher rank than the priestly. The
martial spirit wrought up by the struggle against the Hyksos dis-
played itself in warlike enterprises against neighboring nations, which
were again obliged to acknowledge the supremacy of Egypt, whose
arms were carried in triumph into Ethiopia, Arabia and Syria, and
even beyond the Euphrates.

Amosis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, reigned twenty-
six years. The next king, Amunoph L, married the widow of Amosis,
and reigned twenty-one years. Thothmes L, the third king of the

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THE SWi' YXJRK

TILDJ5N rOUNDATiON»|

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THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT.

Eighteenth Dynasty, won great victories over the Ethiopians and con-
quered the Canaanites of Palestine, and even carried his arms east-
ward against the Assyrians in Mesopotamia. He reigned twenty-one
years.

Royal women were held in higher esteem in Egypt than in any other
ancient monarchy. Thothmes I. was succeeded by his daughter,
Amenset, Alesphra, or Hatasu, who acted as regent for her younger
brother, Thothmes II., who died a minor. Amenset held the regency
for her next brother, Thothmes III. Her reign of twenty-two years
was brilliant and successful. She completed the temple of Amun, and
her fame is commemorated by the two gigantic obelisks at Kamak.

After the death of Amenset, her brother, Thothmes III., reigned
alone. Envious of his sister's fame, he caused her name and image to
be effaced from all the sculptures in which they had appeared together.
Thothmes III. reigned alone forty-seven years (B. C. 1510-1468).
He carried on wars in Ethiopia, Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and
defeated the Syrians in a great battle at Megiddo, in Canaan, twice
took Kadish, the chief city of the Kheta tribes, and led his armies as
far as Nineveh, from which city, according to inscriptions on his
monuments, he took tribute. Thothmes III. is no more distinguished
for his military exploits than for the magnificent temples and palaces
which he erected at Kamak, Thebes, Memphis, Heliopolis, Coptos, and
in every other city of Egypt and Ethiopia. . The records of his twelve
successive campaigns are inscribed in sculpture upon the walk of his
palaces at Thebes. The two obelisks near Alexandria, which some
Roman wit called Cleopatra's Needles, one of which is now in London
and the other in New York, bear the name of this king.

Thothmes III. was succeeded by his son, Amunoph H., in the begin-
ning of whose reign the Egyptians took Nineveh. He is said to have
brought to Egypt the bodies of seven kings whom he had slain in
battle, and whose heads were placed as trophies upon the walls of
Thebes. After a short reign he was succeeded by his son, Thothmes
IV., who is believed by some writers to have caused the carving of the
great Sphinx near the Pyramids. Amunoph III., the son and suc-
cessor of Thothmes IV., who ascended the Egyptian throne B. C. 1448,
reigned thirty-six years, and was one of the greatest monarchs of the
Eighteenth Dynasty. He conducted successful wars against the Lib-
yans and Ethiopians, and adorned his kingdom with many magnificent
architectural works, and improved its agriculture by the construction
of tanks or reservoirs to regulate irrigation. New temples were built
at Thebes, where also two great Colossi, one of which is known as the
Vocal MemnoKhy also belong to this reign; but the Amenopheum, of
which they were ornaments, is now in ruins. The two Colossi were

Amenset.

Thoth-
mes II.
and in.

Wars and
Works of
Thoth-
mes in.

Amun-
oph II.

Thoth-
mesIV.

Amun-
oph ni.

HisWars

and
Works.

Vocal
Memnon.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Horns.

huge granite statues of Amunoph III., with his mother and queen in
relief on the die, in front of the sanctuary of Osiris, and may still
be seen among the surrounding ruins. The Vocal Memnon, according
to a Greek tradition founded on the story of travelers who visited the
spot, was said to utter a musical sound at sunrise like the twanging
^Md** of harp-strings. The pedestal is fifty-nine feet high from base to
Sphinxes, crown. The palaces of Luxor and Kamak, now among the most con-
spicuous of the ruins of those famous places, were connected by an
avenue of a thousand sphinxes, while at Thebes a colonnade in the same
style was lined with colossal sitting statues of the cat-headed goddess
Pasht, or Bubastis. In the monumental inscriptions of his times,
Amunoph III. is styled "Pacificator of Egypt and Tanner of the Lib-
yan Shepherds."

The reign of Amunoph III. was marked by great internal troubles,
in consequence of his unsuccessful efforts to chahge the national re-
ligion. His son, HoEUS, was his legitimate successor, but his claims
were disputed by many pretenders, most of whom were princes or
princesses of the blood royal, and for thirty years the kingdom was
in an unsettled and distracted condition. Horus ultimately triumphed
over and outlived all his rivals, and died after reigning seven years
in peace. He conducted successful wars in Africa and enlarged the
palaces at Kamak and Luxor. With the next king, Resitot, or
Rathotis, the Eighteenth Dynasty came to an end, B. C. 1400.

The Nineteenth Dynasty was founded B. C. 1400 by Rameses L,
who was descended from the first two kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
He reigned less than two years, and was succeeded by his son Seti,
or Sethos L, who inherited all the national hatred toward the Syrian
invaders of his country, reconquered Syria, which had revolted forty
years before, and extended his conquests as far as the borders of Cilicia
and the Euphrates. Seti built the great Hall of Colunms at Kamak,
in which the whole Cathedral of Notre Dame, in Paris, could stand
without touching walls or ceiling ; and his tomb is the most magnificent
of all the royal sepulchers of ancient Egypt.

The most renowned king of Egypt was Ramesbs II. (1388^182«
B. C), surnamed the Great, whom the Greek writers named Sesostris,
and who, during his father's lifetime, subdued both Libya and Arabia.
Upon ascending the throne he entered upon a career of conquest with
the ultimate design of universal dominion. Herodotus, Diodorus, and
Slanetho relate, with some variation in their narrative, his subjugation
of the neighboring nations. After dividing liis kingdom into thirty-
six nomes and assigning his brother Armais to the regency in his
absence, Rameses set out with an army of six hundred thousand f oot-

Resitot.

Ra-
meses I.

Seti.

Ra-
in.,
the Great.

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From SUreograpk^ copyright iqo4 by Underwood &* Underwood

THE SIXTY-FIVE-FOOT PORTRAIT STATUES OF RAMESES 11 BEFORE ROCK HEWN

TEMPLE OF IPSAMBUL (ABU-SIMBEL), EGYPT Digitized by CjOOQIC

•rHi »^*

^kK

,Z"^-^-'"''

i^«s5----^r*'

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THE KEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT. gg

soldiers, twenty-four thousand horse, and twenty-seven thousand war-
chariots, to conquer the world.

He first reduced Ethiopia under subjection and imposed upon that His Con-
country a heavy tribute of ebony, ivory and gold. He founded the ^^^ ^'
Egyptian navy by building a fleet of four hundred war vessels on the
Red Sea, and reduced under his dominion the islands and shores as far
as India. After carrying his victorious arms eastward beyond the
Ganges, he rapidly subdued Asiatic and European Scythia, and was
only checked in his conquering career in Thrace by the severity of
the climate and the scfwcity of food. Wherever he conquered he
erected monuments with the inscription: "Sesostris, king of kings
and lord of lords, has conquered this territory by the power of his
arms." After nine years of conquest, this triumphant warrior-king
returned to his kingdom with a vast booty and captives from the
subjugated nations.

Modem investigation has shown the military exploits of Rameses Sxag-
the Great, as narrated by Herodotus and Diodorus, to have been highly ^^^^'
exaggerated. By deciphering the inscriptions in the Rameseum at
Kamak, in £he temple erected by Rameses in Ethiopia, in the ruins
of Tanis, and on the Rocks of Beyreut, it has been shown that the
principal scenes in his triumphant career* wer^ enacted in the neigh-
boring countries of Ethiopia, Arabia and Syria.

The noted works of Rameses the Great were the building of a great Works of
wall from Pelusium to Heliopolis, to protect Egypt on the east against ^JqJ^
the inroads of the Syrians and Arabs; the -cutting of a system of
canals from Memphis to the sea; the completion of the famous Hall
of Columns at Kamak, begun by his father; and the magnificent
temple of Amunoph HI. at Luxor. Before this temple were placed
two sitting colossi of Rameses and two red granite obelisks, both of
which still remain with their hieroglyphic inscriptions as perfect as
when they were cut, one still standing on the original spot, and the
other greeting the eye of the beholder in the Place de la Concorde,
in Paris.

In every part of Egypt may be found monuments commemorating Rock
the achievements and greatness of this celebrated monarch. At Ip- T®°^Pl^
sambul, in Nubia, in a valley with ii^alls of yellow sandstone, two sambnl.
temples are cut in the solid rock, one dedicated to Ra by Rameses
the Great, and the other to Hathor by his queen. Before the temple
of Ramese3 are four stupendous colossi of himself, over seventy feet
high, and seated on thrones. The shoulders of these colossal statues
are twenty-five feet wide, and they measure fifteen feet from elbow to
finger-tip. The image of Rameses stands conspicuous among those
' of the long line of deified sovereigns of Ancient Egypt, on the walls

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

GreatneM
of Thebes.

Meneptfl*

His Op-
pression
of the
Hebrews.

Ezodas.

Passage

of the

Red Sea

of the great temple of Abydos, while before the altar another image
represents Rameses as a mortal offering sacrifice to himself and his
ancestors.

Under the Nineteenth Dynasty, the magnificence and greatness of
Thebes, then the capital, surpassed the former splendor of Memphis.
In Thebes the wonderful works of Thothmes IV., Amunoph III., Seti,
Rameses II., and Rameses III., rose in majestic grandeur, on both
sides of the Nile, around a circle of fifteen miles.

Menepta, who succeeded Rameses the Great in 1822 B. C, and
reigned twenty years, is now generally regarded as the Pharaoh of
the Exodus of the Israelites. In 1550 B. C, the family of Jacob,
the grandson of Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew race, had set-
tled in that part of Lower Egypt on the east side of the Delta, known
as the Land of Groshen, while Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, was prime
minister to the Egyptian king, a post to which he is said to have
been elevated on account of his services in saving the land from fam-
ine. Here the posterity of Jacob or Israel multiplied during a period
of two and a half centuries. For a while the new race of strangers
were highly esteemed by the Egyptian kings and nation, but during
the reigns of Seti I. and Rameses the Great, the Egyptian authorities
grew jealous of the rapidly increasing Hebrew race and began to
exercise a systematic oppression toward them. The strangers were
set to work at building and digging. Their labor enlarged the treas-;
ure cities of Pithom and Rameses. They aided in the construction
of the great canal from the Nile, at Bubastis, to the Red Sea. They
toiled in the brickyards and were beaten by the Egyptian task-masters
until they rose in open rebellion. The revolt was heightened by the
withdrawal of religious privileges. Their great leader, Moses, who
had been compelled to save his life by flight to the Land of Midian
because he had slain an Egyptian whom he had seen ill-treating a
Hebrew, had now returned to his people and sought to obtain King
Menepta's permission to lead them in a three days' march into the
desert to sacrifice to Jehovah. It was only after Moses had performed
signs and wonders in the king's house that Menepta allowed the Israel-
ites to depart.

They followed the bank of the canal, gathering their people along
the route of the Hebrew towns, but upon reaching the Gulf of Suez
were hemmed in by the hosts of the Egyptian king.

By the receding of the waters at that shallow point of the sea, by
means of a "strong east wind," as told in Exodus, the fleeing Israel-
ites, numbering two millions, were enabled to cross the bare, sandy
bottom and reach the opposite shore in safety.

But the hosts of

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THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT.

Menepta, while crossing the shallow bottom in pursuit of the fugi-
tives, were suddenly drowned by the returning waters.

The account of the Exodus of the Israelites, as related by Manetho
and quoted by Josephus, differs from the Mosaic account in detail.
Manetho states that Menepta desired to see the gods, and was in-
formed by a priest of the same name that his wish could only be
gratified when he cleansed the land of lepers. The Pharaoh Menepta,
therefore, cast eighty thousand of the lepers into the stone-quarries
east of the Nile. When the son of Papius heard that some priests
and men of learning had thus perished, he feared the displeasure of
the gods for having plotted to ruin or enslave holy men. But a
vision informed him that others would come to aid the lepers and
govern Eg3rpt thirteen years. After writing this on a roll of papy-
rus, he committed suicide.

Menepta, becoming alarmed, liberated the lepers from the quarries.
He assigned them Avaris, which had remained in ruins since the expul-
sion of the Shepherd Kings. After rebuilding the city, the lepers
chose the priest Osarsiph, of Heliopolis, for their leader. He gave
them laws, one of which gave them permission to kill and eat the gods,
the sacred animals of the Egyptians. He then directed them to for-
tify Avaris, and also sent an embassy to Jerusalem to inform the
banished Hyksos of the course of events in Egypt, to invite them to
return, and to promise them the kej's of Avaris. The Shepherd Kings
gladly availed themselves of the offer and returned with an army of
two hundred thousand men to recover the kingdom of their ancestors.
When informed of this invasion of the Hyksos, King Menepta, influ-
enced by superstition and fear, fled in terror into Ethiopia, there to
remain until the thirteen years of leper rule should have passed.
Thus Egypt was sacrificed to the unclean, who rioted in the sacred
places until King Menepta returned with an army of Egyptians and
Ethiopians and expelled the lepers and their allies, the Hyksos, from
the kingdom. The name of the priest-leader of the lepers had, in
the meantime, been changed to Moyses^ or Moses. The Egyptian
historians always spoke of the Hebrews as lepers.

After the reigns of Seti H. and Siphthah, the Twentieth Dynasty
ascended the throne of Egypt in 1269 B. C, in the person of Set-
KEKHT. The next king was Rameses HI., who, during a reign of
thirty-two years and in ten victorious campaigns, restored to Egypt
the glory which she had possessed under the elder kings of the pre-
ceding dynasty, subduing the Hittites and Amorites of Canaan and
the Ethiopians, Libyans and Negroes of Africa. Naval battles were
fought during this reign, as attested by hieroglyphic inscriptions.
Rameses III. built the palace of Medinet-Abu at Thebes, of which

Ha-
netlio'8
Acconnt

of the
Ezodns.

His
Further
Acconnt.

Twen-
tieth
Dynasty.

Rameses

in.

HisSno-
cessors.

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56 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

every pylon, every gate, and every chamber gives some account of his
brilliant exploits. Barneses III. had four sons, each named Rameses,
who reigned in succession. Rameses VIII., who succeeded them,
conducted some successful wars. He was followed by seven other
kings bearing the same name, but their reigns were short and un-

Dedine of eventful. Egypt, which had reached the pinnacle of its greatness
Kgypt- under the Nineteenth Dynasty, rapidly declined during the Twentieth.
The hieroglyphic inscriptions no longer recount the grand military
exploits of kings, and art and architecture decayed. Egypt's con-
quests in Asia and Ethiopia were gradually lost. From its long con-
tact with Asiatic nations, Egypt had lost its national feeling, and
foreign influence was marked in the civil administration of the
kingdom. The Pharaohs at this time became allied by marriage with
foreign courts, and foreign colonies — ^Assyrian, Babylonian and
Phoenician — settled in the country; and the constant intercommuni-
cation between the Egyptians and the Semitic nations of Asia is
shown by the presence of Semitic names and the admission of Semitic
words to the Egyptian language, as well as by the admission of
foreign gods into the Egyptian sanctuaries, hitherto inaccessible to
any deity outside of the Egyptian pantheon. The overwhelming
predominance of the priesthood, whose influence pervaded all ranks,
from the highest to the lowest, was a barrier to thought and progress
of every kind. The people were slavishly held to the old forms of
religion, architecture languished, no new buildings were erected, nor
additions made to the magnificent structures of former ages. Sculp-
ture and painting derived no new life from the study of nature,
but confined themselves to slavish copies of old models or dull and
meaningless imitations. The priestly caste aimed to hold all tilings
at a certain level, fixed and unchangeable. Thus, when progress
ceased, decay at once commenced. The later monarchs of the
Twentieth Dynasty were but instruments in the hands of the priestly
class.
Prieot During this period of general military and intellectual decline

^' the priestly order augmented its power and influence to such an
extent that it seized the throne, and the Twenty-first Dynasty riegn-
ing at Tanis, in the Delta, was a race of priest-kings. They wore
the sacerdotal robes and called themselves High Priests of Amun.
PiSHAM I., one of this priestly race, gave his daughter in marriage
to Solomon. The seven kings of this dynasty generally had short
and uneventful reigns (B. C. 1091-990).
She- Sheshonk I. — the Shishak of the Old Testament and the founder

shook I. of the Twenty-second Dynasty — married the daughter of Pisham
II., the last king of the previous dynasty, and also called himself

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THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT.

High Priest of Amun. He made Bubastis, in the Delta, his capital,
and restored the military strength of the kingdom. It was to
Sheshonk that Jeroboam fled after his unsuccessful rebellion against
King Solomon; and Sheshonk espoused the cause of Jeroboam in
his revolt against Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam, and in-
vading Judah, took Jerusalem, plundered the treasures of the Temple
and the palace, and compelled Rehoboam to pay tribute. One of
the inscriptions at Kamak gives a list of one hundred and thirty
towns and districts reduced by Sheshonk in Syria. He made the
office of High Priest of Amun hereditary in his family.

Sheshonk died in 972 B. C, and was succeeded by his son Osoekok
I., who reigned fifteen years and was succeeded by his son Pehoe.
OsoRKON II., the fourth king of this dynasty, is believed by some
writers to have been the Zerah of Scripture, who invaded Syria and was
defeated by Asa, King of Judah, in the battle of Mareshah (2 Chron.
xiv. 9—14). The remaining kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty,
which ended with Takelot II. in 847 B. C, were insignificant person-
ages ; and the process of decay and disintegration rapidly went on and
was aggravated by the employment of Libyan mercenaries in prefer-
ence to native soldiers. Semi-independent principalities sprang up in
different parts of the kingdom, successfully defying every effort of
the Pharaohs to preserve the unity of the nation. The utter decay
of the national spirit paralyzed both sovereign and people.

The Twenty-third Dynasty, (B. C. 847-758), which ruled at
Tanis, comprised four kings, none of them famous, and whose reigns
were characterized by revolutions and civil wars. The Northern
Ethiopian kingdom, which had Napata for its capital, was founded
by Piankhi, a descendant of the priest-kings of the Twenty-firs
Egyptian Dynasty. Piankhi became virtual master of Egypt, which
according to his stel6 found at Gebel-Berkal, was at this time
divided into seven kingdoms, each ruled by a native Egyptian prince,
who reigned under the suzerainty of Piankhi. Tafnekht, who ruled
in the Western Delta and held Sais and Memphis, endeavored to
cast off the yoke of Piankhi, and headed a revolt which was joined
by the other native Egyptian princes. Piankhi's army took Thebes,
defeated the rebel fleet, besieged and took Hermopolis, defeated the
rebel fleet a second time at Sutensenen and gained another great
victory on land. Namrut, the Hermopolitan king, besieged the
Ethiopian garrison in Hermopolis and recovered the city. There-
upon Piankhi, in person, led an army against Hermopolis, and laid
siege to the city, which he finally compelled Namrut to surrender.
Piankhi also forced Pefaabast, king of Hcraclcopolis Magna, to
surrender, and then attacked Memphis, which was defended by a

Osor-
konl.
Pehor.
Osor-
konn.

Egyptian
Decay.

Ethiopian
Conquest
of Egypt

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

SaImico.

AB&fTiUl

Conquest
of Egypt.

ShalMtok.

TirhakAh.

Destruc-

tlonof the

AesyiUn

Amy.

Egypt

under

EthiopU

and
Aasyria
Alter-
nately.

strong garrison devoted to Taf nekht. After a desperate resistance
and frightful slaughter Memphis was taken, and its fall hastened
the restoration of Piankhi's authority over all Egypt. The revolt
ended with the submission of Osorkon, king of Bubastis, and Taf nekht,
the rebel leader, both of whom were generously pardoned by Piankhi,
after taking a new oath of allegiance to the Ethiopian sovereign, who
allowed all the native rebel kings to retain their respective thrones.
But in a few years, Egypt revolted under the leadership of Bek-en-
SANF, called Bocchoris by the Greeks, a native of Sais, who was the
only king of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty. Bocchoris, however, was
soon conquered by Sabaco, or Shabak, the Ethiopian king reigning
at Napata, and was burned alive in punishment for his rebellion.

Sabaco, the Ethiopian, thus founded the Twenty-fifth Dynasty,
and is known in the Hebrew Scriptures as So, or Sevah. He entered
into an alliance with Hoshea, King of Israel, and the Syrian princes
against Sargon, King of Assyria, but was defeated by the Assyrian
monarch in the great battle of Raphia, near the eastern borders of
Egypt, B. C. 718. Sabaco fled to Ethiopia, retaining possession
of Upper Egypt; while the sway of the Assyrians was established
over the Delta and Middle Egypt, over which they placed tributary
native princes, their policy being to weaken Egypt by dividing it
as much as possible. Sabaco's son and successor, Shabatok, for a
short time ruled all Egypt, but was deprived of the Ethiopian crown
by TiBHAKAH, or Tehrak; while the petty native Egyptian princes
formed an alliance with Hezekiah, king of Judah, against Sennacherib,
King of Assyria, but the allies were defeated in the South of Pales-
tine and submitted to the sway of the victorious Assyrians. Instigated
by Tirhakah, the Egyptian princes and the King of Judah again
rose in arms against the Assyrian king. Again Sennacherib took
the field against the allies and advanced to Pelusium, in the eastern
part of Lower Egypt, but his army of one hundred and eighty-five
thousand men was destroyed by a strange panic which seized them
in the night, and which the Jews and Egyptians considered a miracu-
lous interposition, B. C. 698. Sennacherib fled in dismay to Nineveh
and abandoned his conquests. The Assyrian defeat enabled Tirhakah
to invade Egypt, kiU Shabatok and reduce the whole land under Ethio-
pian dominion. Tirhakah was at once involved in a struggle with
Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, Sennacherib's son and successor, who,
in 672 B. C, invaded Egypt, captured Memphis and Thebes, drove
Tirhakah back into Ethiopia, and established the Assyrian sway once
more over all Egypt, whose twenty native princes were reduced to a
state of vassalage under the Assyrian monarch. A few years after^
ward, however, Tirhakah returned and expelled the Assyrian garri-

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THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT, 59

sons from Egypt, which again acknowledged l^e Ethiopian dominion ;
but his tiimnph was of short duration, as he was again deprived of
his Egyptian conquest by Esarhaddon's successor, Asshur-bani-pal,
who won the native Egyptian princes over to the Assyrian interest.
Being allowed more local freedom by the Assyrian king, they pre-
ferred his rule to that of the more oppressive Ethiopian monarch.
Tirhakah^s stepson and successor, Rut-ammon — ^the Urdaman6 of
the Assyrian inscriptions — endeavored to maintain the Ethiopian
power in Egypt; and descending the Nile, he re-occupied Thebes
and Memphis, drove the Assyrians out of Egypt and made himself
master of the country; but was soon driven back into Ethiopia by
Asshur-bani-pal. Rut-ammon's successor, Mi-ammon-Nut, tells us
that in the first year of his reign (about B. C. 660), he dreamed
that a serpent appeared on his right hand and another on his left,
and when he woke they had disappeared. The interpreters informed
him that this signified that he would rule all Egypt. Thereupon Mi-
ammon-Nut led a hundred thousand men into Egypt, being hailed
as a deliverer in Upper Egypt, against the Assyrians, who had
allowed the temples to go to decay, overturned the statues of
the gods, confiscated the temple revenues, and restrained the
priests from exercising their offices. Mi-ammon-Nut proclaimed
himself the champion of religion, visited the temples, led the images
in procession, offered rich sacrifices and paid every respect to the
priestly colleges. For this reason he was everywhere received with
acclamations in Upper Egypt. In Lower Egypt he was opposed,
but after a great victory at Memphis, he occupied that city and en-
larged and beautified the temple of Phthah. The chapel to Phthah*
Sokari-Osiris, recently uncovered by M. Mariette, is full of Mi-
ammon-Nut^s sculptures and inscriptions, its stones being inlaid with
gold, its paneling made of acacia-wood scented with frankincense, its
doors of polished copper and their frames of iron. The princes of
the Delta submitted and were generously pardoned, governing their
towns as Ethiopian and no longer as Assyrian vassals. Mi-ammon-
Nut returned to Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian yoke was soon shaken
off by the Egyptians. The petty native Egyptian states for many
years remained tributary to Assyria, as the employment of foreign
mercenaries, which had so long prevailed in Egypt, had deadened
the national spirit and patriotism of the Egyptian people, and thus
made it easy for the Assyrians to hold the country in subjection.

PsAMMETiCHUS, ouc of the native viceroys under the Assyrian mon- J^^^^
arch, encouraged by the growing weakness of the Assyrian Empire, Recovew
which was obliged to recall its garrisons from Egypt to defend itself ^^^
against the destructive inroads of Scythian hordes from Central pendence.

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go ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Asia, seized the opportunity to throw oflF his allegiance to Assyria,
and crushing the opposition of the native viceroys, founded the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty, thus placing Egypt once more under the
sway of its native kings, after a century of foreign dominion, Ethio-
pian and Assyrian, B. C. 6S2. Psammetichus conciliated the
Ethiopian party by marrying the daughter and heiress of the King
of Thebes, whom he had deposed, and thus secured the adhesion of
His Wise Upper Egypt, where the Ethiopians were still popular. He was a
wise and liberal sovereign, and under his rule the arts and sciences
began to revive. He constructed many great works throughout the
kingdom. The new culture was not purely native Egyptian. Foreign
wars, colonization and commercial intercourse had brought immense
numbers of foreign settlers — ^Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Jews and
Greeks — into the Egyptian cities. The new art was widely different
from the classic art of Old Egypt. The Egypt of tHe Pharaohs
was beyond resurrection, the old civilization had perished, and the
native tongue had been corrupted.
His Won. Psammetichus was also a great warrior. He reduced part of
Ethiopia and subdued the Philistines, but his continuance of the use
of foreign troops and his employment of Greek mercenaries offended
the warrior class of Egypt, of whom two hundred and forty thousand
Mis;ration emigrated to Ethiopia, rejecting every entreaty of Psammetichus to
BthiopU ^^^""^ *^ their native land, and thus striking a fatal blow at the
reviving prosperity of Egypt. Psammetichus attempted the conquest
of Palestine and Syria, but was thwarted in his designs by the stub-
bom resistance of the Philistine city of Ashdod, which endured a
siege of twenty-nine years before it was taken. He encouraged com-
merce and friendly intercourse with other nations.
Heko. Psammetichus died in 610 B. C, and was succeeded by his son

Neko, under whom the navy and commerce of Egypt were largely
augmented. The great increase in the number of foreign colonists
in Egypt gave rise to a new class of interpreters, through whose
medium foreign intercourse was immensely facilitated. Neko endeav-
ored to reopen the great canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, which
had been constructed during the reign of Rameses the Great, but aban-
doned because the oracle had instructed him that he was laboring for
the barbarian. Under Neko's auspices, an Egyptian fleet, manned
Circnm- by Phoenician seamen, sailed down the Red Sea, and after an absence
tion^' ^^ three years, during which they twice landed, sowed grain and gath-
Africa. ered a harvest, they returned to Egypt by way of the Pillars of
Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) and the Mediterranean; thus making
the circumnavigation of Africa two thousand years before the famous
voyage of Vasco da Gama around the same continent.

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THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT.

Neko's military enterprises were blessed with but varied fortune.
The great empire of Assyria had already fallen before the conquer-
ing arms of Media and Babylon. Neko prepared to dispute the
dominion of the world with the Babylonian monarch. After invading
Palestine and defeating and killing Josiah, King of Judah, at Me-
giddo, Neko conquered all the country eastward to the Euphrates;
but Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, sent his son Nebuchadnezzar,
with a large army, to drive the Egyptians out of Asia. In the great
and decisive battle of Carchemish, Neko was totally defeated by
Nebuchadnezzar, and Egypt's power in the East was ended forever,
all of Neko's Asiatic conquests falling into the hands of Babylon,

B. C. 605.

Neko died in 594 B. C, and was Succeeded by his son, Psammis,
whose short reign of six years was only distinguished for an expedi-
tion into Ethiopia. His son and successor, Uahabka — ^the Pharaoh
Hophra of Scripture and the Apries of Herodotus — who reigned nine-
teen years, renewed the warlike schemes of his grandfather, besieged
Sidon and fought a naval battle with Tyre, but failed in his attempt
to conquer PhcBnicia. He formed an alliance with Zedekiah, King of
Judah, who endeavored to free himself from the Babylonian yoke ; but
the great Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, quickly invaded Pales-
tine, besieged and took Jerusalem, pillaged the city and the Temple,
and thus broke the power of the allies and put an end to the struggle
by driving the Egyptian monarch back into his own kingdom. Uaha-
bra was afterward defeated in an expedition against the Greek colony
of Cyrene, west of Egypt, in consequence of which his native soldiers
revblted and dethroned him; and the revolutionary leader, Amasis,
with the aid of Nebuchadnezzar, who had twice invaded Egypt (B.

C. 581 and 570), was placed upon the Egyptian throne as king, tribu-
tary to the Babylonian monarch.

Amasis reigned forty-one years, at first as a tributary to Babylon,
but he afterward cast off this yoke and increased his influence by
marrying Nitocris, the sister of his predecessor. He adorned Sais,
his capital, with magnificent buildings; and numerous monuments of
his reign, found in all parts of the country, attest his liberal patron-
age of the arts ; while his friendly foreign policy toward Cyrene and
the other Greek states, and his encouragement to Greek merchants to
settle in Egypt, added immensely to the wealth of the country. He
conquered the island of Cyprus and reduced it to tribute.

Alarmed by the growing power of Persia under its renowned mon-
arch, Cyrus the Great, who had conquered Media and Babylon, Amasis
allied himself with Croesus, King of Lydia, and Polycrates of Samos ;
but before his policy was productive of any results, he died, B. C.

Neko's
Wars.

Battteof

Car-
chemish.

Psammis.

Uahabra.
His Wars.

Amasis.

His Long
Reign.

His
Works.

Alliance
against
Persia.

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(i2

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Psam-
menitns.

Battteof
Pelu-
sinm.

Penian
Conqneot
of Egypt.

Egyptian
Revolts.

Egypt's
Fate.

626, and was succeeded on the throne of Egypt by Psammenttus.
Cambyses, King of Persia, the son and successor of Cyrus the Great,
was already on the march toward Egypt. The Egyptian army ad-
vanced to Pelusium to meet the invader, but was there defeated in a
pitched battle and driven back to Memphis, the capital, which was
besieged and taken by the Persian king. Psammenitus was taken
prisoner after a reign of only six months, and soon afterward put to
death by the hard-hearted Cambyses, who suspected him of a design
to recover his power. With the tragic end of Psammenitus perished
the ancient kingdom of Egypt, which had existed for over two thou-
sand years^ from the time of the founding of the Old Empire by
Menes ; and the celebrated land of the Pharaohs became a mere prov-
ince of the vast Medo-Persian Empire (B. C. 526).

The tyranny and cruelty of Cambyses produced in the hearts of
the Egyptians the most implacable hatred of Persia; and during a
period of two centuries they constantly plotted against the Twenty-
seventhj or Persian Dynasty, and under three native dynasties — ^the
Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth — ^regained their inde-
pendence, which they as often lost. The accounts of these revolts
and short spasms of independence will be narrated in the history of
the Medo-Persian Empire. Since its conquest by the Persians, the
land of the Pharaohs has been successively under the sway of the
Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamelukes,
and the Ottoman Turks ; the last of whom have held the country tribu-
tary for the last four centuries.

MANETHO'S THIRTY EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES.
OLD EMPIRE.

CONTEMPOSARY DYNASTIES FROM ABOUT B. C. 3700 TO ABOUT B. C. 3450.

First Dyitasty (Thinite).

Thiri) Dynasty (Memphitb).

Kiiros.

tears accordiko to

KIKOS.

YBARS ACCORDING TO

BUSBBIU8.

afkicanus.

BUSBBinS.

AFRICANUS

Menes

60
97
39
4,9
90
96
18
96

69
57
31
9S
90
96
18
96

Necherophes

Tosorthrus

Tyreis

29
7
17
16
19
43
30
36

Athothis, orThoth..
Unephes . •

Kenkenes

Mesochris

Usaphssdus

Miebidus

Suphis

Tosertasis

Semempses

Bienecnes

Aches

Sephuris

KerDheres

95S

263

398

314

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AST)

'^«. Lr.N.,

|^"-;.v-v;;';;:^±-|

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THE NEW EMPIRE IN EGYPT.

COKTEMPOBAAT D7KA8TIE8 FROM ABOTTT B. C. 0450 TO ABOUT B. C. 9930.

Seooxd OB Branch Dt-
KAsnr (Thikite).

YEARS.

BoethuSy or Bochus.. 38
Koeechiis, or Kekeou. 39
Binothris 47

Has
Sethenes .....

Chaeres

Nephercheres
Sesbchris . . . .
Cheneres

. 17
. 41
. 17
. 95
. 48
. 30

309

Fourth or Chief Dt-

KASTY (MeMPHITE).

TBARS.

Seneferuy or Sonis. . . 99

Khufu

Shafra

Menkaura, or Men-

cheres 63

Ratoiscs 25

Bicheris 93

Sebercheres 7

Thamphthis 9

Fifth or Branch Dy-
KABTT (Elephantine).

years.
Usercheres, or Osir-

kef 98

Sephres 13

Nephercheres, or

Nof r-ir-ke-re 90

Sisires, or Osir-n-r^.. 7

Cheres 90

Rathures 44

Mencheres 9

Tancheres 44

Onnus, or U-nus 33

918

Contemporary Dynasties from about B. C. 9990 to about B. C. 9080.

Second

Dynasty

(Thinite).

Continuing un-
der the last
three kings.

Sixth

Dynasty

(Memphite).

Othoes 30

Phios 53

Methosuphis 7
Phiops, or

Pepi 40

Menthesuphis 1
Nitocris, or

Neit-akret 19
143

Fifth
Dynasty

(Elephantine.)

Continuing.

Ninth Dy-
nasty (Her-
acleopoute).

Achthoes

the Antefs

and the

Mentu-hoteps.

Eleventh
Dynasty
(Theban).

Sixteen Kings.

Ammenemes or
Amun-m-h^

Contemporary^ Dynasties from about B. C. 9080 to about B. C. 1900.

E g S S

Continuing

till about

B. C. 1850.

Continuing

Sesonchosis

Usurtasen 1 46

Ammenemes II.,
or Amun-m-h6

II 38

Usurtasen II 48

Mceris, or Amun-

m-h6 III 8

Ameres 8

Ammenemes III.,
or Amun-m-h^

IV 8

Skemiophris 4

160
Thirtbenth Dy-
nasty (Theban).

Seventy-six
Kings in
484 years.

B^-^

Salatis ....

Bnon

Apachnas .

Apophis ..

Jannas

Asse

959

Sfc-j

i^K

Thirty
Kings
in 518
years.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA-

MIDDLE EMPIRE.— (HYK808, or Shepherd Kikob.)

Contemporary Dynasties from abottt 6. C. 1900 to about B. C. 1600.

Seventh and Eighth
Dynasties (Memphite).

Tenth Dynasty
( Heracleopolitk ) .

Seventeenth Dynasty
(Hyksos).

NEW EMPIRE.

Eighteenth Dynasty — Theban.
(B. C. 1600-1400.)
Amosis, Aahmes, or Ames, (B. C.

1600-1575).
Amen-hotep I., Amenophis I., or

Amunoph I., (B. C, 1575-1562).
Thothmes I.
Thothmes II., and Hatusa or Amen-

set, (B. C. 1562-1547).
Thothmes III., (B. C. 1547-1493).
Amen-hotep II., Amenophis II., or

Amunoph II., (B. C. 1493-1485).
Thothmes IV., (B. C. 1485-1477).
Amen-hotep III., Amenophis III., or

Amunoph III., (B. C. 1477-1441).
Amen-hotep IV., Amenophis IV., or

Amunoph IV.
Saanekht
Ai.

Tutankhamen.

Horemheb-Merienammon, or Horns.
Resitot, or Rathotis.
Nineteenth Dynasty — Theban.
(B. C. 1400-1280.)
Rameses I.
Seti I.
Rameses Meriamon, or lie G^ .t

(Sesostris).
Menepta, or Menephthah.
Seti II.
Siphthah.
Twentieth Dynasty — Theban.
(B. C. 1280-1100.)
Setnekht

Rameses III., (B. C. 1269-1237).
Rameses IV.
Rameses V.

Rameses VI., and Meri-Tum.
Rameses VII.
Rameses VIII.
Rameses IX.
Rameses X.
Rameses XI.
Rameses XII.
Rameses XIII.
Twenty-First Dynasty — Tanite.
(B. C. 1100-993.)
Pehor, Herhor, or Smendes.
Piankh, or Pisham I.
Pinetem I.
Men-khepr-ra.

Pa-seb<«n-sha.
Pinetem II., or Pisham II.
Hor-Pasebensha.
Twenty-Second Dynasty — Bubabtite.
(B. C. 993-647.)
Sheshonk I., or Shishak I., (B. C.

993-972).
Osorkon I., (B. C. 972-957).
Takelot I., (B. C. 957-956).
Osorkon II., (B. C 956-934).
Sheshonk II.
Takelot II.
Sheshonk III.
Pimai.

Sheshonk IV.
Twenty-Third Dynasty — ^Tanite.
(B. C. 847-758.)
Petubastes, or Petsupasht, (B. C.

847-«07).
Osorkon IV., (B. C. 807-799).
Psammus, or Psemut, (B. C. 799-

789).
Zet, or Seti III., (B. C. 789-758).
Twenty-Fourth Dynasty— Safte.
(B. C. 758-730.)
Bekenhauf, or Bocchoris.
TwENTY-FiPTH Dynasty — Ethiopian.
(B. C. 724-650.)
Sabaco, or Shabak, (B. C. 724-712).
Shabatok, (B. C. 712-698).
llrhakah, or Tehrak, (B. C. 698-667.)
Rut-ammon, (B. C. 667-660).
Mi-ammon-Nut, (B. C. 600-650).
Twenty-Sixth Dynasty — Saite.
(B. C. 650-525.)
Psammetichus, or Psamatik I., (B. C.

665-610).
Neko, (B. C. 610-594).
Psammis, or Psamatik II., (B. C.
. 594-588).
Uahabra, Apries, or Pharaoh Hophra,

(B. C. 588-^69).
Amasis, Aahmes, or Ames, (B. C.

569-525).
Psammenltus, or Psamatik III., (B.
C. 525).
Twenty-Seventh Dynasty — Persian.

(B. C. 525-332.)
Twenty-Eighth Dynasty — Native.
(B. C. 460-455.X
Amyrtsus.

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

TwBKTT-NlNTH DyXASTT — ^MeKDESIAK.

(B. C. 405-384.)
Neferites, or Nefaorot, (B. C. 405-

399).
Achoris, or Hakar, (B. C. 399-386).
Psammuthis, (B. C. 386-385).
Nepherites II., (6. C. 384).

TuiBTiETH Dynasty — Sebekkytxc.
(B. C. 384-346).
Nectanebo I., or Nekht-nebef, (B.

C. 384-366).
Teos, or Tachos, (B. C. 366-364).
Nectanebo I., or Nekht-nebef, (B.

SECTION v.— EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

Birch'8
Opixiion.

MoDEBN ethnologists, in general, regard the ancient Egyptians as Orij^of
of Asiatic origin, since they differed so much from other African Ancient
races, such as the Berbers and the Negroes, in language, the shape Egyp-
of their skulls, and their physiognomy. The skulls of the ancient
Egyptians, apd of their legitimate descendants, the modem Copts, are
eminently Caucasian ; while the Egyptian language has analogies con-
necting it with the Aryan and Semitic tongues. The conclusion that
the Egyptians, at least the upper and middle classes of them, were
Asiatic immigrants into the Nile valley, is therefore a safe one. They
are believed to have been kindred w^th other races of South-western
Asia, such as the Canaanites, the primitive Chaldaeans, and the South-
em Arabs. We must accordingly conclude that Syria or Arabia was
the cradle of the Egyptian nation.

Some have maintained that the immigration was from the south of
the Nile valley, and that the Egyptians were of Ethiopian origin ; but
recent research has shown conclusively that the movement of the Egyp-
tians was from north to south. Says Mr. Birch, the latest English
historian of Egypt: "The study of the monuments furnishes incon-
trovertible evidence that the historical series of Egyptian temples,
tombs and cities, constructed on either bank of the Nile, follow one
upon another in chronological order, in such sort that the monuments
of the greatest antiquity, the Pyramids for instance, are situated
furthest to the north; while the nearer one approaches the Ethiopian
cataracts, the more do the monuments lose the stamp of antiquity, and
the more plainly do they show the decline of art, of beauty, and of
good taste. Moreover, in Ethiopia itself the existing remains present
us with a style of art that is absolutely devoid of originality. At the
first glance one can easily see thut it represents Egyptian art in its
degeneracy, and that art ill understood and ill executed. The utmost
height to which Ethiopian civilization ever reached was a mere rude
imitation, alike in science and in art, of Egyptian models.*'

The color of the ancient Egyptians was brown, like that of the Color and
modem Copts. For this we have the authority of the monuments.
The women were lighter than the men, being depicted on the monu-
ments as yellow. The hair was usually black and straight, though
FOL. 1. — 6

Hair.

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6g ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

sometimes it grew in short, crisp curls. Men generally shaved both
hair and beard, and went about with their heads perfectly bare, or
else wore wigs or a close-fitting cap. Women always w^ore their own
hair, and plaited it in long tresses, sometimes extending down to the
waist. The hair of the wigs, and that found sometimes on the heads
of mummies, is coarse.

Features. The features of the Egyptians resembled those of their Syrian
neighbors. The forehead was straight, but low; the nose generally
long, though sometimes slightly aquiline. The lips were over full,
but the upper lip was short, and the mouth was seldom too wide. The
chin was good, being well rounded, and neither receding nor extend-
ing too far. The eye was a long, narrow slit, like that of the Chi-
nese, but placed horizontally, instead of obliquely. The eyebrow, like-
wise long and thin, shaded the eye. The coloring was always dark;
the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard (where there was one), being
black, or nearly so, and the eyes black or dark brown.

Fonn and The Egyptians resembled the modem Arabs in form. They were
^J^^ tall, with long and supple limbs, and with the head well placed upon
the shoulders. Their movements were graceful, their carriage digni-
fied. Generally, however, their f raipes were spare, and their hands and
feet unduly large. The women were as thin as the men, and their
forms were almost similar. Children, however, were sufficiently
plump.
IMbea. The Egyptians were divided into distinct tribes. We read in the

Mosaic account of Ludim, Anamim, Lebahim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim,
Casluhim and Caphtorim as distinct "sons of Misraim'* — ^as separate
tribes of the people who occupied the "two Egypts,"
Intellec- The Egyptians ranked high intellectually among the ancient na-

"* tions. In art they exhibited wonderful power. Mr. Birch says that

their architecture "was on the grandest scale, and dwarfs the Greek
in comparison." The Egyptians had a high moral standard theo-
retically, but practically their morals were very lax. Says Brugsch,
the eminent Grerman Egyptologist: "The forty-two laws of the Egyp-
tian religion, contained in the 126th chapter of the Book of the Dead,
fall short in nothing of the teachings of Christianity." The same
authority further says that Moses, In compiling his code of laws, did
only ** translate into Hebrew the religious precepts which he found In
the sacred books" of the Egyptians, among whom he had been brought
up. The Egyptian women were notoriously loose In their character,
exceedingly immodest and licentious. The men openly practiced im-
purity, and boasted of it In their writings. An inclination to luxu-
rious living was also a defect in the Egyptian character; and drunk-
enness was a common vice among both sexes, sJl the appeals and ex-

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. g7

hortations of the priests in favor of temperance being unavailing to
stem the tide of general debauchery. Sensual pleasure and amuse-
ment seemed the ends of existence among the upper classes in general.
False hair was worn, dyes and cosmetics were used to produce artificial
beauty, magnificent dress was worn, equipages were splendid, great
banquets were frequently held, games and sports were constant, and
life was passed in feasting, sport and a continual succession of enjoy-
ments. The effect of self-indulgence is seen in the national decay of
these people, and their successive subjections to hardier races, such
as the Ethiopians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Macedonian
Greeks.

Their family affection is shown by the paintings, where husbands Cluurftcter-
and wives ai:e everywhere represented with their arms around each
other's necks. The Egyptians were industrious, cheerful and gay
even under hardships; but they were cruel, vindictive, treacherous,
avaricious, superstitious and servile. The use of the bastinado was
universal, being employed to inflict punishment for minor offenses,
while superiors freely beat inferiors. The poor peasantry were forced
by blows to yield to the extortions of the tax-gatherers, and slaves
were impelled to labor under fear of the rod, which the taskmaster
freely applied to the backs of laggards. The passions of the Egyp-
tians often broke out in riot, insurrection and murder. They were
extremely fanatical in religious belief, and ready to wipe out in blood
any insult to their religion.

They were at times timid, submissive and sycophantic. The lower Sanrility.
classes prostrated themselves before their superiors, tamely submitting
to blows. The great nobles were equally servile to their sovereign,
addressing him as a god, and ascribing to him their continued exis-
tence in this life.

Though successful in their early wars, when their disciplined troops Military
attacked undisciplined hordes, they were defeated whenever they en- *^®*®^'
countered a brave and skillful enemy. Their readiness to break en-
gagements when their fulfillment was inconvenient, made them unre-
liable allies; and for this reason the Hebrew prophet Isaiah spoke of
Egjrpt as a "bruised reed, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his
hand and pierce it."

The government of Egypt was a theocratic monarchy, the king Govem-
being the earthly representative of the Deity. His body was consid- "*"
ered sacred, and he was worshiped as a god. His title of Phrah, or
Pharaoh, signifying the Sun, ranked him as the emblem of Helios,
or Phrah, or Ra, the Sun-god. His right and duty was to preside
over the sacrifices and to pour out libations to the gods. He was
thus the head of the national religion, as well as the civil and political

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Qg ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

head of the state. The kingly office was hereditary, but the monarch
was not an absolute ruler; and the political system was a combination
of theocracy, monarchy and hierarchy, the king's power being more or
less curtailed by the power of the priesthood, or hierarchical class.
In this respect Egypt differed from an Asiatic despotism, where the
sovereign was unlimited lord and master over his subjects. An Egyp-
tian Pharaoh did not possess unlimited power over the lives and prop-
erty of his people, but his authority was strictly defmed and limited
by law, and nothing was left to passion or caprice. The monarch,
however, possessed the right to make new laws. The king's public
duties and personal habits were minutely defined by religious regula-
tions, tlie sacred books prescribing his food, drink, dress and the em-
ployment of his time, thus allowing him less individual freedom than
was enjoyed by the humblest and most degraded of his subjects. He
was not permitted to give way to excessive indulgence of any kind.
No slave or hireling was permitted to hold office about his person, for
fear that he might be contaminated by such unworthy presence, but
those of the highest rank only were accorded the privilege of attend-
ing him and ministering to his wants. The ritual of every morning's
worship constantly refreshed his memory with a knowledge of the vir-
tues of former kings, and reminded him of his own kingly and personal
duties. After his death his body was placed in an open court, where
any and every one of his subjects might bring accusations against
him; and if his conduct in life was proven to have been unworthy
his exalted station, he was forever excluded from the tombs of his
ancestors.
Castes. The ancient Egyptians were divided into classes or castes^ distin-

guished by their ranks and occupations ; the priests forming the high-
est caste, the warriors the second caste, and husbandmen, gardeners,
boatmen and herdsmen the lowest caste.
Priest- The priesthood possessed great authority in the state and were the

hood "power beliind the throne." So far as the sovereign was concerned
they used their power wisely and well. Their habits of life were sim-
ple and moderate. Their diet was plain in quality and limited in
quantity, and they abstained from fish, mutton, swine's flesh, beans,
peas, garlic, leeks and onions, which were articles of food among the
common people. They bathed twice a day and twice during the night,
some of the more strict in water tasted by their sacred birds, the ibis,
to make sure of being purged of all uncleanness. . Their abstinence,
purity and humility, and their reputation for learning, enabled the
priests to hold the people in religious, political and mental subjection.
By their knowledge of physical science they could frighten and ter-
rorize the superstitious and ignorant lower classes by optical illusions

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

and other tricks. By their power to try the dead they could decide
the fate of any man, from the king to the swineherd, by refusing
him a passport to the outer world. The priests prescribed the re-
ligious ritual of every Egyptian, from the king to the meanest of his
subjects.

The Egyptian priesthood embraced an order including many pro-
fessions and occupations. They alone were acquainted with the arts
of reading and writing, and with medicine and the other sciences.
They cultivated the science of medicine from the earliest ages. The
universal practice of embalming was exercised by the physicians, thus
enabling them to study the effects of various diseases by examining the
body after death. Asiatic monarchs sent to Egypt for their physi-
cians, and the fertile soil of the Nile valley furnished drugs for the
whole ancient civilized world. Even in our own time the characters
used by druggists to denote drams and ounces are the Egyptian
ciphers adopted by the Arabs.

The soldiers, or military caste, which ranked next to the sacerdotal,
or priestly order, numbered about four hundred thousand persons.
When not engaged in military service, either in foreign wars, in gar-
risons or at the royal court, these were settled on their lands, which
were located principally on the east side of the Nile or in the Delta,
which portions of the country were the most exposed to hostile inva-
sion by a foreign foe. Each soldier was allotted about six and a
half acres of land, exempt from all taxation or tribute ; and from the
proceeds of this land he defrayed the expenses of his arms and equip-
ments. The soldier, however, could not engage in any art or trade.
The lands of the priests and soldiers were considered privileged prop-
erty, while all other lands were regarded as the king's property, and
were rented by him to farmers, who paid a yearly rent of one-fifth
of the produce.

Below the priests and warriors were the various unprivileged castes,
embracing husbandmen, gardeners, boatmen, artisans of various kinds,
and herdsmen, comprising shepherds, goatherds and swineherds.
These latter were intensely despised as the most degraded of human
creatures, and were not allowed to enter the temples. All castes below
the priesthood and the warrior class were deprived of all political
rights and disqualified from ownership in land.

The two privileged castes, the priests and warriors, are believed to
have been the descendants of the Asiatic conquerors and immigrants
into Egypt, while the lower classes were the descendants of the Etlii-
opian aborigines of the Nile valley. The Egyptian castes were not
as fixed as those of the Hindoos, as the educational system enabled
any one of superior talent to rise above his native rank. Says Rawlin-

Its Rank.

Soldmn.

Unpiivi-

leged

Castee.

Origin and
Nature of
theCastes.

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*yO Ancient egypt and Ethiopia-

son: "Castes, in the strictest sense of the word, did not exist in
Egypt, since a son was not absolutely compelled to follow his father's
profession." Intermarriages sometimes occurred between members of
the priestly and warrior castes, and transitions between them were
common. The same was the case between members of the various
unprivileged orders. Still, in the main, the same rank, professions and
occupations remained in the same families for hundreds and hundreds
of years, and the evils of class distinction were almost equal to those
of the fixed castes of India. The upper classes despised all handi-
crafts, and "every shepherd was an abomination in the sight of an
Egyptian.*' There were many slaves who had been captives taken in
war. The class system tended to discourage personal ambition, and
thus to check all progress and improvement after the earliest high
state of civilization had been attained, and was the principal cause
of the final national decay of this renowned ancient people.
Land The land in Egypt belonged exclusively to the king, the priests and

Sip'" ^^® soldiers, during the period of the New Empire; all other land-
owners having surrendered their proprietorship to the king, while the
Hebrew Joseph was prime minister, occupying them only afterward
as tenants of the crown by paying an annual rental of one-fifth of
the produce.
Asricnl- The lot of the agricultural laborer in Egypt was a hard one.
There were few Egyptian peasants rich enough to rent their farms
and till them for themselves. Most of them were hired laborers work-
ing on the estates of others, under the supervision of brutal overseers
or taskmasters, who applied the bastinado to the backs of the idle or
refractory on the slightest pretext. The peasant farmer was not
much better off. Writes Amenemun to Pentaour: **Have you ever
represented to yourself the estate of the rustic who tills the ground?
Before he has put the sickle to the crop, the locusts have blasted a
part of it ; then come the rats and the birds. If he is slack in housing
his grain, the thieves are upon him. His horse dies of weariness as
it drags the wain. Anon, the tax-gatherer arrives; his agents are
armed with clubs ; he has Negroes with him, who carry whips of pahn
branches. They all cry, *Give us your grain!' and he has no easy
way of avoiding their extortionate demands. Next, the wretch is
caught, bound and sent off to work without wage at the canals; his
wife is taken and chained; his children are stripped and plundered."
Tuaufsakhrat, in the "Praise of Learning," gives a similar account
in these words: "The little laborer having a field, he passes his life
among rustics ; he is worn down for vines and pigs, to make his kitchen
of what his fields have ; his clothes are heavy with their weight ; he is
bound as a forced laborer; if he goes forth into the air, he suffers,

tural
Laborers.

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EGTPTIAN CIVILIZATION. (yi

having to quit his warm fire-place ; he is bastinadoed with a stick on
his legs, and seeks to save himself; shut against him is the hall of
every house, locked are all the chambers."

Thus it will be seen that the small cultivator was oppressed with Their
extortionate taxation, collected by the brutal tax-gatherers ; that ^^^ ^^'
forced labors were exacted of him, and that he was bastinadoed with
a stick on the back or legs if he resisted. He was torn from his
family and homestead, and forced to labor under the hot Egyptian
sun at cleaning out or banking up the canals. No wages being paid
him, and insufficient food being furnished him, he often perished under
the hardships imposed upon him by a merciless government. If an
iron constitution saved him and he returned home, he frequently found
his family dispersed, his wife carried off, and his mud cabin in ruins.
He was regarded with contempt, not alone by the privileged classes,
but also by their servants, and even by their slaves.

The laws of Egypt were remarkable, and are another evidence of Laws,
the high civilization of the people. Bossuet has said that "Egypt
was the source of all good government.*' Perjury was considered the
most heinous of all crimes — ^an offense alike against gods and men —
and was punishable with death. Any one seeing a person defending
his life against a murderer, and failing to render him assistance, was
also capitally punished, as being equally guilty with the assassin. If
the witness were unable to assist the defendant, he was bound to report
the assailant to the lawful authorities. A person falsely accusing
another was punished as a calumniator. Every Egyptian was bound
to furnish the authorities with a written statement of bis means of
livelihood; and any one giving a false account, or following an un-
lawful pursuit, was punished with death. A wilful murderer was like-
wise put to death. A judge who condemned an innocent person to
death was punished as a deliberate murderer. A soldier who deserted
his ranks was punished with infamy, but could recover his lost honor
by future gallant behavior. Making counterfeit money, false
weights, scales or measures, falsifying public records, or forging
documents, were crimes punished with the loss of both hands. A
man's property could be seized for debt, but not his person ; and if a
debtor swore that he owed nothing to a creditor who was without a
bond, the debt was void. The interest was never permitted to exceed
the principal.

The Egyptians were the first people to organize a regular army, Anny.
and thus to lay the foundation for the whole system of ancient war-
fare, including the military systems of the ancient Asiatic monarchies.
The war-chariots formed the most important part of an Egyptian war
army, and were used instead of cavalry. These chariots were mounted Chariots.

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72 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA-

on two wheels, and were very carefully made. They were hung low,
were open behind to enable the warrior to step in and out with ease,
and had no seat. They were drawn by two horses, and usually con-
tained two warriors, one to manage the horses, and the other to fight.
The war-chariots of different nations differed from each other. The
harness and housings of the horses were elegantly decorated. A
quiver and bow-case, tastefully and skillfully decorated, were fixed to
the chariot on the outside. The Egyptian national weapon was the
bow, used by infantry and charioteers.

Archery. The Egyptians were the most skillful archers of antiquity. Their
bows were the most powerful, and their arrows, dr^wn to the ear, were
the best aimed, of those of all ancient nations. The children of the
military caste were trained to the practice of archery from the earliest
infancy. The heavy arms of the Egyptian infantry were a spear, a
dagger, a short sword, a pole-ax, a battle-ax, a helmet and a shield.
Some of the principal officers used coats of mail for protection. The
light troops were armed with swords, battle-axes, maces and clubs.
Every battalion had its standard, with some symbol or sacred object
represented thereon, generally the emblem of the nome or tribe. The
soldiers were called out by conscription, drilled to the sound of the
trumpet, and taught to march in measured time. In the most ancient
period cavalry were used as skirmishers, videttes and expresses. In
attacking walled cities battering-rams, besieging-towers and scaling-
ladders were used. The Egyptians, like other ancient nations, treated
their captives very cruelly, putting them to death or reducing them
to slavery. ,
Traat- The Egyptians readily gave quarter when an enemy submitted, and

^idlen' thousands of prisoners were often taken in their military expeditions.
Foes. If they ran down an enemy's ship they exerted themselves to rescue
the men on board from the waves, and took them to their own vessels
at the risk of their own lives. Enemies who laid down their weapons
on land and sued for mercy were usually spared. Theil* arms were
bound together by a cord passed round them a little above the elbows,
and they were led from the field to the camp, usually in long strings,
' each conducted by one Egyptian, Laggards were urged forward by
fear of the bastinado, which was freely applied by those in charge
of the captives. All captives were considered as belonging to the
king, and consequently became his slaves, being employed by him in
forced labors during the rest of their lives ; but sometimes the monarch
rewarded individual captors by allowing them to hold their own pris-

Matila- oners, who thus passed into private servitude.
Slain ^^ Egyptians, in order to ascertain the number of slain among

Foes. an enemy's army on the battle-field, mutilated them, cutting off and

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

carrying to the camp the right hand, the tongue or some other portion
of the body. Heaps of each of these are shown in the sculptures,
which the royal scribes are represented as counting in the king's pres-
ence, before registering them. Each soldier received a reward upon
showing these proofs of his prowess.

The fertilizing of the soil by the annual inundation of the Nile,
and the irrigation of the country by means of numerous canals, con-
tributed to make Egypt the great granary of antiquity, from which
other nations drew their supplies in times of famine. The naturally
fertile soil and the spontaneous growth of the date-palm furnished
the people with cheap and abundant food, and agriculture received
much attention.

The rapid increase and density of the Egyptian population, which,
as we have already said, was about seven millions, crowded in the nar-
row valley of the Nile, only seven miles in width, was due to the abun-
dance and cheapness of food and the readiness with which it could
be obtained. This fact accounts for the ease with which great public
works like the Pyramids, that were useless, could be built ; as the mon-
archs were thus enabled to employ the labor of hundreds of thousands
of men, who were not required by necessity to labor in any other
way.

The non-interference of the government with agriculture was an
advantage. The grain was sowed when the inundation had disap-
peared. In some parts of Egypt the husbandman only scattered the
seed upon the rich Nile deposit and caused it to be trodden in by
sheep, goats or pigs, and then simply awaited the harvest. Plows,
of a simple construction, and hoes were used in preparing the ground
in other portions of the country. The plows were drawn by two
oxen or two cows, yoked to it by the shoulders or by the horns.
Sometimes a single plowman guided the plow by holding one handle
in his left hand, and carrying a whip in his right ; but generally there
were two plowmen, one holding the two handles, and the other driving
the animals with the whip. In light and loose soils the hoe was used
instead of the plow. The hoes and plows were of wood. The grain
cultivated was wheat, barley, and what Herodotus called zea or olyrOj
probably the modem doora. The wheat and barley were used by the
rich, and the doora by the poor. The wheat was cut with a toothed
sickle, a little below the ear, and put in baskets or bound in sheaves.
The fiUed baskets were carried in by men or donkeys to the threshing-
floor, and there emptied on a heap. Sometimes the com was conveyed
from the harvest-field to the granary or storehouse, and kept there a
month. Threshing was done by means of cattle, which were driven
round and round the threshing-floor, while a laborer, with a pitch-fork,

Soil and

Agricul-

tttte.

Farming
Imple-
ments.

Cultiva-
tion of
Wheat.

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74 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

threw the unthreshed ears into their path. The threshed com was at
once winnowed, by being tossed into the air with shovels, in a place
where the draught of air would blow off the chaff as the com fell.
After this operation the cleansed grain was carried in sacks to the
granaryj and there stored until used.
Barley The cultivation of barley was similar to that of wheat, and barley

^Grainsr' bread was in great demand. Beer was also brewed from the grain.
The doora was pulled up by the roots, and the earth was then shaken
off by the hand. It was bound in sheaves and carried to a storehouse ;
and after it was dry it was unbound and drawn by the hand through
an instrument, armed at one ^nd with a set of metal spikes, which
separated the heads from the straw. These were, perhaps, then also
threshed and winnowed. Beans, peas and lentils were also raised.
Artificial grasses, such as clover, lupins and vetches, were grown to
furnish provender for the cattle during the inundation. Flax was
raised in great abundance for the linen out of which garments were
made. Cotton, indigo, safflower, sesame, the castor-oil plant, and vari-
ous medicinal herbs were also cultivated. Esculent vegetables, such
as garlic, onions, leeks, endive, radishes, melons, cucumbers, lettuces,
etc., were likewise raised in considerable quantities, and formed a large
element in the food of the people. The raising and harvesting of
these different crops employed the agricultural class for the greater
part of the year. In addition to the yearly overflow of the Nile, tlie
country was fertilized by irrigation in the form of a system of canals,
with embankments, sluices and flood-gates, by which the overflow was
retained in vast reservoirs, and thus utilized. This system of irriga-
tion was established at an early date, and was maintained with the
greatest care by the government. In the district of the Faioom, a
natural depression in the Libyan desert, eight or ten miles from the
Nile valley, a canal was cut from the Nile, thus filling this depression
with water, and forming an artificial lake, known as the "Lake
Moeris." From this immense reservoir, canals were cut in all direc-
tions to irrigate the surrounding desert. In this region, by this sys-
tem of irrigation, the cultivation of the olive was rendered possible.
In the edge of the Nile valley, toward the desert of Hdger^ where the
soil was light and composed of sand mixed with gravel, the vine was
cultivated all the way from Thebes to Memphis. It was also grown
in the Faioom, and in the western part of the Delta. The fruit, after
being gathered, was carried in baskets to the storehouse, where the
juice was extracted by treading or squeezing in a bag. After fer-
mentation the wine was stored away in vases or amphorse of an elegant
shape, closed with a stopper and then hermetically sealed with moist
clay; pitch, gypsum or other substance.

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

In the large estates of the rich land-owners the herdsmen were
under the supervision of overseers. The peasant who cultivated the
land on which the flocks and herds fed was responsible for their proper
support and for the exact account of the amount of food which they
consumed. Some persons were wholly employed in taking care of the
sick animals, which were kept at home in the farm-yard. The over-
seer of the shepherds attended, at stated periods, to give a report
to the scribes connected with the estate, by whom it was submitted
to the steward, who was accountable to his employer for this and all
his other possessions. The paintings represent the head shepherd
rendering his account, and behind him we see the flocks assigned to
his charge, consisting of the sheep, goats and wild animals belonging
to the person in the tomb. In one painting the expressive attitude
of this man, with his hand at his mouth, is imagined to convey the idea
of his effort to remember the numbers which he is giving, from mem-
ory, to the scribes. In another painting the numbers are written over
the animals. The oxen are numbered eight hundred and thirty-four,
the cows two hundred and twenty, the goats three thousand two hun-
dred and thirt^^-four, the asses seven hundred and sixty, and the sheep
nine hundred and seventy-four. These are followed by a man carry-
ing the young lambs in baskets slung upon a pole. The steward, in
a leaning posture upon his staff, and accompanied by his dog, stands
on one side; while the scribes, writing out their statement, occupy
the other side. Another painting shows us men bringing baskets of
eggs, flocks of geese, and baskets full of goslings. An Egyptian
** Goose Gibbie" is represented as making obeisance to his master. In
still another painting we see persons feeding sick oxen, goats and
geese. The ancient Egyptians carried the art of curing diseases in
all kinds of animals to great perfection ; and the testimony of ancient
writers and paintings is sustained by a discovery of Cuvier, who
found the left shoulder of a mummied ibis fractured and Reunited,
thus showing that human art intervened in this case.

The ancient Egyptians of every class delighted in field-sports, and
the peasants considered it a duty, no, less than amusement, to hunt and
kill the hyena and other wild animals which annoyed them. The
paintings show us numerous hunting scenes and various devices for
catching birds and beasts. The hyena is usually represented as
caught in a trap. Wild oxen were caught by a noose or lasso, in very
much the same manner as the South Americans catch horses and cat-
tle, though the Egyptians are not represented as riding on horseback
when they used it. The introduction of a bush in one painting, just
behind the man throwing the lasso, would seem to imply that the hunts-
man was concealed. Other wild animals hunted were the hippopota-

Overseers.

Hunting,
Fishing

and
Fowling.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Paintings

of Farm

Life.

Beasts of
Borden.

Memphis

and
Thebes.

mus, the jackal^ the fox, the crocodile, the porcupine, the gazelle, the
ibex, the hare, the antelope, and even the ostrich. Wild cattle were
also hunted. Lions, upon the borders of Egypt, were hunted by a
few of the kings, but there is only one representation of a royal lion
hunt. Sometimes lions were tamed, and were used in the chase of
other animals, according to a single painting. One king is repre-
sented as having "hunted a hundred and twenty elephants on account
of their tusks." Fishing and fowling were also favorite sports among
the Egyptians. Hounds were likewise used in pursuing game.

All the departments of agriculture, farming, breeding cattle, etc.,
are illustrated in the paintings with wonderful accuracy and detail.
We observe oxen lying on the ground, with legs pinioned, while herds-
men are branding marks upon them with hot irons, and other men are
heating irons in the fire. The paintings give us full accounts of the
king's kine, which are generally copied after the fattest specimens.
One of these represents the Pharaoh as himself a tolerably extensive
grazier, the king's ox being marked eighty-six. Another illustrates
a regular cattle-show; another the actual operation of the veterinary
art, cattle doctors being exhibited as performing operations upon sick
oxen, bulls, deer, goats and geese. The hieroglyphic denoting a
physician is the fowl whose cry is "Quack! quack!"

Egyptian beasts of burden were asses, cows and oxen. Horses were
used for riding, for drawing curricles and chariots, mainly by men
of the upper classes, and for drawing the plow. Multitudes were
required for the war-chariots and for the cavalry service. A brisk
trade in horses was carried on with Syria and Palestine, where they
were in great demand and commanded high prices. The horses of
ancient Egypt were kept constantly in stables, fed on straw and
barley, and were not allowed to graze in the fields. The larger land--
owners also possessed wild animals, such as wild goats, gazelles and
oryxes ; and also wild fowl, such as the stork, the vulpanser and others.
Egyptian farmers also bred large numbers of sheep, goats and pigs.

Egypt has been an object of interest to mankind in every age, as
the birth-place of civilization, art and science. In this narrow strip
of country, "the Gift of the Nile," only seven miles wide and five
hundred and twenty-six miles long, were seven million inhabitants.
The Nile valley is studded with the ruins of ancient cities. Memphis,
the chief city of Middle Egypt, or the Heptanomis, so called from
its seven nomes, was situated about twelve miles south of the apex of
the Delta, and as we have said, was founded by Menes, the first Egyp-
tian king. In the vicinity of Memphis are the most splendid of the
pyramids, which extend for seventy miles on the west bank of the
Nile, and among which are the famous Pyramids of Ghizeh, already

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-;^, ^^^- tu»>K

lmO

,;i:i..;:vo.^--^ri

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. tjrj

described. In this vicinity is also the Great Sphinx, or woman-headed
lion, one hundred and forty-six feet long and thirty-six feet wide
across the shoulders. Here are also the ruins of the famous Laby-
rinth, and miles on miles of rock-hewn temples. The magnificent and
stately Thebes, the hundred-gated city of Upper Egypt, or the The-
bais, is said to have extended over twenty-three miles. On its site are
the villages of Kamak and Luxor, where the ruins of magnificent and
spacious temples, splendid palaces, colossal statues, avenues of obe-
lisks and lines of sphinxes, tombs of kings hewn in the solid rock,
subterranean catacombs and the gigantic statue of Memnon, still bear
witness to the immense size and splendor of this great and celebrated
city, whose ruins extend for seven miles along both banks of the
Nile.

The ancient Egyptians had a wonderful building instinct, and Architec-
architecture was the greatest of all their arts. The distinguishing ^^^'
features were massiveness and grandeur, in which they have never
been surpassed. This great people delighted in pyramids, sphinxes,
obelisks and stupendous palaces and teirfples, with massive columns and
spacious halls of solemn and gloomy grandeur, in which our largest
cathedrals could stand, adorned with elaborately-sculptured colossal
statues, and connected with which were avenues of sphinxes and lines
of obelisks. Their pyramids are the oldest, as well as the largest
and most wonderful of human works yet r.pmaining, and the beauty
of their masonry, Wilkinson declares, has never been surpassed. An
obelisk of a single stone now standing in Egypt weiglis three hundred
tons, and a colossus of Rameses the Great nearly nine hundred tons;
and Herodotus describes a monolithic temple weighing five thousand
tons, which was carried hundreds of miles on sledges, as were also the
huge blocks of stone, sometimes weighing sixteen thousand tons each,
with which the pyramids were built. In one instance two thousand
men were employed three years in conveying a single stone from the
quarry to the structure in which it was to be placed. There is a
roof of a doorway at Karnak covered with sandstone blocks forty feet
long. Sculpture and bas-reliefs thirty-five or forty centuries old, in
which the granite is cut with exquisite delicacy, are yet to be seen
throughout this famous land. The pyramids were all built on strictly
scientific and mathematical principles.

The obelisks, so called on account of their peculiar shape, were tall Obei:.
and slender monoliths erected at the gateways of temples, one standing
on each side. From the quarries of Syene they were floated down the
Nile on rafts during an annual overflow. They were formed in ac-
cordance with a certain rule of proportion, and were from twenty to
one hundred and twenty-three feet high. The names and titles of the

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Science.

Arte.

Language.

Writing.

kings who erected them were recorded in hieroglyphic carvings on the
sides. An obelisk at Luxor was taken to Paris in 18SS and erected in
the Place de la Concorde. Several others had previously been re-
moved to Rome. Two famous obelisks, after standing for eighteen
centuries at the gate of the temple of the sun at Heliopolis, where
they had been erected by King Thothmes III., were removed to Alex-
andria by the Romans just after their conquest of Egypt, in the time
of Augustus Cssar. These were knovm at Alexandria as Cleopatra's
Needles, and one was transported to London a few years ago. The
other was shortly after transported to New York, and is now one of
the objects of interest greeting the eye of the beholder in Central
Park.

Egypt, renowned for its discoveries in art and science, was the
ancient world's university, where Moses, Lycurgus and Solon, Pytha-
goras and Plato, Herodotus and Diodorus — ^lawgivers, philosophers
and historians — ^were students. The ancient Egyptians had made
considerable progress in the sciences, particularly astronomy, geom-
etry, arithmetic, chemistry, medicine and anatomy. Their knowledge
of astronomy is proven by the accuracy with which they calculated
solar and lunar eclipses; by their mode of reckoning time and their
knowledge of the length of the year as being three hundred and sixty-
five days ; by their knowledge of the spherical shape of the earth ; and
by their ability to compute latitude and longitude, as demonstrated
by the fact that the tomb of Cheops, Suphis, or SIhufu, the king who
built the largest of the three great Pyramids of Ghizeh, is located
exactly on the SOth parallel of north latitude.

The ancient Egyptians had attained great skill in many of the finer
mechanical arts, such as pottery, the manufacture of glass and porce-
lain, dyeing and the making of linen and cotton goods. They like-
wise excelled in the polishing and engraving of precious stones, and
in metallurgy. Mining was one of their industries. Their walls and
ceilings were psdnted in beautiful patterns, which modems yet imitate ;
and in the production of useful and ornamental articles they have never
been surpassed, either in ancient or modem times.

The language of the ancient Egyptians was related to the lan-
guages of the Semitic nations, but differed from them in many par-
ticulars. There were different dialects in Upper and Lower Egypt,

The Egyptians practiced the art of writing far more extensively
than any other ancient people. The pyramids and monuments, even
to the most remote antiquity, bear inscriptions, and it was the custom
to mark every article of use or ornament. There were three kinds
of writings in use. For monumental inscriptions hieroglyphics were
used For documents the writing was executed on leaves of the jwipy-

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THE ROSETTA STONE

[About one-sixth the actual size]

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EGYPTIAN ClVlLlZAtlON.

rus plant, from which our word paper is derived. The third kind of
writing was the demotic, that of the common people, so called from
demosy the people. The writing was executed with a reed pen. The
hierogljrphics were traced in black, but commenced in red, and the
sculptured hieroglyphs were also embellished with colors. The hiero-
glyphic signs are pictorial, and are of four kinds — representative,
figurative, determinative and phonetic. Much of this ancient litera-
ture has come down to us in a fragmentary and disconnected form.
Remnants of papyrus manuscripts of the most ancient Theban dynas-
ties — about four thousand years old — are still in existence. The pro-
fessional scribes were from the priestly class.

The discovery of the famous Rosetta Stone, during Bonaparte's
Egyptian campaign, in 1798, led to the deciphering of the hiero-
glyphic inscriptions on the monuments, which has been the means of
throwing a flood of new light upon the history of ancient Egypt.
All three forms of hieroglyphic writing were unknown to the Greeks,
to whom the monumental inscriptions were interpreted by the Egyptian
priests. The key to these writings was lost, thus concealing the treas-
ures of Egyptian learning from » the civilise^'woxld for centuries.
The copies of the three kinds of inscriptions on tifie Rosetta Stone —
the hierogljrphic, the demotic and the Greek — given to European
scholars, were the means of opening this long-sealed library on stones
and papyri. In 1815 Dr. Young, the Englisji Egyptologist, dis-
covered the key to the texts, and the distinguished French Egyptolo-
gist, Champollion, made a successful application' of the newly-dis-
covered key. The Rosetta Stone is now in the British Museum.

The ancient Egyptians surpassed all other nations in their love for
recording all human actions. They preserved in writing, on papyrus,
a record of all the details of private life with surprising zeal, method
and regularity. Every year, month, week and day had its record of
transactions. This inclination fully accounts for Egypt being the
monumental land. No other human records — ^whether of Chaldsa, In-
dia or China — go as far back into remote antiquity as do those of
Egypt. Bunsen says: **The genuine Egyptian writing is fully as
old as Menes, the founder of the Old Empire, perhaps three thousand
years before Christ." Lepsius saw the hieroglyph of the reed and
inkstand on the monuments of the Fourth Dynasty. Herodotus re-
marked: "No Egyptian omits taking accurate note of extraordinary
and striking events." Everything was recorded. Scribes are every-
where seen on the monuments, taking accounts of the products of the
farms, going into the most minute details, even so far as to giving
account of every single egg and chicken. Bunsen further says: **In
spite of the ravages of time, and though systematic excavation has

Rosetta
Stone.

Records.

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go ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

scarcely yet commenced, we possess chronological records of a date
prior to any period of which manuscripts are preserved, or the art of
writing existed in any other quarter/'
Their It is owing to their fondness for recording everything, both in pic-

^^ervA- ^^res and in three kinds of writing ; also to their fondness for building
tion. and excavating temples and tombs in imperishable granite ; and lastly,
to the dryness of the air which has preserved for us these paintings,
and to the sand which has buried the monuments, thus preventing
their destruction — it is owing to all these . circumstances that we have
so wonderfully preserved, for forty-five centuries, the account of the
everyday life, thoughts and religious belief of this renowned ancient
people.

High Civ- The most ancient mural paintings reveal a state of the arts of

ilization. civilization so perfect as to excite the wonder of archaeologists, who
therefore know how few new things there are under the sun. We find
houses with doors, windows and verandas, likewise bams for grain,
vineyards, gardens, fruit trees, etc. We also see pictures of march-
ing troops, armed with spears and shields, bows, slings, daggers, axes,
maces and the boomerang. We also notice coats of mail, standards,
war-chariots, and the assault on forts by means of scaling-ladders.
Sepul- The ancient Egyptian tombs likewise exhibit scenes of domestic life

Pufntin^cwi ^^^ customs similar to those of our own times. We observe monkeys
trained to gather fruit from the trees in an orchard, houses furnished
with a great variety of chairs, tables, ottomans, carpets, couches, as
elegant and elaborate as any used at the present day. There are like-
wise seen comic pictures of parties, where ladies and gentlemen are
sometimes represented as being the worse for wine; of dances, where
ballet-girls in short dresses perform pirouettes of the modem kind;
of exercises in wTestling, games of ball, games of chance like chess
or checkers ; of throwing knives at a mark ; of the modern thimble-rig,
wooden dolls for children, curiously-carved wooden boxes, dice and
toy-balls. We have likewise presented to our view men and women
playing on harps, flutes, pipes, cymbals, trumpets, drums, guitars and
tambourines. We find glass to have been in general use by this great
people nearly four thousand years ago, as early as the reign of Usur-
tasen I., and we can see pictures of glass-blowing and glass bottles
as far back as the Fourth Dynasty. The most skillful Venetian glass-
workers can not rival some of the old Egyptian glass-work; as the
Egyptians could combine all colors in one cup, place gold between two
surfaces of glass, and finish in glass details of feathers, etc., which
can not be distinguished without the use of the microscope. This
last fact demonstrates that they must have understood the use of the
magnifying-glass. The Egyptians likewise imitated with success the

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EGYPTIAN TOILET ARTICLES, VASES, AMPHORv^j^ig^ by GoOQIc

L* H

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 81

colors of precious stones, and were even able to make statues thirteen
feet high, closely resembling an emerald. They made mosaics in glass
of colors of wonderful brilliancy. They were able to cut glass in the
most ancient periods. Chinese bottles have also been found in pre-
viously-unopened tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, showing that
there must have been commercial intercourse as far back as that period.
The Egyptians could spin and weave and color cloth, and understood
the use of mordants, as in modern calico printing. Pliny described
this art as practiced in Egypt.

The art of making writing-paper from the papyrus, or paper- Arts and
plant, is as ancient as the Pyramids. The Egyptians tanned leather ' "* ^™^'
and made shoes; and the shoemakers are represented as working on
their benches precisely as do our own. Their carpenters used axes,
saws, chisels, drills, planes, rulers, plummets, squares, hammers, nails,
and hones for sharpening. They likewise knew the use of glue in
cabinet-making, and there are paintings in veneering, in which a piece
of thin, dark wood is fastened by glue to a coarser piece of light wood.
Their boats were propelled by sails on yards and masts, as well as
by oars. They used the blowpipe in making gold chains and other
ornaments. They had rings of gold aifd •silver for money, and
weighed it in carefully-constructed scales. Their hieroglyphics are
carved on the hardest granite so delicately and accurately as to indi-
cate the use of metallic cutting instruments harder than our best steel.
The siphon was known to these people as early as the fifteenth century
before Christ. The wig was worn by all the higher classes, who con-
stantly shaved their heads, as well as their chins, and frequently wore
false beards. In the tombs are found sandals, shoes and low boots,
some of them very elegant. Loose robes, ear-rings, finger-rings,
bracelets, armlets, anklets and gold necklaces were worn by women.
Vases for ointment, mirrors, combs, needles, etc., are found in the
tombs. These people also had their doctors and drugs. The preva-
lence of the passport system is also shown by the careful descriptions
of the person contained in their deeds, in precisely the same style as
those required by travelers in Europe. The description of Egyptian
customs and manners here given is but a small part of that revealed
.to us in painting or sculpture in the tombs, or upon the walls of
Thebes or Beni-Hassan.

At their feasts, which were numerous among the rich, the host and Feasts,
hostess presided. The seats were single or double chairs, but num-
bers sat on the ground. The servants decked the guests with lotus
flowers, and placed meat, cakes, fruits and other articles of food on
the small tables in front of them. Hired musicians and dancers
entertained the company. Their games were something like our

VOL. 1.— «

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83 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

chess or checkers. The rich rode in chariots, or in heavy car-
riages drawn by oxen. Women received more respectful treatment
and enjoyed more freedom in Egypt than in any of the Asiatic
nations.

Games. Games of ball were played by females, as well as by males, and one

picture shows us that the loser was obliged to allow the winner to
ride on her back.

Shops. Egyptian shops furnished many curious scenes. Poulterers sus-

pended geese and other fowls from a pole in front of the shop, which
also supported an awning to shade them from the sun. Many of the
shops resembled our stalls, being open in front, with the goods set on
the shelves or hanging from the inner wall; a custom still prevailing
in the East. In the Egyptian kitchens were likewise exhibited singu-
lar scenes, among which we find representations of a cook roasting a
goose. He holds the spit :with one hand, and blows the fire with a fan
in the other. Another person is seen cutting up joints of meat and
putting them into the pot, which is boiling close at hand ; while other
joints of meat are lying on the table.

Artists Egyptian artists and scribes put their reed pens behind their ears.

Scribes, when examining the effect of the painting or listening to a person
on business, as in a modem counting room. The paintings in -some
instances represent the scribe at work with a spare pen behind his
ear, his tablet upon his knee, and his writing-case and inkstand on
the table in front of him.

I^rw*®- The dress of the highest class consisted of the shenti, a short linen

or woolen garment, folded or fluted, and worn around the loins, being
fastened w^ith a girdle. A fine linen robe, reaching to the feet, was
worn over tliis, being provided with long sleeves reaching to the elbows.
A second girdle fastened the outer robe to the waist. The arms and
lower parts of the legs were left bare. Sandals or shoes of leather,
or of palm-leaves or papyrus stalks, were worn by the rich of hoth
sexes. The Egyptian lords wore ornaments, such a^ collars of beads
or gold chains round their necks, armlets and bracelets of gold round
the arms, rings upon the fingers, and anklets round the ankles. The
Egyptian women wore a single garment, tied at the neck or fastened
by straps over the shoulders, and reaching from the neck or breast to
the feet; but those of the upper class wore over this a colored sash,
passed twice around the waist and tied in front, and over this second
garment a large, loose, fine linen robe with full open sleeves, reaching
to the elbow. They wore sandals like the men, and the same orna-
ments, with the addition of ear-rings in the form of serpents or end-
ing in the heads of animals or of goddesses. Elegant head-dresses
were worn.

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EGYPTIAN HAIR-DRESSING AND HEADWEAR

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TH£ ««.«' tw«K

I'MRM.: i.lHRARY

AS' >K. \^r N< »A AND
TILDFN F'OIJNDATKJN*

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. . gg

The most important trades among the Egyptians were those of Trades
building, stone-cutting, weaving, furniture-making, chariot-making, ^^fti^ns""
glass-blowing, pottery, metallurgy, boat-building and embalming.
The builders worked in wood, stone and brick. The mechanical ex-
cellence of their works is fully attested by their continuance to the
present day.

The paintings frequently allude to the occupations of the mason, Masons,
the stone-cutter and the sculptor. Workmen are represented polish- Otters
ing and painting statues of men, sphinxes and small figures. In two Sculptors,
cases are illustrated large granite colossi, surrounded with scaffolding,
on which are represented men employed in polishing and chiseling the
stone; the painter coloring the hieroglyphics which the sculptor had
engraved on the back of the statue.

Stone-cutting embraced the occupations of quarrying and shaping stone-
blocks for the builder, and of cutting, polishing and engraving gems. Cutting.
The Egyptians are still without rivals in the former branch. Blocks
of stone were usually cut with a single-handed saw in the hands of a
single sawyer. Sometimes the pick apd chisel were used to a consid-
erable extent, after which wedges of dr,y, wqpd were, inserted; and these
expanded on being wetted, and split off, the required block from the
mass of stone in the quarry. The tools used were mostly of bronze.
Blocks of stone, obtained from the. quarries, were finally smoothed and
prepared for use by means of the ctiseland mallet.

The Egyptians carried on an extensive commerce with other coun- Corn-
tries; importing gold, ivory, ebony, skins and slaves from Ethiopia o^®'*»«
and Central Africa, incense from Arabia, and spices and gems from
India ; and exporting, in exchange for these articles, grain and cloth.
As the Egyptians had not attained much skill in the art of ship-build-
ing, their trade was carried on principally by Greek and Phoenician
merchants.

Egyptian sculpture was designed to illustrate the religious faith of ^^^
the people, and for this reason was characterized by grandeur and
sublimity rather than beauty. Their peculiar taste was the outgrowth
of their religious ideas, for the aim was to inspire awe rather than
please the eye with graceful and elegant forms. This checked all
progress in art, for all inventive genius was fettered by conventional
rules founded on religious beliefs. Colossal statues, uncouth alle-
gorical figures and strange ideal forms of animals supplied the place
of nature and beauty in Egyptian art. Painting, as illustrated by
the specimens in the interiors of temples and sepulchers, was likewise
intended to serve the cause of religion, and was trammeled by the
same conventional rules, certain colors being strictly prescribed in rep-
resenting the bodies and draperies of the gods, thus sacrificing varietjr

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Statues,

Reliefs,

Intaglios.

Great
Sphinx.

Fonns.

Diawingn*

of form to an ideal monotony. The painting was often executed in
brilliant coloring, but the drawing lacked accuracy, exhibiting no
compliance with the rules of perspective or the plainest laws of vision.
The pigments used were characterized by durability and often by
brillianc}'.

Ancient Egyptian sculpture embraces statuary; reliefs^ or repre-
sentations of forms on a flat surface by means of a certain projection;
and intaglios, or representations by cutting the forms into stone or
marble, thus sinking them below the surface. Completely detached
statues are rare in Egypt. The statues were cut out of stone. There
are grotesque figures of Phthah and Bes, which produce disgust and
aversion. Egyptian statuary was distinguished for massiveness and
strength. The statuettes, in bronze, basalt or terra-cotta, are less dig-
nified than the statues, but possess more elegance and grace. The
Great Sphinx, near the Pyramids of Ghizch, is a striking monument,
and impresses the beholder with its air of impassive dignity. Other
sphinxes have a certain calmness and grandeur. There are also stat-
uettes of bulls, monkeys and dogs, which are fairly good.

Animal forms are excellent, but the chief defects of Egyptian
drawings are improper proportion and incorrect perspective. The
bas-reliefs have the same defects in this respect as their statues and
statuettes ; and there is a frequent intrusion of hideous forms, as seen
in the three huge and misshapen figures, so frequently seen upon the
ceilings of temples, and which are supposed to represent "the heav-
ens." Bes in all his forms is fearful to behold; as are also Taouris,
Savak, Cerberus, Khem, and sometimes even Osiris. The forms of the
gods are all more or le^ repulsive; the stiff outlines, the close-fitting
robes, the large hands and feet, the frequent animal heads and im-
mense head-dresses, the ugly or inexpressive faces, recall the mon-
strosities of the religious representations of Brahmanism and Bud-
dhism.

The drawings, mostly of a serious nature, are of four kinds — 1,
religious, where worship, especially sacrifice, is off^ered to the gods, or
where the gods sustain the king, or where the soul passes through
scenes it will endure after death; S, processional, where the monarch
goes in state, or where tribute is brought to him, or where the pomp
of a funeral, or the installation of an official, or some other civil cere-
mony, forms the subject; S, war scenes, such as land and naval bat-
tles, sieges of forts, marches of armies, the return home with booty
and captives, etc. ; 4, scenes of ordinary life, as exclusively represented
in the 'tombs, where the houses and goods, the occupations, the hunting
scenes, the entertainments, and the amusements of the deceased are
depicted. These tomb scenes are the most numerous and the most

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Fr9tm 5t4rtograpk, copyright by Undtrwcod &* Undervjocd

RUINS OF THE GRANITE TEMPLE NEAR THE SPHINX, WITH THE
GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION,

interesting; and here the Egyptians are sportive and amusing, exhib-
iting playfulness and humor, and even approaching caricature.

In painting the Egyptians drew figures of men and animals, and Painting,
also of other objects, in outline on a white background, and then filled
in the outline, wholly or partially, with masses of uniform hue, prac-
ticing no shading or softening of the tints. All the exposed parts of
a man's body were colored with a uniform red-brown ; all the exposed
portions of a woman's body, with a lighter red or a yellow. Except
in the case of foreigners, the hair and beard were pitch-black.
Dresses were mostly white, with their folds marked by lines of red or
brown, and were sometimes striped or otherwise patterned, generally
red or blue. Most large surfaces were more or less patterned, gener-
ally with small patterns of various colors, including much of white.
The stone on which the Egyptians painted — whether sandstone, fos-
siliferous limestone, or granite — ^was covered with a coating of stucco,
which was white or whitish and prevented the colors from being lost
by sinking into the background.. Besides black, white, red, blue and
3'ellow, they used green, brown and grrfy^. a^ colors in their paintings.
The black is a bone-black. The white* I» "prepared from pure chalk
with a light trace of iron. The red and the yellow are ochres, the
coloring matter being iron mixed with the earthy substance. The
blue is derived from the .oxide of copper combined with pulverized
glass. The green is the same preparation combined with yellow ochre.
The brown is a mixture of blue-black with the red. The colors were
mixed with water and with a moderate amount of gum, to make the
mixture adhesive and tenacious. They were applied to a stuccoed
flat surface, or to figures in relief or intaglio.

The great temple-palace of Rameses III. at Medinet-Abu fully illus-
trates the coipbined effects of painting and sculpture in Egypt. On
the north-east wall of this ruined structure is represented, in painting,
the king on a throne, inscribed with a hawk-headed figure leading a
lion and sphinx. Behind the king are the winged effigies of Truth
and Justice. Twelve royal princes bear the shrine, and high officers
of state wave their labella before their august sovereign, while priests
carry his arms and insignia. The monarch's sons bear the footstool
of his throne, and are accompanied by scribes and great warriors.
There is likewise seen a procession of scholars, fan-bearers ,and sol-
diers. A great scribe delivers a proclamation from a roll of papyrus,
and the high-priest bums incense before the shrine. Birds fly in every
direction, as if to spread Pharaoh's fame to every quarter of the world.
This is but a part of the elaborate sculpture, the effect of which is
heightened by the painter's art, on the inside walls of the great temple-
palace. The temples and palaces of Thebes exhibit a similar degree

Temple-
Palace of
Rameses

in.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA,

Embalm-
ing and
Sepul-
ture.

Tombs.

Embalm-
ing.

of form and color, which appear ahnost as perfect as if they had just
come from the artist's hand.

As we shall observe, the belief of the future reunion of the soul and
body was the reason taken to preserve the latter from decay, as exem-
plified in the singular custom of embalming the dead, which was the
universal practice among this celebrated people, and also in the great
pains taken to ornament the insides of the rock-hewn supulchers, the
belief prevailing that the dead body in the -tomb was not entirely
unconscious.

While other nations embellished the temples and palaces of the liv-
ing, the ancient Egyptians decorated their tombs, the receptacles of
the dead, with lavish splendor. Many of these highly-ornamented
sepulchral chambers seem only accessible through long, narrow and
intricate passages. The entrances to others seem to be closed with
the strictest care, and hidden with reverential sanctity, A necropolis,
or "city of the dead," belonged to each city or nome. In the rock-
hewn sepulchers of Memphis and Thebes were treasured up all the
scenes in which the living monarch and his subjects had figured,
Egypt abounds with immense tombs, whose walls, like those of the tem-
ples, are adorned with the most wonderful paintings, executed three
and four thousand years ago. In these paintings, the entire country,
with all its natural productions, its vegetables, animals, birds, fishes,
and the people in all their private and domestic occupations, are delin-
eated with a remarkable fidelity of outline and an extraordinary rich-
ness of coloring.

Religion was at the foundation of the extraordinary care which
the Egyptians bestowed upon their dead. The whole art of embalm-
ing the body — ^the preparing, the bandaging, the anointing, in fact
the entire process of forming the mummy — ^was a duty of the priests.
This remarkable custom was a universal national usage among the
ancient Egyptians, and had an inseparable connection with their re-
ligious dogmas and sentiment. The origin of this singular practice
has been traced to the local circumstances of the country. In Eg3rpt
the customs of burning and burying the dead, which have prevailed
among other nations, were impracticable — the first, because the coun-
try produces little timber, and its fruit-trees, such as the date-palm
and others, are too valuable for ordinary consumption; and the sec-
ond, because in the narrow Nile valley all the land available for agri-
cultural purposes was required for the sustenance of the dense popu-
lation, and also because the annual inundation of the Nile would have
washed up the bodies and generated pestilence. The rocky mountain
ranges on each side of the river seemed designed by nature for sepul-
chers ; but the multitudes of the dead could not with safety be heaped

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

together in a state of decomposition, even in the inmost chambers
of their rocks, without breeding pestilence. Ancient Egypt was re-
markably free from the epidemic plagues which now desolate the Nile
land, on account of the universal practice of embalming the dead,
which cut off one chief source of noxious vapors. This peculiar cus-
tom was, therefore, a wise sanitary regulation, adopted by the priestly
lawgivers, and incorporated with the civil and religious institutions
of the nation.

The Egyptian lawgivers, having recognized this provision as essen- Metem-
tial to the public health, secured its universal and permanent practice ^^^^ ^"'
by associating it with the doctrines of the soul's immortality and the
metempsychosis, or transmigration of the soul. It was believed that
every spirit, upon leaving the body, must pass through a predestined
cycle of three thousand years, entering successively into the bodies
of various animals, until it returned to the human body from which
it had departed. Whenever the body which it had last left became
subject to corruption the course of its migrations was suspended ; the
end of its long journey and its ardently-wished-for return to more
exalted states of existence was delayed. For this reason the utmost
care was taken to preserve the bodies of human beings and animals,
and secure them forever from decomposition and putrefaction. Thus
this usage was enforced by stringent and sacred laws, and certain
orders of the priesthood were expressly empowered with the duty of
carrying it into execution. Embalming was performed with solemn
religious rites. Herodotus tells us that when a body was found seized
by a crocodile, or drowned in the Nile, the city upon whose territory
the body was cast was obliged to take it in charge and to cause it to
be embalmed and interred in a sepulcher.

The tombs of the wealthy consisted of one or more chambers, oma- Structure
mented with paintings and sculpture, the place and size of which . "^^^^^^^
depended on the expense which the family of the deceased incurred, of the
or on the wishes of the persons who purchased them during their life- ^™ '
time. These sepulchers were owned by the priests ; and as a sufficient
number were always held in readiness, the purchase was made at the
shortest possible notice, even the sculptures and inscriptions being so
far complete as to require only the insertion of the name of the de-
ceased, and a few statements concerning his family and profession.
The numerous subjects illustrating agricultural life, the trades and
occupations of the people, their diversions, etc., were already intro- '
duced. These were the same in all the tombs, differing only in their
details and the manner of their execution, and were probably designed
as a brief epitome of. human life, being adapted equally to every future
occupant. In some cases all the paintings of the tomb were com-

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Family

Affection

nins-

trated.

Apart-
ments of

the
Tombs.

pleted, and even the small figures representing the tenant were intro-
duced, only those of larger size being left unsculptured, because they
required more accuracy in the features to give a correct portrait. In
some instances even the large figures were finished before the tomb was
sold, only the hieroglyphic legends containing the names of the tenant
and his wife remaining to be inserted. The priests often sold old
mummy-cases and tombs belonging to other persons, altering the
hieroglyphics and giving the name of the new tenant. This was
•especially the case when the purchaser was satisfied, from motives of
economy, with a second-hand tenement for the remains of his departed
friend.

The tomb was invariably prepared as a resting-place for the bodies
of a husband and his wife. Whichever died first was interred in the
sepulcher, or was kept embalmed in the house until the death of the
other. The manner in which husband and wife are always repre-
sented, with their arms around each other's waist or neck, illustrates
the affectionate disposition of the ancient Egyptians. The presence
of the different relatives, who are introduced in the performance of
some tender oflice to the deceased friend, shows the attachment of a
family to its departed relatives.

Besides the upper rooms of the Egyptian tombs, which were orna-
mented with the paintings already described, there were pits, from
twenty to seventy feet deep, at the bottom and sides of which were
recesses, like small chambers, for the reception of the coflins. The
pit was closed with masonry after the interment of the body, and was,
in some cases, reopened to receive the other members of the family.
The upper apartments were profusely ornamented with painted sculp-
tures, thus bearing the character of a monument in honor of the de-
ceased, rather than his sepulcher. These apartments served for the
reception of the friends of the deceased, who often met there, and
accompanied the priests when performing the services for the dead.
Tombs were built of brick or stone, or cut in the solid rock, accord-
ing to the position of the necropolis. The rock-hewn tombs were
preferred wherever the mountains were near enough to the Nile, and
these were usually the most elegant in design and variety of sculpture.
The sepulchers of the poorer classes had no upper chamber. The
cofiins of these were laid in pits in the plain, or in recesses at the side
of a rock. Mummies of the lower orders were interred together in a
common repository, and the remains of those whose relatives were too
poor to defray the expenses of a funeral, after being cleansed and
kept in an alkaline solution for seventy days, were wrapped up in
coarse cloth, in mats or in a bundle of palm sticks, and laid in the
earth.

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

We have the following account of the funeral of Nophri-Othph, a Fimeral
priest of Amun, at Thebes, from the walls of his tomb. The scene ^^J?"
of the funeral was on the lake, and on the way from the lake to the
sepiilcher. At the head of the procession was a large boat convejring
the bearers of flowers, cakes and many things relating to the offer-
ings, tables, chairs and other articles of furniture, as well as the friends
of the deceased, these being conspicuous by their dresses and their
long walking-sticks, the distinguishing mark of Egyptian gentlemen.
Next came a small skiiF, carrying baskets of cakes and fruit, with a
supply of green palm-branches, which it was the custom to strew in
the way as the body was being conveyed to the tomb ; the smoothness
of the palm-leaves and stalks making it easy for the sled to glide
over them. The love of caricature, so general among the Egyptians,
even in so serious a matter as a funeral, is exemplified in this portion
of the scene. A large boat having run aground and being pushed off
the bank, struck a smaller one with its rudder, and overturned a large
table, loaded with cakes and other things, upon the heads of the rowers
seated below, notwithstanding all the exertions of a man in the prow,
and the vehement cries of the frightened helmsman, whose alarm was
uncontrollable.

In another boat were men carrying bunches of .flowers and boxes Scenes at
supported by yokes on their shoulders. Then followed two other p^^.
boats, one conveying the male mourners, and the other the female
mourners, standing on the roof of the cabin, beating themselves, utter-
ing cries and making other demonstrations of grief. At last came
the consecrated boat, carrying the hearse, around which were the chief
mourners and the female relatives of the deceased. Upon arriving
at the opposite shore of the lake, the procession marched to the cata-
combs. On their way, several women of the vicinity, carrying their
children in shawls, suspended from the side or back, joined in the
lamentations of the funeral train. The mummy was set in a standing
position in the chamber of the tomb; and the sister, wife or nearest
relative, embracing it, began a funeral dirge, calling upon the de-
ceased with every expression of affection, extolling his virtues and
bewailing her own great loss. The high-priest presented a sacrifice
of incense and libation, with offerings of cakes and other usual gifts
for the dead; and the male and female mourners continued the wail-
ing, throwing dust upon their heads, and making other demonstra-
tions of grief.

Another painting represents the judgment of a wicked soul, which Judgment
is condemned to return to earth in the form of a pig, having been -^jc^
weighed in the scales before Osiris and found wanting. It is put in Soul,
a boat, and, attended by two monkeys, is expeUed from heaven, «dl

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90 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

intercourse with which is symbolically cut off by a man hewing away
the ground behind it with an axe.
Period of During the whole period of seventy-two days of mourning for the
^°d^^ dead, the process of embalming the body was performed. This em-
balming, balming was performed by the physicians, who, as we have observed,
were of the priestly order. Vast numbers of sacred animals — ^bulls,
apes, dogs, cats, sheep, etc. — were likewise embalmed. It is said that
• more than four hundred million mummies of human beings were made
in Egypt. In recent years many of these mummies have been brought
from the land of the Pharaohs to our musuems. Tombs have been
opened revealing thousands of them in rows one upon another, without
coffins. Shiploads of them have been transported to England, and
ground up for fertilizers for the soil.
Em- The embalmers of dead bodies constituted a numerous class among

"**"' the ancient Egyptians, and must have carried on a prosperous trade,
if the prices mentioned by Diodorus were actually those usually ex-
acted. According to the Sicilian historian, the most improved method
of preparing a corpse for interment cost a sum which, in our money,
would amount to about a thousand dollars. A secondary and much
inferior method required an expenditure amounting to about four hun-
dred dollars. The lowest and poorest classes had a third method, the
price of which was comparatively moderate; but the vast numbers of
this class must have made the profits to the embalmers considerable.
It has been estimated that between B. C. 2000 and A. D. 700, when
embalming ceased, there may have been interred in Egypt four hun-
idred and twenty million mummied corpses, averaging one hundred and
fifty-five thousand yearly. If five-sixths of these, or one hundred and
thirty thousand, belonged to the lower classes, while two-fifteenths, or
twenty thousand, may have been furnished by the middle classes, and
one-thirtieth, or five thousand, by the wealthy classes, and if the poor
man paid one-twentieth of the price paid by those of the upper middle
class, the annual amount received by the embalmers would have ex-
ceeded fifteen million dollars of our money.
Expensive The process of embalming was very ancient in Egypt, and by the
BiS- t™c of ^h^ Eighteenth Dynasty the art had reached a remarkable
balming. degree of perfection. In the most expensive system, the brain was
extracted with great skill by a curved, bronze implement through the
nostrils, after which the skull was washed out with certain medica-
ments. The nostrils were plugged up, the eyes were removed and their
places supplied with artificial ones of ivory or obsidian, and the hair
was likewise sometimes removed and placed in a separate packet, cov-
ered with linen and bitumen. An opening was cut in the right side
with a flint knife, through which the entire intestines were removed

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EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 91

by the hand and deposited in sepulchral urns. The cavity was then
cleansed by an injection of palm-wine, and sometimes by a subsequent
infusion of pounded aromatics; after wliich it was filled with bruised
myrrh, cassia, cinnamon and other spices. The whole body was then
immersed in natron for seventy days. The finger-nails were kept in
place with thread, or by means of silver gloves or stalls placed over
the fingers. A tin plate, inscribed with the symbolic eye, was laid
over the incision in the right side. The arms were arranged sym-
metrically along the sides, or on the breast or groins. The body was
then bandaged. Linen bandages were always used, and were gener-
ally three or four inches wide and several yards long. The coarser
linen was nearest the body, the finer towards the outside. In some
instances the bandages in which a single corpse was swathed were over
seven hundred, or, according to Pettigrew, over a thousand yards
long. The bandages were joined together and kept in place with
gum. After the bandaging, an outer linen shroud, dyed red with
the carthamus tinctoriuSy and ornamented with a network of porcelain
beads, was put over the entire body; or the bandaged body was cov-
ered by a ** cartonnage," composed of twenty-four layers of linen
tightly pressed and glued together, thus forming a kind of pasteboard
envelope, which was then thinly coated with stucco, and painted in
bright colors with hieroglyphics and figures of deities. The body was
then placed within a wooden coffin shaped similarly, and in most in-
stances similarly ornamented ; and this cofiin was often enclosed within
another, or within several, each just capable of holding the preceding
one. In the funerals of the wealthy the coffined body was placed
within a stone chest, or sarcophagus, which might be of granite, ala-
baster, basalt, breccia or other good material, and was cither rectangu-
lar or in the form of the mummied body. Some sarcophagi were
plain, but many were adorned with sculptures in relief or intaglio,
embracing mainly scenes and passages from the most sacred of Egyp-
tian writings, the "Ritual of the Dead."

When the family or relatives were unable or indisposed to incur the Moderate
large expense required by this costly mode of embalming, a cheaper Style,
method was adopted. The viscera, instead of being deposited with
spices in separate urns, could be returned into the body, accompanied
by wax images of the four genii. The abdominal cavity could be
only cleansed with cedar oil, and not filled with spices. The silver
finger-stalls and artificial eyes could be dispensed with. The bandages
could be reduced in number and made of coarser linen. The ornamen-
tation could be simpler. A single wooden coffin would be sufficient,
and the sarcophagus might be done without. Thus the expense of
funerals could be reduced within moderate limits.

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92 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Cheap A still cheaper mode was necessary for the poorer classes. Some-

^ *• times the bodies of the poor were submerged in mineral pitch. Often
they were only dried and salted. Bodies prepared in this manner are
in some cases swathed in bandages, but are frequently only wrapped
in coarse cloths or rags. ^These bodies are not enclosed in coffins, and
have been only buried in the ground, some singly, others in layers,
one above the other. The expense of these modes of embalming was
so trifling as to be within the reach of the poorest.

SECTION VI.— EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.

Reli^ons Conceening the Egyptians, Herodotus says: "They are of all men
^^tif**' the most excessively attentive to the worship of the gods.'* Much of
Ancient the theology, mythology and ceremonies of the Hebrews and Greeks
Egyptians, j^^j ^^j^. Qrigjjj i^ Egypt. Herodotus further says: "The names of
almost all the gods came from Egypt to Greece." He also states
that the Greek oracles, especially that of Dodona, were brought; from
Egypt, and that the Egyptians first introduced public festivals, pro-
. cessions and solemn supplications, which the Greeks learned from them.
He goes on to say: "The Egyptians are beyond measure scrupulous
in matters of religion." They invented the calendar and connected
astrology with it. Says Herodotus: **Each month and day is as-
signed to some particular god, and each person's birthday determines
his fate." He likewise says: **The Egyptians were also the first to
say that the soul of man is immortal and that it transmigrates through
every variety of animal." The Greek Mysteries of Eleusis were taken
from those of Isis, and the story of the wanderings of Ceres in pursuit
of Proserpine was borrowed from that of Isis in search of Osiris.
Modem writers agree with Herodotus. Wilkinson says: "The Egyp-
tians were unquestionably the most pious nation of all antiquity. The
oldest monuments show their belief in a future life. And Osiris, the
Judge, is mentioned in tombs two thousand years before Christ."
Bunsen says: "It has at last been ascertained that all the great gods
of Egypt are on the oldest monuments." He goes on to say: "It is
a great and astonishing fact, established beyond possibility of doubt,
that the empire of Menes, on its first appearance in history, possessed
an established mythology, that is, a series of gods. Before the empire
of Menes the separate Egyptian states had their temple worship regu-
larly organized."
Rdigioiis M. Maury, the French Egyptologist, says that everything among
^^!" the Egyptians took the stamp of religion. Their writing was so full
of sacred symbols as to render it almost useless for any other purpose.

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EGYPTIAN RELIGIOK AND MYTHOLOGY, 93

Literature, science and art were branches of theology and worship.
The most common labors of daily life were constantly interrupted by
some reference to priestly regulation. The future fate of every
Egyptian was perpetually before him, so that he only lived to worship
the gods. When the sun set, it seemed to die ; when it arose, it seemed
a symbol of the resurrection. Religion penetrated so deeply into the
people's habits that it became an instinct. It was of all polytheisms
the last to give way to Christianity, retaining its votaries as late as
the sixth century of the Christian era.

The ancient Egyptian religion was a perplexing mixture of mono- Cam-
theism and polytheism, of lofty and noble conceptions and of degrad- ^ ^•
ing superstitions.

The sacred books of the ancient Egyptians contained the religion Priestly
of the priests, who were monotheists and considered it impious to rep- ^^ ^
resent the Supreme Being by images and idols; but they made him
known to the masses by personifying his various attributes and mani-
festations, as Phthah the Creator, Amun the Revealer, and Osiris the
Benefactor and Judge, and so on through an innumerable list of pri-
mary, secondary and tertiary characters, which, to the untutored
masses, became so many separate deities, thus accounting for the poly-
theistic faith of the lower classes. Some portion of the divine life
was believed to pervade plants and animals, which were consequently
cherished and worshiped by the ignorant; for what to the wise and
learned were merely symbols became to the people distinct objects of
adoration; and the Egyptian priests, like other ancient philosophers,
disdained to enlighten the people, whom they despised and deemed in-
capable of comprehending their grand conceptions, and whom they
desired to hold in subservience to their own and the kingly authority.

Thus there were two kinds of Egyptian theology — esoteric, or an Two
interior theology, for the initiated, and exoteric, or an exterior theol- j^^^i^
ogy, for the uninitiated. The interior hidden theology for the priests
and the wise related to the unity and spirituality of the Deity. The
exterior theology for the masses consisted of mythological accounts of
Osiris and Isis, the judgment of the dead, the metempsychosis, or
transmigration of the soul, and everything pertaining to the cere-
monial worship of the gods.

Herodotus tells us that the Egyptian masses believed in three orders Three
of gods, and Bunsen and Wilkinson thought that they had succeeded ^^^ °*
In tracing them from the monuments. Thus there were eight gods of
the first order, twelve gods of the second order, and seven gods of the
third order. The gods of the first order were of a higher and more
spiritual class; those of the second order were a transition from the
first order to the third — children of the first and parents of the third.

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ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Third
Order.

First
Order.

Ammon,
or Amun.

Kneph.

The first order of gods was for the priesthood, and taught them the
unity, spirituality and creative power of the. One True and Indivisible
Supreme Being.

The gods of the third order were for the masses of the people, and
were the personal agents which represented the forms and forces of
external nature, which was believed by the ignorant masses to work
through this third series of gods, the most popular of which were Osiris
and Isis. The gods of the second or intermediate order were neither
so abstract as those of the first order, nor so concrete as those of the
third order — ^not representing either the spiritual characteristics of
the gods of the first class, or the natural qualities and forces of those
of the third class, but rather the powers and faculties of human beings.
For this reason most of the deities of this second class were adopted
by the Greeks, whose religious system was essentially founded on hu-
man nature, and whose gods and goddesses were mainly the imaginary
representations of human characteristics.

The eight gods of the first order were believed to constitute a pro-
cess of divine development, and were supposed to exercise the power
of revealing themselves. These eight divinities, according to Bunsen,
were arranged in the following order: 1. Amn, or Ammon; 2. Khem,
or Chemmis ; 3. Mut, the Mother Goddess ; 4. Num, or Kneph ; 6. Seti,
or Sate; 6. Phthah, the Artist God; 7. Net, or Neith, the Groddess of
Satis; 8. Ra, the Sun, the God of Heliopolis. According to Wilkin-
son, they are classed in a different order: 1. Neph, or Kneph; 2.
Amun, or Ammon; 3. Phthah; 4. Khem; 6. Sate; 6. Maut, or Mut;
7. Pasht, or Diana ; 8. Neith, or Minerva. In Wilkinson's list, Pasht,
or Diana, is classed in the first order instead of the second, while Ra
is not classed in this series.

Ammon, or Amun, was **£he Revealer," **the Concealed Grod," **the
Absolute Spirit," "the Father of all the other gods;'* corresponding
to the Zeus of the Greeks. He is styled "the King of the Gods,'*
"the Lord of Heaven," "the Ruler," "the Lord of the Two Thrones,"
**the Horus or Grod of the Two Egypts." His city was Thebes,
Manetho says his name signifies concealment. The root "^mn" sig-
nifies to veil or conceal. His original name, as standing in the rings
of the Twelfth Dynasty, was Amn. After the Eighteenth Dynasty
he was called Amn-Ra, signifying the Sun. Says Bunsen: **Incon-
testably, he stands in Egypt as the head of the great cosmogonic
development."

Kneph, the God of Spirit, was also called Knubis, or Num. His
name, according to Plutarch and Diodorus, means Spirit. At Esna
he was called "the Breath of those in the Firmament." At Elephan-
tine he was styled "Lord of the Inundations." He is represented as

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EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY,

wearing the ram's head with double horns, and was universally wor-
shiped in Ethiopia. The sheep were sacred to him, and large flocks
of them were kept in the Thebais for their wool. The serpent or asp
was also sacred to Kneph. He was called Creator, and was repre-
sented in the figure of a potter with a wheel. In Philae he is repre-
sented as forming on his wheel a figure of Osiris, bearing the inscrip-
tion: **Num, who forms on his wheel the Divine Limbs of Osiris.*'
He is likewise called "the Sculptor of all men," "the god who made
the sun and the moon to revolve." According to Porphyry, Phthah
sprang from an egg which came from the mouth of Kneph, and in this
declaration he is sustained by the authority of the monuments,
Phthah thus represents the Absolute Divine Being as Spirit, the Spirit
of God moving on the face of the waters, a moving spirit intertwined
and interwoven with the chaotic and shapeless mass of matter.

Phthah — called Hephaestus by the Greeks, Vulcan by the Romans Phthah.
— ^represents creation by the truth, formation, stability ; and is called
in the inscriptions "Lord of Truth," "Lord of the Beautiful Face,"
"Father of Beginnings, moving the Egg of the Sun and Moon."
HorapoUo and Plutarch considered the scarabaeus, or beetle, the sign
of this god, as an emblem of the world and its creation. In an inscrip-
tion he is called "Creator of all things in the world." Says lambli-
cus: "The God who creates with truth is Phthah." He was also
related with the sun, having thirty fingers, representing the thirty
days of the month. He is also represented as a deformed dwarf.

Khem, whom the Greeks called Pan, the principle of generation, is
sometimes represented as holding a plowshare. Amun has no female
companion. Mut, the mother, is the partner of Khem, the father.
Seti, the Ray or Arrow, a feminine figure with the horns of a cow, is
the consort of Kneph. Neith, or Net, the Goddess of Sais, is the
companion of Phthah. The Greek Athene, Pallas, or Minerva, is
believed to be derived from Neith, and her name signifies: "I came by
myself." Clemens Alexandrinus says that her great shrine at Sais
has an open roof bearing this inscription: "I am all that was and is
and is to be, and no mortal has lifted my garment, and the fruit I
• bore is Helios." This signifies her identity with Nature.

Helios, or Ra, or Phrah, the Sun-god, the Grod of Heliopolis (City
of the Sun), is the eighth and last of the first order of gods, accord-
ing to Bunsen. It is from Ra, or Phrah, that the name Pharaoh is
derived. As we have already seen, Wilkinson excludes Ra from the
first order, substituting Pasht, or Bubastis, the Diana of the Greeks,
instead. If we accept Bunsen's classification, taking the Sun-god as
the eighth and last of the fiirst series, we shall then see in Ammon, the
Conc^ed God, the pure Spirit, from which emanates Kneph, the crea-

Helios,

or Ra,

or Phrah.

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ANCIENl* EGYPT AND? ETHIOPIA.

Reason
for Two
Theolo-

Egyptian

and

Greek

Panthe-

The
Popular
Deities.

tive power; followed by Khem, the generative power; followed by
Phthah, the artistic principle; after which come the three feminine
creative principles of Nature in Neith, the nourishing principle in Mut
the moth^, the developing principle in the goddess Pasht, and the
completion of the whole cycle in Helios, or Ra, or Phrah, the Sim-
god.

The reason for the difference between the priestly and popular re-
ligions of Egypt is to be attributed to the difference of race origin
between the priesthood and the masses. The priests are believed to
have been the descendants of the Asiatic immigrants into the Nile val-
ley, while the great body of the people are supposed to have been
of Ethiopian extraction. The Asiatic immigrants and conquerors
brought with them the spiritual ideas represented by the first order
of gods, while the Ethiopian occupiers of the Nile valley held fast to
the African instinct of nature-worship. The combination of these
two principles formed the Egyptian religious system. The first order
of gods was therefore for the priests, the initiated; the third order
was for the people, the uninitiated ; while the second order was a transi-
tion between the first and third — children of the first and parents of
the third.

As we have said, the second order of Egyptian gods was incorpor-
ated into the Greek pantheon. Thus Khonso, the child of Ammon,
was the same as the Greek Hercules, God of Strength; Thoth, child
of Kneph, was the equivalent of the Greek Hermes, God of Knowledge ;
Pecht, child of Phthah, was represented by the Greek Artemis, or
Diana, the Goddess of Birth, who protected women ; Athor, or Hathor,
was. the same as the Grecian Aphrodite, or Venus, the Goddess of Love ;
Seb was the Greek Kronos, or Saturn, the God of Time; and Nutpe
was the Grecian Rhea, the wife of Kronos.

The third order of gods were the cliildren of the second order, and
were manifestations of the Divine Spirit in the external universe.
These, as we have said, were the popular gods, though worshiped by
the untutored masses. The gods of the third class, though lowest in
thp scale, had more of individuality and personality about them, and
their worship throughout Egypt was universal from the most remote
antiquity. Says Herodotus: "The Osiris deities are the only gods
worshiped throughout Egypt." Says Bunsen: **They stand on the
oldest monuments, are the center of all Egyptian worship, and are
perhaps the oldest original objects of reverence." Wilkinson says the
only change in the Egyptian religious system was during the four-
teenth century before Christ, when Amun, or Ammon, was made chief
of the third class of gods, in place of Typhon, or Seth, the God of
Destruction, who had previously held the first place and had been the

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EGYPTIAN REUGION AND BfYTHOLOGY. 97;

most highly reverenced of the popular deities. Seth's name was then
chiseled off the monuments, and Amun's substituted instead. This
religious revolution was the final result of the amalgamation of the
two races and religions in Egypt — ^the Asiatic Semitic and Aryan
immigrants, with their higher spiritual ideas, and the Ethiopian Ha-
mitic aborigines, with their gross African nature-worship. It was very
natural that the priests, the descendants of the Asiatic immigrants,
should place their religion above that of the descendants of the abo-
riginal inhabitants, and that they should have permitted for a time
the external worship until the public was prepared for the reception
of a higher religious faith in the substitution of Amun, the Revealer,
for the God of Terror and Destruction.

The most popular of ancient Egyptian myths was that of Osiris Myth of
and Isis, as given us by Plutarch. Seb and Nutpe, or Nut — ^the ^*^^?g*°^
Kronos and Rhea of the Greeks, the Saturn and Cybele of the Romans
— ^were the parents of the third group of deities. Seb is Time, and
Nut is Space. The Sun pronounced a curse upon them, in not per-
mitting them to be delivered on any day of the year. This symbolizes
the difficulty of the thought of Creation. But Hermes, or Wisdom,
who loved Rhea, won at dice, of the Moon, five days, the seventieth
part of all her illuminations, which he added to the three hundred and
sixty days, olr twelve months. This implies the correction of the cal-
endar. The five days added were the birthdays of the gods. Osiris
was bom on the first of these five days, when a voice proclaimed: **The
Lord of all things is now born." Arueris- Apollo, the elder Horus,
was bom on the second of these days ; Typhon on the third ; Isis on
the fourth; Nepthys-Venus, or Victory, on the fifth. Osiris and
Arueris were children of the Sun; Isis was the daughter of Hermes;
and Typhon and Nepthys were children of Kronos, or Saturn, the
God of Time.

Osiris took Isis for his wife, and went through the world civilizing Ark of
and refining mankind by means of music, poetry and oratory. On Osiris,
his return Typhon took seventy-two men ajid likewise an Ethiopian
queen and constructed an ark as large as the body of Osiris, and at
a feast he offered it to the one whom it should fit. Osiris got into
the ark, and they closed the lid and soldered it fast, after which they
cast the ark into the Nile. Then Isis, putting on mourning, went to
look for the ark. As her inquiries were made to little children, these
were thought by the Egyptians to possess the power of divination.
She then found Anubis, child of Osiris by Nepthys, wife of Typhon,
who informed her that the ark was entangled in a tree which grew
up around it and concealed it from view. The king constructed from
this tree a pillar to support his house. Isis sat down and wept, where-

VOL. 1. — 7

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98 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA,

upon the queen's women came to her, and she stroked their hair, thus
causing fragrance toT pass into it. She became nurse to the queen's
child, feeding him with her finger, and burning his impurities by means
of a lambent flame during the night-time. After this she converted
herself into a swallow, and flying around the house, bewailed her fate.
The queen watched her proceedings and cried out in alarm, thus de-
priving her child of immortality. Isis then begged the pillar, and
taking it down, took out the chest and cried so loud as to frighten the
king's younger son to death. Then taking the ark and the king's
elder son she sailed away. Being chilled by the cold air of the river
she became angry and cursed it, so that it became dry. Then opening
the chest, she put her cheek to the cheek of Osiris, weeping bitterly.
The little boy coming and peeping into the chest, she gave him such
a terrible look as to frighten him to death. Then Isis went to her
son Horus, who was at nurse at Buto. Typhon, while hunting by
moonlight, saw the ark, with the body of Osiris, which he tore into
fourteen pieces and cast them around. Isis went in a boat made of
papyrus to look for the parts of her husband's body, and finding them,
buried them all in diff^erent places. The soul of Osiris then returned
from Hades to train up his son, Horus. Then Horus conquered Ty-
phon in battle, but Isis allowed Typhon to make his escape. It is
also said that Isis had another son by the soul of Osiris after his
death, the god Harpocrates, who is represented as lame and with his
finger on his mouth, signifying childhood. The myth of Osiris and
Isis was considered the most beautiful in Egyptian mythology.
Pitt- Plutarch says that Osiris afterward became Serapis, the Pluto of

Ex- the under-world. Plutarch, in explanation of the myth of Osiris and
planation. Isis, says that Osiris is the personification of Water, especially the
Nile, and that Isis is the Earth, especially the Nile valley of Egypt
overflowed by the river. Horus, the son, is the Air, especially the
moist, mild air of Egypt. Typhon is Fire, especially the summer
heat which dries up the Nile and parches the land. His seventy-two
companions are the seventy-two days of most intense heat, as viewed
by the Egyptians. Nepthys, Typhon's wife, sister of Isis, Is the
Desert out of Egypt, but which, when overflowed by a higher inun-
dation of the Nile, becomes productive and has a child by Osiris,
named Anubis. The confinement of Osiris in the ark signifies the
summer heat drying up the Nile and confining it to its channel. The
entanglement of the ark in a tree means the division of the Nile into
many mouths at the Delta and the overhanging of the river by the
wood. Isis nursing the king's child, the fragrance, etc., signifies the
nourishment of plants and animals by the earth. The tearing of the
body of Osiris into fourteen parts by Typhon means either the division

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BGYFTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.

of the Nfle at its mouths or the pools of water left after the inunda-
tion has dried up.

Besides this geographical explanation of this allegory, Plutarch
gives a scientific and astronomical view. Thus Osiris is the productive
and creative principle in nature. Isis is the feminine quaUty in nature,
and for this reason is called by Plato the nurse. Typhon is the de-
structive principle in nature. Horus is the mediator between creation
and destruction. This gives us the triad of Osiris, Typhon and Horus,
corresponding to the Hindoo triad of Brahma, Siva and Vishnu, and
likewise to the Persian triad of Ormazd, Ahriman and Mithra. In
this way the Egyptian myth symbolizes the struggle between the prin-
ciples of good and evil in the world of nature.

The priests sought to turn the worship of Osiris and Isis. into an
allegory of the struggles, trials, sorrows and self -recovery of the hu-
man soul. After death every himian soul adopted the name and sym-
bols of Osiris, after which he retired to the under-world, there to be
judged by that god. Closely related with this was the doctrine of the
soul's transmigration through various bodies — ^which doctrine Pjihag-
• oras brought from Egypt. These doctrines were taught in the
Mysteries. Herodotus says: "I know them, but must not tell them."
lamblicus, in his work on the Mysteries, says that they taught that
One God existed before all things, and that this One Grod was to be
venerated in silence. Then Emeph or Neph was god in his self -con-
sciousness. After this in Amun his mind became truth, diffusing light.
Phthah represents truth working by art, and Osiris symbolizes art
producing good.

Bunsen says that according to the monuments Osiris and Isis, besides
emanating from the second order of gods, are themselves the first and
second order. Osiris, Isis and Horus embrace all Egyptian mythol-
ogy, excepting Amun and Neph. In Lower Egypt Phthah was the
highest god, corresponding to the Greek Hephaestus, the Roman Vul-
can, the god of fire or heat, the father of the sun. In Upper Egypt
Amun was the chief god. According to Manetho, Phthah reigned
nine thousand years before the other gods, signifying that this was
the oldest worship in Egypt. Amun is the head of a cosmogony pro-
ceeding by emanation from spirit to matter, while Phthah is at the
origin of a cosmogony ascending by evolution from matter to spirit.
From Phthah, or heat, comes light; from light comes life; from life
proceed gods, men, plants, animals and all organic existence. In the
inscriptions Phthah is called "Father of the Father of the Gods,"
"King of both Worlds," "God of all Beginnings," "Former of
Things." The egg, as containing the germ of life, is one of his sym-
bols. The scarabaeus, or beetle, which rolls its ball of earth, supposed

Scientific
View.

PriesUy
Allegozy.

Bunsen's

Ez-
pUnation.

9443Si)A .

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100 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA

to contain its egg, is sacred to Fhthah. Memphis was his sacred city.
His son, Ra, the Sun-god, had his temples at On, which the Greeks
called Heliopolis, meaning "City of the Sun," so named from Ra's
Greek name Helios. The cat was sacred to Ra. As Fhthah is the
god of all beginnings in Lower Egypt, so Ra is the life-giving god,
the active ruler of the world, holding in one hand a sceptre and in
the other the symbol of life.

Gods aad The goddesses of Lower Egypt were Neith at Sais, Leto, the god-
a£^ dess whose temple was at Buto, and Pasht at Bubastis. As we have
already said, the chief god in Upper Egypt was Amun, or Ammon,
the Concealed Grod; and next to him is Kneph, or Knubis, the Spirit
of God. Their companions were M ut, the mother, and Khonso. The
two oldest gods were Mentu, the rising sun, and Atmu, the setting
sun.
Locsl In Egypt, as in Greece, the earliest worship was of local divinities,

DttttiM. ^jj^ ^gj^ afterwards united in a Pantheon. As in Greece Zeus was
at first worshiped in Dodona and Arcadia, Apollo in Crete and Delos,
Aphrodite in Cyprus, 'Athene at Athens, and afterwards these local
deities were united in one company as the twelve great gods of Olym-
pus, so in Egypt the different early theologies were combined in the
three orders of gods, with Ammon at their head. But in Egypt, as
in Greece, each city and district retained the special worship of its
own local deity. As in Greece Athene continued to be the protecting
goddess of Athens, and Aphrodite of Cyprus, so, in Egypt, Set con-
tinued to be the god of Ombos, Leto of Buto, Horus of Edfu, Ehem
of Coptos, etc.

Animal The one great singular feature about the Egyptian religion was

WorsMp. animal-worship. Herodotus says: **A11 animals in Egypt are ac-
counted sacred, and if any one kills these animals wilfully he is put
to death.*' This account of Herodotus is not strictly correct, as many
animals were not considered sacred, though most of them were. Wil-
kinson mentions more than one hundred Egyptian animals, over one-
half of which number were sacred. Hunting and fishing being favor-
* ite amusements of the Egyptians, the killing of some animals must have
been tolerated. If, however, any one killed any of the sacred animals,
either accidentally or willfully, he was immediately put to death. In
different parts of Egypt different animals were accounted sacred. Be-
sides the sacred bull at Memphis, the most striking sacred animals were
the Mnevis, or sacred calf at Heliopolis, the sacred sheep at Sais and
Thebes, and the sacred crocodiles at Ombos and Arsinoe. Thus the
animal sacred in one place was not so regarded in another. The cat,
the ibis and the beetle were particular objects of worship. The death
of a cat in a private house caused the whole family to shave their eye-

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EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. IQI

brows in token of their grief. The Persian king Cambyses was en-
abled to conquer the Egyptians by placing in the van of his army
multitudes of cats, which the Egyptians were fearful of killing, so
that they abandoned all resistance.

Cows were sacred to Isis, and this goddess was represented in the Worslup
form of a cow. The gods often wore animals' heads. Amun is rep- ^ ^"'
resented with the ram's head. The worship of Apis, the sacred bull
of Memphis, the representative of Osiris, was one of the most striking
and imposing among Egyptian religious ceremonies. Plutarch de-
scribes him as a fair and beautiful image of the soul of Osiris. He
was a bull with black hair, a white spot on his forehead, and some other
distinguishing marks. He was kept in a magnificent temple at Mem-
phis. The festival in his honor continued seven days, during which
time a great multitude of people assembled. When he died his body
was embalmed and buried with great pomp, and the priests went in
quest of another Apis, which, when discovered by the distinguishing
marks, was taken to Memphis, fed with care and exercised, and con-
sulted as an oracle. The burial-place qf the sacred bulls was in recent
years discovered near Memphis. It consists* of an arched gallery cut
in the solid rock, two thousand feet long, twenty-five feet high and
twenty-five feet wide. On, each, side is a series i* of recesses, each of
which contains a large sarcophagus oS^ granite, "fifteen by eight feet,
in which the body bf a sacred- bull was deposited- In 1852 thirty of
these had been discovered. Before this* tomb is a paved road, with
lions in rows on each side, and before this is a temple with a vestibule.
As we have previously remarked, the animals sacred in one place were
not so regarded in another, and this difi^erence of worship often led to
bitter enmities between the several nomes. Thus at Ombos the croco-
dile was worshiped, while at Tentyra it was hunted and abhorred. The
ram-headed Amun was adored at Thebes, and the sheep was there a
sacred animal, while the goat was killed for food. In Mendes the goat
was worshiped and the sheep killed and eaten. Mutton was likewise
eaten at Lycopolis, in compliment to the wolf, which was there an
object of veneration.

The sacred animals at death were embalmed by the priests and Animal
buried, and thousands upon thousands of mummies of dogs, cats, mies.*
wolves, sheep, crocodiles, birds and other animals are found in the
tombs. The sacred animals were reverenced as containing a divine
element. Says Wilkinson: **The Egyptians may have deified some
animals to insure their preservation, some to prevent their unwhole-
some meat being used as food." The cow, the ox, the dog, the cat,
the ibis, appeared to the Egyptians as gifted with supernatural pow-
ers. This people reverenced the mysterious manifestation of the Di-

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105

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Religioas
Festivals.

DaUy
Life.

Priests.

Priestly

Duties

and

Customs.

vine presence in all external nature. Animals were considered expred^
sions of Divine thoughts. This beKef reached its extreme point in the
Egyptian reverence for animal life. This people saw something di-
vine and found Deity in nature.

The Egyptians had more religious festivals than any other ancient
people, every month and day being governed by a god. There were
two feasts of the New Year; twelve of the first days of the months;
one of the rising of the dog-star; and others to the great gods, to
seed time and harvest, to the rise and fall of the Nile, as the nine
days' feast in honor of Osiris, the Benefactor of men. The feast of
the lamps at Sais was in honor of Neith, and was observed throughout
Egypt. Other noted festivals were the feast of the death of Osiris,
and the feast of his resurrection, when the people exclaimed: "We
have found him! Good luck!" One of the feasts of Isis lasted four
days. The great feast at Bubastis was the most noted of aU the
Egyptian festivals. On one of these occasions seven hundred thou-
sand persons sailed on the Nile with music. At another bloody con-
flicts occurred between the armed priests and the armed men who con- •
veyed the image of the god to the temple.

The daily life of the people was an embodiment of the history of
the deities. The French Egyptologist, De Rouge, describes an old
papyrus which says: **0n the twelfth of Chorak no one is to go out
of doors, for on that day the transformation of Osiris into the bird
Wennu took place; on the fourteenth of Toby no voluptuous songs
must be listened to, for Isis and Nepthys bewail Osiris on that day.
On the third of Mechir no one can go on a journey, because Set then
began a war." None must go out on another specified day. The day
on which the other gods conquered Set was regarded as lucky, and the
child bom on that day was believed to be sure to live to a good old
age.

The priests, of which every temple had its own separate body, did
not form an exclusive caste, though the priestly office was generally
continued by inheritance in certain families. Priests could be miK-
tary commanders, provincial governors, judges of architects. The
sons of soldiers were often priests, while soldiers frequently married
daughters of priests. Joseph, who was a foreigner naturalized in
Egypt, married the daughter of the High Priest of On, or HeliopoUs.
The Egyptian priests were of different grades — ^the chief priests, or
pontiffs, the prophets, the judges, the scribes, those who examined
victims, the keepers of the robes, the keepers of the sacred animals,
and others. Women also performed official duties in the temples.

The priests were exempt from taxation and were supported out of
the public stores. Their duties were to superintend sacrifices, grocea-

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EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.

103

sions, funerals, etc. They were initiated into all the religious mys-
teries, and were taught surveying. They were particular as to their
food, refraining from eating peas, beans, onions and garlic, while fish
and swine-flesh were strictly forbidden. They bathed twice a day and
twice during the night, and shaved the head and body every third day.
Their fasts, which lasted from one to six weeks, took place after their
purification. They ofl^ered prayers for the dead.

The priestly dress was simple, made chiefly of linen, and consisted Priestly
of an undergarment and a loose upper robe, with full sleeves, and the '^*'
leopard-skin above; while sometimes there were one or two feathers
in the head.

Chaplets and flowers were placed upon the altars, such as the lotus Invoca-
and papyrus ; likewise baskets of figs and grapes, and alabaster vases Thanks-
of ointment. Necklaces, bracelets and jewelry were also offered as in- P^iog*.
vocations and thanksgivings.

Oxen and other animals were offered as sacrifices, and the blood was Sacrifices,
permitted to flow over the altar. Incense was offered to all the gods
and goddesses in censers.

Religious processions were another characteristic feature of the ReUgions
Egyptian system. In one of these shrines were carried on the shoul- ^q^'
ders by means of long staves passed through rings. In others the
statues of the gods were carried, and arks overshadowed by the wings
of the Goddess of Truth were spread over the sacred beetle.

The most highly esteemed of the priestly order were the prophets, Prophets,
who studied the ten hieratical books. The stolists dressed and un-
dressed the images, attended to the vestments of the priests, and marked
the beasts chosen for sacrifice. The scribes served for the Apis, or
sacred bull, and their chief requirement was great learning.

The priests, whose life was full of duties and restrictions^ had only Religious
one wife, and were circumcised like other Egyptians. They devoted
all their time to study or religious service. The gloomy character of
the Egyptian religion was in strong contrast with the cheerful wor-
ship of the Greeks. One Greek writer says: "The gods of Egypt
rejoice in lamentations, those of Greece in dances." Another says:
"The Egyptians offer their gods tears."

The Egyptian temples surpassed in grandeur all other architectural Temples,
monuments in the world. The temple of Amun, in the fertile oasis
of Siwah, in the Libyan desert, was one of the most celebrated oracles
of antiquity. Near this temple, in a grove of palm-trees, rose a hot
spring, the Fountain of the Sun, whose bubbling and smoking were
believed to betoken the Divine presence. The oasis was a stopping-
place for caravans passing between Egypt and Central Africa, and
many rich offerings were left in the temple by traveling merchants,

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104

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Soul's
Transmi-
gration.

Soul's
Im-
mortality.

balming.

who thus showed their gratitude for escaping the perils of the desert,
or thus sought the favor of Amun for their journey when just begun.

The immortality of the soul and the belief in a future state, based
on rewards and punishments for good or evil in this life, formed a
cardinal point of Egyptian religious faith from the earliest period;
and the belief in the transmigration of the soul was closely connected
with the reverence for animals. Bunscn says the Egyptians viewed
the human soul and the animal soul as the same, and for this reason
the animal was considered sacred to man. The Egyptian doctrine of
transmigration differed from that of the Hindoos in one essential point ;
there being no idea of retribution in the Egyptian doctrine, as in the
Hindoo. The Egyptian doctrine, according to Herodotus, was that
every human soul must pass through all animals, fishes, insects and
birds, thus completing the whole circuit of animated existence, after
which it would again enter the human body from which it came. The
Hindoo doctrine regards transmigration as a punishment for sin and
wickedness, and that only those who lead an unholy life are subjected
to this punishment, from which the only release is the leading of a pure
and holy life. Herodotus further says that the complete circuit of
transmigration is performed by the soul in three thousand years, and
that it does not begin until the body decays. This explains the extra-
ordinary care taken in ornamenting the tombs, as the permanent rest-
ing-places for the dead during a long period. Diodorus says that the
Egyptians ornamented their tombs as the enduring residences of man-
kind. The doctrine of transmigration also accounts for the custom
of embalming the dead, in order to preserve the body from decay, and
to render it fit to receive the soul on its return.

Mr. Birch says that the doctrine of the soul's immortality is as old
as the inscriptions of the Twelfth Dynasty, of which many contain
extracts from the Ritual for the Dead. Mr. Birch has translated one
hundred and forty-six chapters of this Ritual from the text of the
Turin Papyrus, which is the most complete in Europe. Chapters of
it are seen on mummy-cases, on mummy-wraps, on the walls of tombs,
and on papyri within the sarcophagi. This Ritual is the only rem-
nant of the Hermetic Books constituting the library of the priests.
This liturgy represents Osiris and his triad as struggling with Set and
his devils for the soul of the departed, in the presence of the Sun-god,
the source of life.

The Egyptians believed that happiness in the future state depended
upon well-doing in this life. As we have seen, the belief that the soul,
after making the circuit of transmigration through the animal crea-
tion, would return to the body from which it had departed, caused the
universal national custom of embalming the dead to preserve their

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EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY., 105

bodies from decay. The period of mourning for the dead lasted sev-
enty-two days, during which the body of the deceased was in the charge
of the embalmers. After the process of embalming had been finished,
the mummy thus formed was returned to the house of its earthly abode,
where its friends kept it for a month or a year, and where feasts were
given in its honor, it being always present in the company of guests.
The mummy, in its stone chest, or sarcophagus, was then carried 4n
an imposing funeral procession to the borders of the sacred lake, where
occurred the trial of the deceased by a priestly tribunal of forty-two
judges, symbolizing the soul's trial before the judgment-seat of the
gods presided over by Osiris. Masked priests represented the gods of
the underworld. Typhon is represented as accusing the deceased and
demanding his punishment. The intercessors plead for him. Any one
was at liberty to bring accusations against the deceased. A large pair
of scales was brought forward, on one side of which was placed the
conduct of the deceased in a bottle, and on the other side was set the
image of truth. If it was clearly shown that the deceased had led
an evil life, the priestly judges pronounced an unfavorable verdict
upon it as to its future fate, in which case the body was denied the
privilege of burial with the just opposite the sacred lake and was re-
turned to its friends, who usually buried it on the side of the sacred
lake opposite the resting-place of the just. If, however, the verdict
of the judges was favorable, the lamentations of the funeral train gave
way to songs of triumph, and the deceased was congratulated upon
being admitted into the happy companionship of the friends of Osiris ;
and the body in its sarcophagus was ferried across the sacred lake and
interred with those of its ancestors in a tomb richly ornamented.
These ceremonies are represented on the funeral papyri. The forty-
two judges who tried the dead represented the forty-two nomes, or
provinces of Egypt ; and every nome had its sacred lake, across which
all funeral processions must pass on their way to the city of the dead.
On the sides of these sacred lakes nearest the abodes of the living have
been foimd the reniains of great numbers who were rejected by the
judges at their trial, and whose bodies were in consequence returned
in (Usgrace to their friends, to be disposed of in the most speedy man-
ner possible. At death all became equal, and every one, from the king
and highest pontiff to the lowest swineherd, was subject to the same
solemn judgment passed at death, and the fear which it inspired exer-
cised a wholesome influence over all classes.

The soul's trial before the judgment-seat of the gods, as repre- ^he
sented in the papyrus Book of the Dead, and before which the soul Soul's
had to pass an acquittal before it could enter the abode of the blessed,
is described as follows: Forty-two gods occupy the judgment-seat.

Trial.

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;^06 ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

over which Osiris presides, and before whom are the scales, in one of
which is placed the statue of perfect Justice, while in the other is the
heart of the deceased. The soul of the departed stands watching the
balance, while Horus examines the plummet showing on which side the
beam inclines ; and Thoth, the Justifier, records the sentence. If the
decision of this divine tribunal is favorable, the soul is sealed as "jus-
tified."
Hall The Hall of the Two Truths, described In the Book of the Dead,

Two recounts the scene when the soul ^appears before the gods, forty-two of

'^^^^' whom are ready to feed on the blood of the wicked. The soul, address-
ing the Lord of Truth, denies having done evil, saying: "I have not
afficted any. I have not told falsehoods. I have not made the labor-
ing man do more than his task. I have not been idle. I have not
murdered. I have not committed fraud. I have not injured the im-
ages of the gods. I have not taken scraps of the bandages of the
dead. I have not committed adultery. I have not cheated by fake
weights. I have not kept milk from sucklings. I have not caught
the sacred birds.*** He then says to each god: "I have not been idle.
I have not boasted. I have not stolen. I have not counterfeited, nor
killed the sacred beasts, nor blasphemed, nor refused to hear the truth,
nor despised God in my heart." In other texts the soul is represented
as saying: "I have loved God. I have given bread to the hungry,
water to the thirsty, garments to the naked, and an asylum to the
abandoned."

Reli^ons Many of the virtues taught by Christianity appear to have been the
ideal of the ancient Egyptians. Brugsch tells us that a thousand
voices from the tombs declare this. One inscription in Upper Egypt
says: •'He loved his father, he honored his mother, he loved his breth-
ren, and never went from his home in bad temper. He never preferred
the great man to the low one." Another says: **I was a wise man,
my soul loved God. I was a brother to the great men and a father
to the humble ones, and never was a mischief-maker." An inscription
at Sais, on a priest who lived in the days of Cambyses, says: "I hon-
ored my father, I esteemed my mother, I loved my brothers. I found
graves for the unburied dead. I instructed little children. I took
care of orphans as though they were my own children. For great
misfortunes were on Egypt in my time, and on this city of Sais." The
following is an inscription on a tomb of a nomad prince at Beni-Has-
san: "What I have done I will say. My goodness and my kindness
were ample. I never oppressed the fatherless nor the widow. I did
not treat cruelly the fishermen, the shepherds or the poor laborers.
There was nowhere in my time hunger or want. For I cultivated all
my fields, far and near, in order that their inhabitants might have food.

Ideals.

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ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. 107

I never preferred the great and powerful to the humble and poor, but
did equal justice to all." A king's tomb at Thebes describes the relig-
ious creed of a Pharaoh thus: "I lived in truth, and fed my soul with
justice. What I did to men was done in peace, and how I loved God,
God and my heart well know. I have given bread to the hungry, water
to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and a shelter to the stranger. I
honored the gods with sacrifices, and the dead with offerings." A
rock at Lycopolis pleads for an ancient ruler in these words: "I never
took the child from its mother's bosom, nor the poor man from the side
of his wife." Hundreds of stones in Egypt declare the best gifts
which the gods bestow on their favorites to be "the respect of men, and
the love of woipen."

On a monumental stele discovered at Kamak by M. Mariette, and Noted
translated by De Rouge, is an inscription recording the triumphs of ^^^Jf°
Thothmes III. in strains sounding like the song of Miriam or the
Hymn of Deborah, the king recognizing his power and triumph as the
work of the great god Amun. A like strain of religious poetry is
found in the Papyrus of Sallier, now in the British Museum. This is
an epic poem by the Egyptian poet Pentaour, celebrating the cam-
paigns of Rameses the Great, and was carved in full on the walls of
Kamak. It especially describes an incident in a war with the Kheta,
or Hittites, of Syria, who had revolted against Rameses. Rameses
being separated from his main force by a strategem, was in extreme
peril; and Pentaour describes him as calling upon Amun, God of
Thebes, for aid, recounting the sacrifices he had oflTered to the god,
and imploring the god not to leave him to the mercy of the cruel Syrian
tribes. Rameses is represented as pleading thus: "Have I not erected
to thee great temples? Have I not sacrificed to thee thirty thousand
oxen? I have brought from Elephantine obelisks to set up to thy
name. I invoke thee, O my father, Amun. I am in the midst of a
throng of unknown tribes, and alone. But Amun is better to me than
thousands of archers and millions of horsemen. Amun will prevail
over the enemy." After defeating his enemies, Rameses, in his song
of triumph, says: "Amun-Ra has been at my right and my left in the
battles ; his mind has inspired my own, and has prepared the downfall
of my enemies. Amun-Ra, my father, has brought the whole world
to my feet."

SECTION Vn.— ANCIENT ETHIOPIA.

South of Egypt — in the region now called Nubia and Abyssinia — Location
lived the ancient Ethiopians, some tribes of whom were as highly civil- Ethiopia.
ized as the ancient Egyptians, but we know very little of their history,

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108

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Various

Arab

Tribes.

FertiUty

of
Btliiopia.

Meroe.

Bthiopian
Kingdom.

and their origin is involved in the impenetrable obscurity of a remote
antiquity. The ruins of splendid monuments, obelisks, sphinxes, colos-
sal statues, rock-cut temples, etc., along that portion of the Nile val-
ley, fully attest the progress of this ancient Hamitic people in the art
of architecture.

Besides the civilized Ethiopians, this region was occupied in ancient
times, as now, by various Arab tribes in different stages of advance-
ment from the complete savage to the hunting and fishing tribes, and
from these to the nomadic herdsmen and shepherds. The civilized
Ethiopians dwelt in cities, possessed a civil government and laws, were
acquainted with the use of hieroglyphics, and the fame of their prog-
ress in knowledge and the social arts had in the earliest ages spread
over a considerable portion of the earth.

The soil of the portion of the Nile vaDey occupied by the ancient
Ethiopians was in their day as fertile as the richest part of Egypt,
and where protected it yet continues to be so, but the hills on both
sides are bordered by sandy deserts, against which they afford but a
scanty protection. The navigation of the Nile is impeded by the wind-
ings of the river, and by the obstruction of cataracts and rapids, so
that intercourse is more generally maintained by caravans than by
boats. In the southern part of the valley the river incloses a number
of fertile islands. The productions of the Nile valley in Nubia are
essentially the same as those of Egypt. All along this portion of the
valley is a succession of stupendous monuments, rivaling in beauty
those of Thebes, and surpassing them in grandeur.

The island of Meroe — so called because it was almost surrounded
with rivers — possessed large numbers of camels, which were used in its
immense caravan trade; and the ivory, ebony and spices which the
Ethiopians sent down the river into Egypt were obtained by trafSc
with the inhabitants of Central Africa. Meroe had better harbors for
commerce with India than had Egypt, as the Ethiopian ports on the
Red Sea were superior to the Egyptian, and the caravan-routes to
them were shorter and the perilous portion of the navigation of that sea
was entirely avoided. In the wild tracts of country in the vicinity
of Meroe are animals which were hunted by the ancient savage tribes,
as they are by the modem, such as the giraffe, or camelopard. The
elephant is found in Abyssinia, not far south of the neighborhood
of Meroe.

About one thousand years before Christ, Meroe was the seat of a
flourishing Ethiopian kingdom, which for a time held Upper Egypt
under sway, but its early history is shrouded in the obscurity of a dim
past. The monuments of Meroe are believed to have been modeled
from the wonderful architectural structures of Egypt; but cut off

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ANCIENT ETHIOPIA. IO9

from the rest of the civilized world by Egypt, the Ethiopians can only
be traced in history when their country is invaded, or when they them-
selves invade other lands. We have seen that several Egyptian kings
conquered Ethiopia and ruled the country for short intervals. The
fabled Assyrian queen, Semiramis, is said to have invaded Ethiopia in
the eleventh century before Christ. This is doubtful, but we have cer-
tain knowledge that the Ethiopians at this time were a powerful na-
tion, and that they aided Shishak, King of Egypt, in his war against
Rehoboam, King of Judah, in 957 B. C. Sixteen years later Zerah,
King of Ethiopia, is said to have invaded Judah with an immense
army, but was totally defeated. According to the Scripture narra-
tive, the Ethiopians had made considerable progress in the art of war,
controlled the Red Sea navigation, and held sway over a large portion
of Arabia. The expense of so vast and distant an expedition bears
evidence to the fact that the Ethiopian kingdom must then have been
in a flourishing condition.

The gradual increase of the Ethiopian power ultimately enabled Sabaco.
King Sabaco, or Shebak, to conquer Egypt, over which he and his two
successors, Sevechus and Tarakus, reigned successively. Sevechus,
called So in Scripture, was so powerful a monarch that Hoshea, King,
of Israel, rose in revolt against the Assyrians, relying upon the aid
of So; but, not being supported by his Ethiopian ally, Hoshea and
his subjects were carried into the Assyrian Captivity. Tarakus, the
Tirhakah of Scripture, was a more warlike sovereign, for he led an Tirkakah
army against Sennacherib, King of Assyria, who was then besieging
Jerusalem; and the Egyptian traditions, preserved in the time of
Herodotus, give the account of the destruction of Sennacherib's army
of one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in a night* panic, as men-
tioned in the Hebrew Scriptures.

In the reign of Psammetichus in Egypt, in the seventh century Egyptian
before Christ, two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians of the war- ^K^tlon
rior-caste, offended at their king's favor to Greek merchants whom he Ethiopia,
had invited to settle in Egypt, migrated to Ethiopia, and were settled
in the extreme southern part of that country, where they added im-
mensely to the prosperity of the state. These useful colonists in-
structed the Ethiopians in the improvements then recently made in the
art of war, and thus prepared them for resisting the formidable in-
vasion by the Persians.

No sooner had the Persian king, Cambyses, conquered Egypt, in Persian
525 B. C, than he Invaded Ethiopia without preparing any store of ^'''*«ion.
provisions, ignorant of the deserts through which he had to pass, so
that when the invasion took place the Persian army was destroyed by
famine.

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110

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Ethiopian
Religion.

New
Relin^on.

Ethiopian
Qneens.

Pyramids

Meroe.

Aznme.

The religion of the ancient Ethiopians was in early times similar to
that of Egypt. Ammon was the chief of the Ethiopian gods, and
several temples were erected to his worship. The political power was
vested in a priesthood, who comprised a sacred caste. They chose the
king from one of their own number, and could take his life at pleasure
in the name of their gods. The Ethiopian priests possessed such in-
fluence over the superstitious African tribes that a solitary priest at
the head of caravan was able to secure a safe passage of untold wealth
through the countries occupied by the most ferocious savages. The
temples, also, were a safe place for the deposit of merchandise; and
here, under the shadow of an inviolable sanctuary, people of hostile
nations met to transact their business in absolute peace and security.
At any place where it was considered necessary to have a commercial
emporium a temple was built for its protection.

Whenever the Ethiopian priests became tired of their king they sent
a courier with orders for him to die. Ergamenes, who reigned early
in the third century before Christ and had been instructed in the Greek
philosophy, resisted this foolish custom, stormed the fortresses of the
priests, massacred many of them, and founded a new religion.

The sovereigns of Ethiopia were frequently queens. An Ethiopian
queen named Candace made war on Augustus Cassar about twenty years
before the birth of Christ, and, although the superior discipline of the
Romans brought them an easy triumph. Queen Candace obtained an
honorable peace. During the reign of another Queen Candace the
Jewish religion prevailed in Meroe, as a result of the change made
by Ergamenes; and the queen's confidential adviser went to worship
at Jerusalem, and when he returned, A. D. 53, he was converted to
Christianity by St. Philip, and thus became the means of introducing
that religion into Ethiopia. Ever since that time the Christian re-
ligion has prevailed among the Ethiopians and their descendants, the
modem Abyssinians.

The pyramids of Meroe, though not as large as those of Middle
Egypt, exceed them in architectural beauty, and the Ethiopian sepul-
chers exhibit the greatest purity of taste. The use of the arch by
the Ethiopians fully attests their progress in the art of building. Mr.
Hoskins has asserted that the Ethiopian pyramids are more ancient
than the Egyptian, but this is disputed by the best authorities. The
Ethiopian vases depicted on the monuments, though not richly orna-
mented, exhibit a taste and elegance of form that has never been sur-
passed. In sculpture and coloring, the edifices of Meroe, though less
profusely adorned, rival the best specimens of Egyptian art.

Another famous Ethiopian kingdom was that of Axume, an offshoot
of Meroe. Its capital, Axum, is still in existence, and contains re-

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ANCIENT ETHIOPIA.

Ill

markable antiquities, among which is an obelisk eighty feet high, in the
great square, beside forty others of smaller size. Some of the ruins
of Axum are believed by the inhabitants to be as old as the time of
Abraham. A stone slab, eight feet by three and a half, found here,
has an antique Greek inscription, which, translated, begins as follows:

"We Aeizamus, king of the Axomites, and of the Homerites, and
of Raeidan, and of the Ethiopians, and of the Sabeans, and of Zeyla,
and of Tiamo, and the Boja, and of the Taguie, King of Kings, Son
of God, etc."

Aeizamus was King of Ethiopia in the time of the Roman Emperor
Constantine the Great, who wrote him a letter. Adulis, the port of
Axume, was celebrated for its ivory trade.

All along the banks of the Nile in Nubia are strewn pyramids of
unknown antiquity, ruins of temples and monuments similar to those
of Egjrpt. Near the present Merawe are seven or eight temples,
adorned with sculpture and hieroglyphics. One of these temples is
four hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty-nine feet in extent.
Near Shendy are forty pyramids.

The most remarkable of aU the monuments of Nubia is the rock-
temple of Ipsambul, near Derr. This temple is cut from a mountain
of solid rock, adorned inside with colossal statues and painted sculp-
tures, representing castles, battles, triumphal processions and religious
pageants. On the outside are four colossi, larger than any sculptured
figures in Egypt, except the Sphinx. One of these colossi is sixty-
five feet high. This temple is one hundred and seventy feet in depth,
and contains fourteen apartments, one of which is fifty-seven feet by.
fifty-two, and is supported by images with folded arms, thirty feet
high. The rock in which this temple is built is six hundred feet in
height.

The great rock-temple of Ipsambul is said to resemble the famous
excavated structures on the island of Elephanta, near Bombay, on the
west coast of Hindoostan. The general plan is the same in both —
massive pillars, stupendous figures, symbolic devices and mystic orna-
ments. It is also asserted that a frequent resemblance is discovered
between the religious vestiges of Egypt and Ethiopia and those of
India.

Among the numerous other remarkable antiquities of this region
we must mention those of Barkal, about a mile from the Nile, and
near the village of Merawe, the ancient Napata, the capital of Queen
Candace. Here is a rock rising four hundred feet perpendicularly
toward the river, at the foot of which are huge rock-hewn temples,
the walls of which are covered with hieroglyphics in high relief, rep-
resenting figures of kings and gods, among which we are able to dis-

Greek
Inciption.

Aeiza-
mus.

Ruins.

Rock
Temple

of Ip-
sambul.

Its Plan.

Ruins

of
Barkal.

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11«

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA.

Com-
meroeof
Meroe.

Cause of
Ethio-
pia's Sz-
tinctioiL

tinguish Isisy Ammon, Apis, Horus and Mendes. There are other
gigantic ruins in this region.

Meroe, on account of its favorable situation for commercial inter-
course with India and Central Africa, by its location on the intersec-
tion of the leading caravan-routes of ancient commerce, was the em-
porium of trade between the north and the south, betw'een the east and
the west, while the fertility of its soil enabled the Ethiopians to pur-
chase luxuries with native productions. Fabrics were woven in Meroe,
and the manufactures of metal were here as flourishing as in Egypt.

The great changes in the lines of trade, the ravages of successive
conquerors and revolutions, the fanaticism of the Saracens, and the
ruin of the fertile soil by the moving sands of the desert, together
with the pressure of nomadic hordes, all contributed to the extinction
of this powerful ancient empire.

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PUB1,IC LIBRARY

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CHAPTER II.

GS.ALBMA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

SECTION I.— THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES

VALLEY.

Asia, as we have noticed, was the cradle of the human race. The Aaia the
cradle of Asiatic history and civilization was the valley of the Tigris ^J^^
and Euphrates rivers. This region was early occupied by Semitic and Human
Hamitic tribes. The civilization which grew up in the Tigris-Eu- ^"**
phrates valley was almost as ancient as that which arose in the Nile
valley. There is an actual date in Chaldsean history as far back as
SS84! B. C. ; while authentic Egyptian history — ^the period of the^
Pyramid-builders, the Fourth Dynasty — ^antedates this date by only
two centuries, B. C. S4»50.

The Hebrew Scriptures assign the beginning of the history of the Scrip-
human race in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Speaking of the imme- ^nnt^
diate posterity of Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, after
the Deluge, the Book of Grenesis says: ^^And it came to pass, as they
journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the Land of
Shinar, and dwelt there.'* Shinar was the southern portion of the
Tigris-Euphrates valley. In this region the Scriptures place the
building of the Tower of Babel, and the "Confusion of Tongues" and
dispersion of the human race. The record of this event is preserved
in the Babylonian tradition, as well as in the Mosaic narrative ; and an
account of this has been recently discovered among the cuneiform in-
scriptions on the Babylonian tablets now in the British Museum.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise in the highlands of Armenia Tigris
and unite near the head of the Persian Gulf, into which their waters Sratee"
empty after the Euphrates has flowed about 1780 miles and the Tigris Klvers.
about 1146 miles. Both these rivers, like the Nile, overflow their banks
in the lower part of their courses; and though these inundations do
not deposit a fresh soil, as in the case of the Nile, they are the cause
of the fertility of the plain of Mesopotamia, and in £uicient times they
were conducted throughout its entire extent by a system of canals, by
VOL. 1.— 8 113

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114

CMALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA,

Ancient

Geo-
graphical

and
PoUtical
Diyisiona.

Ancient

Empires

in the

Tigria-

Eu-
phrates
Valley.

Grains
and Vege-
tables of
Chaldaea,
or Baby-
lonia.

State-
ment of
Herodo-
tus.

which these overflows were utilized and the country thus irrigated.
The Tigris-Euphrates valley comprises a fertile region in the midst
of the great belt of desert extending from the western shores of Africa
almost to the northeastern coast of Asia.

This fertile valley anciently embraced a number of territorial and
political divisions, whose boundaries were often very indefinite. The
region between the two rivers was called Mesopotamia by the Gredcs
(from mesosy midst, and potamoif rivers). This was merely a geo-
graphical or territorial district, and not a political division. Chal-
dsea, or Babylonia, was a political as well as a territorial division,
situated between the lower course of the Tigris on the east and Arabia
on the west, and corresponding to the geographical region which the
Hebrews designated as the Land of Shinar. As the Persian Gulf in
ancient times extended about 120 or ISO miles farther north than at
present, ancient Chaldsea was quite a small section of country com-
pared with that region in our day. The district east of the lower
course of these rivers, immediately east of Babylonia, was a territorial
and political division called Susiana, or Elam, the chief city of which
was Susa. Assyria proper, as a territorial division, lay to the east of
the Euphrates, west of the Zagros mountains, north of Susiana and
Chaldaea, and south of Armenia; while Assyria as a political power,
or the Assyrian Empire, varied in territorial extent at different times,
and often comprised the entire region from the Mediterranean to the
plateau of Iran.

Three great empires successively flourished in the Tigris-Euphrates
valley — ^the Chaldaean, or Early Babylonian Empire, from 2400 B. C.
to 1300 B. C. ; the Assyrian Empire, from 1300 B. C. to 626 B. C;
and the Later Babylonian Empire, from 626 B. C. to 638 B. C.

The Chaldaean, or Early Babylonian Empire, was the first great
monarchy of South-western Asia. As we have seen, its seat was the
great alluvial plain lying to the north-west of the Persian Gulf. The
population of this region increased very rapidly in the most ancient
times, because of the extreme natural fertility of the soil, which pro-
duced everything requisite for man's support. Groves of date-palm
lined the banks of the rivers, *and such cereal grains as wheat, barley,
millet, sesame and vetches grew in luxuriant abundance, as did also
various other grains. Says a certain writer: "According to a native
tradition, wheat was indigenous in Chaldaea. Its tendencies to grow
leaves was so great that the Babylonians used to mow it twice, and
then pasture their cattle on it for a while, to keep down the blade and
induce the plant to turn to ear." Speaking of this country, Herodotus
says: **0f all the countries that we know of, there is none so fruitful
in grain. It makes no pretension indeed of growing the fig, the olive.

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THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY. 115

the vine or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful
as to yield two hundred fold. The blade of the wheat plant and barley
plant is often three or four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and
the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within
my own knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have already
written concerning the f ruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible
to those who have never visited the country."

Says another writer: "Babylonia, in the neighborhood of the Eu- Another*
phrates, rivaled the fertility of the valley of the Nile; the soil was ment.
so peculiarly suited for com that the husbandman's returns were some-
times three hundred fold, and rarely less than two hundred fold. The ,
rich oily grains of the pancium and sesamum were produced in luxu-
riant abundance ; the fig-tree, the olive and the vine were wholly want-
ing; but there were large groves of palm-trees on the banks of the
river. From the palms they obtained not only fruit, but wine, sugar
and molasses, as the Arabs do at the present time. Dwarf cypress-
trees were scattered over the plains; but these were a poor substitute
for other species of wood. To this deficiency of timber must be at-
tributed the neglect of the river navigation, and the abandonment of
the commerce of the Indian seas, by the Babylonians." *

Chaldaea produced no stone or minerals of any kind. The stone Bilck and
used in building was brought there from other lands. But the country
yielded an abundant supply of clay, from which were manufactured
excellent bricks for building purposes, while the wells of bitiunen
afforded an inexhaustible amount of admirable cement. These mate-
rials supplied the place of wood, stone and mortar. Considering its
luxuriant yield of cheap and abundant food and its never-failing sup-
ply of building material, it is not surprising that Chaldaea in primeval
times became densely populated and abounded in great cities. Assyria
was better supplied with minerals than Chaldaea; good qualities of
stone, iron, copper, lead, silver, antimony and other metals existed in
abundance ; while bitumen, naphtha, petroleum, sulphur, alum and salt
were also yielded.

As regards climate, the winters of Chaldaea are mild, frosts being Climate
light and snow unknown; while the summers are hot and dry; and *^*j
heavy rains fall in November and December. The wild animals in- of
digenous in Chaldaea were the lion, the leopard, the hyena, the lynx, Chaldaea.
the wild cat, the wolf, the jackal, the wild boar, the buffalo, the stag,
the gazelle, the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger and the porcupine.
The domestic animals of the country were the camel, the horse, the
buffalo, the cow, the ox, the goat, the sheep and the dog.

The Book of Grenesis, in speaking of Nimrod, "the mighty hunter J^^
before the Lord," says : "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Citias.

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llg CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the Land of Shinar." The
southern tetrarchy of four cities consisted of Ur or Hur, Huruk,
Nipur, and Larsa or Larancha, which are believed to be identical with
the Scriptural "Ur of the Chaldees," Erech, Calneh and EUasar.
The northern tetrarchy consisted of the cities of Babel or Babylon,
Borsippa, Cutha and Sippara.

Their Ur, or Hur, in the southern part of Chaldaea, between the Euphrates

and the Arabian border, was the early capital and metropolis of Chal-
daea, and is celebrated as the birth-place of Abraham. Its stately
ruins, now called Mugheir by the Arabs, and chief among which are
the remains of a great temple, consist principally of a series of low
mounds of an oval shape with the largest diameter running from north
to south. Thirty miles north-west of Ur, on the east bank of the
Euphrates, are the ruins of Larsa or Larrak, the Biblical Ellasar,
the Laranchas of Berosus, and the Larissa of ApoUodorus ; now called
Senkereh or Sinkara. On the same side of the river, fifteen miles
north-west of Larsa, are the ruins of Huruk, the Scriptural Erech and
the Greek Orchoe, called by the present natives Urka or Warka, and
celebrated for the ruins of its massive temple. Sixty-five miles north-
west of Warka, thirty miles east of the Euphrates, are the ruins of
Nipur, called Calneh by Moses, and Niftier by the present inhabitants.
About sixty miles from Niffer, on the west bank of the Euphrates, are
the remains of the ancient Borsippa, chiefly its temple, whose modem
name is Birs-i-Nimrud. Fifteen miles north-west, on both banks of the
Euphrates, are the ruins of "Babylon the Great," which cover a space
three miles long by between one and two miles wide, and which con-
sist of three mounds now called Babil, Kasr and Amram by the Arabs.
The ancient Sippara, the Scriptural Sepharvaim, was twenty miles
north-west of Babylon, on the east bank of the Euphrates, and is
now called Sura. Dur-Kurri-galzu, now called Akkerkuf, on the
Saklawiyeh canal, was six miles from the site of the present Bagdad.
About twenty miles north-east of Babylon was Cutha, now Ibrahim.
Ihi, or Ahava, was the modem Hit, about one hundred and twenty
miles north-west of Babylon, on the Euphrates. Chilmad was the
present Kalwadha, near Bagdad. Rubesi was probably Zerghul.
There were a large number of smaller cities in every part of Chaldaea,
of which nothing is known.

Grains Assyria, as we have seen, embraced the portion of the Tigris-Eu-

^bles^ phrates valley north of Chaldaea, or Babylonia — the region now known
Aasyrla. as Kurdistan. The soil of Assyria was not so fertile as that of Chal-
daea, but was generally productive ; and careful cultivation and irriga-
tion brought luxuriant yields of various grains and vegetables; while
such fruits as the citron, the orange, the lemon, the date-palm, the

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THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLET.

117

pomegranate, the olive, the vine, the fig and the apricot flourished in
profusion, and the mulberry gave nourishment to an unusually large
silk-worm found nowhere else; but ever since the fall of the Assyrian
Empire the country has been exposed to the ravages of plundering
nomad hordes and to the devastations of hostile armies, so that this
region is now almost a wilderness.

Unlike Chaldaea, which, as we have observed, produced no stone or
minerals of any kind, Assyria was supplied with an abundance of stone,
iron, copper, lead, silver, antimony and other metals; while bitumen,
naphtha, petroleum, sulphur, alum and salt were also yielded in suffi-
cient quantities.

Assyria has a varied climate, but on the whole the summers are
cooler and the winters more severe than in Chaldaea, because of moun-
tain breezes from the Zagros and from Armenia; while there is also
more moisture, and in portions of the country heavy rains, snows and
dews fall during the winter and spring.

The wild animals of Assyria were the lion, the leopard, the lynx,
the hyena, the jackal, the ibex, the gazelle, the jerboa, the bear, the
deer, the wolf, the stag, the buffalo, the beaver, the fox, the hare, the
badger, the porcupine, the wild cat, the wild boar, the wild sheep and
the wild ass. The rivers abounded with fish, and the marshy thickets
with wild fowl. The domestic animals were the camel, the horse, the
ass, the mule, the ox, the cow, the sheep, the goat and the dog.

The true heart of Assyria was the country close along the Tigris
between latitude thirty-five degrees and thirty-six degrees and thirty
minutes north. Within these limits were the four great cities marked
by the mounds of Khorsabad, Mosul, Nimrud and Kileh-Sherghat,
besides a multitude of cities of minor importance. Three of the four
great capitals of the Assyrian Empire were located on the east bank
of the river ; but the early capital, Asshur, now called Kileh-Sherghat,
was on the west bank. The Assyrian ruins strew the country between
the Tigris and the Khabour. Mounds exist along the Khabour's great
western affluent, and even near Seruj, in the country between Harran
and the Euphrates. But the remains on the east side of the Tigris
are more extensive and more important. Nebbi-Yunus, Koyunjik and
Nimrud — ^which have furnished by far the most valuable and interest-
ing of the Assyrian monuments — are all situated on the east side of
the Tigris, while the only places on the west side which have yielded
striking relics are Arban and Kileh-Sherghat.

In Assyria, as in Chaldaea, four cities were in early times preemi-
nent. The Book of Genesis in speaking of the Assyrian emigration
from Chaldaea, or the Land of Shinar, says: "Out of that land went
forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah

Mmerals

of
Asayzia.

Climate

of
Assyria.

Assyrian
Sites.

Assyrian
Cities.

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Ruins.

118 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

and Resen." In the flourishing period of the Assyrian Empire we
find four cities — Nineveh (or Ninua), Calah, Asshur and Dur-Sargina
(or City of Sargon) — ^all of which were cities of the first rank. Be-
sides these four capitals, there were a vast number of minor cities and
towns, so numerous that the whole country is strewn with their ruins.
Among these minor places were Tarbisa, Arbil (or Arbela), Arapkha
and Khazeh, in the region between the Tigris and the Zagros moun-
tains, the ancient Assyria proper and the modem Kurdistan ; and Har-
ran, Tel-Apni, Razappa (or Rezeph) and Amida in the North-west;
Nazibina (or Nisibis), on the eastern branch of the Ehabour; Sirki
(or Circesium), at the confluence of the Ehabour with the Euphrates;
Anat on the Euphrates, a little below the junction; Tahiti, Margarisi,
Sidikan, Katni, Beth-Khalupi, and others between the lower course of
the Ehabour and the Tigris.
Thdr On the east bank of the Tigris, opposite the present town of Mosul,

are the ruins of the once-mighty city of Nineveh, the celebrated and
magnificent capital of the Assyrian Empire when that monarchy was
in the zenith of its greatness and splendor. The name Nineveh is read
on the bricks, and a uniform tradition from the time of the Arab con-
quest gives the mound this title. These are the most extensive ruins
of Assyria. As the city will be described in a subsequent part of this
book, we will not enter into any minute description of the place in this
connection. At the present town of Ehorsabad, on the east bank of
the Tigris, about nine miles north of Nineveh, are the ruins of Dur-
Sargina (City of Sargon), chief of which are those of the magnificent
palace erected there by the famous Sargon, one of the most celebrated
of Assyrian monarchs. These ruins were brought to light in recent
years by the excavations of that enterprising French explorer, M.
Botta. The present town of Nimrud, on the east side of the Tigris,
about twenty miles south of the ruins of Nineveh in a direct line, and
about thirty miles by the course of the Tigris, occupies the site of
the ancient Calah, the second great Assyrian capital city, whose ruins,
among which are those of several royal palaces, cover an area of
nearly one thousand English acres, which is little over half the area
of the ruins of Nineveh. Forty miles south of Nimrud, at Kileh-
Sherghat, on the west bank of the Tigris, are the remains of the
ancient city of Asshur, the third great city and the early Assyrian
capital, whose ruins, marked by long lines of low mounds, are scarcely
less in fextent than those of the renowned Calah. Four miles north-
west from Ehorsabad are the ruins of Tarbisa, among which are those
of a royal palace and several temples. About twenty miles south-east
of Ehorsabad is the ruin of Eeremles. About halfway between the
ruins of Nineveh and Ninunid, or Calah, is Sdamiyah, supi>osed by

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THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY.

119

»ome to be the Resen of Scripture. About forty miles east of Nimrud
was the famous city of Arabil, or Arbil, called Arbela by the Greeks,
and still retaining its ancient designation. Besides these principal
towns of Assyria proper, the inscriptions mention a large number of
cities whose site is not known.

The wonderful discoveries made in this field of ancient Oriental his-
tory within the last three quarters of a century by the patience and
diligence of such renowned explorers as Layard and Botta, and later
by the eminent English Orientalists, Sayce and George Smith, and in
the last few years by the truly remarkable discoveries of the renowned
Grerman American explorer and archaeologist. Dr. Hilprecht, at the site
of the old Chaldaean city of Nipur, have almost recast the entire his-
tory of these ancient Oriental monarchies and have revealed the remote
antiquity of this old civilization and the early history of mankind.

Babylonia proper being almost identical in Its situation and terri-
torial extent with the old kingdom of Chaldaea, it need not be described
here. It was located wholly west of the Tigris, and consisted of two
**vast plains, or flats, one situated between the two rivers (the Tigris
and the Euphrates), and thus forming the lower portion of the Meso-
potamia of the Greeks and Romans — the other interposed between the
Euphrates and Arabia, a long but narrow strip along the right bank
of that abounding river." In area it was smaller than Scotland or Ire-
land. The country east of the Tigris constituted no portion of Baby-
lonia proper, but was Cissia, or Susiana — ^a separate country called
Elam by the Jews — and was occupied by an Aryan people. The
cities of Babylonia have been mentioned in connection with Chaldiea.

The small kingdom of Babylonia suddenly became the mistress of
an extensive empire in the latter half of the seventh century before
Christ. When Media and Babylonia overthrew Assyria in B. C. 626,
they divided the Assyrian Empire between them, as already related.
Babylonia obtained all that part of the Assyrian dominions west of
the Tigris and south of Armenia, along with Elam, or Susiana, east
of the Lower Tigris. Thus the countries included within the Later
Babylonian Empire, besides Babylonia proper, the heart of the em-
pire, were Elam (Elymais), or Susiana (Cissia), Mesopotamia proper,
Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Edoin, Northern Arabia and part
of Egypt. There was a great variety of climate and productions in
this vast domain.

The soil and climate, products and animals of Babylonia have been
mentioned and described in our account of Chaldasa. The exceeding
fertility of its soil, which so richly rewarded the labors of the husband-
man, have there been noted. The testimony of Herodotus in that par-
ticular was sustained by Theophrastus, Strabo and Pliny, and also by

Recent
Dis-
coveries.

Baby-
lonia, or
ClialasM.

Extent
of the

[Baby.
Ionian

Empire.

Grains,

Fmits
and

Anitnala

of Baby-
lonia.

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ISO

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Products

of
Susiana,
Mesopo-
tamia and
Northern
Syria.

Products

of
Southern
Syria and
Palestine.

Minerals
of the
Baby-
lonian

Empire.

Berosus, who said: "The land of the Babylonians produces wheat as
an indigenous plant, and has also barley, and lentils, and vetches, and
sesame ; the banks of the streams and the marshes supply edible roots,
called gongce^ which have the taste of barley cakes. Palms, too, grow
in the country, and apples, and fruit-trees of various kinds." The
chief article of food for the great mass of the people in Babylonia, as
in Egypt, was the date-palm, which flourished in luxuriant abundance.
The products of Susiana were mainly the same as those of Baby-
lonia proper ; the date-palm, wheat and barley growing in abundance.
The palm-tree also furnished building timber. The modem Khusistan,
the ancient Susiana, produces all the fruits which thrive in Persia.
In Northern Mesopotamia are found the walnut, the vine and pista-
chio-nut, while good crops of grain, oranges, pomegranates, and the
ordinary fruits are grown. In Northern Syria all kinds of trees and
shrubs grow in luxuriance, while the pasture is excellent, and much
of the land is adapted to the growth of cotton. Here the Assyrian
kings frequently obtained timber for building purposes, and here are
yet found dense forests of oak, pine, ilex, walnuts, willows, poplars,
ash-trees, birches, larches and locust-trees. Such wild shrubs as the
oleander, the myrtle, the bay, the arbutus, the clematis, the juniper,
and the honeysuckle abound; and such cultivated fruit-trees as the
orange, the pomegranate, the pistachio-nut, the vine, the olive and the
mulberry also thrive. The adis^ an excellent pea, and the LycoperdoUy
or wild potato, grow in the vicinity of Aleppo. The castor-oil plant is
cultivated in the plain of Edib. Melons, cucumbers and most of the
common vegetables flourish in abundance all over Syria.

. In Southern Syria and Palestine most of the same vegetable produc-
tions occur. The date-palm flourishes in Syria as far as Beyreut, and
formerly thrived in Palestine. The banana is also found on the Syrian
coast. The fig-mulberry, or true sycamore, also thrives in Southern
Syria, as do the jujube, the tamarisk, the wild olive, the gum-sty rax
plant, the egg-plant, the Egyptian papyrus, the sugar-cane, the scar-
let mistletoe, the liquorice plant, the yellow-flowered acacia, and the
solanum that produces the "Dead Sea apple." Here also flourishes
the celebrated cedar of Lebanon, several oaks and junipers, the maple,
the mulberry, the berberry, the jessamine, the ivy, the butcher's broom,
a rhododendron, and the gum-tragacanth plant. The same fruits
flourish in Southern Syria that thrive in the North, with the addition
of dates, lemons, almonds, shaddocks and limes.

^ The principal mineral products of the Babylonian Empire were bitu-
men, with its concomitants, naphtha and petroleum, salt, sulphur, nitre,
copper, iron, perhaps silver, and several kinds of precious stones. The
springs of Hit, or Is, were famous in the time of Herodotus for their

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THE ANCIENT TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY.

ISl

great abundance of bitumen, which was likewise procured from Arder-
icca (now Kir-Ab), and probably from Ram Ormuz, in Susiana, and
also from the Dead Sea, in Palestine. Salt was procured from the
various lakes without outlets, especially from the Sabakhah, the Bahr-
d-Melak, the Dead Sea, and a small lake near Tadmor, or Palmyra.
The Dead Sea perhaps also furnished sulphur and nitre. The hills
of Palestine yielded copper and iron. Silver was probably found in
Anti-Lebanon. Gems and precious stones were most probably pro-
cured from Susiana, and from Syria and Phcenicia. Among these
precious stones were agates from Susiana, amethysts from Petra, ala-
baster from near Damascus, cyanus from Phoenicia, and gems found
in the cylinder-seals, such as cornelian, rock-crystal, chalcedony, onyx,
jasper, quartz, serpentine, syenite, hiematite,* green felspar, pyrites,
loadstone and amazon-stone, from the various provinces.

Building stone did not exist in Babylonia and the alluvial districts
of Susiana ; but abounded in other parts of the empire, being plentiful
in the Euphrates valley above Hit, in the mountain regions of Susiana,
and in Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia. Near to Babylonia was lime-
stone. In the vicinity of Haddisah, on the Euphrates, was a silicious
rock alternating with iron-stone, and in the Arabian desert were sand-
stone and granite. The stone used in the Babylonian cities was con-
veyed down the Euphrates, or transported by canals from the neigh-
boring districts of Arabia. But the inexhaustible supply of clay fur-
nished by their own country caused the Babylonians to prefer brick
almost exclusively for building purposes.

The principal wild animals of the Babylonian Empire were the lion,
the panther, or large leopard, the hunting leopard, the bear, the hyena,
the wild ox, the buffalo, the wild ass, the stag, the antelope, the ibex,
or wild goat, the wild sheep, the wild boar, the wolf, the jackal, the fox,
the hare and the rabbit. Other wild animals were the lynx, the wild
cat, the ratel, the sable, the genet, the badger, the otter, the beaver,
the polecat, the jerboa, the rat, the mouse, the marmot, the porcupine,
the squirrel and the alligator. Great varieties of birds, including
eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, hawks, crows, and many kinds of small
birds, abounded. Reptiles of many varieties prevailed. Fish
abounded in the Chaldaean marshes and in most of the fresh-water lakes
and rivers. The domestic animals were the camel, the horse, the mule,
the ass, the cow, the ox, the goat, the sheep and the dog.

The summer heat in Babylonia proper, or Chaldssa, in Susiana, or
Elam, in Philistia and in Edom was intense, but the winters here were
short and mild. In Susiana the cool breezes from the Zagros moun-
tains somewhat modified the heat ; while in Babylonia the sirocco, or hot
wind, from the Arabian desert was at times oppressive. In Central

Building
Stone.

of the
Baby-
lonian
Smpiie.

dimate
of the
Baby.
Ionian

Empire.

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122

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Adjacent
Countries.

Oieet
Cities of
the Baby-

Empire.

Mesopotamia, in the Euphrates valley, in Syria, Palestine and Phoeni-
cia, iiie winters were longer and colder, but the summer heat was less
oppressive. In the northern portion of the empire, along the flanks
of the Masius, the Taurus and the Amanus, the climate was like that
of Media, the simmiers being milder, but the winters intensely severe.
Thus a variety of climate existed in the Babylonian Empire ; cdthough
the region as a whole was the hottest and dryest outside the tropics,
because of the close proximity of the great Arabian desert, the small-
ness of the neighboring seas, the absence of mountains, and the scarcity
of timber.

On the east and north the Babylonian Empire was bounded by the
territories of the great Median Empire, including Persia and Media
on the ea.st, and Armenia and Cappadocia on the north. On the south
lay the desert land of Arabia, and on the west was the Mediterranean
sea.

The great cities of the empire outside of Babylonia itself were
Jerusalem and Samaria in Palestine; Tyre and Sidon in Phcenicia;
Damascus and Tadmor in Syria; Carchemish, in the land of the Hit-
tites, on the Euphrates ; Ashdod, Ascalon, Ekron and Gaza in Philis-
tia; and Susa in Susiana, or Elam.

SECTION n.— SOURCES OF CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABY-
LONIAN HISTORY.

Berosns.

Hebrew

and

Greek

Sources.

Modem

Re-
searches.

Regabding the great antiquity of Chaldaea we have the authority
of Berosus, the native Babylonian historian, who was a priest of Bel
at Babylon, and flourished during the first half of the third century
B. C. Soon after Alexander the Great took Babylon, Berosus wrote
a History of Chaldaa in Greek, in three books, and dedicated the work
to Antiochus, King of Syria. Unfortunately this work has been lost,
excepting a few fragments which were copied by Apollodorus and
Polyhistor, two Greek writers of the first century before Christ, and
these fragments were afterwards quoted by Eusebius and Syncellus,
and from them we learn the Babylonian historian's account of his
country's annals. Other ancient sources of Chaldaean, Assyrian and
Babylonian history are the Old Testament and the writings of the
Greek historians, Herodotus, Ctesias and Diodorus Siculus.

As in the case of Egjrpt, our knowledge of the history of the three
great successive empires in the Tigris-Euphrates valley has been vastly
enlarged through the diligent research of modem historians, anti-
quarians and Orientalists. By the diligence of the great explorers,
beginning with Layard over half a century ago, Nineveh, Babylon

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SOURCES OF CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN HISTORY.

123

and the buried cities of the plain have been excavated; their temples
and palaces have been exposed to view ; the mysterious inscriptions in
the cuneiform^ or wedge-shaped and arrow-headed characters, which
were discovered on the slabs that lined the insides of the palaces and
temples, have, by a grand triumph of modem scholarship, been de-
ciphered, so that a new flood of light has been shed upon the dark-
ness of these famous ancient monarchies. Specimens of the cuneiform'
inscriptions have been published in the British Museum Series, edited
by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. E. Norris. Many of these inscrip-j
tions have been deciphered by M. Oppert, the French Orientalist.
The evidence of both classical writers and the monumental inscrip-
tions shows that the Chaldaeans, Assyrians and Later Babylonians paid
great attention to chronology. The Ca/non of Ptolemy, which con-
tained an exact Babylonian computation of time from 747 B. C. to
831 B. C, is generally credited as a most authentic dociunent. The
Assyrian Canon, discovered by Sir Henry Rawlinson, and consisting
of a number of clay tablets, contains a complete system of Assyrian
chronology from 911 B. C. to 660 B. C, verified by the record of a
solar eclipse which must have occurred June 15, 768 B. C. ; and is
regarded as equally reliable. Among the eminent modem writers on
these ancient Oriental monarchies are the English historians, Greorge
Rawlinson and P. Smith, and the renowned Grerman historians and
Orientalists, Niebuhr, Bunsen and Duncker.

Our sources of Assyrian history are the Greek historians, Herodotus
and Ctesias, and the Assyrian monumental inscriptions. Little reli-
ance can be placed upon exact dates relating to the annals of most of
the very ancient nations. With Assyrian chronology, however, we can
depend upon the accuracy of the two trustworthy documents already
alluded to — the Canon of Ptolemy, a Babylonian record having impor-
tant bearing upon Assyrian dates, and the Assyrian Canon, discovered
and edited by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1862, and which gives the suc-
cession of the Assyrian kings for 251 years, beginning with the year
911 B. C. and ending 660 B. C. These two documents not only har-
monize remarkably with each other, but they agree admirably with
statements of Berosus and Herodotus. According to Berosus, Assyria
became independent of Chaldaea about 1300 B. C, and according to
Herodotus half a century later, about the year 1250 B. C From
these sources, and from the inscriptions on Assyrian tablets, bricks and
sculptures, we are able to fix the dates of Assyrian events with toler-
able accuracy.

With respect to the duration and antiquity of the Assyrian mon-
archy, the two original authorities are the Greek historians alluded
to at the beginning of the preceding paragraph, and between these

Cunei-
form In-
scriptions

Canon of
Ptolemy.

Assyrian
Canon.

Modem

Hia-
torians.

Greek His-
torians

and
Assyrian
Monu-
mental
Inscrip-
tions.

The
Canons.

Assyrian
Dates.

Herodotus

and
Ctesias.

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124

CHALDifiA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Their
Reepeo-
tiye Fol-
loweiB.

RelUbiU-

ty of He-

rodotos.

Unre-

lUbUity

ofCtosias.

Chxonol-
osyof
Herodo-
tus.

two the judgment of the learned has since been divided. Ctesias
maintained that the Assyrian monarchy had an existence of 1S06 or
1S60 years, and that it had ahnost as remote an antiquity as had the
city of Babylon; while Herodotus asserted that the Assyrian Empire
had a duration of less than seven centuries, beginning about the year
B. C. 1250, when a flourishing Empire had already existed in Chal-
dasa for more than a thousand years from the time of Nimrod. Ctesias
was followed by such writers as Cephalion, Castor, Diodorus Siculus,
Nicolas of Damascus, Trogus Fompeius, Agathias, Syncellus, Velleius
Paterculus, Josephus, Eusebius, and Moses of Choren^, among the
ancients, and by Freret, Rollin and Clinton, among the modems.
Herodotus has been sustained by such modem writers as Volney,
Heeren, B. 6. Niebuhr, Brandis, the two Rawlinsons and many others.
The English historians and Orientalists consider the Assyrian Empire
as having ended in 625 B. C, while the French regard the year 606
B. C. as the date of that event.

Herodotus wrote within two centuries after the fall of the Assyrian
Empire, and about thirty years before Ctesias. He had traveled ex-
tensively in the East, as well as in Egjrpt, and had availed himself of
all the accessible sources of information, consulting the Chaldaeans of
Babylon and others. He was thoroughly honest and conscientious,
and implicit reliance can be placed in the accuracy of his statements.
He had especially endeavored to inform himself fully and correctly
regarding Assyria, of which country he designed writing an elaborate
work entirely distinct from his general history.

Ctesias also visited the East, spending seventeen years at the court
of the Persian king. Being the court-physician to Artaxerxes Mne-
mon, he may have had access to the archives in the possession of the
Persian m6narchs. He was a man of such temper and spirit as to be
disposed to differ with others. He flatly called Herodotus "a liar,"
and was therefore resolved to differ with him. He continually differs
with Thucydides wherever they handle the same subject. He perpet-
ually disagrees with Ptolemy on Babylonian chronology, and with
Manetho on Egyptian dates. He is also constantly at variance with
the cuneiform inscriptions, which generally confirm the statements of
Herodotus. His Oriental history likewise c(Mitradicts the Old Testa-
ment, as he places the destruction of Nineveh at 875 B. C, long before
the time of Jonah. The judgment of Aristotle, of Plutarch, of Ai^
rian, among the ancients, and of Niebuhr, Bunsen and other modem
historians and Orientalists, is all on the side of Herodotus, whose chron-
ology is to be preferred, on every account, to that of Ctesias.

Herodotus assigns the year B. C. 1250 as the beginning of the As-
syrian Empire, which, according to his account, lasted six and a half

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CHALDiEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

1«5

Chronol-
ogy of
Berosus.

centuries. During the first five hundred and twenty years of this
period, from B. C. 1250, to B. C. 730, the Assyrians maintained their
supremacy over Western Asia, after which the Medes revolted and
formed an independent kingdom east of the Zagros mountains. The
Assyrian monarchy, thus reduced, lasted one hundred and thirty years
longer, to the close of the seventh century before the Christian era,
when the Medes took and destroyed Nineveh (B. C. 603). These
dates, though nearer the truth than those of Ctesias, are not abso-
lutely accepted by modem historians and Orientalists.

The chronology of Berosus coincides more nearly with that of
Herodotus than with that of Ctesias. As his sixth Chaldaean, or Baby-
lonian dynasty, which was Assyrian in race, began to reign about 1300
B. C, and as the Assyrian monarchy became independent when this
dynasty was founded, it follows that the foundation of the Assyrian
Empire dates from that year. As Berosus also placed the fall of the
Assyrian Empire at 625 B. C, that empire must have existed six
hundred and seventy-five years.

Within the last quarter of the nineteenth century a number of Eng-
lish and French Orientalists had discovered interesting remains of
ancient Chaldtean and Assyrian civilization, the most prominent among
the English Assyriologists and antiquarians being Mr. Sayce and Mr.
George Smith, who, by deciphering some cuneiform tablets, had dis-
covered many new and interesting facts regarding the Chaldaean and
Assyrian cosmogony.

In recent years the several Babylonian expeditions of the Univer- Hilprecht.
sity of Pennsylvania, under the charge of Dr. Herman Volrath Hil-
precht, have made a series of important discoveries by excavations at
the site of Nipur, unearthing about twenty-three thousand tablets, and
uncovering the remains of a dozen cities, thus revealing to us the
remote antiquity of Chaldaean civilization, which appears to have ex-
isted about six thousand years before Christ, or eight thousand years
before the present time.

Recent
Dis-
coveries.

SECTION ni.— CHALDiEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONL^

EMPmE.

Cbaldaea.

The Chaldasans were a Semitic and Hamitic race, and their origin Antiquity
is involved in the obscurity of an unknown antiquity. The Chaldasan
monarchy probably began about 2400 B. C, as we have an account
of astronomical observations dating back to 2S34 B. C. Berosus as-
signs nine dynasties to Chaldaea and Babylonia from the Deluge to the
Persian conquest of Babylonia in 538 B. C. The first of these dynas-

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126

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Nimrod,

the
Founder

of
Chaldaa.

Migra-
tions from
Chaldaaa.

ties is largely traditional, and ended, according to Rawlinson, In
the year 2286 B. C, and according to Duncker in the year 2458
B. C.

The Hebrew Scriptures mention Nimeod, the son of Cush and the
grandson of Ham, as the founder of this most ancient Asiatic empire.
Says the Mosaic narrative: "And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to
be a mighty one in the earth ; he was a mighty hunter before the Lord ;
wherefore it is said. Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before tlie
Lord; and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Nimrod's capital was the
celebrated **Ur of the Chaldees," which at this early period was a
greater city than the four which Nimrod is said to have founded. By
means of his personal prowess and strength, as "a mighty hunter be-
fore the Lord," Nimrod had earned the gratitude of his countrymen
by reducing the number of wild animals which roamed over that region
in primitive times. Evidently one of the greatest characters of an-
tiquity, Nimrod was deified by the Chaldieans after his death, and was
worshiped by them and by the Assyrians and Later Babylonians for
two thousand years, under the title of Bilu-NiprUy or Bel-Nirarod, "the
god of the chase," or "the great hunter." Rawlinson thinks that the
title assigned by the Arab astronomers to the constellation of Orion
— El Jabbar, **the giant" — ^was in memory of Nimrod. The ignorant
people who occupy that region at the present day still remember Nim-
rod, Solomon and Alexander the Great as the three great heroes of
antiquity, while all others have been forgotten. Calah, one of the
Assyrian capitals, was regarded as Nimrod's sacred city, and the town
which now occupies its site bears his name slightly corrupted — Nimrud.
Although the tradition concerning Nimrod is almost universal, his
name has not yet been found among any of the monuments or cunei-
form inscriptions.

We have no account of the immediate successors of Nimrod. Some
time after his death there followed a migration of Semitic and Hamitic
tribes from Chaldasa to the northward and westward. Thus the Assyr-
ians, a Semitic people, migrated to the middle portion of the Tigris
valley, where they laid the foundations of their kingdom; the Phoe-
nicians, a Hamitic race, descended from Canaan, a son of Ham, set-
tled on the western shores of the country afterwards called Canaan, or
Palestine, where they became the most famous commercial and coloniz-
ing people of antiquity ; while the Semitic tribe which produced Abra-
ham, the shepherd and native of "Ur of the Chaldees," and from whom
are descended the Hel^rews and Arabs, passed into Northern Meso-
potamia, whence Abraham journeyed westward with his flocks and
herds into the "promised land" of Canaan.

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CHALDiEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN. EMPIRE. jgiy

One of the successors of Nimrod was Ubukh, or Urkham. i He is the Urakh
first Chaldaean king of whom any traces have been discovered in the ^^^
country. The exact time of his reign is uncertain. He erected many
stupendous edifices, which appear to have been designed as temples.
These structures are gigantic in dimensions, but rude in workmanship.
The bricks of which they are built are rough, and put together awk-
wardly, moist mud or bitumen being used for mortar. In speaking
of the works erected by this monarch, Professor Rawlinson says: **In
his architecture, though there is much that is rude and simple, there
is also a good deal which indicates knowledge and experience." As-
tronomy was cultivated during the reign of Urukh. Ur was still the
capital of the Chaldasan monarchy, Babylon having not yet risen into
importance. At Warka, on the site of the ancient city of Huruk — Ruins of
the Erech of the Book of (Jenesis — ^is the famous mound called Bow- Huruk.
arxyeh by the present inhabitants. The general form of the ruin is
pyramidal, but the ravages of ages have destroyed its symmetry. Re-
cent discoveries have brought to light the fact that this massive struc-
ture was a tower two hundred feet square at its base and two stories
high. The lower story was built of bricks baked in the sun and ce-
mented together with bitumen, in which were placed layers of reeds
every four or five feet. In the upper story, which is now in ruins, the
middle portion was likewise of sun-baked brick, but on the outside
were burnt bricks. As it now stands, this ancient temple is about one
hundred feet above the level of the plain, and not much is known of
the original dimensions of the massive edifice, but the ruins indicate
that it must have been of immense altitude and grandeur. All the
bricks of the buttresses are stamped with cuneiform inscriptions, and
the layers are strongly cemented with bitumen. The solid dimensions
of the whole structure have been estimated at three million cubic feet,
and the number of bricks used in its erection have been computed at
thirty millions. The name of its royal builder frequently occurs on
the burnt bricks of this ruined temple. In some places his name is
stamped in the baked clay, and in other places the inscription records
that **Urukh, King of Ur, King of Sumir and Accad, has built a tem-
ple to his lady, the goddess Nana,*' or that *' Urukh has built the tem-
ple and fortress of Ur in honor of his Lord, the god Sin,*' or that
**The mighty Lord, King of Ur, may his name continue!"

The temple of Ur was also built by Urukh, and is like the one just Temple
described. Recent excavations have unearthed the ruins of this old ^^'*
Chaldaean structure after it lay buried for centuries beneath the mounds
of rubbish. In the portion of the structure which has escaped the
ravages of time may be seen the traces of the temple of Hurki, the
Moon-god. . The four comers of the vast edifice, and not its four sides.

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128 CHALDiEA. ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

face the four cardinal points of the compass, and the ground-plan of
the structure is in the form of a parallelogram, with its longest sides
facing to the north-east and south-west. The foundation of this tem-
ple is raised twenty feet above the level of the plain. The longer sides
of the base measure one hundred and ninety-eight feet, and the shorter
sides one hundred and thirty-three feet. The first story above the
basement is about forty feet high, and is secured outside by a waU ten
feet thick, made of burnt brick cemented together with bitumen. The
second story, now mostly in ruins, had the same form and character
originally. According to a local tradition this immense structure had
a third story, said to be the shrine of the god to whose worship the
temple had been erected. Tiles glazed with a blue enamel and copper
nails have been found in such a position as to indicate that they were
used in the construction of this third story.

Ruins of Similar ruins have been discovered in other parts of Chaldaea, of
l^f^xsa' '^hich the most important are those of Calneh and Larsa. Heaps of

and Ur. rubbish, the ruins of wrecked temples, are seen in every part of this
ffiunous land of remote antiquity. In Calneh the fragments of temples
erected during the reign of Urukh are buried beneath two mounds.
The first of these temples was dedicated to the goddess Beltis and the
other to Bel-Nimrod. In Larsa the ruins indicate that San, the Sun-
god, was adored as the tutelary divinity of that city. In the cunei-
form inscriptions of Ur, his capital, Urukh is sometimes called ^^King
of Ur," and also "King of Accad." It was chiefly at Ur that his
great architectural works were erected. The ruins of this once-famous
city — ^his great capital — display his inscriptions in greater profusion
than those of any other Chaldaean monarch.
i^^ionLi Urukh, at his death, was succeeded on the Chaldaean throne by his
King, son, Ilgi, or Elgi, who also styled himself "King of Ur." The royal
seal or signet of the Chaldaean and Assyrian monarchs was formed in
the shape of a small cylinder, with figures and characters engraven
in the surface. When rolled upon wax or any other plastic material
this cylinder left the king's name and emblems in relief upon the sub-
stance employed in sealing. In one of the mounds near E>ech, or
Orchoe, the signet-cylinder of Ilgi has been found, and is now in the
British Museum. The legend inscribed upon it has been deciphered
as follows: **For saving the life of Dgi, from the mighty Lord, the
King of Ur, son of Urukh." Ilgi finished the great architectural
structures commenced by his father, and is reputed to have repaired
two of the great temples of Erech. The inscriptions testify to the
fame of both Urukh and Ilgi as architects and warriors.

Siamita After Hgi's reign there is a blank in Chald^^n history, broken by

^^yn*«ty. the conquest of the kingdom by a Susianian, or Elamite dynasty, the

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CKALDMAN, OB EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. j^

second in the lists of Berosus, about 2S86 B. C. The first monarcU
of this dynasty was Kudub-Nakhunta, who governed Chaldaea through Kudur-
viceroys, while he held his court at Susa, his capital. One of his suc^ hunta.
,cessor8 was Kudub-Lagameb — ^the Chedorlaqpier of Scripture — who
likewise reigned at Susa, and divided Chaldaea into several provinces, i^^^i^r. •
which he governed by means of viceroys. Kudur-Lagamer, or Chedor-
laomer, was the first great Oriental conquerer. After conquering As- His Con-
syria he invaded Canaan, or Palestine, where he was opposed by the ^
Canaanitish princes, Bera, King of Sodom; Birsha, King of Gomor-
rah; Shinah, King of Admeh; Shemeber, King of Zeboiim; and the
King of Bela or Zoar. A great battle in the valley of Siddim, near
the Dead Sea — ^the first great battle recorded in history — ^resulted in ^^_^
a victory for Chedorlaomer, who for twelve years held the Canaanitish BatUe.
kings in vassalage. At the end of this period these kings attempted
to free themselves from this yoke, whereupon Chedorlaomer again led
an expedition into Palestine, and defeated the Canaanites in a second
battle in the valley of Siddim, on which occasion Lot, Abraham's
nephew, was taken prisoner. After plundering the cities of Palestine,
the victorious Chaldees set out upon their march home ; but encumbered
by their captives and plunder, they were routed near Damascus by Chaldees
Abraham, who with a small band had made a night attack upon the AbrahaiZ
retreating Chaldaean host, and driven them in a panic across the Syrian
desert, recovering the booty they had taken. This repulse secured
Canaan against any further attack from the King of Chaldaea.

Only three of the succeeding Chaldaean kings of this Susianian, or
Elamite dynasty are known. The first of these, Sinti-Shilkhak, is
known only by name. The second, Kudue-Mabuk, whom the inscrip- w^v'^'
tions call "Conquerer of the West," is credited with having enlarged
and beautified the city of Ur, which he made his capital, thus ingra-
tiating himself with his Chaldaean subjects. Tradition also gives him
the honor of restoring the old Chaldaean religion, which his predecessors
of the Elamite dynasty had discouraged. The temples were repaired
and the worship of the old deities once more prevailed. Kudur-Mabuk
was succeeded by his son, Aeid-Sin, the last of the known monarchs of Arid-Sin.
the Susianian, or Elamite dynasty, which ended in the year 2052
B. C.

Then came the third dynasty mentioned by Berosus, a dynasty con- Third and
sisting of eleven monarchs, whose aggregate reigns embrace a period 2>y-
of only forty-eight years; but neither monumental inscriptions nor nasties,
tradition afford us any knowledge concerning the events of their
reigns. The fourth dynasty recorded by Berosus, one embracing
forty-nine native Chaldaean kings, reigned for four hundred and fifty-
seven years, from 2004 B. C. to 1646 B. C.
VOL. 1.— 8!

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130

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Ismi-Da-
gon.

Shamns-
Vul.

Gazgniia.

Naram-
Sin.

Sin-
Shada.

Zar-Sin.

City of

Abu-

Sbahrdn.

Nur-Vnl.

Rim-SiiL

Arab
Dynasty.

Kham-
murabi
and hia
Works.

One of the first kings of the fourth dynasty was Ismi-Dagon, who
probably reigned during the first half of the nineteenth century before
Christ, and who subjected Assyria to the Chaldaean supremacy. His
son, Shamas-Vul, was the Chaldaean viceroy over Assyria, and built a
temple at Asshur. The monumental inscriptions prove the Chaldaean
ascendency over Assyria at this early period, the last-named country
being governed by Chaldsean viceroys. Ismi-Dagon was succeeded on
the Chaldaean throne by his son, Gurguna, who is chiefly distinguished
as the builder of the great cemeteries at Ur, among the most wonder-
^ful of the ruins of Chaldsea. The next king was Naram-Sin, who
erected the great temple at Agana and fixed his capital at Babylon,
which had at this time become the largest city of Chaldaea. Ur had
for some time ceased to be the Chaldaean capital ; Erech, or Huruk,
having taken its place ; but the latter city now gave way to Babylon,
which thenceforth remained the capital of the empire.

After Naram-Sin, who reigned about the middle of the eighteenth
century before Christ, followed the reign of Sin-Shada, who built the
upper terrace in the temple of Erech, now the ruins of Bowariyeh,
already described. The next king was Zur-Sin, the most celebrated
sovereign of his time. He founded the city of Abu-Shahrein, the ruins
of which testify to the adoption of a new style of architecture, much
in advance of the previous style, both in the character of its structure
and in its ornamental richness. Here also we get a better idea of the
simple arts of life prevalent among this celebrated people in the early
times. Stone knives, chisels and hatchets are everywhere found among
ihe ruins, and some samples of gold and bronze have also been dis-
covered. Ornaments for the person were also made out of iron. Of
NuR-VuL, the next to the last of the kings of this dynasty, as men-
tioned by Berosus, no trace has been found on the monuments. Rim-
Sin, the last of this dynasty, is mentioned on a single tablet discovered
in the ruins of Ur.

In the year 1546 B. C, Chaldaea was conquered by an Arab chief
named Khammurabi, who founded the Arabian dynasty of Chaldaean
monarchs — ^the fifth dynasty in the lists of Berosus, and in which he
includes nine kings ; but the names of fifteen monarchs of this race have
been deciphered from the cuneiform inscriptions and from the tablets.
Khammurabi reigned twenty-six years, and was a wise and able sover-
eign. He fully appreciated the benefits accruing to the country from
a proper system of artificial irrigation. He constructed a canal from
one of the rivers for this purpose ; and a white stone tablet, now in the
Louvre at Paris, bears an inscription which says that the canal cut
by Khammurabi proved a blessing to the Babylonians, that **it changed
desert plains into wcU-watered fields; it spread around fertility and

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THE SUN GOD SHAMASH DICTATING TO KHAMMURABI THE CODE OF LAWS
The Lower Section Shows the Character of the Inscription

From a Stele found at Susa in 1902

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'7^'f^

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CMALDiEAN, OR EARLY BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. ^ jgi

abundance.'' Khammurabi also erected several important edifices, one

of which was a new palace at Kalwadha, in the vicinity of the present

city of Bagdad. He likewise repaired the great temple of the Sun

at Larsa, or Larrak (now Senkereh). He was succeeded by his son,

Samsu-iluna, whose name has only been found on one series of in- Swmu-

scriptions, and of whose inmiediate successors no traces can be found

for three quarters of a century.

The next known Chaldaean king is Kaea-in-das, the first of five Kara-in-
monarchs during whose reigns intimate relations were maintained with
Assyria, which was now gradually rising into importance, and which
eventually shook off the Chaldaean supremacy. Chaldaea and Assyria
were during this period sometimes united by treaties of alliance or by
royal marriages, and were sometimes at war with each other. When
the Chaldaean king, Kaba-khar^jdas, was overthrown and killed in an . .^^"
insurrection headed by Nazi-bugas, an Assyrian army destroyed the
insurrectionary chief and placed the brother of the murdered sover-
eign upon the Chaldaean throne. Some time afterward Purna-puei- ^^^^
YAS, King of Chaldaea, married the dau^ter-*<3|fj Asshur-upallit, King
of Assyria. The last of the five kings just mentioned was Kurei- giSiu"
GALzu, of whose reign relics have been discovered at Mugheir, the
ancient Ur, and at Akkerkuf , the latter of which cities is said to have
been founded by this monarch. The remaining kings of the fifth, or
Arabian dynasty are Saga-raktigas, iiie builder of the temple of the raktSas.
Sun at Sippara, Ammijdi-kaga, and six others whose reigns were unim- Ammidi-
portant. kaga.

In the year 1300 B. C, Tiglathi-Nin, King of Assyria, invaded Assyrian
Chaldaea, took Babylon, and extended his supremacy over this ancient Conquest
Asiatic kingdom. Thus ended the Arabian dynasty in Chaldaea; and ChaldsBa.
the sixth dynasty, according to Berosus, probably Assyrian, ascended
the throne of Chaldaea, which, with occasional intermissions, remained
in dependence upon Assyria thenceforth until 625 B. C, the forty-five
kings of the sixth dynasty being merely Assyrian viceroys. The As-
syrian conquest of Chaldaea in the year 1800 B. C. is generally re-
garded as the end of this most ancient of Asiatic empires — ^this great
mother of Asiatic civilization.

For the next six hundred and seventy-five years Chaldaea — ^thereafter Subse-
more frequently called Babylonia — was for the most part a dependent m^?*"* f
kingdom under the suzerainty of Assyria, the Chaldaean, or Babylonian Cbaldsa.
menarchs being vassals of the Assyrian sovereigns; this condition of
things being broken by short spasms of Babylonian, or Chaldaean inde-
pendence, until the final overthrow of Assyria by the united Median
and Babylonian armies in 626 B. C, after which the Later Babylonian
£mpLre was the ruling power in the Tigris-Euphrates region and

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132

CHALDiiSA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Western Asia for eighty-seven years, until its conquest by Cyrus the
Great of Persia in 538 B. C.

KINGS OF CHALDiEA.

Dynasty.

(Chaldsean).

II.
(Elamite).

III.

IV.
(Chaldsean)

(Arab).

B. C.

B.C.

Kings.

2286

22S6 Ximrod

Events, Etc.
Founded tlic Empire.

2052
2004

Urukh : Built numerous temples.

Ilgi (son).

» • • »

2052 Kudur-Xakhunta .... Conquered Chaldaia B. C. 228C.
(Zoroaster). !

Kudur-Lagamer Contemporary with Abraham. Led

two expeditions into Syria.

2004
1546

Sinti-shil-khak.
Kudur-Mabuk (son).
Arid-Sin (son).

Ismi-Dagon

Gurguna (son)

• • * •

Naram-Sin.

• • * •

Bilat * * at (a queen).

Sin-Shada (son).

• * * *

Zur-Sin.

• • * •

Nur-Vul

Rim-Sin

1546 1300 Khammu-rabi

Samsu-iluna (son)...

1300

Kara-in-das ..,
Purna-puriyas

Kara-khar-das (son)1

Nazi-bugas L

Kurri-galzu (brother f
of Kara-khar-das).J

Wars in Syria.

Reigned from about B. C. 1850 to

about B. C. 1830.
His brother, Shamas-Vul, ruled in;

Assyria. i

Reigned from about B. C. 1586 to

B. C. 1566.
Reigned from about B. C. 1566 to

B. C. 1546.
Reigned from about B. C. 1546 to

B.C. 1520.
Reigned from about B. C. 1520 to

B. C. 1500.

Contemporary with Asshur-bel-nisi-

su, B. C. lUO.
Contemporary with Bu2ur-Asshur,

B. C. 1420-1400.

Contemporar>' with Asshur-upallit,
B. C. 1400^1380.

Chaldsea conquered by TiglatW-NinJ

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CHALDiEAN CIVILIZATION.

isa

SECTION IV.— CHALDiEAN CIVILIZATION.

Thus we have seen that the Chaldsean monarchy was the first civil
government in Asia, and that its three most illustrious characters were
Nimrod, the foimder of the kingdom, **the mighty hunter before the
Lord"; Urukh, the great architect, the mighty temple-builder; and
Chedorlaomer, the warrior, the mighty conqueror, who nearly four
thousand years ago marched an army a distance of twelve hundred
miles, and held Syria and Palestine in subjection for twelve years, and
who was the first of all those great Oriental conquerors who within the
last forty centuries have built up vast empires in Asia, which have
in larger or shorter spaces of time successively crumbled to, decay.

In speaking of this ancient empire, Professor Rawlinson says: **The
Chald^ean monarchy is rather curious from its antiquity than illustri-
ous from its great names, or admirable for the extent of its dominions.
Less ancient than the Egyptian, it claims the advantage of priority
over every empire or kingdom which has grown up upon the soil of
Asia. The Aryan, Turanian, and even Semitic tribes, appear to have
been in the nomadic condition when the Cushite settlers of lower Baby-
lonia betook themselves to agriculture, erected temples, built cities and
established a strong and settled government. The leaven which was to
spread by degrees through the Asiatic peoples was first deposited on
the shores of the Persian Gulf at the mouth of the 'Great River'; and
hence civilization, science, letters, art, extended themselves northward
and eastward and westward. Assyria, Media, Semitic Babylonia, Per-
sia, as they derived from Chaldaea the character of their writing, so
were they indebted to the same country for their general notions of
government and administration, for their architecture, for their decora-
tive art, and still more for their science and literature. Each people
no doubt modified in some measure the boon received, adding more or
less of its own to the common inheritance. But Chaldaea stands forth
as the great parent and original inventress of Asiatic civilization, with-
out any rival that can reasonably dispute her claim.'*

It was believed by such eminent German scholars and antiquarians
as Heeren, Niebuhr, Bunsen, and Max Miiller, that the ancient Chal-
dasans belonged to the Aramaic, or Semitic race, and that they were
thus kindred with the Assyrians, Syrians, Hebrews and Arabs. Herod-
otus regarded the Assyrians and Babylonians, from the earliest times,
as belonging to the same race ; but Berosus, Diodorus and Pliny con-
sidered them as ethnologically diff^erent peoples. Classical and other
traditions — sustained by such Greek poets as Homer, Hesiod and Pin-
dar — ^represent the early inhabitants of the shores of the Persian Gulf

Chaldsa
and its
Great
Kings.

Rawlin-
son's
State-
ment.

Conflict-
ing
Views.

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CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Scrip-
tural Ac-
count.

Philolog-
ical Dem-
onstra-
tion.

Early

Prepon-
derance.

Semitic,

Turanian

and

Aryan

Elements.

Later

Semitic
Prepon-
derance.

Early
Chaldaean
Architec-
ture.

and the occupants of the Nile valley as the same race, calling them
all Ethiopians.

The Hebrew Scriptures also regard the people of these two regions
as belonging to a kindred race, namely, Hamites, or Cushites ; Cush,
the father of Nimrod, being a son of Ham ; and the ancient Ethiopians
being called the people of Cush; while the Egyptians were regarded
as the posterity of Misraim, also a son of Ham. Recent philological
investigations demonstrate the truth of the Scripture view of the na-
tional affinities of these primitive nations, and show the language of
the primeval Chaldees to have been Ethiopic or Cushite, thus ranking
them as belonging to the same Hamitic race as the Egyptians and
Ethiopians. Although the predominant portion of the early Chaldean
population was Cushite, or Hamitic, there was an infusion of Semitic,
Aryan and Turanian elements. The Semites — ^such as the Syrians,
Assyrians, Hebrews and others — emigrated from Chaldaea at a very
early period to the northward and westward. Accad was a Turanian
settlement, and the Aryans occupied the portions of the country bor-
dering on Cissia, likewise called Susiana, or Elam, whose people were
also Aryans. The name Chaldaeans was unknown to these early people,
but was given them by Berosus and has been used by writers ever since.
The Hebrew prophets — such as Isaiah, Habakkuk and others — ^spoke
of the Babylonians, even to the latest times, as Chaldieans. Isaiah
called Babylon the "daughter of the Chaldieans," and "the beauty of
the Chaldees' excellency." In a restricted sense, the term ChaldaofM
was applied to the learned men of Babylon to the latest ancient times.
After the Assyrian conquest of Chaldsea, in B. C. 1800, there was an
admixture of new Semitic elements from the north, so that in the pro-
cess of time the Chaldseans became Semitized; and the preponderating
portion of the later Babylonian population was Semitic, while the
Hamitic, Aryan and Turanian elements occupied a subordinate place.
The language of the learned in Babylon in later times was the classic
Chaldee, while the national language of the Semitized Babylonitos
was akin to that of the Hebrews.

At an early period — earlier than 2,000 B. C. — ^the Chaldees had
made considerable progress in the arts, especially in architecture, and
from the first they showed the building tendency which seemed to be
instinctive in other famous Hamitic nations, such as the Egyptians
and Ethiopians. The attempt to build a tower "which should reach
to heaven," made here, as mentioned in the Mosaic narrative, was in
accordance with the general spirit of the Chaldees. Out of such sim-
ple and rude building material as brick and bitumen they constructed
edifices of vast size, the ruins of which have recently been discovered
by the explorations of Layard and Botta. These vast structures were

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CHALDiEAN CIVILIZATION. ^35

pyramidal in design, and were built in successive steps or stages to a
considerable altitude, and so placed as to face the four cardinal points
of the compass.

Speaking of the building material of the Chaldees, a certain writer Brick and
says: "Stone and marble were even more rare in this country than ^"^°*®°-
wood, but the clay was well adapted foi* the manufacture of bricks.
These, whether dried in the sun or burnt in kilns, became so hard and
durable that now, after the lapse of so many centuries, the remains
of ancient walls preserve the bricks uninjured by their long exposure
to the atmosphere, and retaining the impression of the inscriptions in
the arrow-headed character as perfectly as if they had only just been
manufactured. Naphtha and bitumen, or earthy oil and pitch, were
produced in great abundance above Babylon, near the modern town of
Hit. These served as substitutes for mortar and cement; and so last-
ing were they, that the layers of rushes and palm-leaves laid between
the courses of bricks as a building material, are found at this day in
the ruins of Babylon as perfect as if a year had not elapsed since
they were put together."

The most imposing ruins of ancient Chaldaea are their temples, two Temple
of which have been described. The temple of Abu-Shahrein was sim- ^^^^
ilar in character to those of Erech and Ur, and was one of the few
Chaldiean edifices built of stone, which may be accounted for by the
proximity of a stone-quarry in the neighboring Arabian hills.
In this massive structure are also marble, alabaster and agate, skill-
fully cut and polished, while gold plates and gilt-headed nails have
also been discovered in the ruins. In the sacred shrine of the
deity to whose worship the temple was consecrated, the wood-work
and images of the god were ornamented. Like the Egyptian
Pyramids, the Chaldsean edifices were chiefly remarkable for their
grandeur and massive proportions, while architectural beauty was
wanting.

In the cities the dwellings were built of brick, but in the rural dis- Chaltean
tricts they consisted of reed huts plastered with slime. The houses of iJm."
even the rich seem to have been rude and coarse. The remains of a
dwelling-house have been found among the excavations at Ur, in which
the foundation was a brick platform raised above the surface, the floors
were of burnt bricks well cemented with bitumen, and the walls were
plastered with gypsum. In the apartments of a house discovered at
Abu-Shahrein the walls were frescoed with designs in red, black and
white; and figures of birds, beasts and men were skillfully drawn on
the plaster of the walls. The Chaldaean dwellings usually had flat
wooden roofs, though sometimes there were arched roofs built of bricks
cemented with bitumen.

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136 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Cbaldsan Next to their architectural structures, the most remarkable remains
Tombs. q£ ^j^^ ancient Chaldaeans are their burial-places. The immense num-
ber of ancient tombs discovered in what was Chaldiea proper is truly
wonderful. Large sepulchers are filled with the bones and relics of
the dead. At Warka, the ancient Erech, except the triangular space
between the three principal ruins, the whole remainder of the platform,
the space within the walls, and a wide extent of the neighboring desert,
are filled with human bones and sepulchers. Coffins are heaped upon
coffins from thirty to sixty feet, and there are miles on miles of tombs
in portions of this once*famous land. The most striking of these
burial-places are those at Warka, the ancient Erech ; at Mugheir, the
ancient Ur; at Abu-Shahrein and Tel-el-Lahm.

Brick The tombs are of three kinds — ^brick vaults, clay coffins shaped like

a dish cover, and clay coffins formed of two large jars placed mouth
to mouth and cemented together with bitumen. The brick vaults, prin-
cipally found at Mugheir, are seven feet long, three and a half feet
wide, and five feet high. The floors and walls of these vaults were
made of sun-dried bricks cemented together with mud or bitumen, and
the side walls were closed in above with an arch. The body was laid
to rest on its left side on a matting of reeds spread upon the floor.
The fingers of the right hand were placed upon a copper bowl set in
the palm of the left. The head rested upon a brick for a pillow.
Articles of use and ornament were placed in the vault, and vessels with
food and drink were set near the head of the departed. The remains
of several bodies are in many cases found in the same vault, and one
vault contained eleven skeletons. It is believed from this that the
brick vaults were family sepulchers.

CUy Where the dish-cover clay coffins were used, the body was laid on a

Coffins, jjj^^ spread over a sun-dried brick platform, disposed of in the same
manner as in the brick vaults, and surrounded with articles of food
and ornaments. The large clay coffins shaped like a dish-cover, seven
feet long, two and a half wide at the bottom, and two or three feet
high, then covered the body, matting, utensils, ornaments and all.
Never were more than two skeletons, one male and the other female,
discovered under one cover. Children were interred under covers half
the size of those for adults. These tombs were found seven or eight feet
under ground at Mugheir. The clay coffins consisting of two large
jars, from two and a half to three feet deep and two feet in diameter,
and cemented together with bitumen, as found at Mugheir and Tel-el-
Lahm, readily contained a full-sized corpse and had an airhole at
each end to allow the gases generated by decomposition to escape.
BnrUl The coffins containing the bodies of the dead were placed in rows,

Monnds. ^jjj ^i^gjj covered with earth so as to form a mound. These mounds

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CHALD^AK CIVILIZATION.

137

were repeatedly covered with fresh earth, so that they were often ele-
vated to a height of sixty feet above the original level of the plain.
The mounds were carefully drained by means of tube-like shafts of
pottery, consisting of a succession of rings or joints, two feet in diam-
eter and a foot and a half wide, skillfully put together and cemented
with bitumen, and filled with masses of broken pottery to resist
external pressure. These drains reached from the surface to the
original ground-level; and by their means the sepulchral mounds
have been protected from dampness, and their utensils, ornaments
and skeletons have been preserved to the present day, and appear
perfect on opening the tombs, but usually crumble to dust when
touched.

Monuments have also been exhumed bearing inscriptions in the
cuneiform^ or wedge-shaped characters, the deciphering of which, as
we have said, has given us new light on early Chaldsean history. This
kind of writing was used for monumental records, and was either hewn
or carved in rocks and sculptures, or impressed on tiles and bricks.
The legends stamped upon the baked bricks of this ancient period
prove the extent to which this kind of writing was in use. The earliest
date that can be assigned to its use was about 2000 B. C, and it was
little, if at all, used as late as 800 B. C. A vast deal of labor and
erudition have been spent in deciphering these cuneiform inscriptions.
The great inscription of Behistun, in Persia, is of special interest. It
is engraved in three forms of cuneiform writing, upon the perpendicu-
lar face of a mountain, at a height of three hundred feet ; and gives
an account of the genealogy of Darius, his exploits, and the provinces
of his empire. This inscription w€is deciphered by Sir Henry Raw-
linson.

T)ie writing of the Chaldees is well-nigh as abundant as that of
their Hamitic kinsmen, the Egyptians. The writing was impressed
on the clay while it was moist and plastic. The inscriptions on the
bricks record the history of the building in which they are found, the
name of the monarch who built it, his titles and his fame. The inscrip-
tions on the clay tablets are usually of a private character, relating
to such matters as deeds, contracts and personal records. The writing
is from left to right, except on signet-cylinders, on which it is reversed,
because of the manner in which it was stamped, as described in a pre-
vious section. The legend on the bricks was always stamped in the
form of a square in the center; and was in some cases impressed upon
the clay, and in others was cut or engraved in the surface with some
implement. On many of the tablets the signet-cylinder of the maker
or contractor was rolled across the surface, showing the wearer's motto
and seal in relief. These tablets were preserved as family records, just

Cnnei-
f onn In-
scrip-
tions.

Behistun
Inscrip-
tion.

Baked
Brick and

CUy
Tablets.

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138 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

as modems file important documents for preservation. These inscrip-
tions abound in all the ruins of ancient Chaldaea.
Chaldsan The earthenware coffins and drainage-shafting, besides the many
Pottery, j^rs, vases and drinking- vessels, attest the skill of this ancient
people in pottery from the earliest ages of their history. On many
burnt-clay tablets are figures representing lions, bulls and men; in
most of which are illustrated deadly combats between men and
lions.
Cbaltean The Chaldees fashioned arms, implements and ornaments from vari-
Imple^ ous metals. In the oldest ruins are discovered flint knives, hatchets,
land stone hammers and occasional articles of bronze, such as arrow-heads.

nJ^' knives, hatchets and sickles. Articles of iron, gold and copper have
been discovered in great abundance in the mounds. Ornaments were
usually made of iron or gold, while arms and weapons were generally
fashioned from copper or bronze. The primitive Chaldees were also
celebrated for the fine cloths and delicate textile fabrics manufactured
by their looms, showing that the spinner's and weaver's art had attained
a high degree of skill and perfection among this renowned primeval
race.
Gem The Chaldees were also skillful in the art of cutting, polishing and

P^i^^e GJ^graving gems, some of their work in this art rivaling the best mod-
and En- em specimens. The signets and seals were of this class, and several
Sraving. ^^ them have been deciphered and rendered in English. The inscrip-
tion on the seal of Urukh has been translated as follows: "The signet
of Urukh, the pious chief. King of Ur, High Priest of Niffer." On
Hgi's seal was the following legend: "To the manifestation of Ner-
gal, King of Bit-Zida, of ZurguUa, for the saving of the life of Ilgi,
the powerful hero, the King of Ur, son of Urukh ♦ ♦ ♦ May his name
be preserved." A signet-cylinder of one of the Sin kings bears this
inscription: "Sin, the powerful chief, the King of Ur, the King of
the four races * * * his seal." Some of the cylinders bear neither
figures nor inscriptions; while others have no legend, but bear figures
and symobls. They were usually of jasper or chalcedony, and were
used to impress the seals of their owners on clay tablets. They were
half an inch in diameter and three inches long. The cylinder was
rolled upon the tablet by means of a copper or bronze parallelogram,
one side of which was passed through a hole bored through its axis.
It was suspended from the owner's neck or waist by means of a string
or chain attached to a metal frame. The design of the wearer's seal
was cut in reverse on the surface of the signet, leaving the impression
in relief.
Com^*" The Chaldees likewise engaged in commerce with other countries,
meroe. Their trading caravans journeyed to the Aryan and Turanian coun-

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CHALDiEAN CIVILIZATION,

1S9

tries of Central Asia, and the "ships of Ur" navigated the Persian
Gulf and traded with the people on its shores.

The Chaldaeans found cheap and abundant articles of food in the
luxuriant growth of the date-palm and the abundant yield of such
cereals as wheat, barley, millet and sesame; in addition to which the
wealthier classes indulged in animal food, such as fish, chickens and
the wild boar.

The worship of the heavenly bodies led the primitive Chaldees at
an early day to the study of astronomy and chronology. Diodorus
declares that the Chaldaeans were far in advance of all other ancient
nations in their knowledge of the starry heavens. This celebrated
people discovered and recorded the relation of the sun's circuit to the
other cycles of the solar system. They observed that the sun's ap-
parent course through the firmament equals about twelve rounds of
the moon, and for this reason they divided the year into twelve months
of thirty days each, and when they discovered the inaccuracy of this
system they introduced new calculations, rectifying the calendar so as
to agree with the sidereal year of three hundred and sixty-five days
and six hours. By their pbservation of the sun's course through the
heavens they were able to establish the twelve signs of the Zodiac ; and
by observing the variation of the orbits of the planets from that of
the sun they were enabled to fix the limits of the zodiacal signs, and
to divide each sign into thirty degrees by the progress of the sun.
By watching the moon's phases they adopted seven days as the length
of the week. They further divided each day into twelve hours ; each
hour into sixty, or five times twelve, minutes ; and thus established the
basis of the duodecimal method of calculation. Two times twelve, or
twenty-four, finger-widths was fixed upon as the measure of a cubit,
A cycle of sixty years was called a soss; ten times sixty was a ner; and
the square of sixty, or thirty-six centuries, was a sar.

They measured distances in the heavens by taking the width of thfe
sun's disc as a unit. By comparing the quantity of water discharged
through an orifice in a jar in the time occupied by the sun in crossing
the horizon on the morning of the equinox with the amount discharged
through the same orifice at the next sunrise, they discovered that the
amount discharged between the two risings of the sun was seven hun-
dred and twenty times the amount discharged during sunrise on the
equinoctial morning. They thus inferred that the sun's orbit meas-
ured seven hundred and twenty times his disc, and from this they
derived a unit to measure space and time. In regard to space this
unit constituted half a degree, and in the calculation of time the same
unit equaled two minutes, or one-thirtieth of an hour. A stadium was
the distance an active foot-courier could walk in one unit of time, or

Articles
of Food.

As-
tronomy.

Measiir»-

ment of

Space and

Time.

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140

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Astro-
nomical
Calcula-
tions.

Axithiii»-
. tic,
Weights

and
Measures.

Chal-

data's

Legacy to

Posterity.

The Later

Baby-
lonians.

two minutes; and the distance he could walk in thirty units, sixty
minutes, or one hour, at the same ratio of speed, was called a parasang.
The stadium was divided into three hundred and sixty cubits^ and sixty
cubits was called a plethron.

The Chaldaeans discovered and recorded the fact that each cycle of
the moon's eclipses is completed in a period of two hundred and
twenty-three months, and from this discovery they computed the length
of the synodic and periodic months so accurately that modem astron-
omers have found the calculation to fall short of less than five seconds
of our time. They carefully recorded all the results of their observa-
tions. The Greek Callisthenes, who had accompanied the expedition
of Alexander the Great, sent to Aristotle from Babylon a series of
tablets on which were inscriptions recording astronomical observations
dating as far back as 1903 years before the year 331 B. C, the year
that Alexander entered that city. These observations would therefore
reach back SS34 years before Christ.

The Chaldaeans had also made considerable progress in arithmetic,
and they employed two S3^stems of notation — decimal and duodecimal.
They used cuneiform, or wedge-shaped and arrow-headed characters,
to represent numbers. Their system of weights was based upon their
system of measures. A cubit of water, which weighed sixty-six
pounds, was divided into sixty logs, each log measuring about five-
sixths of a pint. The log was the unit of measure; and its weight,
called a minay was the unit of weight. A duck-shaped stone belong-
ing to King Ilgi has been discovered bearing the inscription, "Ten
minae of Hgi." Like most otlier nations, the Chaldseans had one sys-
tem of weights for the ordinary articles of the market-place, and
another s^'^stem for the precious metals and gems. Circular pieces or
rings, called talents, shekels, etc. — ^names afterwards used by the He-
brews and the Greeks — were taken as units in weighing gold and
silver.

Although the brilliant intellectual activity of Chaldsa ceased more
than three thousand years ago, and its massive architectural structures
have slumbered in eternal repose beneath the sands and dust of more
than thirty centuries, the grand mental triumphs of its venerable civ-
ilization yet remain, as a permanent legacy to posterity — the ground-
work of the science and learning in which they have ever since been
recognized as the pioneers — the wonder and admiration of the ages.

The partially Semitized descendants of the early Chaldaeans — the
later Babylonians — ^inherited from their Cushite, or Hamitic Chaldaean
ancestors their love of astronomy and other sciences, as well as their
skill in certain arts and manufactures, and their fondness for commer-
cial intercourse with the other nations of antiquity.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 141

SECTION Vo— THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

The history of Assyria is divided into three periods — ^the period of Three
its subjection to Chaldsea, from the time of the settlement of the As- Periods
Syrians in the Tigris valley and Upper Mesopotamia to B. C. 1300; Assyria,
the Old Assyrian Empire (B. C. 1300-745) ; and the New or Lower
Assyrian Empire (B. C. 745-626).

The origin of the Assyrians is shrouded in obscurity, although it '^j^nn^
is known that they were a Semitic tribe originally dwelling in Chaldsea,
the Scriptural Shinar, and that they migrated to the middle Tigris
vfiJley during the general movement of Semitic and Hamitic tribes
from "the land of Shinar,'' some time after Nimrod's death. Says
the Mosaic account: "Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded
Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Rescn between Nine-
veh and Calah; the same is a great city."

It was before their settlement along the middle Tigris, and while Migration
they yet dwelt in the flat alluvial plain in the southern portion of the cjuj^n^
Tigris-Euphrates valley — that productive region where nature so
readily supplied everything requisite for the support of man, with so
little exertion on his part — ^it was there that the Assyrians had grown
from a family into a tribe or nation, and had developed a religion and
learned the most essential of the arts. The style and character of
the Assyrian architecture indicates that it originated in the low flat
alluvium where brick and bitumen were the only building materials.
The cuneiform writing of the Assyrians also shows its Chalda»n
origin ; while their religion was very nearly identical with that of their
southern neighbors, the only essential point of diff^erence being that
the chief Assyrian god, Asshur, was unknown in Chaldaea. The monu-
mental and tablet inscriptions thus verify the statements of the Penta-
teuch, in representing the Assyrians as originally dwelling in Chal-
daea, and at an early period migrating northward to the middle Tigris
region.

It is not known whether the Semitic and Hamitic mifinrations from Settie-
Chaldaea, their mother country, were voluntary removals on the part j^
of the migrating tribes themselves, or compulsory colonizations inau- Assyria.
gurated and carried out by the Chaldasan monarchs. One body led
by Terah, Abraham's father, removed from Ur to Harran; another
from the shores of the Persian Gulf to Syria, Canaan and Phoenicia ;
and a third, the Assyrian branch, larger than either of the other two,
ascended the Tigris valley, occupied Adiabene, with the neighboring
districts, gave its own tribal name of Asshur to its chief city and
territory, and was known to adjacent peoples first as a separate tribe,

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142

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Chaldaean
Viceroys

of
Assyria.

In-
dependent
Kingdom

of
Assyria.

Asshnr-

bil-nisi-

8U,Buzur-

Asshnr

and
Asshur-
npalUt.

Relations

with
Chaldsa.

Growth of
Assyria.

Bel-lash,
Pndil,

Vul-lush
Land

Shalma-

neser I.

and afterwards as an independent and powerful nation. The date
of their settlement in Assyria is uncertain, but it must have occurred
before the reigns of the Chaldaean kings, Puma-puriyas and Kurri-
galzu, in the fifteenth century before the Christian era. A temple to
Anu and Vul was erected on the site of Asshur, as early as the nine-
teenth century before Christ, by Shamas-Vul, the son and viceroy of
the Chaldaean king, Ismi-Dagon.

The Assyrians were likely at first governed In their new country
by viceroys under the Chaldiean sovereigns. Bricks of a Babylonian
description have been discovered at Kileh-Sherghat, the site of the
ancient Asshur, the early Assyrian capital, which are believed to be
older than any distinctly Assyrian remains, and which were in all
probability stamped by these viceroys. Very soon, however, the As-
syrians liberated themselves from the Chaldaean yoke and founded an
independent kingdom of their own in their new abode, while the old
Chaldaean Empire continued to flourish in the alluvial plain at the
head of the Persian Gulf. The co-existence of these two kingdoms
side by side is attested by a mutilated tablet of much later date, con-
taining a synchronistic record of Assyrian and Chaldaean annals from
a very remote antiquity. This tablet gives us the names of three of
the most ancient Assyrian monarchs — Asshue-bil-nisi-su, Buzur-
AssHUR and Asshur-upallit — ^the first two of whom are recorded as
having concluded treaties of peace with contemporary Chaldaean, or
Babylonian sovereigns, while the third interfered in the domestic affairs
of Chaldaea, deposing a usurper and restoring the rightful claimant,
his own relative, to the throne. Intermarriages occurred between the
royal families of Assyria and Chaldaea at this early period; and As-
shur-upallit, the last of these t;hree Assyrian kings, had given a daugh-
ter in marriage to the Chaldaean king, Puma-puriyas. On the death
of the latter, his son, Kara-khar-das, became king of Chaldaea, but lost
his life in attempting to put down a rebellion of his own subjects, and
was succeeded by a usurper, Nazi-bugas. Thereupon Asshur-upallit
marched an army into Chaldaea, defeated and killed the usurper, and
placed Kurri-galzu, another son of Puma-puriyas, on the Chaldaean
throne.

The tablet just referred to shows the power and influence of Assyria
at this early day as fully equal to that of her more ancient southem
neighbor. After the events just narrated Assyrian history is a blank
for sixty years, only the names of the kings being known to us. The
bricks of Kileh-Sherghat show us that Asshur-upallit was succeeded
as king by his son, Bel-ltjsh, or Bellikhus, who was followed in suc-
cession by his son Pudil, his grandson Vul-lush I., and his great-
grandson Shalmaneser I. All that is known of Bel-lush, Pudil and

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TH^ OLD ASSYRIAN BMPIHB.' 143

Vul-lush I. IS that they erected or repaired important edifices at As- Asshur,
shur (now Kileh-Sherghat), which remained the capital of Assyria for capitaiT
several centuries later. This place, located on the west bank of the
Tigris, was not favorably situated, the most fertile region of Assyria
being on the east bank ; but Calah and Nineveh were not yet built.

Shalmaneser I., who reigned from B. C. 13^0 to B. C. 1300, is Calah, the
chiefly distinguished as the founder of Calah (now Nimrud), the second qJ^^iI
of those great cities which the Assyrian kings delighted to embellish
with magnificent edifices, and which in the course of several centuries
succeeded Asshur as the capital. Calah was advantageously situated
on the east bank of the Tigris, forty miles north of Asshur, in a region
of exceeding fertility and great natural strength, being protected on
one side by the Tigris and on the other by the Shor-Derreh torrent,
while it was defended on the south by the Greater Zab and on the
north-east by the Khazr, or 6hazr-Su. The inscriptions of Asshur-
izir-pal show us that Shalmaneser I. undertook expeditions against the Con-
tribes on the upper Tigris, and founded cities in that region, which ^^^]J7
he colonized with settlers brought from other distant quarters. Shal- neserl.
maneser's extension of the Assyrian dominion to the northward ranks
him as the first known Assyrian conquerer. With the death of Shal-
maneser I. in B. C. 1300 ends the first period of Assyrian history — ^the
period of its subjection to Chaldaea.

Shalmaneser I. was succeeded on the Assyrian throne by his son Tiglathi-
TiGLATHi-NiN I., the founder of the Old Assyricm Empire^ which em- poSider
braces the second period of Assyrian history (B. C. 1300-B. C. 745). of the Old
The date of this monarch is seen to synchronize with the time given Empire^
by Berosus as the beginning of the sixth Chaldaean, or Babylonian
dynasty, and by Herodotus to the founding of the Assyrian Empire.
The inscriptions mention Tiglathi-Nin as transferring to Assyria the
supremacy hitherto claimed and exercised by Chald^ea, or Babylonia,
in consequence of a successful war with the latter kingdom, which cir-
cumstance induced him to inscribe upon his signet-seal this title:
"Tiglathi-Nin, King of Assyria, son of Shalmanaser, King of Assyria,
and conquerer of Kar-Dunyas. Whoever injures my device or name,
may Asshur and Vul destroy his name and country." This signet-
seal, recovered six centuries later at Babylon by Sennacherib, shows
that Tiglathi-Nin I. reigned personally for some time in that city,
where he afterwards established an Assyrian dynasty of dependent
kings — ^probably a branch of his own family. On a genealogical tab-
let he is called "King of Sumir and Accad," a title not bestowed on ^^J
any of the other kings. with

Chaldaea, or Babylonia, was not, however, from this time perma- qJ^w.'
nently subject to Assyria. Nearly a century after Tiglathi-Nin's Ionia.

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144» CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

conquest the Assyrian supremacy was shaken off, and Babylonian kings
with Semitic names, and perhaps of Assyrian descent, were engaged
in wars with the Assyrian monarchs. The Babylonian kingdom was
not permanently subjected to the Assyrian dominion until the time of
Sargon, in the latter part of the eighth century before Christ, and
even under the dynasty of the Sargonidae the Babylonians were con-
stantly in revolt, and were only reconciled to Assyrian rule when Esar^
haddon united the two crowns and reigned alternately at Babylon and
Assyrian Nineveh. Nevertheless, from the time of Tiglathi-Nin's conquest As-
aintyover syria was recognized as the ruling power in the Tigris-Euphrates val-
Chaldaea. ley, as is fully shown by its conquest of, and its imposition of a dynasty
upon, the southern kingdom. Its influence was therefore felt, even
while its yoke was rejected; and from the time of Tiglathi-Nin's con-
quest, throughout the whole period of Assyrian ascendency in the
Tigris-Euphrates valley, the process of Semitizing the Chaldaeans went
on; the names of the Babylonian kings during all this time being
Semitic, whether those kings recognized the domination of Assyria or
were at war with that power.
Eight Tiglathi-Nin I., who was the eighth and last Assjrrian king of the

IngKings. ^^^^ founded by Asshur-bil-nisi-su, died about B. C. 1280. After an
interval of half a century there followed another series of eight kings,
known to us chiefly through the celebrated Tiglath-Pileser cylinder,
which gives us the succession of five of them, but completed from the
united testimony of several other documents, the most important of
which are the Babylonian and Assyrian synchronistic tablet and the
mutilated statue of the goddess Ishtar now in the British Museum,
which bears an inscription giving the names and direct genealogical
succession of the last three of these monarchs. The combined reigns
of these eight sovereigns embraced about one hundred and sixty years,
from about B. C. 1230 to B. C. 1070.
Bel-kn- Bel-kuduk-uzur, the first king of this second series, is only known
on account of his unsuccessful war with the contemporary king of
Babylon. The Semitic line of kings established at Babylon by the
Assyrians were dissatisfied with their state of vassalage; and during
HisDe- Bel-kudur-uzur's reign in Assyria, Vul-baladan, the Babylonian vassal
feat and ruler, attempted to throw off the yoke of his Assyrian suzerain, and
Baby- ^^^ war which followed ended in the defeat and death of Bel-kudur-
lonia. uzur in a great battle about B. C. 1210.
Nin-pala- Nin-pala-zika was the second Assyrian monarch of this second
series. It is not certain whether he was related to his predecessor, but
he avenged his death. The inscriptions call him **the king who organ-
ized the country of Assyria, and established the troops of Assyria in
authority." Soon after he ascended the throne, Vul-baladan of Baby-

dur-uzar.

zira.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

145

Ion, encouraged by his triumph over Bel-kudur-uzur, invaded Assyria
and attacked Asshur, its capital, but was completely defeated in a
battle under the walls of the city and fled into his own dominions,
leaving Assyria in peace during the remainder of Nin-pala-zira's .
reign.

AssHUE-DAYAN I., the third king of the second series, enjoyed a long
and prosperous reign, according to the inscription of Tiglath-Pileser
I. He made a successful raid into Babylonia and returned to Assyria
with valuable spoils. He also tore down the dilapidated temple erected
by Shamus-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, at Asshur; and the structure
was not rebuilt until sixty years later.

M UTAGGII.-NEBO, the son and successor of Asshur-dayan I., reigned
from about B. C. 1170 to B. C. 1150. The Tiglath-Pileser inscrip-
tion informs us that *' Asshur, the great Lord, aided him according to
the wishes of his heart, and established him in strength in the govern-
ment of Assyria."

AssHUE-Ris-iUM, the son and successor of Mutaggil-Nebo, reigned
between about B. C. 1150 and B. C. 1130; and the inscription of his
son, Tiglath-Pileser I., calls him "the powerful king, the subduer of
rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the accursed." The syn-
chronistic tablet of Babylonian and Assyrian history informs us that
he warred with Nebuchadnezzar I., or Nabu-kudur-uzur, of Babylon,
who began the struggle by invading Assyria by way of the Zagros
mountains, but was repulsed by Asshur-ris-ilim in person in this moun-
tain region, and driven back. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Assyria a sec-
ond time, directly from the south, but was defeated by Asshur-ris-
ilim's general, and driven back, leaving to the victorious Assyrians
forty chariots and a banner.

TiGLATH-PiLESEE I., the SOU and successor of Asshur-ris-ilim, who
died about B. C. 1130, was the first Assyrian king of whose history we
possess elaborate details. The discovery of his inscription on two
duplicate cylinders, now in the British Museum, and which was trans-
lated in 1857 by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Fox Talbot, Dr. Hincks
and M. Oppert, has given us the record of events during the first five
years of his reign.

The Tiglath-Pileser inscription begins by naming and glorifying
the "great gods" who "rule over heaven and earth," and who are "the
guardians of the kingdom of Tiglath-Pileser." These deities are
"Asshur, the great Lord, ruling supreme over the gods; Bel the lord,
father of the gods, lord of the world; Sin, the leader, the lord of
empire; Shamas, the establisher of heaven and earth; Vul, he who
causes the tempest to rage over hostile lands; Nin, the champion who
subdues evil spirits and enemies; and Ishtar, the source of the gods,

VOL. 1. — 10

Unsac-
cessfnl
Baby-
lonian In-
vasion.

Asshnr-
Dayan I.

MutaggU-
Nebo.

Asshnr-
ris-ilim.

TJnsac-
cessfnl
Baby.
Ionian In-
vasions.

Tiglath-
PUeser I.

His In-
scription.

Glorifica-
tion of the
Gods.

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146

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA. BABYLONIA.

Self-

Gloiifica-

tion.

Victory
over the

Mos-
chianB.

Aoconnt

of the

Victory.

the queen of victory, she who arranges battles." These gods, it is
said in this inscription, have placed Tiglath-Pileser upon his throne,
have "made him firm, have confided to him the supreme crown, have
appointed him in might to the sovereignty of the people of Bel, and
have granted him preeminence, exaltation and warlike power" ; and are
invoked to make the "duration of his empire continue forever to his
royal posterity, lasting as the great temple of Kharris-Matira."

Then follows a self-glorification of the king with an enumeration
of his titles, thus: "Tiglath-Pileser, the powerful king, king of the
people of various tongues ; king of the four regions ; king of all kings ;
lord of lords ; the supreme ; monarch of monarchs ; the illustrious chief,
who, under the auspices of the Sun-god, being armed with the scepter
and girt with the girdle of power over mankind, rules over all the
people of Bel ; the mighty prince, whose praise is blazoned forth among
the kings ; the exalted sovereign, whose servants Asshur has appointed
to the government of the four regions, and whose name he has made
celebrated to posterity ; the conqueror of many plains and mountains of
the Upper and Lower country ; the victorious hero, the terror of whose
name has overwhelmed all regions; the bright constellation who, as he
wished, has warred against foreign countries, and under the auspices
of Bel — ^there being no equal to him — ^has subdued the enemies of
Asshur."

Tiglath-Pileser then recounts his conquests during his first five years
as king. The first people he subdued were the Muskai, or Moschians
— believed to be the Meshech of the Old Testament — ^who were gov-
erned by five kings and inhabited the countries of Alzi and Purukhuz,
parts of Taurus or Niphates. The Moschians had neglected for fifty
years to pay the tribute due from them to the Assyrians; and at this
time, with a force of twenty thousand men, they had invaded the
neighboring country of Qummukh (afterwards Commagen^), an As-
syrian dependency, and had subdued it; but were there attacked and
defeated by Tiglath-Pileser I., who then conquered Commagene, burned
its cities, plundered its temples, ravaged the country, and carried away
cattle and treasure as booty or tribute.

The following is a passage from this inscription: "The country of
Kasiyara, a difficult region, I passed through. With their twenty
thousand men and their five kings, in the country of Qummukh I en-
gaged. I defeated them. The ranks of their warriors in fighting
the battle were beaten down as if by the tempest. Their carcasses
covered the valleys and the tops of the mountains. I cut off their
heads. Of the battlements of their cities I made heaps, like moundi
of earth. Their movables, their wealth, and their valuables I plun-
dered to a countless amount. Six thousand of their common soldiers.

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

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who fled before my servants, and accepted my yoke, I took and gave
over to the men of my own territory as slaves.'*

The Moschians still refusing to pay tribute, Tiglath-Pileser con-
ducted a second campaign in their country and again subdued them,
completely overrunning Commagene, which was annexed to the As-
syrian Empire. He also attacked the neighboring tribes in their fast-
nesses, burned their cities and ravaged their territories. He likewise
invaded the country of the IQiatti (Hittites), because two of their
tribes had committed an aggression on Assyrian territory, and com-
pletely chastising them, carried away one hundred and twenty chariots
and much valuable booty. He also invaded the mountainous region of
the Zagros, reduced its stronghold and seized much treasure.

Tiglath-Pileser's third campaign was against the Nairi tribes of the
Euphrates valley in Northern Syria and Mesopotamia, the district sub-
sequently known as Commagen^. These tribes were ruled by many
petty kings. Those east of the Euphrates were easily conquered, but
those west of the river were only subdued after a desperate and pro-
tracted struggle. The Assyrians gained a great victory, taking one
hundred and twenty chariots, and pursued the Nairi and their allies
to the Mediterranean. The country was frightfully ravaged, and the
vanquished were required to pay a tribute of twelve hundred horses
and two hundred cattle.

In his fourth campaign, Tiglath-Pileser attacked the Aramaeans, or
Syrians, who then occupied the narrow valley of the Euphrates for a
distance of two hundred and fifty miles, from the territories of the
Tsukhi, or Shuhites, between Anah and Hit on the south-ieast, to
Carchemish, the capital and stronghold of the Khatti, or Hittites, on
the north-west. Tiglath-Pileser says in his inscription that he re-
duced this region "at one blow." He first plundered the east bank
of the river, and then crossed the stream in boats covered with skins,
and burned six cities on the west bank and carried away a vast amount
of booty.

Tiglath-Pileser's fifth and last campaign was against the land of
Musr, or Muzr, in the upper part of the present Kurdistan, which was
completely overrun, and its armies were defeated, its cities burned and
its strongholds taken. Arin, the capital, was spared because of its
submission, and a tribute was imposed upon the country. The Co-
mani, who, though Assyrian subjects, had assisted the inhabitants of
Musr, were punished for their defection by Tiglath-Pileser, who in-
vaded their country, defeated their army of twenty thousand men, and
took their towns and castles, some by storm and others without resist-
ance, burning the former and sparing the latter, but destroying the
fortifications of both; and the "far-spreading country of the Comani"

Conquest
of the
Mos-
chians
and the
Hittites.

Conquest
of the
Naiii.

Conquest

of the

Syrians.

Conquest
of Musr
and the
Comani.

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148

CMALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Totid

Con-

querts.

TigUth-
Pilo6«r>8
Hnntliig
Bzploiti.

His
Worln.

Hifl

Descent.

Was soon reduced to submission and an increased tribute exacted
from it.

After this fifth campaign, Tiglath-Pileser's inscription sums up the
result of his wars thus: "Th^re fell into my hands altogether between
the commencement of my reign and my fifth year, forty-two countries
with their kings, from the banks of the river Zab to the banks of the
river Euphrates, the country of the Khatti, and the upper ocean of
the setting sun. I brought them under one government; I took hos-
tages from them ; and I imposed on them tribute and ofi^erings."

The king next boasts of his hunting exploits. He says that he
killed with his arrows in the country of the Hittites, "four wild buUs,
strong and fierce"; and in the vicinity of Harran, on the banks of
the river Khabour, he slew ten large wild bufi^aloes and took four alive.
He took these captured animals, with the hides and horns of the killed
beasts, to Asshur, his capital city. He also says that he slew nine
hundred and twenty lions in his various journeys, and attributes all
these exploits to the protection of the gods Nin and Nergal.

This great monarch then gives an account of the buildings which
he had erected and of the improvements which he had introduced.
Among these buildings are the temples to Ishtar, Martu, Bel, *I1, and
the presiding deities of the city of Asshur, his own royal palaces, and
castles for the military defence of his dominions. * Among his public
improvements he mentions the construction of works of irrigation, the
introduction of cattle and wild animals from other countries into As-
syria, as well as of foreign vegetable productions, the increase in the
number of chariots, the enlargement of his dominions, and the growth
of the population.

Before speaking of the restoration of two old temples in the city of
Asshur, Tiglath-Pileser gives an account of his descent from Nin-pala-
zira, the founder of the dynasty, as follows: ** Tiglath-Pileser, the
illustrious prince, whom Asshur and Nin have exalted to the utmost
wishes of his heart ; who has pursued after the enemies of Asshur, and
has subjugated all the earth — ^the son of Asshur-ris-ilim, the powerful
king, the subduer of rebellious countries, he who has reduced all the
accursed — the grandson of Mutaggil-Nebo, whom Asshur, the Great
Lord, aided according to the wishes of his heart, and established in
strength in the government of Assyria — ^the glorious off^spring of
Asshur-dayan, who held the scepter of dominion, and ruled over the
people of Bel ; who in all the works of his hands and the deeds of his
life placed his reliance on the great gods, and thus obtained a long
and prosperous life — the beloved child of Nin-pala-zira, the king who
organized the country of Assyria, who purged his territories of the
wicked, and established the troops of Assyria in authority."

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN 8MPIRE.

149

The temple torn down by Asshur-dayan I., the great-grandfather
of Tiglath-Pileser I., and which had stood for six hundred and forty-
one years, was not rebuilt ; and, after its site had remained vacant for
sixty years, Tiglath-Pileser, soon after his accession, resolved upon the
erection there of a new temple to the old gods, Anu and Vul, believed
to be tutelary deities of the city of Asshur.

Tiglath-Pileser relates the circumstances of the building and dedica-
tion of this new temple^ as follows: "In the beginning of my reign,
Anu and Vul, the Great Gods,^my lords, guardians of my steps, gave
me a command to repair this their shrine. So I made bricks ; I leveled
the earth; I took its dimensions; I laid down its foundations upon a
mass of strong rock. This place, throughout its whole extent, I paved
with bricks in set order; fifty feet deep I prepared the ground; and
upon this substructure I laid the lower foundations of the temple of
Anu and Vul. From its foundation to its roof I built it up better than
it was before. I also built two lofty towers in honor of their noble
godships, and the holy place, a spacious haU, I consecrated for the
convenience of their worshipers, and to accommodate their votaries,
who were numerous as the stars of heaven. I repaired, and built, and
completed my work. Outside the temple I fashioned with the same
care as inside. The mound of earth on which it was built I enlarged
like the firmament of the rising stars, and I beautified the entire build-
ing. Its towers I raised up to heaven, and its roofs I built entirely
of brick. An inviolable shrine for their noble godships I laid down
near at hand. Anu and Vul, the Great Gods, I glorified inside the
shrine. I set them up in their honored purity, and the hearts of their
noble godships I delighted."

The other temple, which Tiglath-Pileser I. says he restored, wm
one to Anu only, which, like the one just mentioned, was originally
built by Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon. This building had like-
wise fallen into decay, but had not been taken down like the other.
Tiglath-Pileser says that he "leveled its site," and then rebuilt it "from
its foundations to its roofs," enlarging and embellishing It. Inside the
building he "sacrificed precious victims to his lord, Vul." In the
temple he likewise deposited a collection of rare stones and marbles,
which he had procured in the country of the Nairi during his wars
there.

Tiglath-Pileser's inscription ends with the following lengthy invoca-
tion: "Since a holy place, a noble hall, I have thus consecrated for
the use of the Great Gods, my lords, Anu and Vul, and have laid down
an adytum for their special worship, and have finished it successfully,
and have delighted the hearts of their noble godships, may Anu and
Vul preserve me in power! May they support the men of my gov-

Temple to

Anu and
Vul.

Account

of the

Building

Thereof.

TigUth-
PUeser's
Invoca-
tion.

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150 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

emment ! May they establish the authority of my officers ! May they
bring the rain, the joy of the year, on the cultivated land and the
desert, during my time! In war and in battle may they preserve me
victorious! Many foreign countries, turbulent nations, and hostile
kings I have reduced under my yoke ; to my children and my descend-
ants, may they keep them in firm allegiance! I will lead my steps*'
(or, "may they establish my feet"), "firm as the mountains, to the
last days, before Asshur and their noble godships! The list of my
victories and the catalogue of my triumphs over foreigners hostile to
Asshur, which Anu and Vul have granted to my arms, I have inscribed
on my tablets and cylinders, and I have placed [to remain], to the
last days, in the temple of my lords, Anu and Vul. And I have made
clean the tablets of Shamas-Vul, my ancestor; I have made sacrifices,
and sacrificed victims before them, and have set them up in their places.
In after times, and in the latter days * * * if the temples of the
Great Grods, my lords Anu and Vul, and these shrines should become
old and fall into decay, may the prince who comes after me repair the
ruins ! May he raise altars and sacrifice victims before my tablets and
cylinders, and may be set them up again in their places, and may he
inscribe his name on them together with my name ! As Anu and Vul,
the Great Gods, have ordained, may he worship honestly with a good
heart and a full trust! Whoever shall abrade or injure my tablets
and cylinders, or shall moisten them with water, or scorch them with
fire, or expose them to the air, or in the holy place of God shall
assign them a place where they cannot be seen or understood, or shall
erase the writing and inscribe his own name, or shall divide the sculp-
tures and break them off^ from my tablets, may Anu and Vul, the Great
Gods, my lords, consign his name to perdition! May they curse him
with an irrevocable curse ! May they cause his sovereignty to perish !
May they pluck out the stability of the throne of his empire! Let
not his off^spring survive him in the kingdom! Let his servants be
broken! Let his troops be defeated! Let him fly vanquished before
his enemies! May Vul in his fury tear up the produce of his land!
May a scarcity of food and of the necessaries of life afflict his coun-
try ! For one day may he not be called happy ! May his name and
his race perish!''
Date of The document is then dated: " In the month KuzaUa (Chisleu), on
Bcription ^^ ^^^ ^J* ^^ *^^ J^^^ presided over by Ina-iliya-pallik, the Rabbi-

' Turi."
Heiirf '^^ ^^^^ striking feature of Tiglath-Pileser's inscription is its re-

Tone, ligious tone. His wars are not only wars of conquest, but they are
religious wars, designed to extend the worship of Asshur, as well as to
enlarge the dominion of the Assyrian monarch. All the king's sue-

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 151

cesses in war and hunting are ascribed to the aid and favor of Asshur.
The wars were undertaken to chastise the enemies of Asshur, as the
Hebrews fought to punish the enemies of Jehovah- The commanding
position which religion occupied in the hearts of the Assyrian kings
and people is proven by the long and solemn invocation of the Great
Gods, the religious character and purposes of the wars, the account
given of the building and renovation of the temples, the dedication
of offerings, and the characteristic final prayer. The deep earnestness
of this religious faith of the Assyrians, in its outward manifestations,
displayed a zeal and fanaticism akin to that of the Israelites in their
wars with the Canaanites, Philistines and other nations, or to that of
the followers of Mohammed in their warfare against the foes of Islam.
The Assyrian king glorifies himself much, but he glorifies the gods
more. While fighting for his own credit and the extension of his
own dominion, he likewise fights for the honor and glory of Asshur,
the Great Lord, and the other Great Gods, whom the neighboring
nations reject. His buildings are temples for the worship of the gods.
His whole mind is deeply imbued with religious feeling, showing that
the gods are "in all his thoughts." This religious feeling is highly
exclusive and intolerant, like the religious feeling of the Hebrews, as
expressed in the Old Testament.

The king, while exalting himself, is still "the illustrious chief, who, Exalta-
under the auspices of the Sun-god, rules over the people of Bel," and ^^ Gods,
"whose servants Asshur has appointed to the government of the four
regions." If his enemies fly, "the fear of Asshur has overwhelmed
them; if they refuse tribute, they withhold the offerings due to As-
shur." The king himself feels inclined to make an expedition against
a country ; ** his lord Asshur invites him " to proceed thither ; if he
collects an army, "Asshur has committed the troops to his hand."
When a country not previously subject to Assyria is attacked, it is
because the people "do not acknowledge Asshur"; when its plunder is
carried off, it is to adorn and enrich the temples of Asshur and the
other gods; when it yields, the first thing is to "attach it to the wor-
ship of Asshur." The king hunts "under the auspices of Nin and
Nergal," or of "Nin and Asshur"; he puts his tablets under the pro-
tection of Anu and Vul ; he attributes the long life of one ancestor to
his exceeding piety, and the prosperity of another to the protection
which Asshur bestowed upon him. The name of Asshur occurs in the
inscription almost forty times, or once in nearly every paragraph.
Shamas, the Sun-god, and the gods Anu, Vul and Bel, are mentioned
frequently; while Sin, the Moon-god, and the deities Nin, Nergal,
Ishtar, Beltis, Martu and II, are also acknowledged. All this is on
an historical inscription.

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16«

CUALDMA, ASSYRIA BABYCONIA.

TigUth-
PiloBer's
Energetic
Charac-
ter.

HiaSelf-

Bxalta-

tion.

Weakneea

Assyria'a

Neigh-

bOXB.

The energetic character of TigMh-Pileser I. ia fully attested by his
military exploits during the first five years of his reign, as displayed
in the conquest of six neighboring nations and many petty tribes ; the
humbling of forty-two kings ; the traversing of difficult mountain re-
gions; the victories in battie; the sieges of towns; the storming and
destruction of strongholds; the ravaging of countries; the incessant
employment of the monarch; his pursuit of the chase; his contests
with the wild hxill and the lion, in which he rivaled "the mighty hunter
before the Lord," counting his victims by the hundreds ; while all this
time he was concerned for the welfare of his dominions,. as shown in
the magnificent structures which he erected, the introduction of the
animal and vegetable products of other regions and climes, the fertil-
izing of the land by works of irrigation, and his measures in general,
"improving the condition of the people, and obtaining for them
abundance and Security /'

Asshur was still the Assyrian capital, and no other native city is
yet named, though mention is made of "fortified cities." In his in-
scription Tiglath-Pileser calls himself "king of the four regions," and
also "the exalted sovereign whose servants Asshur has appointed to
the government of the country of the four regions." The Assyrian
territory seems at this time to have been bounded on the east by the
Zagros mountains, on the north by the Niphates ranges, on the west
by the Euphrates, and on the south by Chaldaea, or Babylonia. The
plunder of other countries poured wealth into Assyria, the introduction
of enslaved captives cheapened labor, irrigation was improved, new
fruits and animals were introduced, f ortificationis were repaired, palaces
were renovated, and temples were embellished or rebuilt.

The countries bordering upon Assyria on the north, east and west
exhibited conditions of political weakness, and were divided into a
multitude of petty nations and tribes, the most powerful of which could
raise an army of only twenty thousand men. These nations lacked
the essential elements of unity, being divided into many separate com-
munities governed by their own kings, who in times of war united
against the common foe, but who were too jealous of each other to
even select a generalissimo. On the Euphrates, between Hit arid
Carchemish, were, first, the Tsukhi, or Shuhites; next above them, on
both banks of the river, were the Aramaeans, or Syrians, who possessed
many cities ; and above the Aramaeans, also on both sides of the stream,
were the Khatti, or Hittites, who were divided into tribes, and whose
chief city was Carchemish. North and north-west of the Khatti were
the Muskai, or Moschi, a warlike people, who endeavored to extend
their dominion eastward into the territory of the Qummukh, or people
of Commag@n£. The Qummukh occupied and ruled the mountain re-

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 163

gion on both sides of the upper Tigris, and had many strongholds,
most of which were on the west bank of the river. East of the Qura-
mukh were the Kirkhi, while south of them were the Nam, who occu-
pied the region from Lake* Van, along the line of the Tigris, to the
district called Commagene by the Romans. The Nairi had, at least,
twenty-three kings, each of whom ruled his own tribe or city. South
of the eastern Nam was the country of Musr, or Muzr, a mountain
region densely inhabited and abounding in strong castles. To the east
and south-east of Muzr were the Comani, or Quwana, the most power-
ful of Assyria's neighbors, like the Moschi, able to raise an army of
twenty thousand men. The Comani and the people of Muzr were at
this time close allies. Across the lower Zab, skirting the Zagros, were
the many petty tribes who offered little resistance to the Assyrian
arms.

Thus, late in the twelfth century before Christ, Assyria was a com- Asayria'a
pact and powerful kingdom, surrounded on her eastern, northern and ^^^'
western sides, by weak neighbors. Centralized therefore under one
monarch, Assyria, with a single great capital, was easily able to tri-
umph over foes, who, although united in confederations to resist their
common enemy, were easily dispersed after suffering a defeat. Only
on her southern border did Assyria have a powerful neighbor in the
ancient and venerable monarchy of Chaldaea, or Babylonia, whose
Semitic sovereigns, although established in that country by Assyrian
influence, had renounced all dependence upon their old protectors.
Chaldaea, almost equal in territorial extent and population to Assyria,
and as much centralized and consolidated in her government, served as
a check to her aggressive and vigorous northern neighbor, thus pre
serving some semblance of the balance of power in Western Asia,

In addition to the great cylinder inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., Xiglath-
five more years of his annals exist in fragments, which give us accounts ^J???'*
of the continuance of his aggressive expeditions, principally in the quests,
direction of the north-west, during which he subdued the Lulumi in
Northern Syria, attacked and took Carchemish, and pursued the flee-
ing inhabitants across the Euphrates in boats.

Near the* end of his reign Tiglath-Pileser !• marched an army into ms Sue-
Babylonia, and ravaged its northern territories with fire and sword jS^ff^
for two years, taking the cities of Dur-Kurri-galzu (now Akkerkuf ), of Baby-
Sippara of the Sun, and Sippara of Anunit (the Sepharvaim, or l^^*^*
*'two Sipparas" of the Hebrews), Hupa (or Opis), on the Tigris,
and finally the great capital, Babylon, itself.

After the capture of Babylon, Tiglath-Pileser I. led an army up the Baby-
Euphrates, and took several of the cities of the Tsukhi. But the y^rto*"
Babylonian king, Merodach-iddin-akhi, captured some of Tiglath-

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164

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

HostiUty
between
Assyria
and Baby-
lonia.

Scnlpture

of
TigUth-
PUeeerl.

. Asshur-
bU-kala.

Honn-
mentsand
Inscrip-
tions of
His Reign.

Shamas-
Vull.

Pileser's baggage during his retreat from Babylon. The images of
the gods which Tiglath-Pileser had carried with him in his expedition
against Babylonia, to secure him victory by their presence, were cap-
tured by Merodach-iddin-akhi, who carried them to Babylon, where
they remained over four centuries as mementoes of victory. The Syn-
chronistic Tablet, the chief authority for this war, says nothing of
the capture of these idols, but this fact is mentioned in a rock inscrip-
tion of Sennacherib's at Bavain, near IQiorsabad.

Thenceforth a spirit of hostility and jealous rivalry marked the
relations between Assyria and Babylonia, and no more intermarriages
occurred between their royal families, while wars between them were
almost constant, nearly every Assyrian king of whose history we pos-
sess detailed knowledge leading one or more expeditions into Baby-
lonia.

In a cavern from which rises the Tsupnat, or eastern branch of the
Tigris, near the village of Korkhar, about fifty or sixty miles north
of Diarbekr, is a bas-relief sculptured on rock smoothed for the pur-
pose, consisting of a figure of Tiglath-Pileser I. in his priestly dress,
with the right arm extended and the left hand grasping the sacrificial
mace, with the following inscription: "By the grace of Asshur,
Shamas and Vul, the Great Gods, I, Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria,
son of Asshur-ris-ilim, King of Assyria, who was the son of Mutaggil-
Nebo, King of Assyria, marching from the great sea of Akhiri" (the
Mediterranean) "to the sea of Na'iri" (Lake of Van), "for the third
time have invaded the country of Nairi."

Tiglath-Pileser I. was succeeded on the Assyrian throne by his son
AssHUK-BiL-KALA, of whom very little is known besides his war with
Merodach-shapik-ziri, king of Babylonia, the successor of Merodach-
iddin-akhi. This war is recorded on the Synchronistic Tablet, along
with the wars of Asshur-bil-kala's father and grandfather, but the in-
jured condition of this portion of the tablet prevents us getting details
from it. A monument of Asshur-bil-kala's time — one of the oldest
Assyrian sculptures yet remaining — ^bears witness that he was actuated
by the same religious spirit displayed by his father, and that he also
adorned temples and set up images of the gods. A mutilated female
figure, supposed to be the image of the goddess Ishtar, discovered by
Mr. Loftus at Koyunjik, and now in the British Museum, bears a
dedicatory inscription, almost illegible, from which it appears to have
been set up by Asshur-bil-kala, the son of Tiglath-Pileser I. and grand-
son of Asshur-ris-ilim.

It is supposed that Asshur-bil-kala reigned from about B. C. 1110
to B. C. 1090. His successor seems to have been his younger brother,
Shamas-Vul I., of whom nothing is known except his building or

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

155

repairing a temple at Nineveh. He is thought to have reigned from
B. C 1090 to B. C. 1070 ; being thus contemporary with Samuel or
Saul in Israel. During the eleventh century before Christ, Assyria Tempo-
for a time passed under a cloud, and its ancient glories were then Eclipse of
eclipsed by the imperial splendor of the Israelitish kingdom under Assyria.
David and Solomon. For two centuries, between the reigns of Shamas-
Vul I. and Tiglathi-Nin II., who, according to the Assyrian Canon,
ascended the throne of Assyria in B. C. 889, Assyrian history is a
blank. The very names of the kings are almost entirely unknown to
us for three-fourths of this period, from about B. C. 1070 to B. C. 930.
The inscription of Shalmaneser II., the Black-Obelisk king, speaks of
certain cities on the west bank of the Euphrates being taken from
AssHUB-MAZUK, whose reign has been assigned to this period.

While Assyria, from the absence of records, at this time had ap- Royal In-
parently sunk into insignificance, her influence seems to have extended ^^^'
into Egypt, whose kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty beginning with the
with Sheshonk I., or Shishak, a contemporary of Solomon, married ^^^
Assyrian women of royal or noble birth, who gave Assyrian names to
their children, thus introducing Semitic names in Egyptian dynastic
lists.

When Assyria again emerged from darkness with the accession of Asshur-
'AssHUR-DAYAN II. about B. C. 980, Asshur was still the capital of *^*" '
the kingdom. Asshur-dayan II. was the first of a series of kings who
repaired and enlarged public edifices, which is recorded to their honor
in the inscription of a subsequent sovereign. Asshur-dayan II.
reigned from B. C. 980 to B. C. 911. His son and successor, Vul- Vul-lush
£nsH II., occupied the throne from B. C. 911 to B. C. 889. Nothing
is yet known of the history of these two kings, no historical inscrip- .
tions of their reigns being yet found, and no exploits being recorded
of them in the inscriptions of later sovereigns.

TiGi-ATHi-NiN II., the successor of Vul-lush 11., reigned only six TigUthi-
years; but according to the inscriptions of his son and successor,
Asshur-izir-pal, on the Nimrud monolith, he recorded his military ex-
ploits and also the fact that he set up his sculptures at the sources
of the Tsupnat river beside the sculptures set up by his ancestors,
Tiglath-Pileser I. and Tiglathi-Nin I. The Assyrian Canon assigns
the reign of Tiglathi-Nin II; between the years B. C. 889 and B. C.
883.

AssHUE-iznt-PAL, the son and successor of Tiglathi-Nin II., reigned Asshur-
twenty-five years, from B. C. 888 to B. C. 858, which period is one "^^-P**-
of the most flourishing in the annals of the Assyrian Empire. Asshur- Sudden
izir-pal was an active and energetic monarch, and did not allow him- ^^^^^
self any repose. The limits and influence of Assyria were expanded Assyria.

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166

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Conquest
of the
Nnmi,
Elamiand
Kirkhiof
Armenia.

Other

Con-
quests in
Armenia.

Conquest
of the
Laid of

Mesopota-

Recon-

quest of

theNa'iri.

in every direction, and her progress in wealth and the arts was so rapid
that she suddenly attained a point not previously reached by any
people. The size, magnificence and excellent artistic embellishment
of Asshur-izir-paPs architectural structures, the high skill in the prac-
tical arts which they exhibit, the pomp and splendor of this reign
which they imply, have excited the wonder and admiration of modem
Europe, which has seen that the Assyrians nine centuries before Christ,
or nearly twenty-eight centuries ago, had reached a degree of advance-
ment in the inventions and arts of practical life equal to the boasted
achievements of the modem ages.

Asshur-izir-paPs first campaign was in the north, in portions of
Armenia, where he says he penetrated a region "never approached
by the kings his fathers." Here he easily subdued the mountaineers,
the Numr, or Elami, and the Kirkhi, from whom has been derived the
name of the modern Kurkh, as applied to some ruins on the west bank
of the Tigris, about twenty miles below Diarbekr, some remains of
which have been transferred to the British Museum. Asshur-izir-pal
took and destroyed the fortresses of these mountain tribes, and one
captive was taken to Arbela, where he was flayed and hung up on the
town wall.

Asshur-izir-paPs second expedition occurred in the same year as the
first, and was directed against the tribes to the west and north-west
of Assyria. He first overran the countries of Qummukh, Serki and
Sidikan, or Arban, and reduced them to tribute. Then he took the
field against the Laki of Central Mesopotamia, where the people of
the city of Assura had rebelled, killed their governor, and invited a
foreigner to govern them. The rebels submitted on Asshur-izir-pal's
approach and surrendered to him their city and their new ruler, who
was carried in fetters to Nineveh. The rebellious inhabitcmts were
cruelly punished by Asshur-izir-pal, who plundered the city, gave the
houses of the rebel leaders to his own officers, placed an Assyrian gov-
ernor over the city, crucified some of the inhabitants, burned others,
and cut oft^ the ears and noses of the remainder. The other kings of
the Laki submitted, and sent in their tribute readily, though it was "a
heavy and much-increased burden."

In the second year Asshur-izir-pal undertook a third expedition.
Marching northward, he reduced to submission the kings of the Nairi,
who had recovered their independence, and exacted from them a yearly
tribute in gold, silver, horses, cattle and other commodities. Ascend-
ing the Tsupnat river, or Eastern Tigris, he set up his memorial
beside monuments hitherto erected on the same site by Tiglath-Pileser
I. and by the first or second Tiglathi-Nin. The inscriptions also give
Asshur-izir-paPs own account of his severe treatment of the revolted

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 157^

City of Tela, upon retaking it, in the following words: "Their men,
young and old, I took prisoners. Of some I cut off the feet and
hands ; of others I cut off the noses, ears and lips ; of the young men's
ears I made a heap ; of the old men's heads I made a minaret. I ex-
posed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male chil-
dren and the female children I burnt in the flames. The city I de-
stroyed, and consumed, and burnt with fire.''

Asshur-izir-pal's fourth campaign was in the south-east, where he Con-
crossed the Lesser Zab and entered the Zagros range, ravaged the fruit- STSe
ful vaUeys with fire and sword, took many towns, and exacted tribute Zagros
from a dozen petty kings. On his return, he built a city which the •S*^-
Babylonian king Tsibir had destroyed at an early period, and named
it Dur-Asshur, in gratitude for the protection bestowed upon him by
Asshur, "the Great Lord," "the chief of the gods."

Asshur-izir-pal's fifth campaign was directed to the north. Cross- Con-
ing the country of the Qummukh and receiving their tribute, the war- Armenia,
like king invaded the Mons Masius and took the cities of Maty at (now
Mediyat) and Kapranisa. He then crossed the Tigris and warred
along the Niphates ranges against the people of Kasiyara and other
enemies. He next invaded the country of the Nairi, where he says
he destroyed two hundred and fifty strong walled cities, and put to
death many princes.

Asshur-izir-pal's sixth campaign was in the west. He started from Con-
Calah (now Nimrud), where he crossed the Tigris, marched through ^^^ta-
Central Mesopotamia, received tribute from many subject towns, mia and
among which were Sidikan (now Arban), Sirki and Anat (now Anah). jq^"
He then entered the territories of the Tsukhi, or Shuhites, took their ^
city Tsur, and compelled them to surrender, although they were aided
by the Babylonians; after which he invaded Babylonia, or Chaldaea,
and chastised its people.

His seventh campaign was likewise against the Shuhites, who had Conqnert
rebelled agspnst the Assyrian yoke and invaded the Assyrian terri- xsukM
tories, being aided by their north-eastern neighbors, the Laki. The and the
allied army numbered twenty thousand men, including many warriors
who fought in chariots. Asshur-izir-pal first reduced the cities on the
east bank of the Euphrates, and, as he says, "made a desert" of the
banks of the Khabour, and impaled thirty of the chief captives on
stakes, in punishment for the rebellion. He then crossed the river
on rafts and defeated the Tsukhi and their allies with *great slaughter,
many of them being drowned in their flight across the river. Six
thousand five hundred of the rebels were killed in the battle, and the
west bank of the river was frightfully ravaged with fire and sword;
cities and castles were burned, men were massacred, and women, chil-

LaU.

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158 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

dren and cattle were carried away. One king of the Laki escaped, but
another was carried in captivity to Assyria. An increased rate of
tribute was exacted of the conquered people, and two new cities were
built by the Assyrian king, one on either bank of the Euphrates, the
one on the east bank being named after the king, and the one on the
west bank after the god Asshur.
Conquest Asshur-izir-paPs eighth campaign was higher up the Euphrates,
Beth- where the Assyrian monarch invaded the country of the Beth-Adina,
Adina. to punish its people for giving ref ijge to Hazilu, the king of the Laki
who had escaped capture after his defeat in the previous war. As-
shur-izir-pal beseiged the people of Beth-Adina in their chief city,
• Kabrabi, which he soon took and burned. The part of Beth-Adina
east of the Euphrates, in the vicinity of the modern Balis, was over-
run and annexed to the Assyrian Empire, and two thousand five hun-
dred captives were settled at Calah.
Conquest Asshur-izir-paPs ninth and most interesting campaign was the one
Hittites against Syria. After marching across Northern Mesopotamia, and
and the receiving tributes from various nations and tribes on the way, the As-
syria. Syrian king crossed the Euphrates on rafts and entered the city of
Carchemish, where he received the submission of the Hittite king,
Sangara, whose capital was that city, and of many other princes,
"who came reverently and kissed his scepter." Then he "gave com-
mand to advance toward Lebanon." He entered the country of the
Patena, which embraced the region about Antioch and Aleppo, and
took their capital, Kihalua, located between the Abri (or Afrin) and
Orontes; whereupon the rebel king, Lubama, in alarm, submitted and
agreed to pay a tribute. The Assyrian monarch then crossed the
Orontes and destroyed some of the cities of the Patena, and marched
along the northern flank of Lebanon to the Mediterranean. In this
region he built altars and offered sacrifices to the gods, and then re-
ceived the submission of the leading Phoenician states, such as Tyre,
Sidon, Byblus and Aradus. He then went inland, and cut timber, set
up sculptured memorials, and oft^ered sacrifice on the Amanus moun-
tains. Among the plunder which he carried to Assyria were cedar
beams for his public buildings at Nineveh.
Con- Asshur-izir-pal's tenth campaign, and the last recorded, was in the

^e^pper region of the Upper Tigris, where he defeated his enemies and over-
Tinis came all resistance, burned cities and carried away many captives.

' The chief "royal city" which he assailed was Amidi, now Diarbekr.

Hunting During all his ten campaigns, which were prosecuted during the

Exploits, gj^^ gj^ years of his reign, Asshur-izir-pal indulged in the sports of

the chase. He records among his inscriptions that on one occasion

he killed fifty large wild bulls on the east bank of the Euphrates, and

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

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captured eight of the same kind of beasts; while at another time he
slew twenty ostriches and captured as many. This monarch's sculp-
tures bear testimony that hunting the wild bull was a favorite recrea-
tion with him. He had a menagerie park in the vicinity of Nineveh, in
which he kept various strange animals. He received, as tribute from
the Phcenicians, animals called paguts or pagdts — ^believed to be ele-
phants — ^which were placed in this zoological enclosure, where he says
they throve and bred. A certain King of Egypt sent him a present
of curious animals when he was in Southern Syria. In an obelisk in-
scription, designed to commemorate a great hunting expedition, he says
he took all sorts of antelopes to Asshur and killed lions, wild sheep, red
deer, fallow deer, wild goats, or ibexes, leopards, large and small, bears,
wolves, jackals, wild boars, ostriches, foxes, hyenas, wild asses, and
other animals not yet identiiSed. An inscription of his at Nimrud
informs us that in another hunting expedition he slew three hundred
and sixty large lions, two hundred and fifty-seven large wild cattle,
and thirty buffaloes ; and that he sent to Calah fifteen full-grown lions,
fifty young lions, some leopards, several pairs of wild buff^aloes and wild
cattle, along with ostriches, wolves, red deer, bears, cheetas and
hyenas. Thus, like his distinguished ancestor, Tiglath-Pileser I.,
Asshur-izir-pal was renowned alike as a warrior and a hunter.

Asshur-izir-pal surpassed his predecessors in the grandeur of his
public edifices, and the profusion of sculpture and painting in their
embellishment. The structures of the earlier Assyrian kings at Asshur
were far inferior to the buildings of Assur-izir-pal and his successors
at Calah, Nineveh and Dur-Surgina. The mounds of Kileh-Sherghat
have not revealed bas-reliefs or traces of buildings which can be com-
pared with those which excite the wonder of the traveler at Nimrud,
Koyunjik and Khorsabad. Asshur-izir-paPs great palace was at
Calah (now Nimrud), which he raised from the condition of a pro-
vincial town to that of a metropolis of his empire. This palace was
three hundred and sixty feet long and three hundred feet wide, had
seven or eight large haUs, and many more small chambers grouped
round a central court one hundred and thirty feet long and almost one
hundred feet broad. The longest hall faced toward the north,
was the first room entered upon coming from the city, and
measured one hundred and fifty-four feet in length and thirty-
three feet in breadth. The others were of diff^erent dimensions, some
almost as spacious as the largest one, while the smallest room had a
length of sixty-five feet with a breadth of less than twenty feet. The
chambers were nearly or altogether square, and none of them were more
than thirty feet in their greatest dimensions. The entire palace was
raised upon a high platform, constructed of sun-dried bricks, but

Asshnr-
izir-pal'0

Great
Palace at

Calah.

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IgO CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

cased on the outside with hewn stone. Of the two grand fafades, one
faced the north, and on that side was an ascent to the platform from
the town; the other, in the opinion of Mr. Layard, faced the Tigris,
which in ancient times flowed at the foot of the platform toward the
west. On the northern front were two or three great gateways flanked
with andro-sphinxes, or sculptured figures representing the body of a
winged lion with the head of a man. These gateways led to the prin-
cipal hall or audience chamber, which was lined throughout with
sculptured slabs illustrating the king's various deeds, and which con-
tained at the eastern end a raised stone platform cut into steps or
stages, which Layard believes was designed to support the monarch's
carved throne. A grand portal in the southern wall of the chamber,
guarded on either side by sculptured representations of winged man-
headed bulls carved out of yellow limestone, opened the way into a
second hall much smaller than the first, and with less variety of orna-
ment. This second hall was about one hundred feet long by twenty-
five broad, and all the slabs which adorned it were ornamented with
colossal eagle-headed figures in pairs, facing one another and separated
by the sacred tree. This second haU was connected with the central
court by an elegant gateway towards the south, and communicated
likewise with a third hall towards the east. This third hall was one of
the most remarkable apartments of the palace, and was better propor-
tioned than most of the others, being about ninety feet long by twenty-
six wide. It ran along the eastern side of the great court, with which
it was connected by two gateways, and on the inside it was ornamented
with more elaborately finished sculptures than any other apartment in
the palace. Back of this eastern hall was another hall opening into it,
somewhat longer, but only twelve feet broad ; and this led to five small
chambers, which here bounded the palace. South of the great court
were also two haUs communicating with each other, but these were
smaller than those on the north and west, and were less profusely
adorned. Mr. Layard believes that there were also two or three halls
on the west side of the court toward the river. Nearly every hall had
one or two small chambers adjoining it, which were generally at the
ends of the haUs, and communicated with them by large doorways.
The grand halls of this palace, so narrow for their length, were deco-
rated on all sides, first with sculptures as high as nine or ten feet, and
then with enameled bricks or patterns painted in frescoes to the height
of seven or eight feet more. The rooms were sixteen or eighteen feet
high. The square chambers had no other embellishments than inscribed
alabaster slabs.
HisScixlp- Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures display great boldness, force and spirit,
*"• but are usually clumsily drawn and roughly executed. Assyrian

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mimetic art suddenly sprung up at this period, the only specimens
more ancient than this monarch being the rock-tablet of Tiglath-Pileser
I., already referred to, and the mutilated female statue brought from
Koyunjik to the British Museum and inscribed with the name of
Asshur-bil-kala, the son and successor of Tiglath-Pileser I. Asshur-
izir-paPs ornamentation was his own invention. Not a solitary frag-
ment of a sculptured slab has been found about the mounds of Kileh-
Sherghat, while bricks have been found in abundance. This monarch
was the first to use bas-reliefs on a large scale for architectural orna-
mentation, and to employ them to illustrate the history of the mon-
arch. This king likewise adorned his edifices by means of enameled
bricks and painted frescoes upon plaster,

Asshur-izir-pal's sculptures attest the surprising advance made m
manufactures by the Assyrians at this early period. The metallurgy
of the time is represented by swords, sword-sheaths, daggers, earrings,
necklaces, armlets and bracelets. The chariots, the harness of the
horses, and the embroidery which adorned the robes, further attest the
mechanical skill of the Assyrians in the age of this famous king.
The sculptures bear testimony to the fact that this ancient people at
this early day already reveled in luxury, and that in the useful arts, in
dress, furniture, jewelry, etc., they were not far behind the modems.

Besides the splendid palace which he erected at Calah, Asshur-izir-
pal built many temples, the most important of which have already been
described. They occupied the northwestern comer of the Nimrud
platform, and consisted of two structures ; one precisely at the comer,
embracing the higher tower, or zigguraty which stood out as a comer
buttress from the great mound, and a shrine with chambers at the
tower's base ; the other, a little farther to the east, comprising a shrine
and chambers without a tower. The tower of the first structure was
partly built by Asshur-izir-paPs son and successor, Shalmaneser II.
These temples were highly adorned with embellishments, both internally
and externally; and in front of the larger one was an erection indi-
cating that the Assyrian kings received divine honors from their sub-
jects. On a plain square pedestal two feet high was raised a solid
limestone block cut in the form of an arched frame, within which was
carved a figure of the king in sacerdotal costume, with the sacred col-
lar encircling his neck, and the five chief divine symbols represented
above his head. In front of this figure was a triangular altar with a
circular top, resembling the Grecian tripod. A stele of Asshur-izii^
pal, resembling the figure just described, has been brought to Eng^
land from Kurkh, near Diarbekr, and is now in the British Museum.

Asshur-izir-pal built a temple at Nineveh, which was dedicated to
the goddess Beltis. A white stone obelisk, set up as a memorial of his
VOL. 1.— 11

Assyrian
Progress.

Asshur-
izir-pal's
Temples.

His
Obelisks.

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162

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

His
Tmmel

and
Canal.

He Makes

Calah the

Assyrian

Capital.

His
Death.

Shalma-
11.

reign, is now in the British Museum. The sculptures and inscriptions
which commemorated his military and hunting exploits, and which
covered the four sides of this monument, are now almost obliterated.
The obelisk is a monolith, twelve or thirteen feet high, and two feet
wide on the broader side of the base and less than fourteen inches on
the narrower side. It tapers slightly and is crowned at the top by
three steps or gradines. Fragments of two other obelisks erected by
this great monarch were discovered at Koyunjik by Mr. Loftus, and
are likewise now in the British Museum. One of these, in white stone,
had sculptures on one side only, being mostly covered by an inscription
recording his hunting exploits in Syria and the repairs of the city of
Asshur. The other, in black basalt, had sculptures on every side rep-
resenting the great king receiving tribute-bearers.

Asshur-izir-pal constructed a tunnel and canal by which the water
of the Greater Zab was brought to Calah. He records this fact in his
annals, and Sennacherib, who repaired the tunnel two centuries later,
set up therein a tablet with an inscription commemorating Asshur-
izir-pal as its author.

Asshur-izir-pal's favorite capital was Calah, although he beautified
Asshur, the old capital, and the rising city of Nineveh. The continual
spread of the Assyrian dominion northward necessitated the removal
of the capital to a more central point than Asshur ; and for that reason
Calah, which was forty miles further north, on the opposite or east side
of the Tigris, was selected for the seat of government. Calah, located
in the fertile and healthy region of Adiabene, near the junction of the
greater Zab with the Tigris, was strongly protected by nature, being
defended on either side by a deep river. The new capital rapidly grew
to greatness, and palace after palace rose on its high platform, pro-
fusely embellished with carved woodwork, gilding, painting, sculpture
and enamel; while stone lions, sphinxes, obelisks, shrines and temple^
towers also adorned the scene. The lofty ziggurat attached to the
temple of Nin stood forth preeminent amid the varied mass of royal
palaces and sacred temples, giving unity to the whole.

After his glorious reign of twenty-five years, Asshur-izir-pal — ^who
styled himself " The conqueror from the upper passage of the Tigris
to Lebanon and the Great Sea, who has reduced under his authority all
countries from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same '* —
died at no advanced age, and was succeeded on the throne by his son,
Shalmaneser II.

Shalmanescr II. inherited the warlike spirit and genius of his illus-
trious father ; and during his reign of thirty-five years, from B. C. 858
to B. C. 823, he conducted twenty-three military expeditions in person,
and entrusted four others to a favorite general. His twenty-three

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

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expeditions were undertaken during the first twenty-seven years of
his reign, and were directed against the territories of neighboring peo-
ples. Babylonia, Chaldaea, Media, the Zimri, Armenia, Upper Mesopo-
tamia, the country of the Upper Tigris, the Hittites, the Patena, the
Tibareni, the Hamathites, and the Syrians of Damascus, were attacked
by the armies of Shalmaneser II., their hosts defeated, their cities be-
sieged and taken, their kings reduced to submission and forced to pay
tribute.

Shalmaneser II. took tribute from the Phoenician cities of Tyre,
Sidon and Byblus; from the Tsukhi, or Shuhites; from the people of
Muzr, or Musr; from the Bartsu, or Partsu (believed to be the Per-
sians), and from the Israelites. He thus traversed the entire region
from the Persian Gulf on the south to the Niphates mountains on
the north, and from the Zagros range on the east to the Mediterranean
sea on the west. Over this whole vast domain he made his power felt,
while his influence extended beyond its limits, where the nations feared
and respected him and willingly sought his favor by placing them-
selves under his protection. In the closing years of his reign he
deputed the command of his armies to his favorite general, Dayan-
Asshur, in whom he reposed great confidence. Dayan-Asshur held
an important office in the fifth year of Shalmaneser's reign ; and in the
twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, thirtieth and thirty-first he was sent
with an army against the Armenians, the rebellious Patena, and the
people of the region included in modem Kurdistan. In his twenty-
ninth year the king himself led an expedition into Khirki, the
Niphates district, where he " overturned, beat to pieces, and consumed
with fire the towns, swept the country with his troops, and impressed
on the inhabitants the fear of his presence."

Shalmancser's most interesting campaigns are those of the sixth,
eighth, ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, eighteenth and twenty-first years of
his reign. Two of these campaigns were directed against Babylonia,
three against Ben-hadad of Damascus, and two against Khazail
(Hazael) of Damascus.

In his eighth year, while Babylonia was rent by a civil war between
King Merodach-sum-adin and his younger brother, Merodach-bel-usati,
Shalmaneser II. invaded that kingdom ostensibly to aid its legitimate
sovereign, but really for his own aggrandizement. He at once seized
several Babylonian towns, and in the following year he defeated and
killed the pretender to the Babylonian crown, entered Babylon and
invaded Chaldaea, the country along the Persian Gulf, then independent
of Babylon, and compelled its kings to become his tributaries. He
informs us in his inscriptions that " the power of his army struck
terror as far as the sea."

His
Twenty-
three Ex-
peditions
and Con-
quests.

HisBz-
tensive
Con-
quests.

Cam-
paigns
against
Baby-
lonia and
Damas-
cus.

Success-
ful Inva-
sion of
Baby-
lonia.

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164

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Defeat of
thePa-
tena, Hit-
tites, Da-
mascus
and the
Phoeni-
cians.

Defeat of

Damas-

CVLB, Ear

math and

theHit-

tites.

Great

Victory
over King
Hazael of

Damas- .

Tribute

from

Jehu,

King of

Israel.

The wars of Shalmaneser II. In Southern Syria began in the ninth
year of his reign. He had extended his dominion in Northern Syria
over the Patena and most of the Northern Hittites. Alarmed at the
rapid growth of the Assyrian power, Ben-hadad, King of Damascus;
Tsakhulena, King of Hamath ; Ahab, King of Israel ; the kings of the
Southern Hittites ; the kings of the Phoenician cities upon the coast, and
others, formed an alliance, but their combined forces were defeated by
the King of Assyria, with the loss of twenty thousand men killed in
battle, while many chariots and much war material fell into the hands
of the victorious Assyrians.

Five years later, in the eleventh year of his reign, Shalmaneser H.
again took the field against Hamath and the Southern Hittites. Sud-
denly invading their territories, he took many towns without resistance ;
but Ben-hadad of Damascus joined the Hittites, and though the allies
were again defeated by the Assyrian monarch, the latter did not suc-
ceed in extending his sway over Southern Syria. Three years after-
ward, Shalmaneser II. again attempted the conquest of Southern Syria.
Collecting his people " in multitudes that were not to be counted," he
crossed the Euphrates with an army of more than a hundred thousand
men and marched southwards. This time he gained a decisive victory
over th^ allied armies of Ben-hadad of Damascus, the Hamathites and
the Hittites, who fled in dismay, losing many chariots and implements
of war. The coalition at once fell to pieces, and the Hamathites and
Hittites submitted to the conqueror's yoke, Damascus being deserted
by her allies.

The next year Shalmaneser II. advanced against the Syrians of
Damascus, who were strongly posted in the Anti-Lebanon fastnesses,
and were under the leadership of their new king, Hazael, who had treach-
erously murdered Ben-hadad. Hazael raised an immense army, includ-
ing over eleven hundred chariots, and took a strong position in the
mountain range dividing the kingdoms of Damascus and Hamath, where
he was attacked and utterly defeated by the Assyrian king, losing six-
teen thousand men, eleven hundred and twenty-one chariots, a large
amount of war material and his camp. This blow completely broke
the power of Damascus, and three years later Hazael made no resist-
ance when Shalmaneser II. again invaded Syria and took and plundered
his towns. In his inscription Shalmaneser II. says : " I went to the
towns of Hazael of Damascus and took part of his provisions." He
next says : " I received the tributes of Tyre, Sidon and Byblus." Jehu,
King of Israel — " son of Omri," as he is called in the Assyrian inscrip-
tion — sent a quantity of gold and silver, in bullion and manufactured
articles, as tributes to the Assyrian monarch. Sculptures at Nimrud
reuresent the Israelitish ambassadors presenting this tribute to Shal-

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. Ig5

maneser IE., the articles appearing carried in the hands or on the
shoulders of the envoys.

Like his distinguished father, Shalmaneser II. had great taste for Salama-
architecture and the other arts. He completed the ziggurat of the p^^^^
great temple of Nin at Calah, which his father had commenced. He Calah.
also built a more splendid palace than the one erected by his father on
the same lofty platform of that city, about one hundred and fifty yards
from the former palace. This is known as the " Central Palace" of the
Nimrud platform, and was discovered by Mr. Layard on his first
expedition. The ruined condition of this magnificent edifice rendered
it impossible for its modem discoverer to obtain a clear idea of its orna-
mentation. Two massive winged man-headed bulls partially destroyed,
in the grand portals of this great structure, and the sculptured frag-
ments of bas-reliefs, which must have adorned its walls, illustrate its
points of similarity to Asshur-izir-paPs great edifice. The sculptures
of Shalmaneser's palace were on a grander scale and more mythological
than those of his father's building.

A famous monument of Shalmaneser II. is an obelisk in black mar- Black
ble, in shape and general arrangement resembling that of his father sS^jJmJ^
already described, but of a handsomer and better material. This obe- nescr II.
lisk was discovered lying prostrate under the rubbish covering Shalman-
eser's palace. It contained bas-reliefs in twenty compartments, five on
each of its four sides, the space about them being covered with minute
cuneiform inscriptions ; the whole in an excellent state of preservation.
It is somewhat smaller than Asshur-izir-paPs obelisk, being only seven
feet high and twenty-two inches on its broad face. Its proportions
make it more solid-looking and taper less than the former obeUsk. The
bas-reliefs represent Shalmaneser IL, accompanied by his vizier and
other chief officers, receiving tribute from five nations, whose envoys
are ushered into the royal presence by officials of the court, and pros-
trate themselves at the feet of the Great King before they present their
offerings. The gifts are mostly articles of gold, silver, copper bars
and cubes, goblets, elephants' tusks, tissues, etc., and are carried in
the hand ; but there are also animals, such as horses, camels, monkeys
and baboons of various types, stags, lions, wild bulls, antelopes, and
the rhinoceros and elephant. As already related, the Israelites are
one of the nations offering tribute. The others will now be noticed.
The people of Kirzan, a country adjoining Armenia, present gold,
silver, copper, horses and camels, and occupy the four highest com-
partments with nine envoys. The Muzri, or people of Muzr, or
Musr, as we have observed, almost in the same region, bring various
wild animals and fill the four central compartments with six envoys.
The Tsukhi, or Shuhites, from the Euphrates, are represented by thir-

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166

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

His

Capitals.

Rebellion
of the
Crown-
Pxinoe.

Shamas-
Vttl II.

Assyria's
Domin-
ions.

teen envoys, bringing two lions, a stag and various precious objects,
such as metal bars, elephant tusks, and shawls or tissues ; and are given
four compartments below the Muzri. The Patena, from the Orontes,
fill three of the lowest compartments, with a train of twelve envoys
bearing gifts similar to those of the IsraeUtes. A stele of Shalmaneser
II., closely resembling those of his father, was brought to the British
Museum from Kurkh in 186S.

Calah, where he and his father built their great palaces, was the
usual capital of Shalmaneser II. ; but he sometimes held his coiurt in
the new city of Nineveh, and also in the old capital, Asshur. At the
latter place he left a monument in the shape of a stone statue represent-
ing a king seated, which was found by Mr. Layard in a mutilated con-
dition. In his later years Shalmaneser II. was troubled by a dangerous
rebellion of his eldest son, the heir apparent to the crown, Asshur-danin-
pal. The rebellious prince had a powerful popular support, and was
proclaimed king at Asshur, at Arbela in the Zab region, at Amidi on
the Upper Tigris, at Tel-Apni near the site of Orfa, and in more than
a score of other fortified places. The aged monarch called his second
son, Shamas-Vul, to the command of the loyal troops, and this prince
reduced the rebellious cities in succession and soon completely crushed
the revolt. Asshur-danin-pal, the rebellious crown-prince, forfeited
his claims to the crown by this treason, and is supposed to have been
put to death; while his younger brother and conqueror, Shamas-Vul,
became the heir to his father's kingdom, to which he shortly afterwards
succeeded, upon Shalmaneser's death, in B. C- 823, after an active and
glorious reign of thirty-five years.

Shamus-Vul II. reigned thirteen years, from B. C. 828 to B. C. 810.
We will now briefly notice the extent of the Assyrian dominion at his
accession. Since the time of Tiglath-Pileser I. the limits of the As-
syrian Empire had been extended in different directions, but mainly
toward the west and the north-west. In this direction the Assyrian
limits had been pushed beyond the Euphrates over all Northern Syria,
over Phoenicia, Hamath, and Samaria, or the Israelite kingdom. These
countries were not, however, reduced to the condition of provinces ; they
still remained under their own native kings, and retained their admin-
istration and laws ; but they were virtually subject to Assyria, as they
acknowledged the suzerainty of the Assyrian monarch, paid him an
annual tribute, and allowed his armies a free passage through their ter-
ritories. On the west the Assyrian Empire extended to the Mediter-
ranean, from the Gulf of Iskanderun to Cape Carmel or to Joppa.
The northwestern boundary was the Taurus mountain range beyond
Amanus, the region between the two belonging to the Tibareni
(Tubal), who had submitted as tributaries. The northern limits were

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 167

the Niphates range — ^ the high grounds over the affluents of the Ti-
gris and the Euphrates " — ^where Shahnaneser II. set up " an image of
his majesty." The eastern frontier was in the central Zagros region,
the tract between the Lower Zab and Holwan, then called Hupuska.
*0n the south the Assyrian kingdom was still bounded by the territories
of the Babylonians and Chaldaeans, who yet remained unconquered.

These conquests and changes, which converted Assyria's former ene- Asayria's
mies into subjects, brought the empire into contact with new enemies
on her western, northern and pastern sides. In the west the Assyrians
came in collision with the Syrians of Damascus, and with the king-
dom of Judah, through their tributary, Samaria, or Israel. In the
north-west they found new foes in the Qui'n, or Coans, who occupied
the farther side of Amanus, near the Tibareni, in a portion of what was
subsequently called Cilicia, and the Cilicians also, who are now first
mentioned. The Moschi had migrated from this section. On the
north the Armenians were at this time Assyria's only neighbors. To-
ward the east were the Mannai, or Minni, about Lake Urumiyeh; the
Kharkhar, in the Van region and in North-western Kurdistan; the
Bartsu, or Persians, then in South-eastern Armenia; the Mada, or
Medes, east of the Zagros ; and the Tsimri, or Zimri, in Upper Luris-
tan. These new neighbors and enemies were all weak, and no power-
fully-organized monarchy at this time existed to contest with Assyria
the dominion of Western Asia. The Medes and Persians, afterwards
so celebrated as powerful nations, at this period were no more impor-
tant than the other insignificant tribes and nations upon the Assyrian
borders. Neither of these kindred Aryan peoples had yet a capital
city, neither was united under one sovereign, but each was divided into
many tribes, headed by chiefs, and dispersed in scattered and defence-
less towns and villages. They were thus in the same condition as the
Nairi, the Qummukh, the Patena, the Hittites and other frontier na-
tionaUties whose comparative weakness Assyria demonstrated to the
world in a long course of wars in which she had uniformly triumphed
over her foes.

Like his father, Shalmaneser II., Shamas-Vul II. resided principally Stel® o*
at Calah, where he, like his father and grandfather, set up an obelisk, vul 11.
or rather a stele, to commemorate his exploits. This monument, cov-
ered on three sides with an inscription in the hieratic, or cursive char-
acter, contains an opening invocation to the god Nin, conceived in the
usual terms, the king's genealogy and titles, an account of Asshur-
danin-pal's rebellion and its suppression, and Shamas-Vul's own an-
nals for the first four years of his reign. These inform us that he His Con-
exhibited the same active and energetic spirit as his father and grand- ^'*«"**«
father, conducting campaigns against the Nairi on the north. Media

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168 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

and Arazias on the east, and Babylonia on the south. The people of
Hupuska, the Minni, and the Bartsu, or Persians, paid him tribute.
Success- The fourth campaign of Shamas-Vul II. was against Babjlqnia,
paign'^ which country he entered from the north-east. He took a strongly-
Baby- fortified position of the Babylonians after a vigorous siege, eighteen
thousand of the garrison being slain, and three thousand made prison-
ers, while the city was plundered and burned, and the Assyrian mon-
arch went in hot pursuit of the flying foe. Shamas-Vul II. next de-
feated the Babylonian king, Merodach-belatzu-ikbi, at the head of an
allied host of Babylonians, Aramaeans, or Syrians, and Zimri, on the
river Daban ; the allies losing five thousand kiUcd, two thousand made
prisoners, one hundred chariots, two hundred tents and the Babylonian
royal standard and pavilion. The annals of Shamas-Vul II. here
abruptly terminate ; but it appears from other circumstances that from
this time, for over half a century, Babylonia, which had for a long
time been a separate and independent kingdom, was reduced to the
condition of a tributary. •

Descrip- The stele of Shamas-Vul II. contains one allusion to a hunting ex-
Stele of* ploi*> stating that he killed several wild bulls at the foot of the Zagros,
Shamas- while leading his expedition against Babylonia. His stele consists of
a single figure in relief, representing the king in his priestly dress,
wearing the sacred symbols round his neck, standing with his right
arm upraised, and enclosed in the usual arched frame. This figure
is somewhat larger than life, and is cut on a single solid stone, and
then set on a larger block serving for a pedestal. The figure closely
resembles that of Asshur-izir-pal, already described.
Vnl-lash Shamas-Vul II., upon his death, in B. C. 810, was succeeded on the
Assyrian throne by his son, Vul-lush III., who reigned twenty-nine
years, from B. C. 810 to B. C. 781. The scanty memorials of this
king consist of two slabs found at Nimrud, of a short dedicatory in-
scription on duplicate statues of the god Nebo, brought from the same
His place, of some brick inscriptions from the Nebbi-Yunus mound of Nin-
Ezp^Z cveh, and of short notices of the regions in which he conducted cam-
tions. paigns, contained in one copy of the Assyrian Canon.
Conquest Vul-lush III. was as warlike eus any of his predecessors, and extended
cus Tyte" ^^^ Assyrian dominion in every direction. He led seven expeditions
Sidon, across the Zagros mountains into Media, two into the Van region, and
Edom' three into Syria. He says that in one of his Syrian expeditions he
Philistia, reduced Damascus, whose kings had defied the repeated attacks of
Minni ' Shalmaneser II. He* counts as his tributaries in this region, besides
Media, Damascus, the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and the countries
BabJ^ of Khumri, or Samaria ; Palestine, or Philistia ; and Hudum (Edom, or
Ionia. Idumaea). On the north he received tokens of submission from the

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. Igg

Nairi, the Minni, the Mada, or Medes, and the Bartsu, or Persians.
On the south he ruled Babylonia like a sovereign, received homage from
the ChaldaeanSy and in the great cities of Babylonia, Borsippa and
Cutha, or Tiggaba, he was permitted to sacrifice to the gods Bel, Nebo
and Nergal. In one place he styles himself " the king to whose son
Asshur, the chief of the gods, has granted the kingdom of Babylon ; '*
from which it has been inferred that he appointed his own son viceroy
of Babylon.

Thus, by the time of Vul-lush III., early in the eighth century be- AsayrU'a
fore Christ, Assyria was master of Babylonia in the south, and of Phil- Domin-
istia and Edom in the west. Her dominion thus skirted the Persian *oo«.
Gulf on the one hand and came into contact with Egypt on the other.
At the same time she received the submission of some of the Median
tribes on the east; and held Southern Armenia, from Lake Van to the
sources of the Tigris, on the north. She was in possession of all
Northern Syria, including Commagene and Amanus, and had tribu-
taries beyond that mountain range. She ruled supreme over the entire
Syrian coast from Issus to Gaza ; and her sway was acknowledged by
all the tribes and kingdoms between the Mediterranean coast and the
Syrian desert, such as the Phoenicians, the Hamathites, the Patena, the
Hittites, the Syrians of Damascus, the IsraeUtes, or Samarians, and
the Edomites, or Idumceans. In the east she had subjugated nearly
the whole region of the Zagros, and had tributaries in the highlands
on the east side of that range. On the south she had either absorbed
Babylonia, or made her influence supreme in that kingdom. Although
she had not attained the highest pinnacle of her greatness until a cen-
tury later, she was already, as described by the Hebrew prophet Eze-
kiel, " a cedar of Lebanon," whose " height was exalted above all the
trees of the field ; and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches be-
came long,*' and " under his shadow dwelt great nations."

Vul-lush III. calls himself the ** restorer of noble buildings which Works of
had gone to decay." On the Nimrud mound, between the north-west- ^^^^'^
em and south-western palaces, are chambers built by him, and on the
Nebbi-Yunus mound of Nineveh are the ruins of a palace erected by
him. The walls of the Nimrud chambers were plastered, and then
painted in fresco with patterns of winged bulls, zigzags, squares, cir-
cles, etc. The superstitious regard of the natives for the supposed
tomb of the prophet Jonah has thus far thwarted all efforts of Euro-
peans to explore the Nebbi-Yunus palace.

Sir Henry Rawlinson discovered two rude statues of the god Nebo Statuesof
in a temple at Nimrud dedicated to that deity by Vul-lush III., along
with four colossal statues of the same god, and two others resembling
those now in the British Museum. These statues display no artistic

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170

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Inscrip-
tions
Thereon.

Sammn-
ramit, or
Semira-
mis, Wife
of Vttl-
Ittsh III.

Obscnre
Period.

Slialma-

neser III.,

Asshnr-

Dayan
in., and
Asshnr-

Ittsh.

The

Scrip-
tural Pal.

merit, as Assyrian sculptors were trammeled by precedent and con-
ventional rules in religious subjects, and in representations of kings
and nobles, being thus limited by law or custom to certain ancient forms
and modes of expression, which we see repeated with uniform monotony
through all the periods of Assyrian history.

These statues are interesting as containing inscriptions showing
that they were oflFered to Nebo by an officer who was governor of Calah,
Khamida (Amadiyeh) and three other places for the life of Vul-lush
III. and of his wife, Sammuramit, " that the god might lengthen the
monarch's life, prolong his days, increase his years, and give peace to
his house and people, and victory to his armies."

This Sammuramit, wife of Vul-lush III., has been identified as the
legendary Semiramis, whom the Greek historians represented as a
woman of masculine qualities, the mightiest queen that ever reigned,
and whose conquests rivaled or surpassed those of Cyrus the Great or
Alexander the Great. This Sammuramit, or Semiramis, the Babylo-
nian wife of Vul-lush III., gave that king his title to the Babylonian
dominions, and reigned jointly with him both in Babylonia and As-
syria. The exaggerated stories of this princess, as transmitted to
modem times through the accounts of Herodotus and Ctesias, have
been exploded in the present century; the renowned German histori-
ans, Heeren and Niebuhr, first pronouncing the story of her conquer-
ing career a myth, and patient explorers in the field of Ass3rrian
antiquity substituting for the shadowy marvel of Ctesias a very pro-
saic Assyrian queen, a very commonplace Babylonian princess, who
never really executed great works or performed great exploits.

With the death of Vul-lush III., in B. C. 781, ended the brilHant
Calah line of Assyrian sovereigns; and for a period of almost forty
years Assyrian history is again involved in partial obscurity. The
Assyrian Canon informs us that three monarchs reigned during this
interval — Shalmanesee III. from B. C. 781 to B. C. 771, Asshur-
DAYAN III. from B. C, 771 to B. C. 763, and Asshue-lush from
B. C. 763 to B. C. 745. During this short period Assyrian conquests
ceased, Assyrian glory for the time had passed away, and a general
decline seems to have set in. None of these three kings left any im-
portant buildings, memorials or monumental records. The onward
inarch of this great empire, which remained unchecked for over a cen-
tury, was thus brought to a sudden halt.

At this point there is an apparent contradiction between the native
Assyrian records and the incidental allusions to their history as found
in the Second Book of Kings. The Scriptural Pul — ^the " King of
Assyria" who came up against the l«uid of Israel and received from
Menahem a thousand talents of silver, " that his hand might be with

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THE OLD ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

171

him to confirm the kingdom in his hand '* — is not mentioned in the As-
syrian inscriptions, and is not named in the Assyrian Canon. The
Scripture records would make Pul the immediate predecessor of Tig-
lath-Pileser II. ; as his expedition against Menahem is followed, at
most, thirty-two years later, by an expedition by Tiglath-Pileser II.
against Pekah, King of Israel. Berosus represented Pul as a Chal-
dsan king, whom Polyhistor calls Pulus, and who is believed to bfe the
Porus mentioned in the Canon of Ptolemy.

During this interval of Assyrian darkness and decay, under the first
three successors of Vul-lush III., the frontier kingdoms began to assert
their power and independence. Babylon, which had remained under
Assyrian sway since its conquest by Shamas-Vul II., the father and
immediate predecessor of Vul-lush III., reestablished its independence
under Nabonassar in B. C. 747, from which point — ^thereafter known
as the Era of Nabonassar — ^the Babylonians thereafter reckoned time.
Enterprising kings of Israel, such as Jeroboam II. and Menahem, also
cast ofi^ the Assyrian yoke and extended their own dominions, as did
the tribes of Armenia and the Zagros region. The reign of Asshur-
dayan III. was disturbed by three formidable rebellions in the heart of
Assyria itself — one at the city of Libzu, another at Arpakha, the chief
town of Arrapachitis, and a third at Gozan, the chief city of Gauza-
nitis, or Mygdonia. The inscriptions do not inform us of the results
of these revolts, but the degeneracy of the military spirit, )ind the
voluptuous and luxurious disposition of the kings, give ground for
the belief that the attempts made to subdue the rebels were failures.
Asshur-dayan III. and Asshur-lush spent their reigns mostly in inac-
tion and inglorious ease at their rich and luxurious capitals. At the
close of this period of darkness and decline, Calah, the second city of
the kingdom, revolted, and thus inaugurated the dynastic and political
revolution which ushered in the brilliant period of the New or Lower
Assyrian Empire, founded by the great Tiglath-Pileser II.

It has been supposed that it was during this period of general na-
tional weakness and decay, when an unwarlike sovereign was reveling
in inglorious ease amid the luxuries and refinements of Nineveh, and
when the Ninevites had abandoned themselves to vicious indulgences,
that they were suddenly startled by a strange voice in their streets
uttering the solemn warning: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown ! " A strange wild man clad in a rude garment of skin — a
traveler unknown to the inhabitants, pale, emaciated, weary — pro-
claimed in every quarter of the great and luxurious city : " Yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Coming as this cry did,
when the glory of Assyria had departed, and when it had to defend its
own existence against the foes it had subdued in the days of its former

Tempo-
rary
Baby-
lonian
Independ-
ence.

Era of
Nabonas-
sar.
Israel's
Tempo-
rary Inde-
pendence.

Rebell-
ions in
Assyria.

Dynastic
Revolu-
tion at
Calah.

The
Prophet
Jonah at
Nineveh.

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JY2 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

prosperity, the people were seized with consternation and alarm. This
dismay invaded the royal palace, and his frightened servants " came
and told the King of Nineveh," who then sat on his throne in the great
audience-chamber, surrounded by all the wealth, luxury, pomp and mag^
nificence of his court. The monarch at once *^ arose from his throne,
and laid aside his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth
and ashes." After having an edict framed, he " caused it to be pro-
claimed and pubUshed through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and
his nobles, saying. Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any-
thing; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let man and beast
be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto Grod; yea, let them
turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their
hands." The fast thus commanded by royal authority was at once
proclaimed, and the Ninevites, fearing the Divine wrath, clothed them-
selves in sackcloth **from the greatest of them even to the least of
them." From joy and merriment, from revelry and feasting, the great
city turned to lanjentation and mourning. The people abandoned
their vices and humbled themselves ; they "turned from their evil way,"
and by a sincere repentance of their past sins they sought to avert their
threatened doom. The haggard and travel-stained stranger who had
alarmed the inhabitants of this great capital and metropolis to repent-
ance, by announcing to them their threatened destruction, was the
Jewish prophet Jonah. He sat in vain outside the eastern limits of
the city, waiting to behold the destruction which he expected that the
Lord Jehovah would visit upon the " great city,*' which then Is said to
have had "six score thousand persons that could not discefn between
their right hand and their left." The expected doom was not inflicted
in forty days, and Nineveh was not overthrown until more than a cen-
tury later.

SECTION VI.— NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

IWglath- With Tiglath-Pilesee II., who became King of Assyria in B. C.
745, began the New or Lower Assyrian Empire (B. C. 745-625) — ^the
third and last, and the most brilliant period of Assyrian history. Tig-
lath-Pileser II. was thus the restorer of Assyrian greatness. The cir-
cumstances of his accession are unknown to us, but he was the founder
of a new dynasty, and Rawlinson thinks he was a usurper, and places
no reliance upon the story of Bion and Polyhistor that this monarch
rose from the humble station of a vine-dresser who had been employed
in keeping in order the king's gardens. In his inscriptions Tiglath-
Pileser II. is repeatedly represented a^ speaking of " the kings his

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 173

fathers," and as calling the royal palaces at Calah ^' the palaces of
his fathers," but he never gives the name of his actual father in any
record that has come to the eye of modem archaeologists and antiqua-
rians. This circumstance gives ground for the conclusion that he
owed his possession of the crown, not to the legitimate title of heredi-
tary succession, but to the fortunes of a successful revolution which
displaced the preceding dyna.sty.

Tiglath-Pileser 11. undertook to effect the restoration of the As- His Ware.
Syrian Empire by a series of wars upon his different frontiers, seek-
ing by his unwearied activity and tireless energy to recover the losses
occasioned by the imbecility of his predecessors. The chronological
order of these wars, which was previously unknown, is now definitely
determined by the Assyrian Canon. Among his many military expe-
ditions only those undertaken into Babylonia and Syria are of any con-
sequence. The expeditions of Tiglath-Pileser II. against Babylon
occurred in the first and fifteenth years of his reign, B. C. 746 and 781.
As soon as he was firmly seated upon his throne he led an army against His Fiwt
Babylon, over which, according to the Canon of Ptolemy, Nabonassar ^^j^°
then reigned, and against the other petty Chaldaean princes, among lonia.
whom was Merodach-Baladan, who reigned in his father's city of Bit-
Yakin. After attacking and defeating several of these princes, and
taking the towns of Kurri-galzu (now Akkerkuf ) and Sippara, or
Sepharvaim, and other places in Chaldsea, Tiglath-Pileser JI. compelled
Merodach-Baladan to acknowledge him as suzerain and agree to pay
an annual tribute, whereupon the Assyrian monarch assumed the title
of ** King of Babylon '* and offered sacrifice to the Babylonian gods in
all the chief cities (B. C. 729).

The first Syrian war of Tiglath-Pileser II. began in the third His War
year of his reign (B. C. 748), and lasted five years. During its prog- Syria,
ress he conquered Damascus, which had recovered its independence Damascus
and was governed by Rezin. He also subdued Syria, where Men- Israel,
ahem, PuPs old foe, was still reigning. He likewise reduced Tyre,
whose reigning sovereign bore the common name of Hiram. The
Assyrian monarch also subjected Hamath, Gebal and the Arabs bor-
dering upon Egypt, who were ruled by a queen named Khabiba. He
also defeated a large army under Azariah, or Uzziah, King of Judah,
but failed to reduce him to submission. Tiglath-Pileser II. did not
conquer Judaea, Idumsea, Philistia, Phoenicia, or the tribes of the
Hauran, in his first war, and in B. C. 784 he renewed the struggle by
an attack on Samaria, whose king at that time was Pekah, and taking
*' Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor,
and Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and carrying
them captive to Assyria," thus " lightly afflicting the land of Zebulun

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174

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

His
Conquest
of Syria,
Damas-
cus and
Israel.

His
Conquest
of Arabs,
Philis-
tines,
Phoe-
nicians,
Syrians,
Judah
and
Israel.

Tyre and
Israel
Again

Subdued.

Works at
Calah.

and the land of Naphtali," or the more northern part of the Holy
Land, about Lake Merom, and thence to the Sea of Gennesareth.

Then followed the most important of the Syrian wars of Tiglath-
Pilcser IL The common danger united Pekah, King of Samaria, and
Rezin, King of Damascus, in a close alliance ; and when Ahaz, King
of Judah, refused to unite with them they invaded his kingdom and
attempted to dethrone him and put " the son of Tabeal '* in his place.
Ahaz applied to the King of Assyria for help, offering to be his " ser-
vant " — his vassal and tributary — if he came to his relief. Tiglath-
Pileser II. gladly came to the rescue of Ahaz, and with a large army
he entered Syria, defeated Rezin and besieged him in Damascus
for two years, when he was taken captive and slain. The Assyrian
king then invaded Samaria; and the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and
the half -tribe of Manasseh, who occupied the provinces east of the
Jordan, were carried captive to Assyria and colonized in Upper Meso-
potamia, on the affluents of the Bilikh and the Khabour, from about
Harran to Nisibis. Some cities on the west bank of the Jordan, in
the territory of Issachar, but belonging to Manasseh — among w^hich
were Megiddo, in the plain of Esdraelon, and Dur, or Dor, upon the
coast — ^were also seized and occupied by the conquering Assyrians;
and Assyrian governors were placed over Dur and the other leading
cities of Southern Syria.

Tiglath-Pileser IL then marched southward and subdued the Philis-
tines and the Arab tribes of the Sinaitic peninsula as far as the bor-
ders of Egypt. He deposed the native queen of these Arabs, and put
an Assyrian governor in her place. Returning to Damascus, he there
received the submission of the neighboring states and tribes ; and before
he left Syria he received submission and tribute from Ahaz, King of
Judah; Mit'enna, King of T^tc; Pekah, King of Samaria; Khanun,
King of Gaza ; Mitinti, King of Ascalon ; and from the Moabites, the
Ammonites, the people of Arvad, or Aradus, and the Idunueans. Thus
Tiglath-Pileser II. fully reestablished the Assyrian power in Syria,
and restored to his empire the territory from the Mediterranean on the
west to the Syrian desert on the east, and from Mount Amanus on the
north to the Red Sea and the frontiers of Egypt on the south.

Tiglath-Pileser afterward sent another expedition into Syria, to
quell the disorders occasioned by the revolt of Mit'enna, King of
Tyre, and the assassination of Pekah, King of Israel, by Hoshca.
The Tyrian king quickly submitted, and Hoshea agreed to govern his
kingdom only as an Assyrian province; whereupon the Assyrian army
retired beyond the Euphrates.

Calah was the chosen residence of Tiglath-Pileser II. Here he
repaired and adorned the palace of Shalmaneser H, whose ruins are

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

176

now In the center of the Nimrud mound. Here he also erected a new
edifice, the most splendid of his structures. The sculptures which
embellished Shalmaneser's palace were afterwards used by Esar-had-
don to adorn his own palace. The new palace which Tiglath-Pileser
II. built was afterward ruined by some invader, and then built upon
by the last Assyrian king. The excavations of this place by Messrs.
Layard and Loftus have revealed the ground-plan of the edifice, show-
ing its arrangements of courts and halls and chambers, and the sculp-
tures which ornamented the walls, representing animal forms, such as
camels, oxen, sheep, goats, etc.

The Assyrian Canon gives Tiglath-Pileser II. a reign of eighteen
years, from B. C. 746 to B. C. 727. He was succeeded by Shalman-
ESER IV. It is not known whether this monarch was related to his
predecessor or not, but he is supposed to have been his son. Shal-
maneser IV. reigned only between five and six years (B. C. 727—722).
Soon after he became king he terrified Hoshea, King of Judah, into a
renewal of his submission, so that " Hoshea became his servant and gave
him presents," or " rendered him tribute." The arrears of tribute
were rendered and the homage of the vassal king to his lord were paid.
But soon afterward Hoshea, disregarding his engagements, was seek-
ing the alliance of the King of Egypt. Sa3's the Second Book of
Kings : "And the King of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea ; for he
had sent messengers to So, King of Egypt, and brought no present to
the King of Assyria, as he had done year by year." The native Pha-
raohs of Egypt had been friendly to Assyria, but the Ethiopian dy-
nasty which had recently conquered Egypt was the natural foe of the
Assyrians, and gladly accepted the proposals of Hoshea for an alli-
ance against Shalmaneser IV. Hoshea then revolted against the As-
syrian monarch, withheld his tribute and declared his independence.
Shalmaneser at once invaded Judah a second time, and seized, bound
and imprisoned Hoshea. A year or two later Shalmaneser led a third
expedition into Syria and " came up throughout all the land," and laid
siege to Samaria, B. C. 724. But the siege lasted two years, on ac-
count of the heroic resistance of the inhabitants, aided by the Egyp-
tians ; and the city was only taken after the reign of Shalmaneser IV.
had been ended by a successful revolution.

While engaged in the siege of Samaria, Shalmaneser IV. was like-
wise prosecuting hostilities against the Phoenician cities, which had
also revolted against Assyria after the death of Tiglath-Pileser II.
Shalmaneser quickly overran Phoenicia in the first year of his reign,
and forced all the revolted cities to submit to the Assyrian yoke. In-
sular Tyre soon again revolted; whereupon Shalmaneser reentered
Phoenicia, and collecting a fleet from the other Phoenician cities, Sidon,

Shalnui-
neser IV.

His Wars

with

Judah and

Israel.

Siege of
Samaria.

Wars
with

Phoeni-
cia.

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1Y6 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Siege of Palae-Tyms and Akko, he began the siege of Tyre. His sixty ves-
^^* sek were manned by eight hundred Phoenician rowers, cooperating with
a smaller number of unskilled Assyrians. Shalmaneser's large fleet,
however, was easily routed and dispersed, with the loss of five hundred
prisoners, by a Tyrian fleet of only twelve vessels manned by skillful
seamen. Shalmaneser thereupon abandoned active operations against
the devoted city, but left a body of troops on the main-land to cut off
the supplies of water which the Tyrians were in the habit of drawing
from the river Litany, and from the aqueducts which conducted the
water from springs in the mountains. The Tyrians heroically held
out against this pressure for five years, using rain-water, which they
collected in reservoirs, to quench their thirst. It is not known whether
they submitted, or whether the siege was abandoned, as the quotation
from Menander, our only authority on this point, here breaks off ab-
ruptly. '
Sargon's Before either of the two great military enterprises of his reign were
tion^" concluded, Shalmaneser IV. was hurled from his throne by a successful
revolution, which put the usurper Sabgon in his place. The monu-
ments furnish us no knowledge of the circumstances concerning this
usurpation, beyond the mere absence of Shalmaneser in Syria; but it
is believed that discontent, caused by the distress in consequence of the
king's long absence from the capital of his empire, and by his failure
to speedily reduce Samaria and Tyre, encouraged Sargon in his usur-
pation. The usurper's station must previously have been obscure, or,
at least, mediocre, as no inscription can be found in which he glories in
his ancestry, or even names his father, as was the custom with the legit-
imate heirs and successors of Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs, but
he only alludes to the Assyrian kings, in a general way, as his ances-
tors. Sargon, or Sargina, means *' the firm '' or " well-established
king."
His Wan. Sargon determined to confirm his doubtful title to the throne by the
prestige of military success, and at once began a series of warlike expe-
ditions. He conducted successive wars in Susiana, in Syria on the
borders of Egypt, in the tract beyond' Amanus, in Meliten^ and South-
em Armehia, in Media and in Chaldsa. His expeditions occupied the
Invasion whole of the first fifteen years of his reign. Immediately upon his
Susiana accession he invaded Susiana and defeated its king, Humbanigas, and
and Baby- Merodach-Baladan, the old enemy of Tiglath-Pileser II., who had re-
volted and made himself King of Babylonia. Though an important
victory was thus gained, and many captives taken and transported to
Capture the country of the Hittites, the Susianian and Babylonian kings were
j^mflTJn ^^ot fully reduced to subjection. In the same year, B. C. 722, Samaria
surrendered to Sargon's generals, after its two years' siege begun by

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

Shalmaneser IV. Sargon punished the devoted city by deposing its
native king and placing an Assyrian governor over it instead, and by
carrying into slavery 27,280 of its inhabitants. On those who re-
mained he re-imposed the rate of tribute to which the city had been
subjected before its revolt. The next year, B. C. 721, Sargon was
obliged to lead an expedition into Syria to quell a formidable revolt.
The usurper, Yahu-bid, or Hu-bid, King of Hamath, had headed a
rebellion, in which the cities of Arpad, Zimira, Damascus and Samaria
had participated; but the allied rebels were defeated by Sargon at
Earkar, or Gargar, Yahu-bid and the other revolted leaders being taken
prisoners and put to death.

Having crushed this revolt in Syria, Sargon marched southward
against the Egyptians, who had extended their dominion over a part
of Philistia. At Rapikh, on the Mediterranean co€ist, half-way be-
tween Gaza and Wady-el-Arish, or " River of Egypt " — ^the Raphia
of the Greeks and Romans, and the modem Refah — ^the united forces
of the Philistines under Khanun, King of Gaza, and those of Sabaco,
or Shabak, the Ethiopian King of Egypt, were defeated by the As-
syrian monarch; Khanun being made prisoner, and Shabak seeking
safety in flight, B. C. 720. Khanun was deprived of his crown and
carried a captive to Assyria by his conqueror. The battle of Raphia
is important as being the beginning of Egypt's subjection to the suc-
cessive dominion of Asiatic and European nations — ^Assyrians, Babylo-
nians, Medo-Fersians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens and Turks.

After conducting unimportant wars toward the north and north-
east, Sargon led another expedition toward the south-west in B. C.
715, five years after his victory at Raphia. He first chastised the
Arab tribes who had made plundering raids into Syria, during which
** he subdued the uncultivated plains of the remote Arabia, which had
never before given tribute to Assyria," subjected the Thamudites and
other Arab tribes, and settled a certain number of them in Samaria.
The surrounding princes sought the conqueror's favor by sending him
embassies and offering to become Assyrian tributaries. The King
of Egypt, as well as It-hamar, King of the Sabaeans, and Tsamsi, the
Arab queen, thus became vassals to Sargon and sent him presents.

Four years afterward, B. C. 711, Sargon conducted a third expe-
dition into this region to punish Azuri, King of Ashdod, who had re-
volted against the Assyrian monarch, withheld his tribute and incited
rebellion among the neighboring princes. Sargon deposed Azuri and
put his brother Akhimit on the throne of Ashdod in his stead; but the
people of this Fhilistine city refused to recognize Sargon's creature
as their king, and chose a certain Yaman, or Yavan, for their ruler,

who, to secure himself, entered into alliances with the other Fhilistine
VOL. 1.— 19

Syrian

Revolt

Crushed.

War with

Bgyptand

the PhU-.

iatines.

Battle of
Raphia.

Arabs

Chas-
tised.

Reyoltof
Ashdod
Quelled.

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178

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Sabaco
Humbled.

Sargon'8
Conquest
of Baby-
lonia.

Hero-

dach-

Baladan

Deposed.

Baby-
lonia, or
Chaldaea,

an
Assyrian
Province.

cities, and with Judah and Edom. Thereupon Sargon led an army
against Ashdod, but Yaman sought safety in flight, and ^^ escaped to
the dependencies of Egypt, which were under the rule of Ethiopia."
The Assyrian king besieged and took Ashdod, and Yaman*s wife and
children, with most of the inhabitants, were transported to Assyria,
while captives from other nations taken in Sargon's Eastern wars
were colonized in Ashdod, over which an Assyrian governor was also
placed. Shabak, or Sabaco, the Ethiopian King of Egypt, greatly
terrified, sent an embassy imploring his favor, and surrendered the
fugitive Yaman. In consequence of this suppliant attitude of the
Ethiopian sovereign of Egypt, " the Assyrian monarch boasts that
the King of Meroe, who dwelt in the desert, and had never sent ambas-
sadors to any of the kings his predecessors, was led by the fear of his
majesty to direct his steps towards Assyria and humbly bow down be-
fore him."

Sargon next led an expedition against Babylon, over which Mero-
dach-Baladan had been quietly reigning for twelve years. Having
established his court at Babylon, Merodach-Baladan formed alliances
with Sutruk-Nakhunta, King of Susiana, and the Aramaean, or Syrian
tribes above Babylonia, to resist any attack by the Assyrian monarch.
Nevertheless, when Sargon advanced against Babylon, Merodach-Bal-
adan fled to his own city, Beth-Yakin, leaving garrisons under his gen-
erals in the more important inland towns. At Beth-Yakin, which was
situated on the Euphrates, near its mouth, the Babylonian king pre-
pared for a stubborn resistance, summoning the Aramaeans to his assist-
ance. He posted himself in the plain in front of the city, and pro-
tected his front and left flank with a deep ditch, which he filled with
water from the Euphrates. Sargon soon appeared at the head of his
army, and defeated the Babylonian troops and drove them into their
own dyke, where many of them were drowned, while the allies were
also driven away in headlong flight. Merodach-Baladan shut himself
up in Beth-Yakin, which was besieged and taken by Sargon. The
Babylonian king himself became a prisoner, but his life was generously
spared by his conqueror, who, however, plundered the palace and burned
the city, and himself assumed the government of Babylonia, depriving
Merodach-Baladan of his throne. In the Canon of Ptolemy, Sargon
is called Arceanus.

Sargon then reduced the Aramaeans and conquered a portion of Susi-
ana, to which country he transported the Commukha from the Upper
Tigris, placing an Assyrian governor over the mixed population,
and making him dependent upon the Assyrian viceroy of Babylon.
Thus the Assyrian dominion was firmly established over Chaldaea, or
Babylonia, whose power was now completely broken. Thenceforth,

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

179

with a few brief interruptions, Chaldaea remained an Assyrian depend-
ency until the downfall of the Assyrian Empire in B. C. 625. Now
and then, for a short interval, the unwilling subject kingdom cast oflF
the conqueror's yoke only to be again reduced to a more humiliating
state of vassalage, until it eventually submitted to the hand of fate
£Uid remained quiet. During the last half century of the Assyrian
Empire, from B. C. 680 to B. C. 626, Babylonia was one of the most
tranquil of its provinces.

While Sargon held his court at Babylon in B. C. 708 or 707, he
received embassies from two opposite quarters, both from islanders
dwelling " in the middle of the seas " that bordered on his domin-
ions. One embassy was sent by Upir, King of Asmun, the ruler of the
island of Khareg, or Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf; and the other by
seven kings of Cyprus — ^princes of a country which was located '' at the
distance of seven days from the coast, in the sea of the setting sun " —
who offered the great Oriental sovereign treasures of gold, silver, vases,
logs of ebony, and the manufactures of their own country. By be-
stowing these presents the Cypriots acknowledged the suzerainty of
the King of Assyria; and they carried home with them an effigy of
their sovereign lord carved in the usual form,. and bearing an inscrip-
tion recording his name and titles, which they set up at Idalium, near
the center of the island. This effigy of Sargon, found upon the site
of Idalium, is now in the Berlin Museum. In the inscriptions, *' set-
ting up the image of his majesty " is always a sign that a monarch
has conquered a country. Such images are sometimes represented in
the bas-reliefs.

Sargon's expeditions to the north and north-east also yielded suc-
cessful results ; and the mountain tribes of the Zagros, the Taurus and
the Niphates — ^the Medes, the Armenians, the Tibarenians, the Mos-
chians and others — ^were thus subdued. Ambris the Tibarenian, Mita
the Moschian and Urza the Armenian had become allies against their
common foe, the King of Assyria ; and their submission was only forced
after a long and fierce contest. Ambris was deposed, and an Assyrian
governor was placed over his country. Mita, after a resistance of
many years, only agreed to pay tribute. Uzra committed suicide, in
despair at his defeat. But this region was only brought quietly under
the Assyrian yoke when the King of Van was conciliated by the cession
to him of a large extent of country which the Assyrians had wrested
from Urza. Having rapidly overrun Media, Sargon seized a number
of towns and " annexed them to Assyria," thus reducing a large part
of that country to the condition of an Assyrian province. He erected
a number of fortified posts in one part of the country, and imposed
upon the Medes a tribute consisting wholly of horses.

Embas-
sies from
Bahrein

and
Cyprus.

Sai|;Dn'8
Conquest
of HedU,
Armenia,
Van, and
Mountain
Tribes.

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IgQ CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

War with After the fourteenth year of his reign, B. C. 708, Sargon resigned
SnsMiu. ^^^ leadership of his armies entirely into the hands of his generals.
A disputed succession in Illib, a small country on the borders of Susi-
ana, in B. C. 707, afforded him an occasion for interference in that
quarter. Nibi, a pretender to the throne of Elib, had solicited the aid
of Sutruk-Nakhunta, King of Elam, or Susiana, who held his court at
Susa, from whom he received promises of support and protection.
The other claimant, named Ispabara, thereupon sought and received
the assistance of Sargon, who sent " seven captains with seven armies,"
and these defeated the troops of the King of Susiana and established
Ispabara on the throne of Ulib. The next year, however, Sutruk-
Nakhunta invaded Assyria, and took some of its cities and annexed
them to his kingdom.
Whole- In all his wars Sargon made use of the plan of wholesale deportation
0^^_ of populations. Israelites were thus transferred from Samaria to
tira*. Gozan, or Mygdonia, and the cities of the Medes. Armenians were
colonized in Hamath and Damascus. Tibarenians were settled in As-
syria, and Assyrians were transported to the country of the Tibare-
nians. Mountaineers from the Zagros were likewise carried captive to
Assyria. Chaldaeans, Arabians and others were established in Samaria.
Medes and other Eastern people were placed in Ashdod. The Com-
mukha were removed from the extreme North to Susiana, and Chal-
daeans were brought from the far South to supply their place. In
every quarter of his dominions Sargon ** changed the abodes " of his
subjects, with a view of weakening the more powerful nationalities
by dispersion, and of smothering all patriotic impulses in the feebler
races by severing at one stroke all the bonds of attachment to their
native land. Although this system had been practiced by former As-
syrian kings, none had carried it out on so extensive and so grand a
scale as Sargon.
Sargon's The splendid palace which this monarch had erected at Dur Sargina
PiSm at (^^^y °^ Sargon), the modem Khorsabad, was the most striking of
Dor his great architectural works. It was not as large as the palaces
*^^' built by previous or subsequent kings, but it surpassed all other royal
residences by its magnificence and grandeur, with the solitary excep-
tion of the great palace of Asshur-bani-pal at Nineveh. Its orna-
mentation was resplendent beyond description. It was literally cov-
ered with sculptures, both inside and outside, generally arranged in
two rows, one above the other, and illustrating the events in Sar-
gon's wars, his battles and sieges, his captives, his treatment of pris-
oners, etc. Above this it was embellished with enameled bricks, fash-
ioned in beautiful models. Leading to this magnificent edifice were
noble flights of steps ; and the structure stood by itself, so that its ap-

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h ^'i t^li?^

C/i

3 O

5 c/5

&. >
o >

a""
1^

^ o

« >

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. Jgl

pearance was not marred by the proximity of other buildings. Its
entrances and passages were guarded by colossal winged man-headed
bulls and lions. It was in many particulars the most interesting of
Assyrian works. The city where this palace was located was sur-
rounded with strong walls, enclosing s^ square two thousand yards each
way. Assigning fifty square yards to each person, this space could
have accommodated eighty thousand people. The city, as well as the
palace, was wholly built by Sargon, whose name it bore until after the
Arab conquest in the seventh century after Christ. Sargon's palace
is the most complete of the Assyrian royal residences yet uncovered.
It exhibits the architecture, the decorative art and sculpture of the
Assyrians in their highest forms. Like all other Assyrian palaces, it
stands on the summit of an immense mound constructed of bricks.
The mound was arranged in two platforms of unequal height in the
form of the letter T- The palace proper was built on the more ele-
vated mound, and consisted of a series of structures ranged around
immense courts. The main building occupied by the king was located
at the bottom of the principal court, and had a perfectly regular fa-
fade, with a magnificently-ornamented gateway; i|i the middle. Two-
thirds of the northwest part of the palace was occupied by the grand
reception hall iLnd its large and magnificent galleries, with walls cased
with bas-reliefs; one-third, to the south-east, by the inhabited apart-
ments, with smaller and less decorated rooms. Passages led into two
of the sides of the large court; one on the north-west to a square es-
planade, or court, occupying the northern angle of the artificial mound
of the palace, in front of a building joining the north-west face of the
seraglio, with which it had no communication internally. This edifice
was most profusely ornamented; it contained six immense halls deco-
rated with sculpture, and some other smaller rooms. It was a " sec-
ond palace grafted on to the first — ^a second selamik, rivaling in splen-
dor that of the seraglio." The passage leading into the southeast side
of the reception hall of the seraglio opened to the lower platform, and
to the great court of the q^ces. The lower platform of the artificial
hill raised for the palace of Sargon was occupied by the khan and the
harem. This part of the structure faced towards the city, and com-
mimicated directly with it. In the midst was the khan proper, an
enormous square court, surrounded on every side by buildings, stables,
lodgings for grooms and for most of the slaves. It was reached from
the city by two immense flights of steps in the center of the south-
east face of the terrace. As we have observed, an elaborately-deco-
rated passage led from this court of the khan into the reception hall of
the seraglio. Two small doors likewise communicated directly with
the occupied rooms of the palace. To the right of the khan was the

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X82 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

khazneh, or treasury, with its many courts and chambers, constituting
some of the offices or common rooms of the palace. Here were the
stores of provisions for the royal household, and places for the cus-
tody of the valuables which Sargon informs us, in his dedicatory in-
scription, that he had acquired by his conquests and stored in his pal-
ace. Adjoining the khazneh was the harem, containing three courts,
the walls of one of them being covered with rich decorations in enam-
eled bricks. Besides the three courts, the harem had many long gal-
leries and many rooms for habitation. The harem was shut in in
the closest* possible manner ; all communication with the outside world
was intercepted, and the women were virtually imprisoned. A solitary
vestibule, guarded by eunuchs, led to it by two issues ; one connecting
with the great court of the offices being from the outside; the other
opening to a long, narrow court leading to the inhabited apartments
of the seraglio, through which passage the king found access to the
harem without being exposed to the view of the public. Behind the
harem was the Temple Court, consisting of an immense tower, or pyra-
mid, in seven stages, nearly fifty yards high. The seven stages,
equally high, and each one smaller in area than the one below it, were
covered with stucco of various colors, thus exhibiting to view the colors
consecrated to the seven great celestial bodies, the least important being
at the base. This tower was the ziggurat, or observatory, on whose
summit the priestly disciples of the Chaldaeans endeavored to divine the
future in the stars.
Sargon's Before the construction of the great palace at, Dur-Sargina, Sar-
J^^*^ gon's residence was at Calah, where he repaired the decayed palace of
Asshur-izir-pal. He also repaired the ruined walls of Nineveh, where
he built a temple to Nebo and Merodach. He likewise improved the
embankments at Babylon, thus controlling and directing the distri-
bution of the waters. The number of Assyrian scientific tablets,
shown by the dates upon them to have been written in his time, fully
attest his patronage of science.
ProgrMs There was nothing significant in the progress of mimetic art during
^j^J Sargon's reign, but several branches of industry showed signs of im-
provement, while there was better taste in design and ornamentation.
At this time transparent glass was first brought into use, and intaglios
were first cut upon hard stones. The furniture of this period is far
superior in design to that of any former age represented, while the
models of sword-hilts, maces, armlets and other ornaments are singu-
larly tasteful and elegant. At this time the enameling of bricks had
attained its highest degree of perfection; while the styles of vases,
goblets and boats indicate a decided advance upon the same class of
works of previous times. In sculpture the advance in animal forms

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

18S

in the times of Tiglath-Pileser II. still went on under Sargon; and
the drawing of horses' heads, especially, shows very remarkable ac-
curacy.

Sargon died in B. C. 706, after a glorious reign of seventeen
years, and was succeeded on the throne by his son, Sennacherib, the
most renowned of all the Assyrian kings, and of whom we have such
long notices in the Old Testament. Sennacherib reigned twenty-four
years, from B. C. 705 to B. C. 681. The sources which we have
of the annals of his reign are the notices in the Hebrew Scriptures,
some fragments of Polyhistor preserved by Eusebius, a passage from
Herodotus mentioning his name, and two records written during his
reign, giving descriptions of his military exploits and his buildings,
and known respectively as the ** Taylor Cylinder '* and the " Bellino
Cylinder."

The Canon of Ptolemy shows an interregnum of two years at Baby-
lon, from B. C. 704 to B. C. 702, and Polyhistor mentions three pre-
tenders to the throne of Babylonia during this brief interval. These
were a brother of Sennacherib; a claimant named Hagisa; and Mero-
dach-Baladan, who had escaped from captivity, murdered Hagisa and
resinned the throne of which Sargon had deprived him six years be-
fore. In B. C. 703 Sennacherib led an army into Babylonia and de-
feated the troops of M erodach-Baladan and their Susianian auxiliaries,
took Babylon and overran Chaldaea, plundering (according to his own
account) seventy-six large towns and four hundred and twenty vil-
lages. Merodach-Baladan again escaped from the country, and his
sons were afterwards found living as refugees in Susiana. Before
leaving Babylon, Sennacherib appointed as tributary kihg an As-
syrian named Belipni — the Belibus of Ptolemy's Canon, and the Elibus
of Polyhistor. After returning from Babylon, Sennacherib ravaged
the country of the Aramaeans on the middle Euphrates, carrying into
captivity more than two hundred thousand inhabitants, and seizing
also large numbers of horses, camels, asses, oxen and sheep. The next
year, B. C. 702, Sennacherib attacked the mountain tribes of the
Zagros, driving from the country Ispabara, whom Sargon had ele-
vated to power, and reducing to subjection many cities, over which
he placed Assyrian governors.

In the fourth year of his reign, B. C. 701, Seiinacherib engaged in
the most important of all his military expeditions. This was his in-
vasion of Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, during which he attacked
Liuliya, King of Sidon, and also Hezekiah, King of Judah. With
an immense host he first invaded Phoenicia, where Luliya-^— the Elu-
laeus of Menander — ^had broken out into revolt during the early years
of Sennacherib's reign. Luliya had made himself master of most of

Sennao-
herib.

Sonrcesof
His

Koyal
Pretend-
en.

Defeat of

Hero-

dach-

Baladan,

Syrians

and
Zagroe
Tribes.

Sennac-
herib's
Conquest
of the
Phoni-
cians and
Philis-
tines.

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184 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Phoenicia, including Tyre, Akko and many other leading cities. On
the approach of the Assyrian king, the Sidonian chief fled from the
main-land and found refuge in ^^ an island in the middle of the sea,"
probably the island of Tyre, or perhaps Cyprus. Sennacherib re-
ceived the submission of the Phoenician cities which Luliya had ruled,
and placed over them a tributary prince named Tubal. The King
of Assyria next marched southward into Philistia, and put an end to
the resistance of Sidka, King of Ascalon, who, with his wife, children
and brothers, were made captives; while the city was also taken and
another prince set up, the revolted chief being carried a prisoner to
Assyria. The towns of Hazor, Joppa, Bene-berak and Beth-Dagon
— dependencies of Ascalon — ^were soon afterwards taken and plun-
dered.
His The conquering Sennacherib then took the field against Egypt,

^*^t7 whose Ethiopian king — ^the Sevechus of Manetho, and the So of Scrip-
Bgyp- ture — ^had come to the support of the revolted Philistine city of Ekron,
ti^ja and which had expelled its king, Padi, who had remained loyal to Assyria,
plans at The Egyptian army, consisting of chariots, horsemen and archers,
Altaktt. ^j^g gQ large that Sennacherib called it " a host that could not be
numbered." At Altaku — believed to be the Eltekeh of the Jews —
was fought the second great battle between the Assyrians and the
Egyptians. Again the power of Asia triumphed over that of Africa.
The Egyptians and Ethiopians were defeated with frightful slaugh-
ter, many of their chariots, with their drivers, falling into the hands
of the conquering Assyrians. In consequence of their great victory,
the Assyrians immediately captured the towns of Altaku and Tamna.
Rebellious Ekron also at once submitted to Sennacherib, opening its
gates to the victorious monarch, who inflicted a terrible punishment
upon the rebels, whose leaders were put to death, their bodies being
exposed on stakes round the entire circuit of the city walls; while
large numbers of inferior rank were sold into slavery. Padi, the
expelled king who was friendly to Assyria, was restored to his author-
ity as king, tributary to the Assyrian monarch.
His Besides the Egyptians and Ethiopians, the revolted city of Ekron

^'lv«^^ had Hezekiah, King of Judah, for an ally. When the Ekronites de-
Hezekiah, posed Padi, they seized him, loaded him with chains, and sent him
^~|j^ to Hezekiah for safe keeping. To punish the King of Judah for his
complicity in the Ekronite revolt, " Sennacherib, King of Assyria,
came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. And
Hezekiah, King of Judah, sent to the King of Assyria to Lachish,
saying, I have ofi^ended; return from me; that which thou puttest on
me will I bear. And the King of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah,
King of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

185

gold. And Hczekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the
house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that
time did Hezekiah cut off the doors of the house of the Lord, and the
pillars which Hezekiah, King of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to
the King of Assyria." Such is the short account of this expedition
of Sennacherib, as recorded in the Second Book of Kings.

We will now give the account recorded by Sennacherib himself In
these words : ** Because Hezekiah, King of Judah, would not submit
to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the
might of my power I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities ; and of
the smaller towns which were scattered about I took and plundered a
countless number. And from these places I captured and carried oflF
as spoil two hundred thousand and one hundred and fifty people, old
and young, male and female, together with horses and mares, asses
and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah
himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage,
building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of
earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape. * * * Then upon
this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he
sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with thirty tal-
ents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers treasures,
a rich and immense booty. * * * AH these things were brought to
me at Nineveh, the seat of my government, Hezekiah having sent them
by way of tribute, and as a token of his submission to my power."

After wreaking his vengeance upon the people of Ekron, Sennac-
herib invaded Judah, directing his march toward Jerusalem, taking
many small towns and villages on the way, and carrying two hundred
thousand of their inhabitants into slavery and captivity. Upon reach-
ing Jerusalem he laid siege to the city in the usual way, erecting tow-
ers around it, from which stones and arrows were discharged against
the defenders of the fortifications, and " casting banks " were hurled
against the waUs and gates. The fortifications of Jerusalem were
weak, and there had recently been many " breaches of the city of
David." The Inhabitants had hastily fortified the city by pulling
down the houses near the wall. Great alarm was felt for the safety
of the holy places. Jerusalem was " full of stirs and tumult." The
people rushed to the housetops, and saw " the choicest valleys full of
chariots, and the horsemen set In array at the gates." Then followed
" a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity " — ^a day
of " breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountains." In the
midst of this consternation some were made reckless by despair; so
that there was a general *' call to weeping, and to mourning, and to
baldness, and to girdling with sackcloth — ^beholding joy and gladness,

Sennao-
herib'8
Aocount
Thereof.

Invasion
of Judah
and Siege
of
Jerusa-
lem.

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186

CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Heze-
kiali'8
HQinUU-
tionand
Submis-
sion,

Msio*

dach-

Baladan's

Rerolt,
Pefeatand

FUght

Heze-
kiah's
Second
KoYOlt

and
Alliance

with
Egypt.

Sennac-
herib's
Demand,
Heze-
kiah's
Defiance

and

Isaiah's

Prophecy.

slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine — ^ Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' " Seeing the hopeless-
ness of further resistance, Hezekiah offered to surrender upon terms
which Sennacherib granted. It was agreed that Hezekiah should pay
an annual tribute of thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of
silver, and that he should also give up the chief treasures of the city as
a *' present " to the Great King. To procure an adequate supply of
gold, Hezekiah was obliged to strip the walls and pillars of the Temple
of this precious metal, with which they were partly overlaid. He gave
up all the silver from the royal treasury and from the treasury of the
Temple, which amounted to five hundred talents more than the fixed
rate of tribute. Besides these sacrifices the Jewish king was obliged
to deliver up Padi, the Ekronite king whom he had held in captivity,
and was forced to surrender certain parts of his territories to the
neighboring Philistine kings.

After this triumph over Hezekiah, Sennacherib returned to Nin-
eveh, and in the following year, B. C. 700, he led an expedition into
Babylonia, where Merodach-Baladan, with the aid of Susub, 'a Chal-
daean prince, had again risen in arms against the authority of the As-
syrian monarch. After defeating Susub, Sennacherib marched upon
Beth-Yakin, and compelled Merodach-Baladan to flee for refuge to one
of the islands of the Persian Gulf, leaving his brothers and adherents
to the conqueror's mercy. Upon returning to Babylon, Sennacherib
removed the viceroy Belibus, whom he blamed for disloyalty or incom-
petency, appointing in his stead his own eldest son, Asshur-inadi-su, '
the Asordanes of Polyhistor, and the Aparanadius, or Assaranadius,
of Ptolemy's Canon.

The dates of the remaining events of Sennacherib's reign can not
be fixed with certainty, Ptolemy's Canon taking no account of any
subsequent event recorded in the inscriptions of this reign. It is
believed that his second expedition into Palestine occurred B. C. 699,
Hezekiah having again revolted against the Assyrian king, and en-
tered into an alliance with the Ethiopian King of Egypt, Tehrak, or
Tirhakah. Sennacherib directed his expedition first ag^nst his more
powerful foe, and marched his army through Palestine southward to
Libnah and Lachish, laying siege to the latter city, and sending a
detachment of his army, under a Tartan, or general, supported by two
high officers of his court — ^the Rabshakeh, or Chief Cupbearer, and
the Rab-saris, or Chief Eunuch — ^to demand the surrender of Jerusa-
lem. Hezekiah sent high dignitaries to treat with the Assyrians en-
camped outside the city walls, but the Assyrian envoys demanded the
unconditional submission of the Jewish king and people. The Rab-
shakeh, or Chief Cupbearer, familiar with the Hebrew language, took

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. iffj

the word and delivered the message in insolent phraseology, laughing
at Hezekiah's simplicity in relying upon Egypt, and at his foolish
superstition in depending upon a Divine deliverance, and defiantly ask-
ing the Jewish king to produce two thousand disciplined soldiers capa-
ble of serving as horsemen. Then the prophet "Isaiah said unto them.
Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, 'Be not
afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of
the King of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast
upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land ;
and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."* When
asked to speak in some other language rather than the Hebrew, for
fear that the people upon the walls might hear, the intrepid envoy, in
utter disregard of diplomatic courtesy, made a loud and direct appeal
to the fears and hgpes of the people.

Finally, after seeing that they could make no impression upon the Sennao-
Jewish king or people, and regarding their military detachment as Letter,
inadequate for a siege, the Assyrian ambassadors returned to their 5*'^
sovereign at Libnah and informed him of their failure. Thereupon i^ayer
Sennacherib sent other messengers with a letter to Hezekiah, remind- ^^
ing him of the fate of other kingdoms and nations which had the hardi- Prophecy,
hood to resist the mighty Assyrian power, and again urging the Jew-
ish king to submit. Hezekiah took this letter into the Temple, where
he "spread it before the Lord," praying: "Lord, bow down thine ear,
and hear ; open. Lord, thine eyes, and see ; and hear the words of Sen-
nacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God." There-
upon the prophet Isaiah declared to his afflicted sovereign that Jehovah
would "put his hook in Sennacherib's nose, and his bridle in his lips,
and turn him back by the way by which he came." The prophet fur-
ther declared: **Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the King
of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there,
nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way
that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this
city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine
own sake, and for my servant David's sake."

After receiving the submission of Libnah, Sennacherib advanced herib's
toward Egypt, and had come within sight of the Egyptian army at M*rch
Pelusium when Hezekiah received his letter and made the prayer to the
which Isaiah delivered the response. The immense host of the Egyp- ^i^^^^^^
tians and Assyrians encampea opposite each other for the night, the Destruc-
Egyptians and their king full of anxious alarm, and Sennacherib and H^^Ann
his Assyrians in proud confidence of a victory on the morrow as grand by a
as those of Raphia and Altaku. But these bright hopes were des- p^^?^*^
tined to sad disappointment. Ere the morrow appeared the immense Pelusium.

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188

CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA,

Sennao-

herlb'8

Victories

in
Annenia.

Chaldasan
Migration

to
Snsiana.

Sennac-
herib's
Phceni-
cian Fleet
in the
Tigris.

Assyrian host was destroyed in a night panic. Says the Hebrew rec-
ord : ** And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord
went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred four-
score and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning,
behold, they were all dead corpses." While the Hebrews ascribed this
destruction of Sennacherib's army to the miraculous interposition of
Jehovah, the Egyptians regarded their deliverance as the special in-
tervention of their own gods, and pursued the fleeing Assyrian hosts,
distressing their retreating columns and cutting off stragglers. The
haughty Sennacherib returned to Nineveh with the shattered renmants
of his mighty host, shorn of his glory. The proud capital of Assyria
was plunged into such grief and despair as is beyond the power of
the historian to describe. The Assyrian annals say nothing of this
disastrous campaign.

According to Sennacherib's own annals, his fifth campaign was in
a mountainous country called Nipur, or Nibur, supposed to be near
Mount Ararat. He there took many towns, and then moving west-
ward toward the Taurus range bordering on Cilicia, he warred with
Maniya, King of Dayan, and, according to his own boast, plundered
and ravaged the country, burned the towns and carried away the in-
habitants, their flocks and herds, and their valuables.

His next contest was a fierce struggle of three years with the Baby-
lonians and Susianians. The Chaldaeans of Beth-Yakin, dissatisfied
w^ith the Assyrian yoke, migrated in a body from their own city to the
territory of the King of Susiana. Carrying with them their gods and
their treasures, they set sail in their ships, crossed " the Great Sea of
,the Rising Sun" — ^the Persian Gulf — and landed on the Elamite, or
Susianian coast, where they were kindly received by the Susianian mon-
arch, who allowed them to build a new city on his territory. This
voluntary desertion of Beth-Yakin by its own people aroused the anger
of the Assyrian king, who accordingly determined to bring back his
deserting subjects to their native city, and to his dominion, by force
of arms.

The suzerainty of Assyria over Phoenicia had placed at the Assyrian
king's disposal the most skilled shipwrights and the best sailors in the
world, and Sennacherib resolved to invade Susiana by sea to reclaim
his emigrant subjects. The shipwrights of Tyre and Sidon were
therefore set to work at building a fleet of war-galleys on the Tigris.
This fleet, manned by Phoenician sailors, descended the river to the
Persian Gulf, astonishing the inhabitants on the shores with a spec-
tacle never before seen in those waters. The Chaldseans, who had
navigated those waters for many centuries, were far inferior as ship-
builders and mariners to the Phoenicians, whose ships, with their masts,

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SHIPS OF SENNACHERIB ON THE TIGRIS

From a Sculpture found at Koyunjuk

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!'.-,«: ki;« (^«.K

ASs »K, l.r S »A A.ND

TILDEN FOUNDATION)!
Jl L

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

189

sails, double tiers of oars and sharp beaks, were novelties to the nations
in these parts.

Sennacherib, in his Phcenician ships, crossed from the mouth of the
Tigris to the new settlement of the emigrant Chaldaeans, destroyed
their newly-built city, captured the deserters, ravaged the vicinity,
burned many Susianian towns, and transported his captives, Chaldasan
deserters and Susianians, across the gulf to Chaldasa, and thence took
them to Assyria. The Susianians, not expecting an invasion by sea,
had assembled an army near their north-western frontier, so that Sen-
nacherib had found no force to oppose him when he landed on the
Susianian coast.

Taking advantage of circumstances, the Babylonians now revolted
and set up a king of their own called Susub ; but the Babylonian army
was defeated by the Assyrian troops upon their return from Susiana,
Susub being captured ; and the Susianian army which had come to the
aid of the revolted Babylonians was routed.' Susub and many other
captives were carried to Nineveh.

Kudur-Nakhunta, who was still King of Susiana, held the cities of
Beth-Kahiri and Raza, which Sennacherib regarded a& part of his
paternal inheritance. The Assyrian king now ^easily retook these
towns, and leading his army into the heart of Susiana, took and burned
thirty-four large cities and many small villages. After besieging and
taking by storm Vadakat, or Badaca, the second city of Susiana, after
it had been abandoned by Kudur-Nakhunta, Sennacherib returned to
Nineveh with a large booty.

Susub, the Babylonian prince, having escaped from his captivity
at Nineveh, returned to Babylon, where he was again hailed as king
by the inhabitants. He secured the alliance of the new King of Susi-
ana, Ummanminan, the younger brother and successor of Kudur-
Nakhunta, by sending him as a present the gold and silver belonging
to the great temple of Bel at Babylon. The Susianian monarch at
once led an army to the Tigris, while many Aramaean, or Syrian, tribes
on the middle Euphrates, which Sennacherib had subjugated in his
third year, revolted, and their army joined that of Susub. Sennac-
herib defeated the allied host in a great battle at Khaluli, a town on
the Lower Tigris, both Susub and the Susianian king escaping, but
Nebosumiskun, a son of Merodach-Baladan, and many other chiefs,
being made prisoners. Sennacherib entered Babylon in triumph, de-
stroyed its fortifications, pillaged and burned its temples, and broke
to pieces the images of the gods. Either Regibelus, or Mesesimor-
dachus, whom the Canon of Ptolemy makes contemporary with the
middle part of Sennacherib's reign, is believed to have been placed
over the rebel city as viceroy by the conqueror.

His
Forced
Return
of the
Emigrant
Clial-
daeans.

Baby-

loniim

Revolt

Crushed.

Defeat of

Kudur

Nak-

hunta,

King of

Susiana.

Renewed
Baby-
lonian
Revolt

Quelled.

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190

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Smuuio-

herib's

Conqaest

of
CiUda.

Fonnding

of
Tanas.

Baby-
lonian
Independ-
ence.

Sennac-
herib's
Great-

Hia

Inscrip-
tion.

Sennac-
herib's
Great
Palace at
Nineveh.

Sennacherib is said to have also led an expedition against C3icia^
and, according to Abydenus, a Greek writer, a Grecian fleet was beaten
by the Assyrian fleet on the Cilician shores; while according to Poly-
histor, Sennacherib's army defeated a Greek land force in CiUcia itself ;
after which Sennacherib took possession of Cilicia, in which country
he built the city of Tarsus, afterwards renowned as the birth-place of
St. Paul. Among the inscriptions of Sennacherib's wars upon the
Koyunjik bulls is one stating that he " triumphantly subdued the men
of Cilicia inhabiting the inaccessible forests."

The Canon of Ptolemy marks an interregnum at Babylon for eight
years, from B. C. 688 to B. C. 680, the year of Esar-haddon's acces-
sion; from which circumstance it is evident that Babylonia had again
thrown off the Assyrian yoke and maintained her independence for
eight years.

Thus the military glory of Sennacherib, the greatest and best-known
of Assyrian kings, was tarnished by two great disasters — ^the destruc-
tion of his army at Pelusium by a night panic during his war with
Hezekiah of Judah and Tirhakah of Egypt, and the successful revolt
of Babylon just mentioned. Still he was the most illustrious and the
most successful of Assyrian warrior kings. In his inscription Sen-
nacherib calls himself ** the great king, the powerful king, the king
of nations, the king of Assyria, the king of the four regions, the dili-
gent ruler, the favorite of the great gods, the observer of sworn faith,
the guardian of the law, the embellisher of public buildings, the noble
hero, the strong warrior, the first of kings, the punisher of unbelievers,
the destroyer of wicked men."

Sennacherib takes the first rank among Assyrian monarchs as an
architect and patron of art, as well as that of a warrior. The gigantic
palace erected by him at Nineveh surpassed in dimensions and grand-
eur all previously-built structures, and covered an area of more than
eight acres. The grand halls and smaller chambers of this vast and
magnificent edifice were arranged around at least three courts or quad-
rangles, which were respectively one hundred and fifty-four. by one
hundred and twenty-five feet, one hundred and twenty-four by ninety
feet, and ninety-three by eighty-four feet. Small apartments were
grouped around the smallest of these courts. A narrow passage lead-
ing out of a long gallery, two hundred and eighteen by twenty-five
feet, opened the way to the king's seraglio. This gallery was entered
through two other passages, one leading from each of the two main
courts. The principal halls were immediately within the two chief
entrances, one on the north-east, and the other on the south-west front
of the palace. One of these seems to have been one hundred and sixty
feet long, and the other one hundred and eighty feet, while each was.

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 191

a little over forty feet wide. The palace had about twenty other
rooms, and from forty to fifty smaller chambers, about square, entered
from some hall or large apartment. Mr. Layard says he explored
seventy-one chambers, including the three courts, the long gallery and
four passages. Sennacherib's famous royal building, like other As-
syrian architectural works, was built on an artificial platform, eighty
or ninety feet above the plain, and covered with a brick pavement. It
is believed to have had three grand fafades, respectively on the north-
east, south-east and south-west sides. Its chief apartment was first
entered by the visitor. All the walls ran in straight lines, and all the
angles of the rooms were right angles. Although there were numerous
passages, the apartments in many instances directly opened into one
another, nearly half of the rooms being passage-rooms. The doorways
were usually towards the comers of the apartments. In many cases a
room was entered by two or three doorways from another room or from
a court. There were also many square recesses in the sides of rooms.
The walls were very thick. The apartments, never much over forty
feet wide, were comparatively narrow for. their length, but the courts
were much better proportioned. Sennacherib's palace differed from
others in the size and number of its rooms, in its use of passages and in
its style of ornamentation. His principal state apartments were one-
third wider, though very little longer, and thus were in better propor-
tion. But one gallery, connecting the more public portion of the
building with the harem, or private apartments, formed a corridor,
two hundred and eighteen feet long by twenty-five feet wide, uniting
the two parts of the palace. This corridor communicated by passages
with the two public courts, which were also joined by a third passage.
Timber from Lebanon and Amanus was used in the roofing of this
palace.

Sennacherib's ornamentation was marked by the first general use its
of the background in completing each scene, as it really existed at ^SSon""
the time and place of its occurrence. Mountains, rocks, trees, roads,
rivers and lakes were represented with the highest degree of perfection
which the ability of the artist and the means and facilities at his com-
mand would permit. In Sennacherib's bas-reliefs the species of trees
is distinguished; gardens, fields, ponds, reeds, etc., are portrayed with
great exactness; wild animab, such as stags, boars and antelopes, are
illustrated; birds are represented flying from one tree to another, or
standing over their nests feeding their young as they stretch up to
receive the food ; fish swim in the water ; fishei:men, boatmen and agri-
cultural laborers are depicted ; the entire scene being striking and real
in appearance. On the walls of the passages of Sennacherib's palace
are depicted ordinary scenes of every-day life. Trains of servants

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192 CHALD2EA, ASSYRIA. BABYLONIA.

daily bring to the royal residence game and locusts for the monarch's
dinner, and cakes and fruits for his dessert, just as they walked through
the courts carrying the delicacies for which he displayed special fond-
ness. In another place is exhibited the work of carving and transport-
ing a gigantic bull of solid stone, from the removal of the material
from the quarry, to its elevated position on a palace-mound as part
of the great entrance-passage of the royal dwelling. The trackers
are shown dragging the huge rough block, supported on a low flat-
bottomed boat, along the course of a river, divided in gangs perform-
ing their work under taskmasters who ply their rods upon the most
trifling provocation. The trackers, three hundred in number, in their
national costumes, are each delineated with the utmost precision. We
next see the stone block conveyed to land, and carved into the rough
likeness of a bull, and in that shape it is set on a sledge and moved
along level ground by gangs of laborers, arranged very much as
before, to the base of the mound, at the top of which it must be located.
The building of the mound is illustrated in detail. Brick-makers are
represented moulding the bricks at the foot of the mound, and work-
men are seen with baskets at their backs, filled with earth, bricks, stones
or rubbish, climbing the ascent after the niound is partially raised, and
emptying their burdens upon the top. The bull on the sledge is then
drawn up an inclined plane to the summit by four gangs of laborers,
before the eyes of the king and his attendants. The carving is then
finished, and the gigantic figure is set into an upright position and
dragged along the surface of the platform to the place assigned it.
Sennao- Sennacherib also restored the old royal palace at Nineveh. He built
^ther* ^ brick embankment on the banks of the Tigris to confine the river to
Works, its channel, and supplied his capital with good water by constructing
for that purpose a system of canals and aqueducts. He strengthened
the defenses of Nineveh by the erection of colossal towers at some of
the brick gateways. Lastly, he erected a temple to the god Nergal
at Tarbisi (now Sherif Khan), on the Tigris, about three miles above
Nineveh.
His Sennacherib's conquering expeditions into other lands furnished him

^^l^Qf with a suflicient amount of forced labor, which he employed in the con-
Forced struction of his great works. The Bellino Cylinder tells us that he
employed Chaldasans, Aramaeans, or Syrians, Armenians, Cilicians, and
Quhu, or Coans, in this way. A bull-inscription informs us that in
one raid he carried into slavery two hundred and eight thousand
Aramseans. By this means the colossal bulls of stone were transported
and elevated, the vast mounds built, the bricks moulded, the walls of
edifices erected, the canals excavated and embankments constructed.
They were forced to labor in gangs, under the rods of brutal and exact-

Labor.

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

198

ing taskmasters, and in their respective national costumes. The work
was directed by Assyrian foremen, and the forced laborers were fre-
quently compelled to work in fetters, sometimes supported by a bar
fastened to the waist, and sometimes consisting of shackles around the
ankles. The king, standing in a chariot drawn by his attendants,
often witnessed the laborers at their task.

Sennacherib's glorious reign of twenty-four years experienced a sad
end. The great monarch fell a victim to a plot of assassination on
the part of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer. He was slain while
at worship in a temple ; and his son Nergilus, who claimed the crown,
was also soon murdered by his brothers, Adrammelech and Sharezer;
but these were soon overthrown by their brother Esar-haddon, who,
in command of the army on the Armenian frontier, marched to Nineveh
and was recognized as the rightful successor to his father's throne.

The year of Sennacherib's assassination and Esar-haddon's accession
was B. C. 681, according to the Assyrian Canon — ^the year just before
his first year in Babylon on the authority of the Canon of Ptolemy.
This is to be accounted for by the fact that a king was not entered
on the Babylonian list until the Thoth which followed his accession,
and the Thoth in this instance occurred in February. Thus the Baby-
lonian dates are generally one year later than the Assyrian, and the
two Canons are seen to harmonize with remarkable precision.

Esar-haddon held the throne for thirteen years, and reigned alter-
nately at Nineveh and Babylon, thus placing the two great capitals
on an equality, and reconciling the Babylonians to the Assyrian rule.
Esar-haddon's inscriptions show that he was engaged for some time
after the opening of his reign in a civil war with his half-brothers,
who, at the head of large bodies of troops, contested his claims to the
Assyrian crown. Esar-haddon, who, at the time of his father's death,
was stationed on the Armenian frontier, at once marched upon Nine-
veh, defeated the army of his brothers in the country of Khanirabbat,
north-west of Nineveh, and entered the capital, where he was univer-
sally acknowledged king. Abydenus says that Adrammelech fell in
the battle, but better authorities state that both he and his brother
Sharezer escaped into Armenia, where the ruling sovereign treated them
with kindness, bestowing upon them lands, which long remained in the
possession of their posterity.

Our information of Esar-haddon's reign is mainly derived from a
cylinder inscription, existing in duplicate, which records nine cam-
paigns. A memorial which he set up at the mouth of the Nahr-el-
Kelb, and a cylinder of his son's, give us some additional knowledge
concerning the closing portion of his reign. The Old Testament, in
several instances, connects him with Jewish history ; and Abydenus al-
VOL. 1.— 13

Assassi-
nation of
Sennac-
herib.

Esar-
haddon.

Authority

of the

Two

Canons.

Esar-
haddon's
Civil War

with

Hia
Brothers.

Sources

of
Informa-
tion of

His
Reign.

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194

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Phoeni-

daii
Revolt

Sup-
pressed.

Capture
and

Destmo-
tion of
Sidon.

Conquests

in
Armenia.

CiUdan

Rerolt

Quelled.

Con-
quests in

Syria,

Armenia,

Chaldsa

and

Sdom.

ludes to some of his foreign conquests. An incomplete cylinder in-
scription of Esar-haddon's reign contains accounts of his civil war with
his brothers and also his Arabian and Syrian expeditions.

Esar-haddon's first expedition was into Phoenicia. The civil dis-
sensions resulting from Sennacherib's murder encouraged a revolt in
that region on the part of Abdi-Milkut, King of Sidon, and Sandu-
arra, King of the neighboring portion of Lebanon, who had entered
into an alliance to cast off the Assyrian yoke. Esar-haddon first at-
tacked Sidon and soon took the city, and Abdi-Milkut sought refuge
in an island, either Aradus or Cyprus, but was pursued and made pris-
oner by Esar-haddon, who, it was said, traversed the sea " like a fish.'*
Esar-haddon next attacked Sandu-arra in his mountain fastnesses,
defeated his troops and took him prisoner. Both captive kings were
executed in punishment for their rebellion; the walls of Sidon were
destroyed, its inhabitants and those of the whole neighboring coast
were carried off into Assyria, and thence dispersed among the prov-
inces ; while a new city was built and named after Esar-haddon, which
was designed to succeed Sidon as the leading city in this regidi), and
Chaldsean and Susianian captives were colonized in the new city and
the adjacent country, over which an Assyrian governor was appointed.

Esar-haddon's second campaign was in Armenia, where he took a
city named Arza, which, he says, was in the neighborhood of Muzr,
and carried away its inhabitants, along with a number of mountain ani-
mals, settling the captives " beyond the eastern gate of Nineveh." At
the same time he received the submission of Tiuspa, the Cimmerian.

Esar-haddon's third campaign was in Cilicia and the adjacent re-
gions. The Cilicians, so recently subdued by Sennacherib, re-asserted
their independence at his death, and formed an alliance with the Tiba-
reni, or people of Tubal, who occupied the high mountain district
about the junction of Amanus and Taurus. After defeating the
Cilicians, Esar-haddon invaded the mountain region, where he took
twenty-one towns and many villages, all of which he plundered and
burned, carrying the inhabitants into captivity.

Esar-haddon next conducted a petty war in Northern Syria, and an-
other in South-eastern Armenia against the Mannai, or Minni. He
then made an expedition into Chaldaea, against Nebo-zirzi-sidi, Mero-
dach-Baladan's son, who, aided by the Susianians, had regained a foot-
ing on the Chaldaean coast; while his brother, Nahid-Marduk, sought
the favor of the Assyrian king, quitting his refuge in Susiana to pre-
sent himself before the Great King's footstool at Nineveh. After
subduing Nebo-zirzi-sidi, Esar-haddon bestowed the entire coast dis-
trict previously ruled by that prince on Nahid-Marduk. At the same
time the Assyrian king deposed Shamas-ipni, a Chaldaean prince, who

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

196

had extended his sway over a small town in the vicinity of Babylon,
putting Nebo-sallim in his place. Esar-haddon next engaged in a
war with Edom, where he took a city bearing the same name as the
country — ^a city, which he says, had been previously taken by his father
— transporting the inhabitants into Assyria, and carrying away cer-
tain of the Edomite gods. Thereupon the Edomite king, Hazael, sent
an embassy to Nineveh, to offer submission and presents, while he also
begged the Assyrian monarch to restore his gods and permit them to
be returned to Edom. This humble request was granted by Esar-
haddon, who restored the images to the envoy; but he increased the
annual tribute by sixty-five camels, and appointed to the succession,
or joint sovereignty of the throne of Edom, a woman named Tabua,
who had been bom and brought up in his own palace.

Esar-haddon's next expedition was into a country named Bazu, said
to be *' remote, on the extreme confines of the earth, on the other side
of the desert." This country was reached by traversing a hundred
and forty farsakhs (four hundred and ninety miles) of sandy desert,
then twenty farsakhs (seventy miles) of fertile land, and beyond that
a stony region. None of Esar-haddon's predecessors had ever pene-
trated so far " into the middle of Arabia." Bazu was located beyond
IQiazu, the stony tract, and its principal city was Yedih, which was
ruled by a king named Laile. The country here noticed is supposed
to have been the region of the modern Arabian kingdom of Hira.
Esar-haddon boasts that he marched into the middle of this region,
that he slew eight of its kings, and carried their gods, their treasures
and their subjects into Assyria; and that Laile's gods were also con-
veyed to Nineveh, though LaiM himself escaped. Lail^, like the
Edomite monarch, went to Nineveh, and, prostrating himself at the
footstool of the Assyrian king, humbly requested the return of the
images of his gods. This request Esar-haddon granted, but only on
the condition that Lail6 became one of his tributaries. In this inva-
sion of Arabia, Esar-haddon led an army across the deserts which en-
close that country on the land side, and penetrated to the more fertile
tracts beyond them, a region of cities and fixed settlements, where he
took towns and carried off their plunder to Assyria. This invasion
was a most remarkable success, taking in account the natural perils of
the desert, and the warlike character of its inhabitants, who have never
fully bowed to the yoke of any foreign conqueror. The dangers of
the simoom and the aridity of the northern portion of Arabia, with
the difficulty of carrying water and provisions for a large army, and
the perils of plunging into the wilderness with a small one, have de-
terred most Oriental conquerors from even the thought of leading an
expedition into this dreary and desolate region. Esar-haddon is the

Esar-
haddon's
Success-
ful
Invasion
of .
Arabia.

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196

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Suppres-
sion
of a
Syrian
Revolt.

Snccese-

ful
Invasion
of Media.

Other
Sources
of Esar-
liaddon's

Conquest

Egypt.

only monarch who ever ventured upon the hazardous undertaking of
penetrating in person into this vast desert land.

Esar-haddon next invaded the marshy region on the Euphrates,
where the Aramaean tribe of Gambulu dwelt, as he says, ** like fish, in
the midst of the waters." The sheikh of this tribe had revolted, but
submitted on the approach of the Assyrian monarch, bringing in per-
son the arrears of his tribute and a present of buffaloes, thereby seek-
ing to propitiate his suzerain. Esar-haddon says that he forgave him,
and strengthened his capital with fresh works of defense and garri-
soned it, making it a stronghold to protect the country against the
attacks of the Susianians.

Esar-haddon's last expedition recorded on his principal cylinder,
which was not apparently led by the king personally, was against the
country of Bikni, or Bikan, a remote part of Media, supposed to be
Azerbijan. None of his predecessors had ever penetrated this region,
which was governed by many petty chiefs, each of whom ruled over his
own town and its surrounding territory, and whose names illustrate
their Aryan character. Esar-haddon carried two of these chiefs cap-
tive to Assyria, whereupon the others submitted, agreeing to pay trib-
ute and to share their power with Assyrian officers.

The various expeditions of Esar-haddon already described have been
made known to us from his cylinder inscriptions; but his conquest of
Egypt and his punishment and pardon of Manasseh, King of Judah
— the greatest and most interesting events of his reign — ^have been
brought to our knowledge from other sources. All that we know of
the circumstances of Esar-haddon's conquest of Egypt is derived from
an imperfect transcript of the Nahr-el-Kelb tablet, and the brief an-
nals of his son and successor, Asshuivbani-pal, who alludes to his fath-
er's proceedings in Egypt, for the purpose of making known the con-
dition of affairs when he himself invaded that country.

It thus appears that Esar-haddon led a large army into Egypt about
B. C. 670, won a great victory over the forces of Tirhakah, or Tehrak,
the reigning Ethiopian sovereign of that country, took Memphis, his
capital, and conquered the entire Nile valley as far southward as
Thebes, taking. Thebes itself. Tirhakah fled into Ethiopia, leaving
Esar-haddon master of all Egypt as far as Thebes, the Diospolis of
the Greeks and the No, or No-Amon, of the Old Testament. The con-
quering Assyrian king weakened Egypt by dividing the country into
twenty governments, appointing a petty king in each town, but plac-
ing all the others under the rule of the prince reigning at Memphis.
This Memphite prince was Neko, the father of Psammetichus, or
Psamatik I., a native Egyptian mentioned both by Herodotus and
Manetho ; and the other petty kings wei^e also native Egyptians, with

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 197

a few exceptions where Assyrian oflScers were appointed governors.
After thus arranging the government of Egypt, and setting up his
tablet at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb beside that of Rameses the
Great, Esar-haddon returned to Assyria and began to introduce
sphinxes into the ornamentation of his palaces, at the same time add-
ing to his previous titles the following: " King of the kings of Egypt,
and conqueror of Ethiopia." This title does not occur on the cylin-
ders, but appears on the back of the slabs at the entrance of the south-
west palace of Nimrud, where the sphinxes are found, and also on a
bronze lion dug up at the Nebbi-Yunus mound of Nineveh, and on
the slabs of Esar-haddon's palace at Sherif-Khan.

The revolt of Manasseh, King of Judah, occurring about the time Revolt
of Esar-haddon's conquest of Egypt, was suppressed by the " cap- wJJ^
tains of the host of the King of Assyria." These Assyrian generals seh, King
invaded Judah to subdue Manasseh, and *'took and bound him with 9^^^^f
chains, and carried him to Babylon," where Esar-haddon had erected pressed,
a palace for himself and frequently h^H his^ oourt. The Great King
at first treated his royal captive with severity, and Manasseh's afflic-
tion is said to have humbled his pride and to have led him to humiliate
himself before Jehovah and to repent of his cruelties and idolatries.
According to the Book of Chronicles, Grod " was entreated of him, and
heard his supplication, and brought him back again to Jerusalem into His
his kingdom." Esar-haddon generously pardoned Manasseh for his ^^^^^
defection, and sent him back to Jerusalem, restoring him to his throne, toration.
on the condition of paying an increased tribute to his Assyrian
suzerain.

To augment the Assyrian power in Palestine, Esar-haddon deter- Bsar-
mined to strengthen the foreign element already introduced into the colo^S*!'
country by Sargon, who, as we have seen, colonized Samaria with for- tions in
eign settlers from Babylon, Cutha, Sippara, Ava, Hamath and Arabia. ^ **
Esar-haddon settled colonists in Palestine collected from Babylon,
Erech, or Orchoe, Susa, Elymais, Persia, and other surrounding na-
tions, and placed them under an officer of high rank — ^^ the great and
noble Asnapper."

When intelligence of Esar-haddon's illness reached Egypt in B. C. Ethio-
669, Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king, whom Esar-haddon had driven out r^^.
of Egypt the previous year, at once descended the Nile from Ethiopia, quest of
drove out the petty kings set over Egypt by the Assyrian monarch, ^^**
and reestablished his authority over all Egypt. Esar-haddon there-
upon resigned the crown of Assyria to his son Asshur-bani-pal, but Esar-
retained that of Babylonia, residing In Babylon until his death shortly i^f™!
afterward, B. C. 668, when Asshur-bani-pal succeeded to the sover- tionand
eignty of the whole empire.

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198 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

His Esar-haddon was one of the most active of Assyria's royal builders

PaUces. *°^ architects. During his short reign of thirteen years he erected
four palaces and more than thirty temples. Three of his great pal-
aces were located respectively at Babylon, Nineveh and Calah; but
that at Calah, or Nimrud, is the only one which has been explored
to any great extent, and even the ground-plan of that has been but
imperfectly traced. This palace had never been finished, its ornamen-
tation had hardly been commenced, and the small portion of this that
was original had been so seriously injured by a destructive fire that it
perished immediately upon its discovery. We must therefore rely for
our knowledge of Esar-haddon's sculptures upon the report of persons
who saw them before they were destroyed, and upon one or two draw-
ings; and our only knowledge of the palace is derived from a half-
explored fragment of a half -finished palace destroyed by the flames
before its completion.
His Esar-haddon's palace at Calah was built at the south-western comer

^*|*^ of the Nimrud mound, abutting towards the west on the Tigris, and
Calah. towards the valley formed by the Shor-Derreh torrent. It faced
northward and was entered on this side from the open space of the plat-
form, through a portal guarded by two winged man-headed bulls.
The entrance led into a large court, two hundred and eighty .by one
hundred feet, bounded on the north side by a mere wall, but surrounded
by buildings on the east, west and south sides. The chief building
was opposite, and was entered from the court by two gateways, one
directly facing the great northern portal of the court, and the other
slightly to the left, the former being guarded by colossal winged man-
headed bulls, and the latter only reveted with slabs. These gateways
both opened into the same room, the design of which was on the most
magnificent scale of all the Assyrian apartments, but it was so thoi^
oughly broken up, through the architect's inabiHty to cover the wide
space without sufficient supports, that this room virtually constituted
four chambers of moderate size rather than one grand hall. As one
apartment this room was one hundred and sixty-five feet long by sixty-
two feet wide. Viewed as a suite of four chambers, the rooms ap-
peared to be two long and narrow halls running parallel to each other,
and connected by a grand doorway in the middle, with two smaller
chambers located at the two ends, running at right angles with the
principal ones. The smaller chambers were sixty-two feet long, and
respectively nineteen feet and twenty-three feet wide. The larger
ones were one hundred and ten feet long, and respectively twenty feet
and twenty-eight feet wide. Fergusson's account of the grand apart-
ment of this palace is as follows : ** Its general dimensions are one hun-
dred and sixty-five feet in length, by sixty-two feet in width; and it

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 199

consequently is the largest hall yet found in Assyria. The architects,
however, do not seem to have been quite equal to roofing so large a
space, even with the number of pillars with which they seem usually
to have crowded their floors; and it is consequently divided down the
center by a wall supporting dwarf columns, forming a center gallery,
to which access was had by bridge galleries at both ends, a mode of
arrangement capable of great variety and picturesqueness of effect,
and of which I have little doubt that the builders availed themselves
to the fullest extent." The inner one of the two long parallel cham-
bers was connected by a grand doorway, guarded by sphinxes and
colossal lions, either with a small court or with a large chamber extend-
ing to the southern edge of the mound; while the two end rooms were
connected with smaller apartments in the same direction, but Mr. Lay-
ard*s excavations here were incomplete. The buildings on the right
and left sides of the great court appear to have been wholly separate
from those at its southern end. Those on the left have not been
explored, but on the right several long narrow apartments, with one
or two passages, have been examined. Eastward the palace has not
been explored, and its extent northward, southward and westward is
not certain. Southward and westward the mound has beeq worn away
by the Tigris and the Shor-Derreh torrent. The walls of Esar-had-
don's palace were built of sun-dried bricks, reveted with alabaster slabs,
taken from the decayed palaces of his predecessors. Ere the new
sculptures on these slabs were completed Esar-haddon died, and the
work ceased, or the palace was ruined by fire. The only sculptures
finished were the winged man-headed bulls and lions at the various por-
tals, a few bas-reliefs near them, and some sphinxes within the span of
the two widest doorways. These sphinxes were Egyptian in idea, but
had the homed cap like those on the bulls, the Assyrian arrangement
of hair, Assyrian ear-rings, and wings like those of the bulls and lions.
The figures near the lions were mythic, and, according to Mr. Lay- '
ard's representations, were more than ordinarily grotesque.

The inscriptions give us a full account of the character of Esar- His
haddon's buildings and their ornamentation. These inform us that ^^^^^
the thirty-six temples which this king erected in Assyria and Baby-
lonia were profusely adorned with plates of gold and silver, making
them " as splendid as the day." His palace at Nineveh, located on
the Nebbi-Yunus mound, was said to have been built upon the site
of a former palace of the Assyrian kings. The materials for its con-
struction were procured from different countries; the Phoenician, Syr-
ian and Cyprian kings sending to Nineveh for this purpose great
beams of cedar, cypress and ebony, stone statues, and various works in
different kinds of metal. The size of this palace is said to have sur-

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CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Bxcara-
tions at

Esar-
liaddon's

Other
Palaces.

His
Death.

Asshnr-
bani-pal.

His First
Conquest

of
Egypt

passed all the structures of former kings. Carved beams of cedar
wood were used in roofing this edifice, which was partly supported by
columns of cypress wood, ornamented with rings of silver and strength-
ened with iron bands. Winged man-headed bulls and lions guarded
the portals ; and the gates were made of ebony and cypress ornamented
with iron, silver and ivory ; while the walls were adorned with sculp-
tured slabs and enameled bricks.

The prejudice of the present Mohammedan inhabitants against dis-
turbing their dead, and against violating the tomb of Jonah, has thus
far prevented satisfactory excavations of the Nebbi-Yunus mound.
Mr. Layard stealthily made a slight excavation in this mound, thus
discovering a few fragments bearing Esar-haddon's name. Turkish
excavations soon afterwards uncovered a long line of wall of one of
Sennacherib's palaces, and likewise a part of Esar-haddon's palace.
On the outside surface of the former were winged man-headed bulls in
high relief, sculptured seemingly after the wall was erected, each bull
covering ten or twelve distinct stone blocks. A slab-inscription ob-
tained from this palace was published in the British Museum Series.
A bronze lion with legend was obtained from Esar-haddon's palace.

We know nothing of Esar-haddon's palace at Babylon, which now
lies buried beneath the mounds at Hillah. Mr. Layard and Sir Henry
Rawlinson have carefully examined the Sherif-Khan palace, which was
found to be very much inferior to the ordinary Assyrian royal resi-
dences, being only a dwelling erected by Esar-haddon for his eldest
son, and it also is believed to have been unfinished when the king died.

After a reign of thirteen years, Esar-haddon, " King of Assyria,
Babylonia, Egypt, Meroe and Ethiopia," as he calls himself in his
later inscriptions, died in B. C. 668, and was succeeded on his throne
by his eldest son, Asshur-bani-pal, whom he had already associated
in the government. Asshur-bani-pal, upon his accession, appointed
to the viceroyalty of Babylon his younger brother, Saiil-Mugina,
called Sammughes by Polyhistor, and Saosduchinus by the Canon of
Ptolemy.

Upon his succession, Asshur-bani-pal found himself involved in a
war with Egypt. Late in Esar-haddon's reign Tirhakah, the Ethio-
pian king, descended the Nile, recovered Thebes, Memphis and other
Egyptian cities, and expelled the princes and governors appointed by
Esar-haddon when he had conquered the country. Asshur-bani-pal,
soon after his accession, led an expedition through Syria into Egypt,
and defeated the Ethiopian and Egyptian army near the city of Kar-
banit. Tirhakah at once fled from Memphis, sailing up the Nile to
Thebes; and being pursued by the Assyrians to the latter place, the
Ethiopian king continued his retreat up the Nile valley, leaving all

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. gQl

Egypt north of Thebes in tbe possession of the Assyrian monarch.
Asshur-bani-pal restored the princes and rulers whom his father had
placed over Egypt, and whom Tirhakah had expelled; and, after a
short rest at Thebes, returned in triumph by way of Syria to Nineveh.

No sooner had the Assyrian king left Egypt than intrigues to re- His
store the Ethiopian power commenced. Neko and other Egyptian conquest
governors restored by Asshur-bani-pal deserted the Assyrian cause and ot
sided with the Ethiopians. The governors who remained loyal to ^^
Assyria tried to suppress the revolt ; Neko and several other rebel lead-
ers were carried in chains to Assyria; and Sais, Tanis, Mendes and
other revolted Egyptian cities were punished. The revolt was, how-
ever, successful, and Tirhakah having reestablished himself at Thebes,
threatened to again extend his sway over the entire Nile valley. But
when Asshur-bani-pal forgave Neko and sent him back to Egypt with
a large Assyrian army, Tirhakah again fled to Upper Egypt, where
he died shortly afterwards. Tirhakah's stepson and successor, Urda-
man^ — ^believed to be the Rud-Amun of the hieroglyphics — descended
the Nile valley with an army, defeated the Assyrians near Memphis,
forced them to seek refuge within its walls, besieged and took the city,
and regained possession of Lower Egypt. Upon hearing of this, As-
shur-bani-pal left Asshur, and leading an expedition personally against
the new Ethiopian monarch, drove him from Memphis to Thebes,
and thence to the city of Kipkip, far up the Nile. After entering
Thebes in triumph and sacking the city, and again placing governors
over the Egyptian cities and taking hostages to secure their loyalty,
Asshur-bani-pal returned to Nineveh with his plunder of gold, silver,
ebony, ivory, obelisks, precious stones, dyed garments, monkeys and
elephants of the Theban palace, male and female captives.

Between his first and second expeditions into Egypt, Asshur-bani- His
pal attacked Tyre, whose king, Baal, had incurred his displeasure, and, ^^5!^**
reducing him to submission, exacted from him a large tribute, which and
he sent to Nineveh. About the same time Asshur-bani-pal married a o/asuT
Cilician princess. Soon after his second expedition into Egypt, Ass- Minor,
hur-bani-pal invaded Asia Minor, crossing the Taurus mountains and
penetrating a region never before entered by an Assyrian king; and,
after reducing a number of towns, he returned to Nineveh, where he
received an. embassy, of which he gives the following account: " Gyges, Sub-
King of Lydia, a country on the sea-coast, a remote place, of which "^'!^®^
the kings my ancestors had never even heard the name, had formerly King oi
learned in a dream the fame of my empire, and had sent officers to my ^7"**
presence to perform homage on his behalf." The Lydian king now
sent a second time to Asshur-bani-pal and told him that since his sub-
mission he defeated the Cimmerians, who had formerly ravaged his

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SOS

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Conqnest
ofMinni

and
Paddiri.

Snsia-
nian
Invasion
of Baby-
lonia
Repelled.

Dynastic

Reyoln-

tionin

Snsiana.

country, and he begged him to accept Cimmerian chiefs whom he had
taken captive in battle, along with other presents, which the Assyrian
monarch regarded as " tribute.*' About the same time Asshur-bani-
pal repulsed an attack by the " King of Kharbat ** on a district of
Babylonia, and after taking Kharbat transported its inhabitants to
Egypt.

Asshur-bani-pal next invaded Minni, or Persarmenia, the mountain
region about Lakes Van and Urumiyeh. Akhsheri, the King of Minni,
having lost his capital, Izirtu, and several other cities, was murdered
by his subjects; and his son, Vahalli, was forced to submit, and sent
an embassy to Nineveh to do homage, with tribute, presents and hos-
tages. Asshur-bani-pal received the envoys graciously, pardoned Va-
halli and kept him on the throne of Minni, but compelled him to pay
a heavy tribute. Asshur-bani-pal also conquered a region called Pad-
diri, which his predecessors had separated from Minni, but which he
annexed to his own dominion, placing an Assyrian governor over it.

Asshur-bani-pal next engaged in a struggle of twelve years with
Elam, or Susiana. Certain tribes, pressed by famine, had passed from
Susiana into the Assyrian dominions, where they were permitted to
settle; but when, after the famine had ceased, they wished to return
to their former home, Asshur-bani-pal would not agree to their re-
moval. Urtaki, King of Susiana, resented this by invading Babylonia,
and was aided by Belu-bagar, King of the Gambulu, an important
Aramaean tribe. Saiil-Mugina, Asshur-bani-pal's brother and viceroy
at Babylon, greatly alarmed, sent to Nineveh for aid. Thereupon an
Assyrian army drove the Susianian monarch out of Babylonia, inflict-
ing upon him a severe defeat before he escaped and returned to Susa,
where he died within a year.

A dynastic revolution in Susiana now proved of great advantage to
the Assyrians. Urtaki had wrested the Susianian throne from his
elder brother, Umman-aldas. At his death, his younger brother,
Temin-Umman, usurped the crown ; and the sons of Unmfian-aldas and
those of Urtaki, who claimed the Susianian crown, only saved their
lives by fleeing to Nineveh with their relatives and adherents, and put-
ting themselves under the protection of the Assyrian monarch. Thus
Asshur-bani-pal, in the expedition which he now undertook, had a
party which favored him in Susiana itself ; but Temin-Umman strength-
ened himself by alliances with two descendants of Merodach-Baladan,
who had principalities upon the Persian Gulf coast, with two sons of
Belu-bagar, sheikh of the Gambulu, with two mountain chiefs, one a
blood relation of the Assyrian king, and with several inferior chief-
tains. Asshur-bani-pal defeated the allies, took Temin-Umman pris-
oner, executed him, and exposed his head over one of the gates of

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

SOS

Nineveh. He then divided Susiana between Urtaki's sons, Umman-ibi
and Tammarit, establishing the former at Susa, and the latter at a
town called Khidal, in Eastern Susiana. A son of Temin-Umman was
executed with his father. Several of Merodach-Baladan's grandsons
suffered mutilation. A Chalda^n prince and a chieftain of the Gam-
bulu had their tongues torn out by the roots. Another Gambulu chief
was beheadedi Two of Temin-Umman's principal officers were chained
and flayed. By these cruelties Asshur-bani-pal expected to strike
terror into his enemies.

No sooner, however, had the Assyrians returned to Nineveh than
fresh troubles broke out. Asshur-bani-paPs own brother, Saiil-Mu-
gina, dissatisfied with his subordinate position as viceroy of Babylon,
rebelled, and, declaring himself King of Babylon, obtained a number
of important allies. These were Umman-ibi, who, though he had re-
ceived his crown from Asshur-bani-pal, had been bribed by gift of
treasure from the Babylonian temples; Vaiteha, a powerful Arabian
prince; and Nebo-bel-sumi, a surviving grandson of Merodach-Bala-
dan. Saiil-Mugina's fair prospects of success were blighted by do-
mestic troubles in Susiana, where Umman-ibi was defeated and slain in
a civil war with his brother Tammarit, who thus became King of all
Susiana. Tammarit, however, entered into an alliance with SaiU-Mu-
gina; but while absent with his army in Babylonia, a mountain chief
from Luristan named Inda-bibi, or Inda-bigas, excited a revolt in
Susiana and seized the throne; and Tammarit, deserted by his army,
was obliged to flee and seek safety in concealment, while the Susianian
army returned home. While Saiil-Mugina thus lost the most impor-
tant of his allies, Asshur-bani-pal had overrun the northern Babylonian
provinces and besieged and took the Babylonian towns one after an-
other. Saiil-Mugina was taken prisoner by Asshur-bani-pal, who pun-
ished his rebel brother more terribly than any of his other captured
enemies, burning him alive.

A lull of some years in actual hostilities between Assyria and Susiana
followed. Indarbibi having given refuge to Nebo-bel-sumi, and hav-
ing repeatedly refused to surrender the fugitive prince as demanded
by the Assyrian king, was killed by the commander of his archers, a
second Umman-aldas, who then usurped the Susianian throne. At the
same time many pretenders claimed the Susianian crown, and Asshur-
bani-pal again demanded the surrender of Nebo-bel-sumi, who would
have been given up had he not committed suicide. About B. C. 645
Asshur-bani-pal invaded Susiana, took the strongly- fortified town of
Bit-Imbi by siege, drove Umman-aldas into the mountain region of
Susiana, took Susa, Badaca and twenty-four other cities, and assigned
the government of Western Susiana to Tammarit, who, after his flight

Asshur-
bani-
pal'8
First
Success-
ful Inva-
sion of
Susiana.

His
Brother

Saiil-
Hugina's
Revolt at
Babylon.

His

Allies.

His
Capture

and
Death.

Dissen-
sions in
Susiana.

Asshur-
bani-paPs
Second
Success-
ful
Invasion
of

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204 CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

from Babylonia, had become a fugitive at the court of Assyria. Um-
man-aldas was allowed to retain the sovereignty of Eastern Susiana.
His Tammarit, in order to cast off his vassalage to the Assyrian mon-

Conquest ^^^^9 plotted to massacre all the foreign garrisons in his dominions,
of but was carried a prisoner to Nineveh, and Western Susiana was put
under military rule. Umman-aldas, in his mountain fastness, collected
a new army, and took possession of Bit-Imbi the following spring ; but
unable to resist the Assyrian assaults, he soon evacuated the town, and
defended himself in his entire retreat to Susa, holding the different
strong towns and rivers in succession. But the Assyrians drove him
from post to post, and finally took both Susa and Badaca, thus again
placing Susiana at Asshur-bani-paPs mercy, all the towns making
their submission, w^hile Umman-aldas was carried a prisoner to Nineveh.
Inflamed with rage on account of the revolt, Asshur-bani-pal plun-
dered the Susianian capital of its treasures, among which were eighteen
images of gods and goddesses, thirty-two statues of former Susianian
kings, including those of Kudur-Nakhunta and Tammarit. He also
gave the other Susianian cities to be pillaged by his soldiers for a
period of almost two months. He then annexed Susiana to the Assyr-
ian Empire, thus closing this Susianian war, after it had lasted, with
short intervals, for twelve years.
Revolt of While Asshur-bani-pal was thus engaged in Susiana and Babylonia,
^Sd Psammetichus declared himself independent in Egypt and began a
Lydia. war against the petty Egyptian princes who remained steadfast in
their loyalty to their Assyrian suzerain. In Asia Minor, Gyges, King
of Lydia, who had so recently done homage to Assyria, sent aid to
the Egyptian rebel. Egypt cast off the Assyrian yoke; but Gyges
was slain in a terrible struggle with the Cimmerians, who had spread
Resnb- desolation throughout his dominions; and Ardys, his successor on the
LydU Lydian throne, renewed the homage to the Assyrian king which his

father had relinquished.

Asshur- Asshur-bani-pal next engaged in an important war with some Arab

Success-* tribes of the desert who had aided Saiil-Mugina in his revolt against

fulCam- his brother and suzerain. The Arab leader in this war was Vaiteha,

^S^Ul^ whose allies were Natun, or Nathan, King of the Nabathseans, and

Ammu-ladin, King of Kedar. The whole border of Arabia from the

Persian Gulf to Syria, and thence southward by Damascus to Petra,

was the scene of military operations in this war. Petra, Moab, Edom,

Zoar and several other cities fell into the hands of the Assyrians.

The Arabs were defeated with great slaughter in the final battle at

Khukhuruna, in the mountains near Damascus; and the two Arab

chiefs who had aided Saiil-Mugina were carried captives to Nineveh,

and there publicly executed.

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Thus ended the annals of Asshur-bani-pal, who was the most enter- His
prising and the most powerful of Assyrian warrior kings, and who p^^®
extended the Assyrian Empire in every direction beyond its previous minions,
limits. In Egypt he completed the task begun by his father Esar-
haddon, and established the Assyrian dominion for some years, not only
at Sais and Memphis, but likewise at Thebes. In Asia Minor he sub-
dued large sections never before invaded by any Assyrian king, and
carried his renown to the western extremity of the Asiatic continent.
In the north he held, not only the Minni, but the Urarda, or true
Armenians, among his tributaries. On the south he formally annexed
Susiana to the Assyrian Empire, and on the west he signally chas-
tised the Arabs.

Thus in the middle part of Asshur-bani-paPs brilliant reign Assyria Zenith of
reached the culminating point of her greatness — the zenith of her Grea^
power and the widest extent of her dominion — ^being at this time para- o«ss.
mount over the portion of Western Asia from the Mediterranean and
the Halys on the west to the Caspian Sea and the Persian desert on
the east, and from Arabia and the Persian Gulf on the south to the
northern frontier of Armenia and the center of Cappadocia on the
north. In Africa the authority of Assyria was at this time acknowl-
edged by Egypt as far south as Thebes. Thus the Assyrian influence
extended over Susiana, Chaldaea, Babylonia, Media, Matiene, or the
Zagros range, Mesopotamia; portions of Armenia, Cappadocia and
Cilicia ; Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Idumsea, part of Arabia and nearly
all of Egypt. The island of Cyprus may also have been a dependency.
But Persia proper, Bactria and Sogdiana, even Hyrcania, were beyond
the eastern limit of Assyrian power, which on the north did not on
this side extend farther than about the vicinity of Kasvin, and towards
the south was confined within the Zagros mountain range; while on
the west, Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, even Pamphylia, were independent,
the arms of Assyria having never been, so far as known, carried west-
ward beyond Cilicia or across the river Halys.

Asshur-bani-pal was also noted for his love of hunting, especially Asshur-
lion-hunting. On the banks of streams, and in his pleasure-galley Hun^e*
in mid-stream, he roused the king of beasts from his lair by means of Exploits,
hounds and beaters, and slew him with his arrows. In his own park or
paradise large and ferocious beasts, brought from distant quarters,
were placed in traps about the grounds, and when he approached they
were released from confinement, while he drove among them in his
chariot, letting fly his arrows at each, seldom missing the marks at
which they were directed. With two or three attendants armed with
spears, he often encountered the terrific spring of the bolder beasts,
who rushed wild with rage at the royal marksjnan to tear him from

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20g CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

the chariot. On some occasions he left the chariot-board and engaged
in a close struggle single-handed with the brutes, without the protec-
tion of armor, in his usual dress, with only a fillet upon his head, and
would pierce them through the heart with sword or spear. He often
engaged in the chase of the wild ass, and hunted the stag, the hind
and the ibex, or wild goat. His love of sport is also attested by the
figures of his favorite hounds made in clay, and painted and inscribed
with their respective names.
His Asshur-bani-pal was the only Assyrian king who exhibited any taste

literary f^^ learning and literature. His predecessors only left to their pos-

and terity some records of the events of their reigns, inscribed on cylinders.

Royal tablets, slabs, winged man-headed bulls and lions, and a few dedica-

Nineveh. tory inscriptions, addresses to the deities whom they particularly wor-
shiped. Asshur-bani-pal displayed far more varied and all-embracing
literary tastes. He established a Royal Library, consisting of clay
tablets, at Nineveh, from which the British Museum has derived its
most valuable collection. Under the auspices of this monarch were
prepared comparative vocabularies, lists of deities and their epithets,
chronological lists of kings and eponyms, records of astronomical
observations, grammars, histories and various kinds of scientific works.
These treasures of learning were preserved in certain chambers of the
palace of Asshur-bani-pal's grandfather, Sennacherib, where they were
discovered by Mr. Layard. There are also a large number of religious
documents, prayers, invocations, etc., besides many juridical treatises,
the fines to be imposed for certain social offenses; and lastly, there
are all the contents of the Registry ofiice, such as deeds of sale and
barter referring to land, houses, and all kinds of property, contracts,
bonds for loans, benefactions and other different kinds of legal instru-
ments. Selections from the tablets have been published in England,
being prepared for that purpose by Sir Henry Rawlinson and others.
The clay tablets on which they were inscribed lay here in such large
numbers, sometimes whole, but generally in fragments, that they cov-
ered the floors of the chambers for more than a foot high. Mr. Layard
truly says that " the documents thus discovered at Nineveh probably
exceed all that has yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt.*'
Among the interesting and valuable results which these documents have
recently yielded is the chronological scheme drawn from seven different
tablets, and known as " the Assyrian Canon."
His As a builder Asshur-bani-pal fully rivaled, if he did not surpass.

Great the greatest of his predecessors. His magnificent palace at Nineveh,

Nineyeh. whose ruins are seen on the Koyunjik mound, within a few hundred
yards of his illustrious grandfather's splendid royal edifice, was built
on a plan different from those of former kings. The main building

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. ^Oi

consisted of three arms branching from a common center, thus in its
general form resembling the letter T« The central point was entered
by a long ascending gallery lined with sculptures, leading from a gate-
way, with rooms attached, at a comer of the great court, first a distance
of ohe hundred and ninety feet in a direction parallel to the top bar
of the T> and then a distance of eighty feet in a direction at right
angles to this, thus bringing it down precisely to the central point
from which the arms extended. The whole structure was thus shaped
like a cross, having one arm extending from the top towards the left
or west. The principal apartments were in the lower limb of the cross,
where a grand hall extended almost the entire length of the limb, no
less than one hundred and forty-five feet long by twenty-eight and a
half feet wide, opening towards the east on a great 6ourt, paved prin-
cipally with patterned slabs, and communicating with a number of
smaller rooms towards the west, and through these smaller rooms with
a second court, facing towards the south-west and the south. The
next largest apartment was in the right or eastern arm of the cross,
and was a hall one hundred and eight feet long by twenty-four feet
broad, divided by a wide doorway, in which were two pillar-bases, into
a square ante-chamber twenty-four feet each way, and an inner apart-
ment about eighty feet long. Neither arm of the cross was thoroughly
explored, and it is not known whether they reached to the extreme
edge of the eastern and western courts, dividing each into two, or
whether they only extended into the courts a certain distance. Only
one doorway has been discovered leading from the rest of the palace
to the western rooms.

Asshur-bani-paPs great palace was especially remarkable for its Its
beautiful and elaborate ornamentation. The courts were paved with tatiS^°"
large slabs covered with elegant patterns. Some of the doorways had
arched tops highly adorned with rosettes, lotuses, etc. The chambers
and passages were lined throughout with alabaster slabs, which bore
reliefs designed with remarkable spirit, and executed with wonderful
detail and fineness. Here were represented interesting hunting
scenes, such as the wild ass, the stag, the hind, the dying wild ass, the
lion about to spring, the wounded wild ass seized by hounds, the
wounded lion, the lion biting a chariot-wheel, the king shooting a lion
with his arrow, the lion-hunt on a river, the king killing lions, the lion
let out of a trap, the hound held in leash, the wounded lioness, the
hound chasing a wild assj the hound chasing a doe, the stag taking
the water, etc. In this part of the palace were likewise illustrated the
king's private life, the trees and flowers of the palace garden, the
royal galley with its two banks of oars, the libation over four dead
lions, the temple with pillars resting on lions, and different bands of

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208 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

musicians. A part of the ascending passage was adorned with various
scenes, such as a long train, with game, nets and dogs returning from
the chase. In combination with all the sculptures just enumerated
were many scenes of sieges and battles, illustrating Asshur-bani-pal's
wars. Reliefs resembling these last were discovered by Mr. Layard
in certain chambers of Sennacherib's palace which had been embel-
lished by Asshur-bani-pal. These reliefs were distinguished for the
large number and small size of the figures, for the variety and spirit
of the attitudes, and for the careful finish of all the minute details of
the scenes illustrated upon them. These give us a good representa-
tion of an Assyrian battle, showing us at one view the battle, the flight
and pursuit, the capture and treatment of prisoners, the gathering of
the spoil and the beheading of the slain. These reliefs are now in the
British Museum.
Aflshur- Asshur-bani-pal, as already observed, made additions to Sennacher-
Other ib's great palace at Nineveh, and erected some other buildings at the
Ediflcet same city, whose remains are seen on the Nebbi-Yunus mound, where
Ninevelu have been discovered slabs inscribed with his name and an account of
his wars. He also built a temple to Ishtar at Nineveh, whose ruins
are seen on the Koyunjik mound, and repaired a shrine of the same
goddess at Arbela.
f^^ Asshur-bani-pal, undoubtedly, was one of the greatest of Assyria's

11688. kings. He conquered Egypt and Susiana, held Babylon in quiet sub-
jection with the exception of the short revolt of Saiil-Mugina, extended
his conquests far into Armenia, led his armies beyond the Taurus, and
subjugated the barbarous tribes of Asia Minor. During the intervals
of peace he employed himself in hunting the lion, and in the erection
and embellishment of palaces and temples.
^^^y^ In Asshur-bani-paPs reign the Assyrian Empire attained its greatest
tion of dimensions, Assyrian art reached its highest point, and the Assyrian
GrS^ dominion appeared likely to extend itself over the entire East. Then
Assyria most fully answered the forcible description given her by the
Jewish prophet Ezekiel in these words : " The Assyrian was a cedar
in Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of
high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters
made him great ; the deep set him up on high with her rivers running
about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the
field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field,
and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because
of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of the
heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all
the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadorw
dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. 399

length of his branches ; for his root was by great waters. The cedars
in the garden of God could not hide him ; the fir-trees were not like his
boughs ; and the chestnut-trees were not like his branches ; nor any tree
in the garden of God was like unto him m his beauty.^*

With all their advance in civilization, their progress in art and the »^^'f ^"^
practical inventions, their ever-increasing literature, the Assyrians still Cruelty,
retained the cruel and vindictive spirit of the most barbarous ages and
nations in conducting their wars. Through the whole period of their
history their treatment of captured enemies continued to be of the most
barbarous brutality, which all their advancing culture and their prog-
ress in the arts of civilized life did not tend to mitigate or soften.
Sennacherib and Esar-haddon were more merciful than their prede-
cessors, frequently sparing their captives, even when rebels ; but Ass-
hur-bani-pal restored the old practice of executions, mutilations and
tortures, and was apparently the most cruel of all the Assyrian kings.
In his bas-reliefs we see the unresisting enemy pierced through with
the spear, the tongue torn from the mouth of the captive accused of
blasphemy, the rebel king beheaded on the battle-field, and the prisoner
led to execution with the head of a friend or brother hung round his
neck. We see the scourgers preceding the king as his regular attend-
ants, with their whips passed through their girdles. We observe liv-
ing and dead men subjected to the operation of flaying. We behold
scenes in which the executioner is represented as first striking in the
face with his fist those about to be executed. Thus we have all the
evidence of barbarous cruelty, such as had a brutalizing influence on
those who inflicted it, and also on those who witnessed it. Nineveh
was deservedly designated by the Jewish prophet Nahum as " a bloody
city,'' or ** a city of bloods " ; and, in the language of the same
prophet, "the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and
strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens
with ravin." Asshur-bani-pal gloried in his vindictive and unsparing
cruelties, transmitting the record of them to posterity by representing
them in all their horrors upon his palace walls.

Asshur-bani-paPs glory was well known, to the Greeks, who seem to Asshur-

have known more of him than of any other Assyrian monarch. He identSed

was doubtless one of the " two kings called Sardanapalus,*' celebrated *8 the

by Hellanicus ; and he must have been " the warlike Sardanapalus " pains "

of Callisthenes. Herodotus alluded to his great wealth, and Aristoph- ^ ^^

anes employed his name as a byword for magnificence. The well writers.

known account given by Ctesias of the voluptuous Assyrian monarch

whom he called Sardanapalus, and repeated from him by subsequent

authors, does not probably refer to Asshur-bani-pal, but rather alludes

to his successor, the last Assyrian king. Asshur-bani-pal, the van-
VOL. 1.— 14

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810

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Alleged
Tomb of
Sardan-
apalus at
Tarsus.

Asshur-

bani-pal

Identified

as the

Cinnela-

danus

of the

Canon of

Ptolemy.

quisher of Tirhakah, the conquerer of the tribes beyond the Taurus,
the great warrior king whom the wealthy and prosperous Gyges, King
of Lydia, sought to propitiate by means of rich presents, was so unlike
the mere voluptuary who never ventured outside the palace gates, but
confined himself exclusively to the seraglio, performing woman's work
and often attired in female apparel. In one respect alone does Asshur-
bani-paPs character, as disclosed to us by the monuments, exhibit the
slightest likeness to that of the Sardanapalus of Ctesias. Asshur-
bani-pal obtained for himself a multitude of wives. Always upon the
suppression of a revolt, he required the conquered vassal to send to
Nineveh, along with his tribute, one or more of his daughters. Those
princesses became inmates of his harem, or seraglio.

If Asshur-bani-pal was the monarch called Sardanapalus by the
Greeks, he was the founder of Tarsus, in Ciliciai, and of the neigh-
boring city of Anchialus, on the authority of some classical writers,
though more reliable authors inform us that Tarsus was founded by
Sennacherib. It was believed generally by the Greeks that the tomb
of Sardanapalus was in this vicinity. They described this tomb as a
monument of some height, having a statue of the king on the top,
representing him as snapping his fingers. The stone base bore an
inscription in Assyrian characters, which they interpreted as follows:
" Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxes, built Tarsus and Anchialus in
one day. Do thou, O stranger, eat, drink, and amuse thyself ; for all
the rest of human life is not worth so much as this " — '^ this " signify-
ing the sound supposed to be made by the king with his fingers. Cle-
archus said that the inscription was simply the following : " Sardana-
palus, son of Anacjmdaraxes, built Tarsus and Anchiale in one day
— ^yet now he is dead." Amyntas said that the tomb of Sardanapalus
was at Nineveh, and gave a very different inscription. Rawlinson
thinks that the so-called tomb of Sardanapalus was really the stele set
up by Sennacherib on his conquest of Cilicia and founding of Tarsus,
as related by Polyhistor.

It has been generally supposed that Asshur-bani-pal died about B.
C. 648 or 647, in which case his entire reign would have been a brilliant
and prosperous one ; but recent discoveries render it probable that he
lived and reigned until B. C. 626, and that he was the Cinneladanus
of the Canon of Ptolemy, who occupied the Babylonian throne from
B. C. 647 to B. C. 626. Asshur-bani-pal distinctly asserts that when
he subdued Babylon and put his brother Saiil-Mugina to death he
became King of Babylon himself; and many tablets remain, dated by
his regnal years at Babylon, while the eponyms which can be assigned
to his reign are at least twenty-six or twenty-seven. Polyhistor dis-
tinctly says that the successor of Sam-mughes, or Saiil-Mugina, on the

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

211

Babylonian throne was his brother, and that he reigned twenty-one
years. Thus modem writers have identified Asshur-bani-pal with Cin-
neladanus, and have concluded that he reigned in all forty-two years,
from B. C. 668 to B. C. 626. In this case Assyria's decline com-
menced during the later years of Asshur-bani-pal's reign, so that dur-
ing this period she was obliged to exchange her former aggressive
course toward other nations for a defensive attitude to maintain her
own continued existence against the fierce assaults of the powerful
neighboring kingdom of 'Media and the destructive inroads of the wild
Scyths from the plains of Central Asia.

The centralized monarchy established in Media about B. C. 640
rapidly developed into a great military power. Setting aside the old
system of separate government and village autonomy, the Medes had
united themselves into a single consolidated monarchy, and about B.
C. 634, when Asshur-bani-pal had reigned over Assyria thirty-four
years, these people undertook an expedition against Nineveh, but failed
in this first attack. Phraortes, or the actual leader of this army of
invasion, was thoroughly defeated by the Assyrians, his host being
cut to pieces, and himself being among the slain. Nevertheless the
fact that the Medes had assumed the offensive was a potent cause for
alarm, as it illustrated a new state of affairs in Western Asia, fully
demonstrating that Assyria was no longer the arbitress of the destinies
of nations. Cyaxares, the next Median king, led an army against
Assyria about B. C. 632, defeated the Assyrians in battle, and at once
laid siege to Nineveh, but was recalled to the defense of his own coun-
try against a devastating barbarian torrent which threatened to engulf
the monarchy which had so suddenly grown up on the eastern borders
of Assyria. This new danger was an irresistible inroad of the Scyths,
or Scythians, from Central Asia, who swept with destructive force over
both Media and Assyria, threatening the utter annihilation of the
civilized nations of Western Asia.

Herodotus and Hippocrates described the Scythians as coarse and
gross in their habits, with large fleshy bodies, loose joints, soft swollen
bellies and scanty hair. They never washed themselves, only cleansing
their persons with a vapor bath, their women applying to their bodies
a paste which left them glossy after it had been removed. They
dwelt in wagons, or in rude tents consisting of woolen felts arranged
around three bent sticks inclined towards each other. They subsisted
on mares' milk and cheese, adding at times boiled beef and horse-flesh
as a delicacy. They drank the blood of their enemies slain in battle.
They cut off the heads of these dead foes, and showed them to their
kings to obtain each his respective share of the spoil. They also
stripped the scalps from the skulls and suspended them on their bridle-

Assyria's
Decline.

Median
Attacks

on
Nineveh.

Scythian
Inroad.

Descrip-
tion of the
Scythians
by
Herodo-
tus and
Hippocra-
tes.

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212

CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Sqrthian

Kings and

Royal

Tribe.

Scythian
Religion.

Scythian
Devasta-
tion of
Western
Asia.

reins as trophies. Occasionally they flayed the right arms and hands
of their slain enemies, and used the skins as coverings for their quivers.
The upper part of Jthe skulls were usually converted into drinking-
cups. They spent the larger portion of each day on horseback, at-
tending on the vast herds of cattle which they pastured. They used
the bow, their favorite weapon, while riding, shooting their arrows
with unerring aim. They also each carried a short spear or javelin,
and sometimes also a short sword or battle-ax.

The Scythian nation embraced many separate tribes. At the head
of all was a royal tribe, corresponding to the " Golden Horde " of the
Mongols, surpassing in numbers and bravery any of the others, and
considering them all as slaves. The kings ruled by hereditary right,
and their families belonged to the royal tribe. Several kings fre-
quently ruled at the same time, but in great emergencies the supreme
power was always virtually vested in one man.

The Scythian religion embraced the worship of the Sun and Moon,
Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and a deity resembling the Greek Hercules;
but the chief object of adoration was the naked sword. The country
was divided into sections, in each of which was a vast pile of brush-
wood, serving as a temple to the vicinity, and having planted at its
top an antique sword or cimeter. On a specified day of each year sol-
emn sacrifices of human beings and animals were offered at these
shrines, and the warm blood of the victims was poured upon the sword
at the top. The human victims for sacrifice, who were captives taken
in war, were hewn to pieces at the foot of the mound ; their limbs were
wildly tossed into the air by the votaries, and the bloody fragments
were left where they had fallen. The Scythians had no priest caste,
but they believed in divination, the diviners comprising a distinct class
vested with important powers. When the king was ill he sent for
these diviners, to inform him of the cause of his illness, which they
generally ascribed to the circumstance that an individual, whom they
named, had sworn falsely by the Royal Hearth. Those accused of
this offense, if found guilty by several bodies of diviners, were be-
headed in punishment, and their property was given to their original
accusers.

Such were the chief characteristics of the Scythians, as described
by Herodotus, who tells us that they were the ruling race over a great
part of the steppe region extending from the riyer Ister (now Danube)
and the Carpathian mountains on the west to the eastern limits of the
region embraced by modem Turkestan on the east. Coarse and repul-
sive in appearance, ferocious in temper, savage in habits, and power-
ful on account of their vast numbers and a system of warfare not easy
to withstand, and in which they had become expert, they could well

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strike consternation even into the strong and warlike Median nation.
Successive hordes of Scyths swept through the passes of the Caucasus,
and spread ruin and devastation over the rich plains to the south of
them. Onward they pushed in swarms, overwhelming and irresistible,
overrunning Iberia and Upper Media,, reducing the rich cultivated
country to a howling wilderness. They consumed the crops, carried
off or destroyed the herds, burned the villages and homesteads, massa-
cred or enslaved such of the inhabitants as did not escape to the lofty
mountain summits or other strongholds, sparing neither age nor sex,
and converted the whole country into a scene of desolation. The
strongly-fortified towns which resisted the invading Scyths, when not
starved into submission, escaped by consenting to pay a tribute.
Herodotus informs us that these barbarians were masters of all West-
em Asia from the Caucasus to the frontiers of Egypt for a period
of twenty-eight years ; and their ravages spread over, not only Media,
but Armenia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine.

The resistless tide of barbarian invasion continued to roll on, sweep-
ing from one region to another, plundering and ravaging everywhere,
settling nowhere. When the savage hordes had reached Southern Pal-
estine, the course of invasion was stayed by the Egyptian king, Psam-
nietichus, who was then engaged in the siege of Ashdod. Upon hear-
ing of the approach of the Scythian host to Ascalon, Psammetichus
sent an embassy to their leader and bribed him by means of valuable
presents to abstain from an invasion of Egypt.

Thenceforth the power of the Scythian invaders declined, and the
nations whose armies they had beaten, whose lands they had ravaged
with fire and sword, began to recover themselves. Cyaxares, King of
Media, and the sovereigns of other nations, drove them beyond their
dominions, many of the barbarians returning across the Caucasus to
their home-land, large numbers being slain in battle or massacred, and
the remainder submitting and entering the service of the native Asian
monarchs. The only vestiges of this destructive Scythic inroad were
the names of the Armenian province thenceforth called Sacasene and
the Syrian town known thereafter as Scythopolis, a Greek name sig-
nifying City of the' Scyths.

Weakened by the severity of the Scythian attack, Assyria rapidly
declined from this time. The country, had been ravaged and depopu-
lated, the provinces had been plundered, many of the great towns had
been pillaged, the palaces of the kings had been burned, and much of
the gold and silver had been carried away. Assyria was but the shadow
of her former self when the Scythians retired from the country. En-
feebled and exhausted, she was ready to fall before the arms of a con-
queror. Babylonia and the other provinces of the empire, from the

Checked

in
Palestine

by
Egjrptian
Bribery.

Scyths
Driven
Back
by the
Hedes.

Rapid
Decline

and
Weak-
ness of
Assyria.

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S14

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Asshur-
emid-iliiiy

or
Saracus.

HiB

Palace at

Calah.

Median

and Susi-

anian In-

▼asion of

Assyria.

force of habit and because they too had been exhausted by the bar-
barian inundation, continued loyal to Assyria to tlie very la^st. Thus
Asshur-bani-pal ruled over an extensive empire to the end of liis life.

But Asshur-bani-pal died B. C. 6ii6, after a reign of forty-two
years, and was succeeded by his son, Asshur-emid-ilin, called Sara-
cus by Abydenus. He was the last Assyrian king, and reigned but
one year. We have very few native records of this monarch, and tlie
only classical notices concerning him are the account given of him
by Ctcsias, and a few sentences in the writings of Abydenus and Poly-
histor. A few legends on bricks inform us that he began the erection
of a palace at Calah, whose remains are now seen at the south-east
part of the Nimrud mound. The contrast between this unfinished edi-
fice and those grand royal residences of former Assyrian kings clearly
exhibited the waning glory of the mighty monarchy which had swayed
the destinies of Western Asia for nearly seven centuries. Instead of
the alabaster bas-reliefs which embellished the palaces of the prede-
cessors of this last Assyrian monarch, his edifice was adorned with
nothing better than coarse limestone slabs without sculptures or in-
scriptions; and in place of the enameled bricks of elegant patterns
which ornamented the magnificent structures of Sargon, Sennacherib
and Asshur-bani-pal, we find in this building a simple plaster above
the slabs. A series of small chambers, none of which was over forty-
five feet long, nor more than twenty-five feet in its greatest width, was
sufficient for the last Assyrian sovereign, whose diminished court could
not now have filled the spacious halls of his predecessors. The Nimrud
palace of Asshur-eraid-ilin, or Saracus, appears to have occupied less
than half the space covered by any other palace upon the mound. The
decline of taste is clearly demonstrated by its lack of grand fa9ades
or magnificent gateway's, its small and inconvenient rooms, running in
suites Mhich communicated with one another without any entrances
from courts or passages, composed of sun-dried bricks faced with lime-
stone and plaster, and roughly paved with limestone flags. The mere
fact that Saracus should have entertained the thought of making his
residence in a structure of so poor and mean a character is the most
convincing evidence of Assyria's decadence and degeneracy on the
eve of her overthrow. The rude condition of this palace, and its
entire want of elegant ornamentation, is to be partially accounted for
by the circumstance that Saracus perished, along with his capital and
his empire, before he had time to complete the edifice.

While this building was undergoing erection Saracus held his court
at Nineveh, where he prepared to defend himself against the enemy
who, taking advantage of his powerless condition, lost no time in press-
ing forward the conquest of his rapidly-decaying and declining era-

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

215

pire. The Medes, favored by nature in their land of rocky hills and
inaccessible mountain chains, did not suffer as much from the ravages
of the Scyths as did the Assyrians in their defenseless plains ; and they
were the first of the nations exposed to the barbarian inundation to
recover from its destructive effects. Having repulsed the Scyths and
expelled them from his country, Cyaxares, the warlike monarch who
founded the great Median Empire, led a large army into Assyria from
the east; while his allies, the Susianians, entered the country in force
from the south.

To defend his country against this double invasion, Saracus, the
last of the great dynasty founded by Sargon, divided his forces, re-
taining a portion under his own command to oppose the Medes, while
he assigned the other part to his general, Nabopolassar, whom he
ordered to Babylon to check the advance of the Susianians. But
Nabopolassar, seeing his own opportunity in his sovereign's perilous
dilemma, turned traitor, and, instead of fighting loyally against the
foes of Assjrria, he entered into secret negotiations with Cyaxares,
agreeing to an alliance with him against the Assyrians, and obtaining
the daughter of the Median king as a bride for his eldest son, Nebu-
chadnezzar. Uniting their forces, Cyaxares and Nabopolassar jointly
attacked Nineveh; whereupon Saracus, or Asshur-emid-ilin, unable to
defend his capital, and overcome by despair, set fire to his palace and
perished in the flames. The once-proud city of Nineveh was plun-
dered and destroyed by the conquering Medes and Babylonians (B. C.
625).

The account of the downfall of Assyria as related by Ctesias is so
fanciful that it is utterly discarded by the best modern historians.
He says that the Medes were accompanied by the Persians, and the
Babylonians by some Arab allies, and that the assailing army num-
bered four hundred thousand men. In the first engagement the As-
syrians were victorious, and the attacking army was driven to the
Zagros mountains. A second and a third attack likewise failed. The
tide of battle turned in favor of the assailants upon the arrival of a
strong rccnforcement from Bactria, when a night attack upon the
Assyrian camp was crowned with complete success. The Assyrian
king sought refuge in his capital, leaving his army under the com-
mand of his brother-in-law, Salaemenes, who was soon defeated and
slain. The siege of Nineveh then began, and lasted over two years
without any result. An unusually wet season in the third year of the
siege caused an extraordinary rise in the Tigris, destroying more than
two miles of the city wall ; whereupon the king, who had been told by
an oracle to fear nothing until the river became his enemy, yielding
to despair, made a funeral pile of all his richest furniture, and burnt

Nabopo-
lassar'8
Treach-
ery.

Self-im-
molation

of
Asshur-
emid-elin

and
Destruc-
tion of
Nineveh.

Account

of this

Event by

Ctesias.

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216

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

End of the
Assyrian
Empire.

Assyria's
Duration.

Assyria's

Ex-
tinction.

himself with his concubines and his eunuchs in his palace. The Medes
and their allies thereupon entering the city on the side laid open by
the flood, plundered and destroyed it. This description of the last
siege of Nineveh, as related by Ctesias, has been transmitted to pos-
terity through the writings of Diodorus Siculus, and, like most of his
statements, is unworthy of credit.

Thus fell the mighty Assyrian Empire, not so much from any in-
herent weakness as by an unfortunate combination of circumstances-^
the invasion of the powerful and warlike Medes when the empire had
been exhausted by the terrible inroad of the Scyths, and the treason
and perfidy of its leading general. With the destruction of the em-
pire the Assyrian race sank into oblivion, and Assyrian history ceased
forever. Assyria upon its downfall was divided between its conquer-
ors, the portion east of the Tigris falling to Media, and the part west
of the river being absorbed by Babylonia.

The independent kingdom of Assyria lasted about a thousand years,
but the empire covered a little less than the last seven centuries of this
period, from B. C. 1300 to B. C. 625, when it fell before the arms of
the Medes, or more properly only about five centuries, from B. C. 1150.
The power and extent of the empire culminated during the brilliant
reign of Asshur-bani-pal, just before its rapid decline and sudden
fall.

By successive changes in this part of Asia, the country has con-
tinually changed masters, being successively under the Medo-Persian,
Grapco-Macedonian, Syrian, Parthian, New Persian, Saracen, Seljuk,
Mongol, and for the last five centuries under the Ottoman Turkish,
dominion. The country now forms part of the Turkish province of
Kurdistan, and the half -savage modem Kurds are the direct descend-
ants of the renowned ancient Assyrians. The palaces in which Sar-
gon, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon and Asshur-bani-pal dwelt in luxury
and splendor, after lying imbedded beneath the mounds and ruins of
twenty-five centuries, have in our day, thanks to the enterprise and
diligence of patient explorers like Layard and Botta, been brought
out of their long concealment to the light of the modem world; and
many wonderful sculptures from the great cities of ancient Assyria
now adorn the museums of London, Paris and Berlin. The great cities
of Asshur, Calah, Dur-Sargina and Nineveh, with their magnificent
royal residences, their busy shops and factories teeming with the prod-
ucts of industry, their crowded thoroughfares in which victorious war-
rior-kings were greeted with the applause of their subjects and the
triumphant shouts of their stalwart and invincible soldiery, now exist
only in the records and memory of their past glory and greatness, and
in the ruins on the mounds of Kileh-Sherghat, Nimrud, K[horsabad

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NEW, OR LOWER ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

S17

and Koyunjik, only tenanted by the wandering Kurds watching their
herds and flocks, and resounding with the jackal's howl after the sun
in its daily course has sunk to rest beneath the western horizon.

KINGS OF ASSYRIA.

B. C. B. C.

About 1400 to 1490.
" 1420 to 1400.
" 1400 to 1380.

Bel-sumili-kapi

Irba-vul

Asshur-iddin-akhi

Asshur-bil-nisi-su ^

Buzur-Asshur (successor) >
Asshur-upalUt (successor) J

ISOOtolSSO.

1230 to 1^0

1910 to 1190
1190 to 1170
1170 to 1150.
1150 to 1130.
1130 to 1110.
1110 to 1090.
1090 to 1070.

Tiglathi-Nin I. (his son) . . .

1380 to 1360. Bel-lush (his son)

1360 to 1340. Pud-a (his son)

1340 to 1390. Vul-lush I. (his son)

1390 to 1300. ShaUnaneser I. (his son) .

Called the founder of the kingdom
on a genealogical tablet.

Mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser I. as
a former king. A very archaic
tablet in the British Museum is
dated in his reign.

Mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser I. as
a former king.

Bel-kudur-uzur

Nin-pala-zira (successor).
Asshur-dayan I. (his son) .
Mutaggil-Nebo (his son).
Asshur-ris-ilim (his son).
Tiglath-Pileser I. (his son) ^
Asshur-bil-kala (his son) . . .
Shamas-Vul I. (his brother)

Asshur-mazur

Mentioned on a synchronistic
tablet, which connects them
with the time .of Puma-
puriyas, the Chaldsean king.
Asshur-upallit mentioned on
Kileh-Sherghat bricks.

Names and succession found
on Kileh-Sherghat bricks,
vases, etc. Shalmaneser I.
mentioned also on a genea-
logical slab and in the stand-
ard inscription of Nimrud. .

Mentioned on a genealogical
tablet. Called "the con-
queror of Babylon," and
placed by Sennacherib 600
years before his own capture
of Babylonia in B. C. 703.

Mentioned on the synchronistic
tablet as the predecessor of
Nin-pala-zira.

Names and relationship given
in cylinder of Tiglath-
Pileser I.

I Mentioned on the synchron-
r istic tablet above spoken
J of. Date of Tiglath-Pileser
I. fixed by the Bavian in-
scription. Dates of the
other kings calculated
from his at twenty years
to a generation.

Mentioned in an inscription of
Shalmaneser II.

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CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

About 930 to 911..

" 911 to 889..

** 889 to 883..

" 883 to 858..

" 858 to 8:23..

« 823 to 810..

« 810 to 781..

•* 781 to 771..

" 771 to 753..

" 753 to 745. .

745 to 727..
727 to 723..
722 to 705..
705 to 681..
681 to 668..
668 to 626..
626 to 625,,

Asshur-dayan II

Vul-lush II. (his son)

Tiglathi-Nin II. (his son)
Asshur-izir-pal (his son).
Shalmaneser II. (his son).
Shamas-Vul II. (his son) .
Vul-lush III. (his son)...

Shalmaneser III

Asshur-dayan III

Asshur-lush

Tiglath-Pilescr II

Shalmaneser IV

Sargon

Sennacherib (his son) ....
Esar-haddon (his son)....
Asshur-bani-pal (his son)
Asshur-emld-ilin (his son)

The kings from Asshur-dayan
II. to Vul-lush III. are
proved to have been in direct
succession by the Kilch-
Sherghat and Ximrud monu-
ments. The las^ nine reigns
are given in the Assyrian
Canon. The Canon is tlie
sole authority for tlic last
three. The dates of the
whole series are determined
from the Canon of Ptolemy
by calculating back from
B. C. 680, his date for the
accession of Esar-haddon
(Asaridanus). They might
also be fixed from the year
of the great eclipse.

The years of these kings,
from Esar-haddon up-
wards, are taken from the
Assyrian Canon. The
dates accord strictly with
the Canon of Ptolemy. The
last year of Asshur-bani-
pal is to some extent con-
jectural.

SECTION VII.— ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

Rawlin-
son's
State-
ment.

Says Professor Rawlinson : " The nature of the dominion estab-
lished by the great Mesopotamian monarchy over the countries in-
cluded within the limits above indicated, will perhaps be best under-
stood if we compare it with the empire of Solomon. Solomon * reigned
over all the kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of
the l*hilistines and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents
and served Solomon all the days of his life.' The first and most strik-
ing feature of the earliest empires is that they are a mere congeries
of kingdoms ; the countries over which the dominant state acquires an
influence, not only retain their distinct individuality, as is the case in
some modem empires, but remain in all respects such as they were
before, with the simple addition of certain obligations contracted to-
wards the paramount authority. They keep their old laws, their old
religion, their line of kings, their law of succession, their whole inter-
nal organization and machinery; they only acknowledge an external
suzerainty which binds them to the performance of certain duties to-
wards the Head of the empire. These duties, as understood in the
earliest times, may be summed up in the two words ■* homage ' and
* tribute ' ; the subject kings * serve ' and ' bring presents.' They are
bound to acts of submission ; must attend the court of their suzerain

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

219

The

Same
Contin-
ued.

when summoned, unless they have a reasonable excuse; must there
salute him as a superior, and othenvise acknowledge his rank ; above
all, they must pay him regularly the fixed tribute which has been im-
posed upon them at the time of tlicir submission or subjection, the un-
authorized withholding of wliich is open and avowed rebellion. Fi-
nally, they must allow his troops free passage through their dominions,
and must oppose any attempt at invasion by way of their country on
the part of his enemies. Such are tlie earliest and most essential obli-
gations on the part of the subject states in an empire of the primitive
type, like that of Assyria ; and these obligations, with the correspond-
ing one on the part of the dominant power of the protection of its
dependents against foreign foes, appear to have constituted the sole
links which joined together in one the heterogeneous materials of which
that empire consisted. * * ♦

*' Such, in its broad and general outlines, was the empire of the
Assyrians. It embodied the earliest, simplest and most crude concep-
tion which the human mind forms of a widely extended dominion. It
was a * kingdom-empire,' like the empires of Solomon, of Nebuchad-
nezzar, of Chedorlaomer, and probably of Cyaxares, and is the best
specimen of its class, being the largest, tlie longest in duration, and
the best known of all such governments that has existed. It exhibits
in a marked way both the strength and weakness of this class of mon-
archies — their strength in the extraordinary magnificence, grandeur,
wealth, and refinement of the capital; their weakness in the impover-
ishment, the exhaustion, and the consequent disaffection of the subject
states. Ever falling to pieces, it was per{)etually reconstructed by
the genius and prowess of a long succession of warrior princes, sec-
onded by the skill and bravery of the people. Fortunate in having
for a long time no very powerful nelglibors, it found little difficulty
in extending itself throughout regions divided and subdivided among
hundreds of petty chiefs, incapable of union, and .singly quite unable
to contend with the forces of a large and populous country. Fre-
quently endangered by revolts, yet always triumphing over them, it
maintained itself for five centuries, gradually advancing its influence,
and was only overthrown after a fierce struggle by a new kingdom
formed upon its borders, which, taking advantage of a time of exhaus-
tion, and leagued with the most powerful of the subject states, was
enabled to accomplish the destruction of the long-dominant people."

As in the case of the Chaldfeans, it was formerly a subject of dispute
as to what branch of the Caucasian race the Ass^^rians belonged ; but ^^ theAs-
it has now been definitely determined b}^ the evidence of language, as Syrians.
well as the testimony of the Hebrew accounts, that the Chaklr.ins were
mainly a Hamitic, or Cushite race, fused slightly w"th Semitic, Ar^^an

Semitic

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220 CHALDi^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

and Turanian elements; while the Assyrians are found to have been
pure Semites, and therefore a kindred people with the Hebrpws, or
Israelites, the Arabs, the Syrians, or Aramieans, and the Phoenicians.
The Mosaic genealogies connected Asshur with Aram, Eber and Jok-
tan, the progenitors respectively of the Aramaeans, or Syrians, the
Israelites, or Hebrews, and the Northern, or Joktanian, Arabs. The
language, physical types and moral characteristics of these races were
well known, as they all belonged to a single family — ^to what ethnolo-
gists and philologists call the Semitic family. The manners and cus-
toms, particularly the religious customs, of the Assyrians were iden-
tical with those of the Syrians and Phoenicians. The modem Chal-
daeans of Kurdistan, who consider themselves descendants of the ancient
inhabitants of the neighboring Assyria, still speak a Semitic dialect
— a fact discovered and reported by the elder Niebuhr, and confirmed
by Mr. Ainsworth. These three circumstances are sufficient evidence
that the Assyrians were Semites, being closely allied in race with the
Syrians, the Later Babylonians, the Phoenicians, the Israelites and the
Northern Arabs ; and recent linguistic discoveries have fully confirmed
this view. We now have in the engraved slabs, the clay tablets, the
cylinders and the bricks, excavated from the ruins of the great As-
syrian cities, abundant documentary testimony of the character of the
Assyrian language, and of the ethnic character of the people. All
who have examined this evidence have arrived at the conclusion that
the language of these records is Semitic, and that it is closely con-
nected with the Hebrew, the Syriac, the Later Babylonian and the
Arabic.
Physical ^^^ physical characteristics of the Assyrians, as disclosed to us by
Charac- their sculptures, also confirm this view. Their sculptured effigies bear
the most striking resemblance to the Jewish physiognomy. The low
and straight forehead, the full brow, the large and almond-shaped eye,
the aquiline nose a little coarse at the end and unduly depressed, the
strong and firm mouth with over-thick lips, the well-formed chin — best
observed in the representation of eunuchs — ^the thick hair and heavy
beard, both of black color — ^all these, as exhibited by the Assyrian
sculptures, display a remarkable likeness to the striking peculiarities
of the Jewish head and face, and also bear somewhat of a resemblance
to the physiognomy of the Arabs, and to all branches of the Semitic
race. These traits are now common to the Jew, the Arab and the
Kurd, while in ancient times they characterized the Assyrians, Syr-
ians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and the minor Semitic nations. The Egyp-
tian sculptures of Amunoph IIL, as representing the Patena, or
people of Bashan ; the Asuru, or Assyrians ; and the Karukamishi, or
people of Carchemish, show us the same type of physiognomy, which

teristics.

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TYPICAL ASSYRIAN HEAD

From a Figure found at Nineveh

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. ggl

the Egyptians regarded as common to all the nations of Western Asia.
In shape the Assyrians are most truly represented by their descendants,
the modem Chald^eans of Kurdistan. Like the modem Kurd, the As-
syrian was robust and stalwart in bodily frame, with broad shoulders
and large limbs. The monuments of no other people show us so
strong a race in muscular development as the ancient Assyrian. The
large brawny limbs of this resolute and sturdy people, whom Rawlin-
son fitly calls " the Romans of Asia," indicate a physical power be-
longing to no other nation.

The mental and moral characteristics of the Jews and the Assyrians ReUgious
also bore the closest analogy. In each the religious sentiment was Senti-
peculiarly predominant. The inscriptions of Assyrian kings begin
and end with praises, invocations and prayers to their chief deities.
All the king's victories and conquests, his successful feats in the chase
of the lion and the wild bull, are ascribed to the protection and favor
of the gods. Thus Tiglath-Pileser I. says in his cylinder : " Under
the auspices of Ninip, my guardian deity, I killed four wild bulls
strong and fierce " ; and *' Under the auspices of Ninip, one hundred
and twenty lions fell before me.** One of Asshur-bani-pal's sculp-
tured inscriptions says : " I, Asshur-bani-pal, king of the nations, king
of Assyria, in my great courage fighting on foot with a lion, terrible
for his size, seized him by the ear, and in the name of Asshur and
Ishtar, Goddess of War, with the spear that was in my hand I ter-
minated his life.** Wherever the Assyrian monarch led his conquer-
ing hosts, he " set up the emblems of Asshur,*' or of " the great gods ** ;
and compelled the vanquished to render them homage. The most
precious of the spoils of conquest were dedicated as thank-offerings
in the temples. The temples themselves were adorned, repaired, beau-
tified, enlarged and multiplied numerically by most of the Assyrian
sovereigns. The kings worshiped in these temples in person and of-
fered sacrifices. They embellished their palaces with religious figures,
such as emblems of chief deities and illustrations of acts of adoration,
as well as with representations of their victories in war and their ex-
ploits in hunting. Their signets, and those of the Assyrians gener-
ally, are religious in character. In every respect religion occupies
an important place among the Assyrians, who fight more for the honor
of their gods than for their king, and aspire as much toward extend-
ing their religion as their dominion.

As in the Jewish religion, we perceive in the Assyrian system a Material-
sensuousness contending with a higher and purer element, which in this ^^^ency!""
case reigns uncontrolled, giving a gross, material and voluptuous char-
acter to its religion. This practical people cared very little for the
spiritual and the ideal, and, not being satisfied with symbols, made

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CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

V/arlike
Skill and
Personal
Courage.

Ferocity
and
Occa-
sional
Harsh-
ness.

idols, or images, of wood and stone to represent their gods; and their
intricate mythological system, with its priestly hierarchy, its mag-
nificent ceremonial and lascivious ceremonies, resembled that of Egypt,
and thus differed from that of the Jews.

The Hebrew Scriptures represent the Assyrians as ** a fierce people."
Their personal valor and courage, and their skill and superiority over
all other nations in the art of war, gave them their victories over their
less7civilized neiglibors and enemies. The valor and courage of the
Assyrians, like that of the Romans, was kept up by constant wars, and
by the cultivation of their manly characteristics, developed in the pur-
suit and sla3'ing of ferocious beasts. The lion and other fierce and
dangerous animals infested Assyria; and, unlike other Asiatics, who
tremble with fear before the great beasts of prey and avoid an en-
counter with them by flight if possible, the ancient Assyrians hunted
the strongest and fiercest animals, provoked them to a collision and
engaged with them in close combat. The spirit of Nimrod, " the
mighty hunter before the Lord," which animated his own people, the
Chaldaeans, inspired to even a greater extent their northern neighbors,
the Assyrians, according to the evidence afforded us by the monuments.
The Assyrians, from the sovereign to the lowest subject, delighted
especially in hunting the lion and the wild bull, noted for their strength
and courage, and to attack either of which was to incur extreme peril.

The Assyrians were not only a brave and hardy people, but also
very fierce and ferocious in their nature. In the language of the
Hebrew prophet Isaiah, the Assyrian nation was " a mighty and a
strong one, which, as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a
flood of mighty waters overflowing, cast down to the earth with the
hand." The Israelitish prophet Nahum could well describe Nineveh
as " a bloody city," or " a city of bloods." In this fierce disposition
the Assyrians were not unlike other conquering races, few of which
have been tender-hearted, or inclined to spare a vanquished foe. Car-
nage, ruin and desolation marked the course of an Assyrian army, and
excited feelings of fear and animosity among their enemies. Assyrian
fierceness was, however, often tempered with clemency. The slain foe
was mutilated not by way of insult, but as a proof of the slayer's
prowess, perhaps to obtain a reward given for heads, as has frequently
been the case with Orientals. Scribes are often represented on the
sculptures taking an account of the heads cut ofi^. Otherwise the
Assyrians had no actually cruel customs. They readily gave quarter
when asked for, and chose rather to take prisoners than to massacre.
They were very terrible foes to encounter in battle and to withstand
in an attack, but in the hour of triumph they forgave and spared the
fallen foe. The exceptions to this general clemency were in the cases

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LIONS OF OLD ASSYRIA
Upper Section: Sculptured Lion in Later Style
Lower Section : Sculptured Lion in Earliest Style

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ASSYRIAN CIVIIJZATIOX.

223

of the subjugation of rebellious towns, wherein the most guilty
of the rebellion were impaled on stakes, and in several instances pris-
oners are represented on the sculptures as being led before the king
by a rope fastened to a ring passing through the under lip, while occa-
sionally one appears as being flayed with a knife. But usually cap-
tives were either released, or transferred, without unnecessary suffer-
ing, from their own country to another part of the Assyrian Empire;
there being some exceptional cases, where the captives were urged on-
wards by blows, like tired cattle, and where they were heavily fettered.
Captive women were never manacled, but were treated with real tender-
ness, being frequently permitted to ride on mules or in carts.

The greatest vice of the Assyrians seems to have been their treach-
ery. Sa3'S the Hebrew prophet Isaiah : " Woe to thee that spoilcst,
though thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherous!}^, though they
dealt not treacherously with thee ! " The prophet Nahum declared
Nineveh to be " full of lies and robbery." Isaiah further declared, in
alluding to the Assj-rian king: *' He hath broken the covenant, he
hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man." But the denunciations
of the Assyrians for cruelty or treachery by Jewish prophets and
writers would carry more weight if the Hebrew history did not abound
with tales of barbarous cruelty, bloodshed, treachery and crime.

Another failing in the character of the Assyrians was their pride,
which is especially denounced in the Hebrew Scriptures, where it is
expressly declared to have called forth the Divine judgments upon the
nation. Says the prophet Ezekiel : " Because thou hast lifted up
thyself in height, and he hath shot his top among the thick boughs,
and his heart is lifted up in his height ; I have therefore delivered him
into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal
with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness." The prophets
Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zephaniah alike denounce Assyrian pride. This
characteristic ever3'where pervades the Assyrian inscriptions. The
Assyrians considered themselves greatly superior to all other nations.
They alone were favored by the gods. They only were really wise
or actually brave. The armed hosts of their foes were chased before
them like chaff before the wind. Their enemies were afraid to fight,
or were at once defeated with ease. They carried their arms in tri-
umph wherever they pleased, and never acknowledged that they had
experienced a reverse. The only merit that they admitted other people
to possess was some skill in the mechanical and mimetic arts, and this
acknowledgment was only tacitly made by employing foreign artists
to ornament their edifices.

The Greek accounts as given by Ctesias, and transmitted therefrom
to the Romans and through them to the moderns, represented luxurious

Treach-
ery.

Pride.

Luxury

and
Sensu-
ality.

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Q24i CHALDMA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

living and sensuality as the predominant vice of Assyrian monarchs,
from Ninyas to Sardanapalus, from the origin to the overthrow of the
Assyrian Empire. The entire race of Assyrian sovereigns are thus
represented as voluptuaries, who carried into practice the principle
that human happiness consisted in freedom from all cares or troubles,
and in unrestrained indulgence in every kind of sensual pleasure. This
account is directly contradicted by the authentic records which the
Assyrian monuments and sculptures furnish us concerning the warlike
character and manly pursuits of so large a number of the monarchs.
Nevertheless in so flourishing a monarchy as Assyria luxury did grad-
ually advance; and when the Empire fell before the combined attack
of two powerful neighboring kingdoms, it had lost much of its old-
time vigor. There is only one passage in the Old^ Testament ascribing
luxury and sensuality as a cause of the downfall of Assyria. The
usual faults for which Jewish prophets generally denounced the As-
syrians are their violence, treachery and pride. When Nineveh re-
pented in Jonah's time it was by each man having " turned from his
evil way and from the violence which was in their hands." When
Nahum announced the final overthrow, it was " the bloody city, full of
lies and robbery." In the figurative language of the prophet, the lion
was selected as the symbol of Assyria, even at the close of her history.
Thus Assyria is still represented as " the lion that did tear in pieces
enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his
holes with prey, and his dens with ravin." The chosen national em-
blem of Assyria is thus accepted as the true type of her people; and
blood, ravin and robbery are the Assyrian qualities in the view of the
Jewish prophet.
Mental The Assyrians were among the foremost Asiatic nations in mental

power. Though they derived the elements of their civilization orig-
inally from their mother country, Chaldaea, they excelled their instruc-
tors in many particulars, and rendered the old arts more valuable by
continual improvements. Their language, arts and government attest
their native genius, and are advances upon what had previously pre-
vailed in Mesopotamia and in the world. The Assyrians were the
superiors of the highly-lauded Egyptians in many essential particu-
lars. The progressive character and spirit of Assyrian art contrasts
most strongly with the stiff, lifeless and fixed conventionalism of the
Egyptian. The Assyrian language and alphabet are an advance upon
the Egyptian. The Assyrian religion is more earnest and less de-
graded than that of the Nile land. The courage and military genius
of the Assyrians were also superior to the same qualities in the Egyp-
tians, who were on the whole an unwarlike nation. But in the grand-
eur and durability of her architecture Egypt surpassed Assyria. The

Power.

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

225

Assyrian palaces, with all their splendor, were inferior to the colossal
structures of Thebes. Neither Assyria, Rome or any other nation,
has rivaled Egypt in the vastness and the solemn grandeur of its edi-
fices. But with this solitary exception, the great kingdom of Africa
was decidedly the inferior of her powerful Asiatic rival, which was
truly described by the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel as " a cedar in Leb-
anon, exalted above all the trees of the field — fair in his greatness, in
the length of his branches — so that all the trees of Eden, that were
in the garden of God, envied him — ^and not one was like unto him in
his beauty."

The material and physical vigor of the Assyrians outran their intel-
lectual progress and development. The elements of their science and
literature, their cuneiform writing, their architecture and other arts,
they brought with them from their mother country, Chald^ea. Even
the Hamitic, or Cushite, dialect of the Chaldees became the language
of the Assyrian priests and scholars, and in this dead language were
preserved the records of the old Chaldaean kingdom and the early his-
tory of the Assyrian monarchy. It was not until the culminating
period of Assyrian greatness and glory, during the brilliant reign of
Asshur-bani-pal, just before the rapid decay and decline of Assyrian
power, that the works written in the Chaldee classic tongue were trans-
lated into the Assyrian vernacular. The Assyrian race manifested
its greatness in art and manufactures, and not in science and litera-
ture.

As we have before noticed, the same system of cuneiform, or wedge-
sliaped, characters used in Chaldaean writing was employed in the writ-
ten language of Assyria. The mounds of Assyria and Mesopotamia
have yielded a mass of documents in the Assyrian language. Some of
these are stone slabs bearing long historic inscriptions with which the
walls of palaces are paneled, and which are wonderfully preserved to
this day. Other memorials are the hollow cylinders, or, more properly,
hexajgonal or octagonal prisms, made of extremely thin terra-cotta,
and which the Assyrian kings inscribed with the records of their actions
and with many religious invocations, and deposited at the comers of
temples. These cylinders are from a half yard to a yard high, and
the inscriptions covering the outside face are arranged in columns,
one of which occupies each side, reading from top to bottom. This
writing was so wonderfully fine as to often require a good magnifying
glass to decipher it. The cylinder of Tiglath-Pileser I. contains
thirty lines in a space of six inches, or five lines to an inch, which is
almost as close as the type of this book. The cylinder of Asshur-
bani-pal has six lines to the inch. The durability of these cylinders
is attested by the fact that many of them still remain, and give us
VOL. 1. — 15

Physical
Vigor.

Inscribed
Slabs

and Cyl-
inders.

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226

CHALD.KA, ASSYRIA, 15ABYLONIA.

Inscribed
Sculp-
tures,
Bricks
ar.dClay
Tablets.

Black

Obelisk of

Slialma-

neser II.

Slab and
Tablet
Inscrip-
tions.

Rawlin-

rou cii

A.r^yri.ia

r-iicn.

most of our knowledge of the aiuials of this great people, as recorded
by themselves twenty -five and tliirty centuries ago.

Besides slabs and cylinders, the written records of Assyria were in-
scribed u})on the stone bulls and lions, stone obelisks, engraved seals,
bricks and clay tablets. Both the sun-dried and kiln-burned bricks
are stamped with legends, to preserve t!icm from the two great dangers
of flood and fire, to which Assyria was subject. Fire would only
harden the sun-dried bricks, and water could not affect those burned
in kilns. The clay tablets are numerous, and of sizes varying from
nine by six and a half inches, to an inch and a half by an inch. In
some cases they arc wholly covered with writing, while in other in-
stances a portion of their surface is stamped with seals, mythological
emblc^ms, etc. Thousands of these tablets have been found, man}' being
historical, many mythological, some linguistic, some geographic, some
astronomical. Such are the treasures of Assyrian literature.

The few stone ol)('lisks are in a fragmentary condition, the only per-
fect one being the one in black basalt, discovered by Mr. Layard at
Ximrud, and which has now been for many years in the British Mu-
seum. This monument is about seven feet high, two feet broad at the
base, tapering slightly towards the top, which is crowned with three
low steps, or gradines. The inscription occupies the upper and lower
portions of each side, and is carried along the spaces between the bas-
reliefs, consisting of two hundred and ten clearly cut lines. It is one
of the most important of tlie remaining Assyrian memorials, and con-
tains a record of the victories won and the tribute brought to Shal-
inanescr II., who sot it up.

The many inscribed lions and bulls guiirding the portals of palaces
are raised in a bold relief on alabaster slabs ; the inscriptions gener-
idly covering only the portions of the slabs not occupied by the animal,
and usually giving a di tailed account of some important campaign.
Clay tablets were used in ordinary business affairs, and for literary
and scientific writings; and, when wanted for instruction or evidence,
were carefully baked. That the}' exist to this day, in as legible a con-
dition, with letiers as cle.ir and sharp as any Greek or Roman legend
on .stone, marble or met id, proves that the best clay, properly baked,
is as dura])le as si one or metal.

Says Professor llawlinson : " Of all the Assyrian w^orks of art which
li ive come ("loun to us, by far the most important are the bas-reliefs.
It is here especially, if not solely, that we can trace progress in style;
.Mid it is here ;)l(H>e Ihat we see the real artistic genius of the people.
What se;!lj>tr.iv in its full form, or in the sli<.rhtly modified form of
very 1 :L\h relief, v.-,s to the (Wrecks, what painting has been to modem
the time of Cimabue, that low relief was to the

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. ^£7

Assyrians — the practical mode in which artistic power found vent
among them. They used it for almost every purpose to which mimetic
art is appHcable; to express their religious feelings and ideas, to
glorify their kings, to hand down to posterity the nation's history
and its deeds of prowess, to depict home scenes and domestic occupa-
tions, to represent landscape and architecture, to imitate animal and
vegetable forms, even to illustrate the mechanical methods which they
employed in the construction of those vast architectural works of which
the reliefs were the principal ornamentation. It is not too much to
say that we know the Assyrians, not merely artistically, but histor-
ically and ethnologically, chiefly through their bas-reliefs, which seem
to represent to us almost the entire life of the people."

The bas-reliefs were sculptured on stone slabs, which were set in the Classes of
lower part of the walls of the palaces which they adorned. These reliefs,
reliefs were of five different classes: 1. War scenes, such as battles,
sieges, devastations of an enemy's country, naval expeditions and tri-
umphant returns from foreign wars, with the trophies and fruits of
victory ; 2. Religious scenes, mythical and real ; 3. Processions, mostly
of tribute-bearers, carrying the produetsi -of their respective countries
to the Assyrian king ; 4. Hunting and sporting scenes, such as the
chase of ferocious animals, and of animals hunted for food, the spread-
ing of nets, the shooting of birds, etc. ; 5. Scenes of every-day life,
such as the transportation and erection X)f colossal bulls, and land-
scapes, temples, interiors, gardens, etc.

Assyrian mimetic art is in the form of statues, bas-reliefs, metal ^.^y*}*"
castings, ivory carvings, clay statuettes, brick enamelings, and intag- Art.
lios on stones and gems. Assyrian statues are rare and imperfect.
The best specimens are two royal statues now in the British Museum ;
also two statues of the god Nebo, one of the goddess Ishtar, and one
of Sargon — all of which are now also in the British Museum. The
Assyrian clay statuettes, mostly images of deities, possess even less
artistic excellence than the statues. Small animal figures, mostly dogs
and ducks, in terra-cotta, have likewise been discovered.

In painting, as well as in sculpture, the Assyrians made great prog- Painting,
ress, and many of the drawings on the prominent sculptures are ele-
gant. Everything indicates a taste for display. In architectural
designs, and in the grouping of flowers and animals for the purposes
of embellishment, great richness and variety of fancy are exhibited.
The dresses of the kings display gorgeous robes, elegantly and pro-
fusely embroidered, fringed and tasseled. Sandals made of wood or
leather were used for the feet, while caps and tiaras of silk were worn
on the head. Many articles of furniture likewise displayed great ele-
gance. Tables constructed of wood or metal, inlaid with ivory and

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228

CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Architec-
ture and
Sculp-
ture.

Assyrian
Palaces.

Royal
Scenes.

having legs gracefully carved, were in the dwellings of the wealthy.
Elegant baskets seem to have been in use. Ornaments, such as tassels,
fringes, necklaces, armlets, bracelets, anklets, ear-rings of various
forms and elegant workmanship, clasps, etc., were worn in profusion.
There were drinking-cups of gold and silver. Everywhere was mani-
fested a love of elaborate and gaudy decoration.

The excavations within the last half century at E^horsabad, Koyun-
jik, Nimrud and Kileh-Sherghat have revealed to us the fact that truly
did Assyria rank next to Egypt in monumental grandeur. The re-
mains of Assyrian art and architecture exhumed from these mounds
give a very considerable knowledge of their stupendous palaces in the
days of their splendor and glory. We can, by looking at the remains
of the sculptured and painted walls of their vast edifices, read the rec-
ords of Assyria — ^its battles, its sieges, its conquests and its triumphs.
We see around the colossal images of the Assyrian gods, by which, in
monstrous yet striking emblems, the Assyrians endeavored to express
their conceptions of divinity. We are here introduced to the sem-
blances of monarchs who flourished from twenty-five to thiry centuries
ago. We see these in their costumes of state, in all the pomp and cir-
cumstance of war, in the pursuit of the chase, and in the solemn cere-
monials of religion. We are also enabled from these sculptures to
inform ourselves of many of the domestic customs of the Assyrians,
of their household furniture, their mechanical tools and implements,
their methods of agriculture, the crops of the husbandman, and in fact,
the occupations and amusements of this renowned Asiatic people in
the days of their preeminence.

Layard and Botta, the fortunate discoverers of these famous ruins,
have given us glowing descriptions of the massive dimensions, the mag-
nificence and grandeur, of the Assyrian palaces, whose ruins they un-
covered from the E^horsabad, Koyunjik and Nimrud mounds. The
stranger who visited these splendid palaces in the flourishing periods
of the Assyrian Empire was ushered in through the portal, guarded
by colossal winged man-headed lions and bulls of white alabaster. In
the first hall he saw all around him the sculptured records of the empire
— ^battles, sieges, triumphs, hunting exploits, religious ceremonies —
all portrayed on the palace walls, sculptured in alabaster, and painted
in gorgeous colors. Under each picture he saw engraved, in charac-
ters filled up with bright copper, inscriptions descriptive of the scenes
thus illustrated.

Above the sculptures he observed paintings representing other events
— ^the Assyrian king, attended by his eunuchs and his warriors, receiv-
ing his captives, negotiating alliances with other monarchs, or per-
forming some sacred duty ; these representations being surrounded by

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

339

colored borders, of elaborate and elegant designs. He saw the em-
blematic tree, also winged man-headed bulls and lions, occupying con-
spicuous places among the ornaments. At the upper end of the hall
was a gigantic figure of the king, in adoration before Asshur, " the
Great Lord,'* or receiving from his eunuch the holy cup. He was
attended by warriors bearing his arms, and by the priests, or presid-
ing divinities. His robes and those of his followers were adorned with
groups of figures, animals and flowers, all painted with brilliant colors.

The visitor trod upon alabaster slabs, each bearing an inscription,
recording the titles, the genealogy and the achievements of the Great
King. Several doorways, guarded by gigantic winged man-headed
lions and bulls, or by the figures of guardian deities, led into other
apartments, which likewise opened into more remote halls. In each
of these apartments and halls were sculptures. On the walls of some
were processions of colossal figures — ^armed men and eunuchs follow-
ing the king, or warriors laden with spoil, conducting captives or
bearing presents and offerings to the gods. On the walls of others
were portrayed the winged priests, or presiding divinities, standing
before the sacred trees.

The ceilings above the visitor were divided into square compart-
ments, painted with flowers or with figures of animals. Some were in-
laid with ivory, each compartment being surrounded with elegant bor-
ders and mouldings. The beams, as well as the sides of the chambers,
may have been gilded, or even plated with gold and silver; and the
most highly prized species of wood, prominent among which was the
cedar, were used in the wood-work. The palaces were lighted from
the roofs, which were of wood, the light being admitted through square
openings into the ceilings of the chambers. A pleasing light was thus
cast over the sculptured walls, and gave a majestic expression to the
human features of the colossal figures guarding the entrances. The
azure hue of the eastern sky was seen through these apertures, which
were enclosed in frames, whereon were painted in vivid colors the
winged circle, in the midst of elegant ornaments and the graceful fig-
ures of ideal animals.

These vast edifices were the great Assyrian monuments, upon whose
walls were represented in sculpture, or inscribed in cuneiform charac-
ters, the chronicles of the Assyrian Empire. The visitor who entered
these splendid structures might here read the annals and learn all about
the glory and triumphs of this great people. These memorials served
also to constantly remind those who assembled within the palace on
festive occasions, or for celebrating religious ceremonies, of the deeds
and prowess of their ancestors, and the power and majesty of the
Assyrian gods.

Royal
Inscrip-
tions and
Sculp-
tures.

Ornamen-
tation.

Historic
Chron-
icles.

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5230

CHALD/EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Plan of

the
Palaces.

Brick and

Stone
Remains.

Ruins and
Mounds

of
Nineveh.

Koyunjik
Mound.

Tlio palaces seem to have been one story, but of vast extent. Under
ihc floor of each room was a drain, consisting of a clay pipe. No
traces of the dwellings of the common people remain. The sculptures
inform us that the Assyrians used the arch in building. Assyrian
pillars in the temples and palaces rested on circular or globular bases,
or on animal figures. The temple towers, or ziggurats, were erected
in the form of steps or stages around their four sides, thus gradually
becoming narrower at the top. Such were tlie royal residences of
Assyria — each of which was at the same time a temple and a palace —
the dwelling of him who was at once the sovereign, the priest and the
prophet of his people.

The Assyrian ruins exhibit no tombs like those of Egypt, whose
painted interiors, protected from the ravages of the elements, have
transmitted to succeeding ages the thoughts, feelings and opinions of
their ancient builders. All that remain of Assyrian architecture are
scattered bricks, usually marked with inscriptions and with sculptures
and reliefs. The most interesting and valuable are the stone slabs
facing the inside walls of the temples. The Assyrian structures were
generally built of brick, which was preferred as a building material,
although stone was abundant in the country. The temples constructed
of stone have partly remained, though buried in heaps of rubbish for
twenty-five centuries. Marble, alabaster and basalt were used in the
palaces. The ancient Assyrian edifices, like the palaces, had no win-
dows, but were lighted through their wooden roofs.

So thoroughly was Nineveh destroyed that when Xenophon, about
two hundred and twenty-five years afterward, passed over its ruins the
very name of the place w^as unknown to the inhabitants; and in the
time of Alexander the Great, nearly a century later, the city was
forgotten; so that for over two thousand years the very site of the
renowned capital and metropolis of Assyria was unknown. But the
wonderful discoveries of Laj'^ard in recent times have identified its
locality as the ruins opposite the present town of Mo^ul, on the Tigris,
consisting of two principal mounds, known respectively by their pres-
ent Arab names of Nebbi-Yunus and Koyunjik.

The Koyunjik mound is the larger and is located about nine hun-
dred yards, or a little over half a mile, north-west of the Nebbi-Yunus.
Its shape is an irregular oval, elongated to a point towards the north-
east, in the line of its greater axis. The surface is almost flat, and
the sides slope at a steep angle, being furrowed with many ravines,
worn in the soft material by the rains of twenty-five centuries. The
mound rises to its greatest height above the plain towards the south-
eastern extremity, there overhanging the small stream of the Khosr-su,
where the height is about ninety-five feet. The mound covers about

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

231

a hundred acres. On this artificial mound the Assyrian palaces and
temples, now buried beneath heaps of earth and rubbish, were erected
in ancient times.

The Nebbi-Yunus mound is almost triangular at its base and covers
about forty acres. It is more elevated, and its sides are more precipi-
tous than Koyunjik, particularly on the west, where it abutted upon
the wall of the city. The surface is mostly flat, but is divided into
an eastern and a western portion by a deep ravine running nearly from
north to south. The supposed tomb of Jonah occupies a conspicuous
place on the northern edge of the western portion of the mound, and
the cottages of Kurds and Turkomans are grouped about it. The
eastern portion forms a general Mohammedan burial-ground for tlic
surrounding country.

Palaces and temples were raised on these two great mounds, both
of which are in the same line and abutted on the western wall of the
city. On this side Nineveh was thirteen thousand six Imndrcd feet,
or over two and a half miles long, and in ancient times overhung the
Tigris, which is now a mile farther to tlie west, leaving a plain of
that width between the river and the old rampairt of the cit3\ This
rampart followed the natural course of the river Bank. At its north-
ern extremity the western wall approaches the present course of the
Tigris, and is there connected, at exactly right angles, with the north-
em or north-western rampart, which runs in a direct line to the north-
eastern angle of the city and measures exactly seven thousand feet.
At one third of the distance from the north-west angle this wall is
broken by a road, and adjoining this is a remarkable mound, which
covers one of the principal gates of the city. At its other end the
western wall forms an obtuse angle with the southern wall, which im-
pends over a deep ravine formed by a winter torrent, thus running in
a direct* line about a thousand yards, when it is joined with the eastern
wall, with which it forms a slightly acute angle. The eastern wall,
the longest and most irregular of the ramparts, skirts the edge of a
rocky ridge, there rising above the level of the plain and presenting
a slightly convex course to the north-east. This wall is sixteen thou-
sand feet, or over three miles long, and is divided a little north of the
middle into two portions, by the Khosr-su, which flows through the
city ruins, running across the low plains to the Tigris.

Thus the entire enceinte of Nineveh forms an irregular trapezium.
Its greatest width, which is in its northern portion, is four-ninths of
its length, thus giving the city an oblong shape, as Diodorus described
it, though he greatly exaggerated its size. The circuit of the walls
is not quite eight miles, instead of being over fifty' ; and the area thus
embraced is eighteen hundred English acres, and not one hundred and

Nebbi-

Yunuo
Moiiiid.

Walls cf
Kinevsh.

Shape,
Size and
Popula-
tion of
Nineveh

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^32

CHALD.*:A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Size of
tlieWaUs.

Masonry

and Gates

of the

Walls.

Rivers

Khosr-su

and Tigris

and

Canals.

twelve thousand. It has been estimated that populous Oriental cities
have a hundred inhabitants to the acre» or one to fifty square yards,
thus giving ancient Nineveh one hundred and seventy-five thousand
souls, a population exceeding that of any city of Western Asia at
the present time.

Diodorus described the wall with which NInus surrounded his capital
as being one hundred feet high, and so wide that three chariots could
be driven abreast along the top. Xenophon, who passed near the ruins
while conducting the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, says that the walls
were one hundred and fifty feet high and fifty feet broad. The great-
est lieight at present appears to be forty-six feet ; but the great amount
of rubbish at the foot of the walls, and their ruined condition, have
led Mr. Layard to say : ** The remains still existing of these fortifica-
tions almost confirm the statement of Diodorus Siculus, that the walls
were a hundred feet high.'* The walls in their present condition are
from one hundred to two hundred feet broad.

Xenophon sa^s that the walls up to fifty feet were constructed of a
fossilifcrous limestone, smoothed and polished on the outside, and that
above that height sun-dried bricks were used. The stone masonry, in
Mr. Layard's opinion, was ornamented along its top by a continuous
series of battlements, or gradincs, of the same material, and it is prob-
able that a like ornamentation crowned the upper brick structure.
The wall was pierced at irregular intervals by gates, above which rose
high towers; and lower towers occurred in the parts of the wall be-
tween the different gates. A gate in the north-western rampart,
cleared by excavation, seems to have consisted of three gateways, the
inner and outer being ornamented with colossal winged man-headed
bulls and other figures, while the middle one was only paneled with
alabaster slabs. Between the gateways were two large chambers, sev-
enty feet long by twenty-three feet wide, being thus capable of 'holding
a considerable body of soldiers. The chambers and gateways are
believed to have been arched over, similar to the castles' gates on the
bas-reliefs. The gates themselves have entirely ceased to exist, but
the rubbish which filled both the chambers and the passages contained
so much charcoal as to give rise to the belief that they were con-
structed of bronze. The ground within the gateway was paved witli
large limestone slabs, which still bear the marks of chariot-wheels.

Besides its ramparts, Nineveh was protected on all sides by water
barriers, the west and south being defended by natural streams, and
the north and east by artificial canals beginning at the Khosr-su.
Skirting the northern and eastern walls was a deep moat, into which
the waters of the E[hosr-su were turned by occupying its natural chan-
nel with a strong dam, carried across it in the line of the eastern

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wall, and at the point where the stream now flows into the enclosure.
On coming in contact with this obstruction, of which some vestiges
yet remain, the waters separated into two parts, one flowing to the
south-east into the Tigris by the ravine immediately to the south of
the city, which is a natural water-course, and the other turning at an
acute angle to the north-west, washing the remainder of the eastern
and the entire northern wall, and emptying into the Tigris at the
north-west angle of the city, where a second dam kept it at a sufficient
height. On the eastern side, which seems to have been the weakest
and the most exposed, a series of outer defenses were constructed for
the further protection of the city. North of the Khosr-su, betweeen
the city wall and that stream, which there flows parallel to the wall
and forms a second or outer moat, are the remains of a detached fort
which, from its size, evidently added considerable strength to the city's
defenses in that quarter. The works are yet more elaborate to the
south and south-east of the Khosr-su. From a point where the stream
leaves the hills and reaches low ground, a deep ditch, two hundred feet
wide, was extended for two miles, until it connected with the ravine
forming the natural defense of the city on the south. On each side
of the ditch, which could be easily filled with water from the Khosr-su
at its northern extremity, was erected a high and wide wall ; the eastern
one forming the outermost defense, and rising even yet a hundred
feet above the bottom of the ditch on which it adjoins. Between this
outer barrier and the city moat was a kind of demi-lune, defended by
a double wall and a broad ditch, and joined by a covered way with
the city itself. Thus Nineveh was protected on its most vulnerable
side, towards the centre, by five walls and three broad and deep moats ;
towards the north by a wall, a moat, the Khosr-su and a strong out-
post ; towards the south by two moats and three lines of rafnpart. The
entire fortification on the eastern side is two thousand two hundred
feet, or nearly a half mile wide.

The accounts of Ctesias and Diodorus respecting the immense size Accoants
of Nineveh are highly exaggerated, and it is known that these writers Q^^g^^
regarded the ruins of Nimrud, Keremles, Khorsabad and Koyunjik Diodorus
as all being the remains of that renowned Assyrian capital. The Book ^g totiTe^
of Jonah also bears testimony to the immense size of this great city. Siie of
Unlike Ctesias, who only saw the ruins of Nineveh, Jonah saw the city ^°*^^ '
itself in its splendor. This Hebrew prophet tells us that Nineveh
was " an exceeding great city, of three days' journey," and also that
in it were " more than sixscore thousand persons that could not discern
between their right hand and their left." Though these passages are
very vague, they yet convey some idea of the vastness of the city. It
has been supposed that the one hundred and twenty thousand persons

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2S4i

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Assyrian
Warfare.

Accounts

by Isaiah,

Nahum

and
Ctesias.

Assyrian

War-
chariot.

" that could not discern between their right hand and their left " were
children, which would thus indicate a population of about six hundred
thousand. It has also beon believed that the phrase " six score thou-
sand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their
left '* alluded to the dense ignorance of the inhabitants, in which case
the number here mentioned included the entire population of the city.

The sculptures of the Assyrians furnish us with very complete rep-
resentations of their system of warfare. The Assyrians, like other
ancient nations, fought in chariots, on horseback and on foot. Like
the Egyptians, the early Greeks, the Canaanites, the S3^rians, the Jews
and Israelites, the Philistines, the Hittites, the Lydians, the Elamites,
or Susianians, the Medcs and Persians, the Hindoos, the Gauls, the
Britons, and other peoples of antiquity, the Assyrians looked upon the
chariot as most honorable. Their king invariably went to war and
battle riding in a chariot, only dismounting and shooting his arrows
on foot while besieging a town. The leading officers of state, and
other dignitaries of high rank, followed the same custom. The cav-
alry and infantry were composed of persons of the lower classes.

The Jewish prophet Isaiah, in warning his countrymen of the mis-
cries in store for them, described the Assyrians as a people " whose
arrows were sharp, and all their bows bent, whose horses' hoofs should
be counted like flint, and their wJieels like a whirlwind." The same
prophet, in afterwards announcing Jehovah's displeasure with Sen-
nacherib on account of his pride, speaks of that king's reliance upon
** the multitude of his chariots." The prophet Nahum, in announc-
ing the coming overthrow of the haughty nation, declares that Jehovah
is " against her, and will burn her chariots in the smoke." In the
fabulous Assyrian history by Ctesias the war-chariots of the mythical
king Ninus are represented as amounting to nearly eleven thousand,
and those of his wife and successor, Semiramis, are estimated at the
extravagant number of one hundred thousand.

The Assyrian war-chariot is believed to have been made of wood.
Like that of the Greeks and Egyptians, it seems to have been mounted
from behind, being there completely open, or only closed by means of
a shield, which could be hung across the aperture. It was richly orna-
mented, and completely paneled at the sides. The two wheels were
placed at the extreme hind end of the body, as in the Egj^ptian war-
chariot. The chariot-wheels of the early period had six spokes ; those
of the middle and later periods had eight. The felloes of the wheels
usually consisted of three distinct circles, the middle one being the
thinnest, and the outer one the thickest of the three. Sometimes there
-^as a fourth circle. These circles were fastened together with bands
of iron. The wheels were attached to an axle-tree fastened to the body

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

235

without any springs between them. They were furnished with bows,
quivers of arrows, spears, or javelins, hatchets, battle-axes and shields.

The chariots were drawn by two or three horses, two being yoked
together in front, while the third was hitched before the others by
means of a rope, and was designed as a supply in case of loss. The
harness and trappings of the horses were extremely rich and elegant ;
ribbons, tassels, fringes and rosettes, of gay colors, profusely deco-
rating the head, neck and sides. The bits and ornaments of the bridles
were of gold and silver. Embroidered robes were sometimes thrown
over the backs of the chariot-horses.

The chariots contained two persons at least, the driver, or chariot-
eer, and the warrior. Sometimes they contained in addition an at-
tendant who protected the warrior with a shield while he discharged
his arrows at the foe. In rare instances there was a second attendant
with a shield to protect the archer from behind, thus making four per;-
sons occupying the chariot. The bow was the usual weapon of the
chariot warrior, as well as of the cavalry and infantry soldiers. The
chariot w^irrior was sometimes dressed in a long tunic confined at the
waist by a girdle, and sometimes in a coat of mail, like the Egyptian
chariot warrior. Sometimes he descended from the chariot to shoot
off his arrows on foot.

The Assyrian cavalry rank in importance almost equally with the
war-chariots. Ctesias made the number of horsemen in Assyrian
armies always greater than the chariots. The writer of the Apoch-
ryphal Book of Judith assigns Holofernes twelve thousand horse-arch-
ers, and the prophet Ezekiel alludes apparently to all the " desirable
young men " as " horsemen riding upon horses." The Assyrian sculp-
tures represent the cavalry as far exceeding in number the chariots.
In the early period of Assyrian history cavalry were but little used,
but in the times of Sargon and Sennacherib the cavalry came to be
prominent in all battle scenes, the chariot being only used by the king
and high dignitaries. The cavalry were divided, according to their
weapons, into mounted archers, or bowmen, and mounted spearmen.
In the early period each cavalry archer was accompanied by an un-
armed attendant, who managed his steed, While the archer discharged
his arrows.

Assyrian armies, like others, consisted mainly of infantry. Ctesias
gives Ninus 1,700,000 footmen, 210,000 horsemen and 10,600 char-
iots. Xenophon showed the wide contrast between the immense host
of infantry and the scanty numbers of the cavalry and the chariots.
Herodotus says that the Assyrians in the great army of Xerxes were
all footmen. The Book of Judith assigns to Holofernes ten times as
many footmen as horsemen. The Assj^rian monuments show the same

Chariot
Horses

and
Harness.

Chario-
teers and
Warriors.

Assyrian
Cavalry.

Assyrian
Infantry.

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236

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Weapons

and
Armor.

Military
Cos-
tumes.

Trophies

and
Spoils.

Scaling
ladders.

proportion of infantry to cavalry, and represent a hundred footmen
to each chariot soldier. For their military successes the Assyrians
were chiefly indebted to the valor, discipline, solidity and equipment
of their infantry, which consisted mainly of foot archers, or bowmen,
and foot spearmen. Besides these the foot soldiers embraced swords-
men, mace-bcarers, ax-bearers, and from Sennacherib's time, slingers.
Pioneers accompanied the army to clear away trees with their axes.
In Sargon's time the foot soldiers consisted of those of the light equip-
ment, those of the intermediate equipment, and those of the heavy
equipment. Sennacherib's foot » archers embraced four classes, two
heavy-armed and two light-armed.

The offensive weapons were the bow and arrow, the spear, pike, or
javelin, the sword, the mace, the battle-ax and the sling. The de-
fensive armor consisted of a shield of metal or wicker-work ; a crested
or pointed helmet of metal; and a coat of mail, consisting of succes-
sive rows of iron scales in the early period and reaching to the feet or
knees, and in later times composed of larger metal plates and bands
fastened together and reaching only as low as the waist.

The warriors were variously costumed, those of the lighter equip-
ment only wearing a short tunic reaching from the waist to half-way
down the thigh, the rest of the person being bare; those of the inter-
mediate equipment wearing a coat of mail to the waist and a tunic
thence to half-way down the thigh ; and those of the heavy equipment
wearing a coat of mail above the waist, and a robe thence down to the
feet. Both these latter classes wore helmets over the head, and sandals
on the feet. The arms were bare. When not covered by the robe the
legs were also sometimes bare, and sometimes covered by close-fitting
trousers and short greaves, or boots. The hilts of swords and daggers
were ornamented with gold chasings of elegant forms, and the points
of sheaths with the beaks of birds. The bow was the chief weapon of
war, alike among chariot, cavalry and infantry soldiers, and was richly
mounted.

The barbarous custom of rewarding those who carried back to camp
the heads of foemen, caused the heads of the dead, and even of the
wounded, the disarmed and the unresisting, of the enemy, to be car-
ried back to camp, in proof of the slayer's prowess. Quarter was
generally only given to generals and dignitaries of rank whom it was
desirable to spare. Scribes were always present to take an account
of the spoil at the close of the battle. The usual practice upon taking
a city or town was to plunder it of everjrthing of value.

The strongly-fortified towns of an enemy were besieged and assailed
in three principal ways. The attack by escalade was by means of
ladders placed against the city walls. These ladders were mounted

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 037

by the spearmen, foUowed by the archers, while the bowmen and sling-
crs kept up a constant discharge of arrows and stones. The assailants
protected themselves with their shields. The besieged endeavored to
dislodge and break the ladders, and defended themselves by discharg-
ing their arrows and stones, or meeting their assailants spear to spear
and shield to shield.

If the escalade failed, or was impracticable, the battering-ram, an Battering-
engine mounted on four or six wheels, and having either a pointed or ^*^'
blunt head, was driven with force against the w^Us to effect a breach.
In connection witli the battering-ram a movable tower containing sol-
diers was sometimes employed, the besiegers being thus enabled to meet
the besieged on a level and protect the engine from attacks. The
besieged often tried to fire the battering-ram by casting upon it
torches, burning tow or other inflammable substances. To thwart
these attempts the soldiers in the battering-ram were furnished with a
supply of water which they directed through leather or metal pipes
against the combustibles. Sometimes they suspended a curtain of
cloth or leather from a pole in front of the battering-ram to protect
themselves. Sometimes the besieged attempted to catch the point of
the battering-ram by means of a chain suspended from the walls, but
the besiegers in turn tried to catch the chain by means of strong metal
hooks. The Assyrians in their sieges also used a catapult, a large
engine designed for throwing stones against fortified walls, the besieg-
ers working the engine from a mound or inclined plane, and the be-
sieged endeavoring to destroy it by fire. The besiegers also endeav-
ored to mine the foundations of the walls by means of crowbars and
pickaxes, protecting themselves by holding their shields above them.
Sometimes the besiegers would try to break open the gates with axes,
or fire them with the torch. When a city or town was taken it was
fired, its walls demolished and its treasures carried off.

The Assyrians had three modes of executing captives — impaling Treat-
them on stakes in the ground, beating in their skulls with a mace, and (^pjfyes
beheading them. Several bas-reliefs represent them flaying prisoners
with a knife. This may have been after death, as was the custom of
the Persians and the barbarous Scythians. Sometimes prisoners were
punished by mutilation instead of death. Cutting off the ears, blind-
ing the eyes with hot irons, cutting off the nose, and tearing out the
tongue by the roots, have always been favorite Asiatic punishments.
Asshur-izir-pal says in his great inscription that he frequently cut
off the noses and ears of captives ; and a slab of Asshur-bani-pal rep-
resents a captive in the hands of torturers, one holding the prisoner's
head, and another thrusting his hand into his moutli to tear out the
tongue. The captives consisted of men, women and children. The

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^38

CHAI.D.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Captured
Animals.

Assyrian

Des-
potism .

Royal
Harem.
Royal
Dignity
and
Customs.

men were driven in bands under the conduct of brutal officers, who
hurried them on by blows to the Assyrian capital, where the kings em-
ployed them in labor. The skilled workmen were required to aid in
ornamenting palaces and shrines. The great mass of the unskilled
laborers were set to work, under brutal taskmasters, in quarrying and
transporting stone, in raising mounds, making bricks, etc. Some-
times the captives were only colonized in new regions, to prevent re-
bellion in tlieir own native lands, and to keep down malcontents in
their new abodes.

Besides captives, the Assyrians carried off great numbers of domes-
ticated animals, such as oxen, sheep, goats, horses, asses, mules and
camels. Sennacherib, in his inscriptions, says that in one foray he
carried awa}' from the tribes on the Euphrates " 7,200 horses and
mares, 5,230 camels, 11,000 mules, 120,000 oxen and 800,000 sheep.'*
Other Assyrian monarchs mention the captured animals as " too nu-
merous to be counted," or " countless as tlie stars of heaven.'' Pre-
cious metiils were often among the spoils carried off.

As in all other Asiatic monarchies from time immemorial, the severest
form of despotism existed in Assyria. The sovereign's will was law,
and no code was in existence to restrict his judgments, even the ancient
customs and usages being set aside at his pleasure. The king was the
head of the church, as well as of the state, and claimed divine worship.
His palace was filled with as many wives and concubines as he chose
to collect, and these were placed under the guardianship of eunuchs, an
unfortunate class, first brought into use in Assyria. The portion of
the palace assigned to the kings' women was his harem, or seraglio.

A rigid etiquette separated the king from his subjects, no one being
allowed access to him except through the .proper court officials, who
always accompanied him. No one but the vizier and the chief eunuch
were permitted to begin conversation with the king, who was seated
on his throne when he received them, they standing before him. As
a rule, the Assyrian kings led hardy and active lives. In times of
peace the}^ superintended the public works, administered justice, and
found recreation in the dangerous pastime of hunting the lion and the
wild bull. In war the king generally rode in his chariot, though he
occasionally marched on foot, going into battle in the same manner.
The sovereign showed himself freely to his subjects, but maintained
his haughty dignity in everything, and was very seldom the effeminate
voluptuary that the Greeks supposed him to be. The Assyrian court
ceremonial was most elaborate and imposing. The monarch's dress in
peace and war was of the most exceeding magnificence, and while en-
gaged in the religious ceremonies prescribed for him he was clothed
in a special dress.

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ASSYRIAN DRESS AND WEAPONS
Upper Section: War and Hunting Chariots
Middle Section: The King and Attendant Pages Hunting
Lower Section: Royal Chariot and War Weapons

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THS Ki«' YuKK

ASi:>H. f-'- N ^^ AND

TILDF:^

;>H. f." N >.\ AND
F:n ro"NDAT10N»l

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION.

239

The musical instruments of the Assyrians were the harp, tlie lyre,
the guitar, the pipe, the tambourine, the cymbal, tlie drum, the dul-
cimer and the trumpet. Bands of musicians are represented in some
of the bas-reliefs, showing their employment on the occasions of public
ceremonials.

The usual apparel of the common people was a plain tunic, reaching
from the neck almost down to the knee, and held to the waist by a wide
belt or girdle. The sleeves were very short. The head and feet were
entirely bare. The king and his great officers wore head-dresses and
shoes. Laborers above the lowest grade wore sandals. The better
class of laborers wore close-fitting trousers and leather boots. The
lower classes w^ore no ornaments ; armlets and bracelets being worn only
by persons of rank, and ear-rings by soldiers and musicians. Men of
rank wore long fringed robes extending almost down to the feet, the
sleeves being short and barely covering the shoulders. This robe fitted
closely down to the waist, where it was confined to the body w ith a belt
or girdle, being loose below the waist. The jewelry of the higher
classes consisted of fillets, ear-rings, armlets and bracelets. Women
of the upper ranks were dressed in long fringed gowns, looser than
those of tlie men, the sleeves being long. Over this dress they fre-
quently wore a short cloak of a similar pattern, open in front and
falling over the arms, which they covered as far down as the elbows.
Their hair was arranged in short trrisp curls, or carried back in waves
to the ears, from which it was in part twisted into long pendant ring-
lets, and in part curled, like that of the men, in tliree or four rows
at the back of the neck. A fillet frequently encirclctl tlie head. They
also wore girdles around the waist. Tlieir feet were eitlier bare or
protected by sandals. Women of the lower classes wore only a gown
extending down to the ankles, and a hood to cover the head. The orna-
ments and toilet articles of the upper ranks of Assyrian women ex-
hibited the high degree of luxury in their manner of living. The
chief dignitaries wore richly-figured robes. The men seem to have
prized their beards, which they dressed in long artificial curls.

The Assyrians were fond of entertainments, and these were con-
ducted with great pomp and luxury. Drinking scenes are represented
on the sculptures. They had vessels of gold and silver. Wine flowed
freely; while delicious fruits, rich viands, honey, incense, conserves of
dates, etc., were among the delicacies of the repast. Women, even
wives, danced naked before the guests; while the music of stringed
instruments heightened the festivity of the occasion.

The Assyrians carried on an extensive commerce, principally by land
and by means of caravans. At a later period their maritime traffic
was likewise considerable. They imitated the Phoenician ships, which

Musical
Instru-
ments.

Dress.

Social En-
tertain-
ments.

Assyrian
Com-
merce.

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240

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Assyrian
Sculpture

and
Manufac-
tures.

Assyrian
Architec-
ture.

are also represented in the later sculptures. The first Assyrian ships
seem to have been round, with ribs of willow boughs covered with skins.
They had neither stem nor stem. They. were used chiefly on rivers,
though large and strong enough to transport cattle.

The genius and greatness of the Assyrian people are displayed in
their art and manufactures, and not in the field of literature and sci-
ence. The works of their sculptors, and the products of their shops
and factories, bear testimony to the patience, diligence and care which
they exhibited in every field of material and practical activity. The
characteristics of their sculptures, and their manifest appreciation of
works of general utility, show their preference for the practical over
the theoretical, for the useful over the ideal, for the real over the
imaginary.

Architecture, the only one of the fine arts actually useful, consti-
tuted their greatest glory. Unlike the Egyptians, whose chief works
were their temples and tombs, the interest attaching to which is spirit-
ual and ideal, the Assyrians bestowed most attention on their palaces
and dwellings, the more useful structures. Assyrian sculptures aimed
to illustrate the real, the historically true; the only departure from
this rule being the representations of dragons fighting, and the colossal
winged man-headed bulls and lions guarding the entrances and pass-
ages of palaces, which are the symbols of strength combined with in-
telligence. With the exception of the few emblematic figures relating
to the Assyrian religion, the Assyrian bas-reliefs are closely copied
from nature. The imitation is always laborious, but in most cases very
accurate. Even where the laws of representation are apparently de-
parted from, it is always done to impress correct ideas upon the be-
holder. Thus the gigantic stone bulls and lions have five legs, so that
they may appear from every point of view as having four. The lad-
ders are set edgeways against the walls of besieged cities, to show that
they are really ladders. The disproportionate smallness of city walls,
as represented in these sculptures, is designed to convey a full and
correct idea of the real fact. The spirit of faithfulness and honesty
pervading these sculptures is fully illustrated by the painstaking fin-
isli, the minute detail, the elaboration of every hair in a beard, and
every stitch in the embroidery of a dress. The Assyrian sculptures
have a grandeur and a dignity, a boldness, a strength, and a life-like
appearance, which render them intrinsically valuable as works of art,
and which excite our wonder and admiration; though in conception,
in grace, and in freedom and perfection of outline, they are surpassed
bj^ tlie wonderful productions of the Greek sculptors. Egyptian art
was confined to a lifeless religious conventionalism which checked prog-
ress; Assyrian art aimed to represent vividly the highest scenes of

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ROYAL ASSYRIAN COSTUMES AND FURNITURE

gitized by

U00g t(

THE Ui%' YUAX

TILDRN FOUNDATION*
K L

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ASSYRIAN CIVILIZATION. 241

human activity. All phases of war — the march of the army, the
battle-field, the pursuit of the fleeing foe, the siege of cities, the pass-
age of rivers and marshes, the submission and treatment of captives,
and the " mimic war " of hunting — ^the chase of the lion, the stag, the
antelope, the wild bull and the wild €iss — constitute the chief subjects
of Assyrian sculpture ; and here all conventionality is utterly discarded.
Fresh scenes, new groupings, bold and strange attitudes, are contin-
ually seen ; and the animal representations particularly exhibit an un-
ceasing advance with the progress of time, gradually becoming more
and more spirited, more varied, more true to nature, though propor-
tionately losing in the qualities of grandeur and majesty. This dis-
position to depict things in their reality continues to develop in per-
fection; and the progress in grace and delicacy of execution fully
testify to the progressive character of Assyrian art, which only cul-
minated in the closing years of the empire, during the brilliant reign
of Asshur-bani-pal. The art of Assyria was thoroughly national, and
developed by the inherent genius of the race.

In manufactures and the useful arts the Assyrians displayed a pre- Manufao-
eminence over all other ancient Oriental nations. The native indus- useful
trial skill of this great people produced in abundance what was re- Arts,
quired for their comfort and happiness ; white thfe ^multitudes of skilled
workmen brought to Nineveh from the conquered*: nations by every
war, in accordance with the policy of the Assyrian monarchs, led to
the introduction of foreign fabrics and manufactures in the great
Assyrian cities, and thus contributed to the industrial development of
this active and practical race. The plunder, tribute and commerce
of the subject states united to enrich Assyria with the products of all
civilized lands. The vases, jars, bronzes, glass bottles, carved orna-
ments of ivory and mother-of-pearl, engraved gems, bells, dishes, ear-
rings, arms, working implements, musical instruments, etc., found in
recent years at Koyunjik, Nimrud and Khorsabad, were the products
of Assyrian skill and industry. Most of the weapons of warfare,
offensive and defensive, used by the stalwart warriors of Assyria, were
forged in abundance in the armories of this great military nation.

Most of the ornaments, utensils, etc., are of elegant forms, and dis- Metal-
play much knowledge of metallurgy and other arts, as well as a refined giLs-
tasle ; and some of these anticipate inventions supposed until recently blowing,
to have been modern. One of these was transparent glass, and glass-
blow^ing was one of the industries of Assyria, as it had been of ancient
Egypt. A lens discovered at Nimrud, together with the fact that
many of the Assyrian inscriptions are so minute that they can not
be read without the use of magnifying-glasses, proves that they must

have used such glasses in making these inscriptions.
VOL. 1.— 16

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£42

CHALD/KA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Ornamen-
tal Metal-
lurgy.

Other

Practical

Arts.

Rawlin-
sonon
As83rrian
Civiliza-
tion.

Assyrian
Con-
quests
and

Material
Great-

The ornamental metallurgy of the Assyrians displayed wonderful
skill ; and consisted of entire figures or parts of figures cast solid, cast-
ings in low relief, and embossed work wrought principally with the
hammer, " but finished by a sparing use of the graving tool.'* The
solid figures, most of wliich were small, comprised animal fonns, chiefly
lions. Castings in low relief were principally used in the ornamenta-
tion of thrones and chariots, and embraced animal and human figures,
winged deities, griffins, etc. The embossed work was curious and ele-
gant, as displayed in weapons, ornaments for the person, household
implements and numerous other objects. The ornamental metallurgy
of the Assyrians was mostly in bronze, consisting of one part of tin
to ten parts of copper, which is yet regarded as the best proportion.

The Assyrians also understood other practical arts. Their build-
ings show that they were acquainted with the principle of the arch.
They constructed tunnels, aqueducts and drains. They knew the use
of the pulley, the lever and the roller ; and constantly used the inclined
plane in attacking fortified towns. They understood the arts of in-
laying, enameling and overlaying with metals; and they cut and en-
graved gems with a degree of skill and finish not excelled by the French
in our own day. The Assyrians excelled in the arts of weaving and
dyeing. They decorated their stuffs by introducing colored threads
and tissues of gold in the woof. They had indigo, cotton and silk in
abundance. Some Assyrian plows have been found. Irrigation was
common. Sesame, millet and corn were the chief articles of food. In-
deed, Assyrian civilization did not fall far behind the boasted achieve-
ments of the modems.

Says Rawlinson concerning the civilization of this wonderful ancient
people : " With much that was barbaric still attaching to them, with
a rude and inartificial government, savage passions, a debasing religion,
and a general tendency to materialism, they were, towards the close
of their empire, in all the ordinary arts and appliances of life, very
nearly on a par with ourselves ; and thus their history furnishes a warn-
ing — which the records of nations constantly repeat — ^that the greatest
material prosperity may co-exist with the. decline — and herald the
downfall — of a kingdom."

Thus it will be seen that the inherent genius of the Assyrian people
displayed itself in centuries of continued conquest and in material
greatness. The glory of their arms and the grandeur of their art
gave them the ascendency over the nations of Western Asia for almost
seven hundred years. Their almost uninterrupted course of conquests
poured wealth into their great capitals, developed luxury, and made
them haughty and domineering. The mingled civilization and bar-
barism exliibited in the case of this mighty ancient Asiatic people has

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

24S

ever been the distinguishing characteristic of all the great Oriental
empires which have successively risen, flourished, decayed, and crum-
bled to pieces.

SECTION VUL— THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

The history of the Babylonian Empire begins with Nabopolassar,
who ascended the throne of Babylon in B. C. 625. We have observed
in the history of Assyria, that from the time of Tiglathi-Nin's con-
quest of Chaldaea, in B. C. 1300, that country sunk into a state of
comparative insignificance, and remained, during the whole period of
Assyrian ascendency in Western Asia, subject to Assyria, or occupied
a secondary position among the Oriental nations. The Assyrians at
first governed Chald^ea from their own capital, but they soon placed
the country under an Assyrian dynasty, over which they claimed and
exercised a sort of suzerainty, but which was practically independent
and ruled its kingdom without interference.

The first monarch of the Assyrian dynasty in Chaldaea was Nebu-
CHADNEZZAB L, a Contemporary of Asshur-ris-ilim, King of Assyria.
Nebuchadnezzar twice attacked Nineveh; first by way of the Diyaleh
and the outlying Zagros hills, the route of the great Persian military
road in subsequent times ; and secondl}'^ by crossing directly the Meso-
potamian plain. The Assyrian records say that both these attacks
were repulsed, and that after his second failure the Babylonian king
retreated hastily back into his own dominions. Tiglath-Pileser I.,
King of Assyria, the son and successor of Asshur-ris-ilim, led an ex-
pedition into Babylonia, then ruled by Meeodach-iddin-akhi, the suc-
cessor of Nebuchadnezzar I. After a struggle of two years, and tak-
ing Kurri-galzu (now Akkerkuf), the two Sipparas, Opis, and even
Babylon itself, Tiglath-Pileser returned to Assyria, harassed on his
retreat by the Babylonian monarch, who captured the Assyrian bag-
gage, along with certain Assyrian idols, which were carried as trophies
to Babylon. Babylonia and Assyria continued at war during the fol-
lowing reigns of Merodach-shapik-ziei in the former country and
Asshur-bil-kala in the latter, without any important result.

The period of these Assyro-Babylonian wars synchronizes with the
epoch of the judges in Israel, and was succeeded by an interval of
obscurity in the history of both Assyria and Babylonia. Assyria had
sunk into a declining condition; while Babylonia was prosperous, and
according to the testimony of Asshur-izir-pal, the great Assyrian mon-
arch of the ninth century before Christ, conquered some of the Assyr-
ian territories, and according to Macrobius held communication with
Egypt.

Chal-

daoa's
Subjec-
tion to
Assyria.

Nebu-
chadnez-
zar I.

His
Attacks

on
Nineveh
Repulsed.

Mero-
dach-id-
din-akhi.

Mero-
dach-sha-
pik-ziri.

Obscure
Period.

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M4i

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Assyrian
Invasions
of Baby-
lonia.

Mero-
dach-
snm-
adin.

Assyrian
Invasion.

Mero-

dach-

belatzu-

ikbi.

The

Scriptural

Pnl.

Baby-
lonian

Indepen-
dence
under

Nabonas-

Era of

Nabonas-

sar.

But after remaining for two centuries in a state of comparative
weakness and unimportance, Assyria entered upon another period of
prosperity and greatness, and made Babylonia feel the effects of her
vengeance. The Assyrian king, Asshur-izir-pal, invaded Babylonia
about B. C. 880, and recovered the territories which the Babylonians
had held during the period of Assyria's depression. Asshur-izir-paPs
son and successor, Shalmaneser II., the Black Obelisk king, led an
expedition into Babylonia while that country was distracted by a civil
war between its legitimate sovereign, Meeodach-sum-adin, and his
younger brother. Shalmanaser took a number of Babylonian towns,
and was allowed to enter Babylon itself after defeating and slaying
the pretender to the Babylonian throne ; after which he overran Chal-
daea, or the district upon the coast, which seems to have been then in-
dependent of Babylon and governed by a number of petty kings. The
Chaldaean chiefs were forced to pay tribute ; and, having " struck ter-
ror as far as the sea," the Assyrian king returned to his capital. Thus
all of Babylonia and Chaldaea was again under Assyrian influence ; and
Babylonia was once more a secondary power, dependent on Assyria.

About B. C. 821 the Assyrian king, Shamas-Vul II., the son and
successor of Shalmaneser II., invaded Babylonia, defeated its king,
Merodach-belatzu-ikbi, in two pitched battles, and forced him to
submit to Assyrian suzerainty ; though in the last battle he had been
aided by the Zimri of Mount Zagros, the Aramaeans of the Euphrates,
and the Chaldasans of the South. Babylon remained under Assyrian
supremacy until the middle of the eighth century before Christ, when
it is supposed that Pvl, seeing his opportunity in Assyria's weakness
under Asshur-dayan III., about B. C. 770, shook off the hated yoke
of Assyria and eirtended the Babylonian dominion over the Euphrates
valley and Western Mesopotamia, whence he proceeded to extend his
conquests into Syria and Palestine. But such obscurity rests upon
Pul that it is not positively known whether he was a Babylonian king.
The Jewish Scriptures call him " king of Assyria," and Berosus rep-
resents him as ** Chaldaeorum rex."

Soon after regaining its independence. Babylonia was disintegrated
into a number of independent sovereignties — Nabonassar governing
Babylon; Yakin, the father of Merodach-Baladan, ruling the Chal-
daean coast region ; and Nadina, Zakiru and other princes holding sway
in petty districts in Northern Babylonia. Nabonassab, who became
King of Babylon in B. C. 747, is regarded as the restorer of Baby-
Ionian independence ; and the year of his accession, known as the " Era
of Nabonassar," was the point from which the Babylonians thereafter
reckoned dates of events. According to Berosus, Nabonassar sought
to obliterate the memory of the previous epoch of Babylonian sub-

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE, 345

jection to Assyria by hatving "destroyed the acts of the kings who
had preceded hira."

Nabbnassar lived at peace with the contemporary King of Assyria, Relations
Tiglath-Pileser II., who early in his reign invaded the other portions ^^^jj^^
of Babylonia and Chaldaea, forcing Merodach-Baladan, the son and
successor of Yakin, to become his tributary. Nabonassar reigned over
Babylon fourteen years, from B. C. 747 to B. C. 788, It has been
generally believed that the time of Nabonassar's reign was the same as
that assigned by Herodotus to the reign of Semiramis, who, as the wife Queen
or as the mother of Nabonassar, governed Babylon on behalf of her tnls .*"
husband or her son. But this is a mere conjecture, contradicted by
the native records. We have observed in the history of Assyria that
Semiramis was a Babylonian princess mfitrried to the Assyrian king,
Vul-lush III., who reigned from B. C. 810 to B. C. 781. Nabonassar
was followed on the Babylonian throne by Nadhts, who reigned only Nadins.
two years, from B. C. 788 to B. C. 781. Nadius is supposed to have
been one of the independent Babylonian princes reduced to subjection
by Tiglath-Pileser I. in his expedition into Babylonia. Nadius was ChlnMua
succeeded by Chinzinus and Pokus, who jointly reigned from B. C. porns.
731 to B. C. 726. Their successor was Elulaus, identified with the
prince of that name called King of Tyre by Menander — ^the Luliya Blnlaus.
of the cuneiform inscriptions; but Rawlinson considers this theory a
mere conjecture and highly improbable.

Mebodach-Baladan — ^the successor of Elulieus, and the son of Jfero-
Yakin, the prince who established himself in authority over Southern p^^^^ ^'n
Babylonia, the ancient Chaldaea, and founded a capital city, naming
it after himself Beth-Yakin, or Bit-Yakin — ^inherited the dominion of
Yakin upon the death of the latter. Being forced to become tributary
to the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser II., he remained in comparative
obscurity and quiet during the reigns of Tiglath-Pileser II. and Shal-
maneser IV. in Assjrria ; but when Sargon usurped the Assyrian throne,
B. C. 7S1, Merodach-Baladan established his sway over Babylonia, of
which he was recognized as king. It was some time during his twelve His
years' reign over Babylon that Merodach-Baladan sent ambassadors ^ ^
to Hezekiah at Jerusalem to ascertain the particulars of the stran&ce Hezekiah,
astronomical marvel, or miracle, accompanying the sickness and re- jndah.
covery of that king. Hezekiah exhibited all his trecusures to these
ambassadors. A coalition appears to have been formed against As-
syria by Babylon, Susiana, the Aramaean tribes, Judah and Egypt. In
B. C. 711 Sargon, King of Assyria, invaded Egypt and compelled its msDefeat
Ethiopian king, Sabaco, to sue for peace. In the following year, Qg^^^f^
B. C. 710, Sargon led an army into Babylonia, defeated Merodach- in
Baladan and his Aramaean and Susianian allies in a great battle, and ^®7™-

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216

ciialdj:a, assyuia, babylonia.

Reyolts
against
Assyria

Hagisa.

Mero-
dach-

Baladan'8
Escape,
Defeat

and Exile.

Baby-
lonian
Subjec-
tion to
Assyria.

Revolts
Crushed.

Nabopo-
lassar's
Revolt
against
Assyria.

took Bit-Yakin, making jMcrodach-Baladan prisoner and gaining pos-
session of all his treasures ; whereupon Babylonia submitted to Sargon,
who carried Merodach-Baladan captive to Assyria, and himself as-
sumed the title of " King of Babylon."

But when Sargon died, B. C. 704, the Babylonians cast off the As-
syrian yoke. A number of pretenders claimed the Babylonian crown.
A son of Sargon and a brother of Sennacherib restored Assyrian su-
premacy for a short time, but the Babylonians again revolted. Hagisa
reigned over Babylon about a month. Merodach-Baladan, escaping
from his Assyrian captivity, murdered Hagisa and seized the Baby-
lonian throne, of which he had been deprived seven years before. But
Sennacherib, King of Assyria, Sargon's son and successor, led an army
into Babylonia in B. C. 703, defeated Merodach-Baladan and drove
liim into exile, after a reign of six months, and annexed Babylonia to
the Assyrian kingdom. Thenceforth, for seventy-eight years, until
the revolt of Nabopolassar, B. C. 6^5, Babylonia, with a few short
intervals, remained an Assyrian dependency. During this period the
Assyrian monarchs governed Babylonia by means of viceroys, such
as Belibus, Regibelus, Meses-imordachus and Saos-duchinus, or directly
and personally, as by Esar-haddon and by Asshur-bani-pal in his later
years. During Sennacherib's reign there were two Babylonian revolts
against Assyria, one headed by Merodach-Baladan in Chaldsea, and the
other by Susub at Babylon. These were soon suppressed by Sen-
nacherib, as related in the Assyrian history. While Asshur-bani-pal
was King of Assyria, his brother, Saiil-Mugina, also called Sam-
mughes, or Saos-duchinus, attempted to make himself independent, but
was subdued and burned alive, as also, stated in the history of Assyria.
Thus ended the second period of Chaldjean, or Babylonian history —
the period of Babylonian and Chaldaean subjection to Assyria, from
Tiglathi-Nin*s conquest in B. C. 1300 to Nabopolassar's successful
revolt in B. C. 625.

We will now proceed to the history of the Babylonian Empire, first
relating the circumstances of its foundation. When the Medes under
their valiant king, Cyaxares, a second time crossed the Zagros range
and attacked Nineveh from the east, the Susianians menaced the great
capital from the south. In this extremity the last Assyrian king,
Asshur-emid-ilin, or Saracus, divided his forces, retaining a portion
under his own command for the defense of his capital against the
Medes, and sending a portion under his general, Nabopolassar, or
Nabu-pal-uzur, to Babylon to oppose the advance of the Susianians
from the south. Taking advantage of the perilous straits of his sov-
ereign, Nabopolassar resolved to betray him in order to obtain for him-
self an independent kingdom. He therefore negotiated an alliance

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMriRE.

247

with Cyaxares, the Median king, and obtained that king's daughter as
a bride for his own son, Nebuchadnezzar. The united Median and
Babylonian armies then besieged Nineveh, which was finally taken and
destroyed, B. C. 625, as already related in the histories of Assyria and
Media. In the division of the Assyrian Empire, which followed the
fall of Nineveh, Cyaxares obtained Assyria proper and all Assyria's
dependencies towards the north and north-west ; while the traitor Nabo-
polassar received Babylonia, Chaldaea, Susiana, Upper Mesopotamia,
Syria and Palestine. Thus arose the Babylonian Empire.

We know very little about the reign of Nabopolassar. The Canon
of Ptolemy informs us that he dated his accession from the year B. C.
625, and that his reign lasted twenty-one years, ending in B. C. 604.
During most of this time Babylonian history is a blank. Babylon had
no inclination to jeopardize her position at the head of an empire by
aggression, and her peaceful attitude of course provoked no hostility
from her neighbors. Media, bound by dynastic interests and by for-
mal treaty, could be depended upon as a firm friend. Persia was too
feeble, and Lydia too distant, to be formidable. Egypt, though hos-
tile and powerful, was ruled by a sovereign whom misfortune and age
prevented engaging in any distant military enterprise ; so that as long
as Psammetichus was living Babylon had comparatively nothing to
fear from any quarter, and, in the language of the Jewish prophet
Isaiah, could " give herself to pleasure and dwell carelessly."

It was only as the ally of Media that Babylon was obliged to exert
herself during the first eighteen years of her empire, being bound by
treaty to aid Cyaxares in his wars and conquests after the capture and
destruction of Nineveh, the Babylonian contingents on these occasions
being led either by Nabopolassar or by his son, the crown-prince
Nebuchadnezzar. In a war between Media and Lydia, as the armies
of these two hostile nations were about to engage in battle, an eclipse
of the sun excited the superstitious fears of both, so that they were
disposed to reconciliation. Thereupon the Babylonian monarch acted
as peacemaker. Having discovered that Syennesis of Cilicia, the lead-
ing man of the Lydian side, was disposed to second his friendly offices,
Nabopolassar proposed the holding of a peace conference. The result
was that a treaty of peace and friendship, cemented by a royal inter-
marriage, was concluded between Media and Lydia ; thus giving West-
em Asia almost half a century of peace, after almost perpetual warfare
and devastation.

After this successful attempt at mediation, Nabopolassar returned
to Babylon. He was prevented from ending his last years in peace
by the warlike attitude of Neko, King of Egypt, the son and successor
of Psammetichus, who sought to wrest Syria and Palestine from the

His
Alliance

with
Media.

Destruc-
tion of

Nineveh

and
End of

Assyria.

Nabopo-
lassar,
Founder

of
the Baby-
lonian
Empire.

His

Peaceful

Reign.

Alliance

with

Mediaand

Lydia.

Egyptian

Invasion

Palestine

and
Victories

over
Judah.

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248

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Battle of
Carche-
miah.

Baby-
lonian
Inyasion

of
Egypt.

Nebu-

chadne^

zar's

Acces-
sion.

OldXesta-

ment
Author-
ity.

Babylonian Empire. In B. C. 608 the Egyptian king led an army
into Palestine, where the Jewish king Josiah, in fulfillment of his duty
as vassal monarch to the King of Babylon, had assembled an army at
JV^egiddo to oppose his further advance in the territories of Nabopolas-
sar. Thereupon Neko sent an embassy to persuade Josiah that he
had no hostile feelings toward the Jews, and claiming divine approval
of his enterprise. But Josiah, loyal to his suzerain, remained firm in
his opposition to the advance of the invaders; whereupon he was at-
tacked and defeated at Megiddo, and fled mortally wounded to Jeru-
salem, where he died. Neko followed up his victory by advancing
through Syria to the Euphrates, and extended his authority over the
whole region f rpm Egjrpt on the south-west to the " Great River *' on
the north-east. Returning three months later, Neko dethroned Jehoa-
haz, a younger son of Josiah, whom the Jewish people had made king,
and bestowed the Jewish crown on Jehoiakim, his elder brother. Dur-
ing this time Neko besieged and took the Philistine city of Gaza.

Three years later, in B. C. 606, Nabopolassar, now venerable for his
age, sent an army under his son, the crown-prince Nebuchadnezzar,
against the conquering hosts of the Egyptian king. The Hittite city
of Carchemish, on the right bank of the Euphrates, was then the key
of Syria;. and at this place Nebuchadnezzar thoroughly defeated and
routed the Egyptians, who fled in dismay. Nebuchadnezzar rapidly
reestablished the Babylonian sway over Syria and Palestine, received
the submission of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, restored the frontier line,
and according to Berosus invaded Egypt itself. But upon receiving
news from Babylon of his father's death, Nebuchadnezzar hastily con-
cluded a peace with Neko, and speedily returned to his capital, in fear
of a disputed succession.

Nebuchadnezzae had no cause for his fears, as the priests had
assumed control of aff^airs in his absence, and the Chief Priest, or Head
of the Order, had kept the throne vacant for him until his return, while
no pretender disputed his claims. Nebuchadnezzar was the great mon-
arch of the Babylonian Empire, which continued but eighty-seven
years, from B. C. 6^5 to B. C. 588, and which for almost half that
period was ruled by him. The military glory of this empire is mostly
attributable to this renowned king, whose character and genius gave it
the constructive enterprise which was its essential characteristic. To
Nebuchadnezzar the prominent place of the Babylonians in history is
almost wholly due. Besides being an able general, Nebuchadnezzar
was one of the greatest builders of antiquity.

Our knowledge of Nebuchadnezzar's wars is almost entirely derived
from the Old Testament. Therefore we are only informed of his wars
in Palestine and its immediate vicinity, as related by the Jewish writ-

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. £49

ers. We only possess a full account of his wars with the Jews, and
some knowledge of his campaigns against Egypt and Phoenicia, though
Berosus says he warred against the Arabs and conquered a part of their
country.

A few years after Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Neko, King of Revolt of
Egypt, troubles once more distracted Syria. Tyre headed a rebellion ^^^
in Phoenicia, while Jehoiakim, the Jewish king, relying upon the prom- Judah.
ised aid of the Egyptian monarch, renounced his allegiance to his
Babylonian suzerain. Thereupon Nebuchadnezzar, in his seventh
year, B. C. 698, led into Palestine an expedition, consisting of his own
subjects and his Median allies. Polyhistor says this army numbered
10,000 chariots, 120,000 cavalry and 180,000 infantry. Having
invested Tyre and found that city too strong to assail with success. Siege of
Nebuchadnezzar left a part to continue the siege, while he himself ^
marched against Jerusalem. ' On the approach of the Babylonian king,
Jehoiakim submitted, as he was not supported by his Egyptian allies ;
but Nebuchadnezzar put him to death, in punishment for his rebellion, Jehoia-
and treated his body with indignity. Says the prophet Jeremiah: ^^^
" He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth Death,
beyond the gates of Jerusalem," and again, " His dead body shall be
cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost.''

Nebuchadnezzar first placed Jehoiachin, the son of the unfortunate Captivity
Jehoiakim, upon the Jewish throne. The new Jewish king, a mere ° ^y^
youth, was deposed three months later by the suspicious Nebuchad-
nezzar, and carried a captive to Babylon ; while his uncle, Zedekiah, a
brother of Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, was placed upon the Jewish throne.
The island city of Tyre, in the meantime, withstood a siege of thirteen Siege of
years against the forces of Nebuchadnezzzar ; during which Jerusalem ^ '
perished in a final effort for independence.

Zedekiah, King of Judah, remained a faithful vassal of the Baby- Revolt of
Ionian king for eight years, after which he sought an alliance with King of'
Uaphris, King of Egypt — ^the Apries of Herodotus — in order to strike Judah.
for independence. Says the prophet Ezekial, in speaking of Zedekiah
on this occasion : " He rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors
into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people." The
Egyptian king looked with favor upon the overture of Zedekiah, who
at once revolted from Babylon, and prepared to defend himself with
vigor. As this was the fourth time the feeble Jewish kingdom revolted
against him, Nebuchadnezzar resolved to crush it by a decisive blow.
" He and all his host " came against Jerusalem,, and, after conquering
and pillaging the open country, " built forts " and laid siege to the
city. Uaphris led an army from Egypt to the relief of his beleaguered
ally, whereupon the Babylonian army raised the siege and took the field

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250 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA. BABYLONIA.

against this new foe. Josephus says that the Egyptians were de-
feated in battle, but according to the prophet Jeremiah they avoided
an engagement by retreating to their own land. In either case the
attempted relief of the Jewish capital failed. After a short interval
the siege was renewed, the city was completely blockaded, and after a

Siege and siege and investment of eighteen months Jerusalem was taken by the
ap^ure Babylonians, B. C. 586. Before the city fell, Nebuchadnezzar with-

Jenisalem drew in person to press the siege of Tyre, which, if it fell after its

an Tyre, j^j^jj^^^j^ years' siege, must have fallen the year after the capture of
Jerusalem, B. C. 585.
Nebu- By the capture of Jerusalem and Tyre, the Babylonian king secured

zar's ^^^ quiet possession of Palestine and Phoenicia. Four years after the

Invasions fall of Tyre, according to Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt,
Kgypt. P^^ ^^ l^Jng, Uaphris, the friend and ally of Zedekiah, to death, and
bestowed the Egyptian crown upon a creature of his own, B. C- 581.
Herodotus, however, says that Uaphris was put to death by a rebellious
subject, and he is known to have reigned as late as B. C. 569. But
Nebuchadnezzar's second invasion of Egypt, B. C. 570, ended in the
deposition of Uaphris, whose successor, Amasis, was a mere vassal of
the Babylonian king.

His Great Thus Nebuchadnezzar defeated Neko, recovered Syria, suppressed
umnhs *^^ revolt of Judah, reduced Tyre and humbled Egypt. Megasthenes
says that he conquered North Africa, from which he invaded Spain and
subdued the Iberians, colonizing his Iberian captives on the shores of
the Euxine sea in the region between Armenia and the Caucasus.
Nebuchadnezzar was thus represented as reigning over an empire ex-
tending from the Atlantic ocean on the west to the Caspian sea on
the east, and from the Caucasus on the north-east to the great Sahara
on the south-west.
His Nebuchadnezzar's military successes gave him that great command

tioiw^ and ^^ " naked human strength " by which he was enabled to prosecute

Coloniza- his great projects for beautifying and benefiting his kingdom without
unnecessarily oppressing his own people. From the start he carried
out the Assyrian system of forcible deportation of the entire popula-
tions of conquered lands, and colonized them in remote portions of
his dominions. Multitudes of captives taken in his wars — Jews, Egyp-
tians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Ammonites, Moabites and others — ^were
settled in different parts of Mesopotamia, principally about Babylon.
By the forced labor of these captives the great works of Nebuchad-
nezzar, which were the chief glory of the Babylonian Empire, were
erected.

Abydenus and Eusebius say that Nebuchadnezzar built the great
wall of Babylon, seventy-five feet high, and thirty-two feet wide, with

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

251

a circumference of three hundred and sixty-five stadia. This wall was
of solid brick masonry, the Babylonian bricks being about a foot square
and from three to four inches thick. Nebuchadnezzar, in the Standard
Inscription, only claims to have repaired the old wall of the city. He
erected a splendid new palace in the vicinity of the old royal residence.
He constructed the famous " Hanging Gardens " to delight his Median
wife, Amyitis, the daughter of Cyaxares. He repaired and beautified
the great temple of Bel at Babylon ; and all the inscribed bricks thus
far discovered in the Babil mound bear Nebuchadnezzar's legend.

Nebuchadnezzar constructed many gigantic public works of great
utility. He dug the immense reservoir at Sippara, which was said to
have been one hundred and forty miles in circumference, and one hun-
dred and eighty feet deep, providing it with flood-gates, through which
its waters might be drawn off for purposes of irrigation. He con-
structed many canals, among which was the Nahr Malcha, or " Royal
River," a wide and deep channel connecting the Euphrates and the
Tigris. He built quays and breakwaters along the shores of the Per-
sian Gulf, and founded the city of Diridotis, or Teredon, near that
gulf. According to Nebuchadnezzar's own inscriptions, or to existing
remains, he likewise erected the Birs-i-Nimrud, or great temple of
Nebo, at Borsippa ; constructed a vast reservoir in Babylon itself, called
the Yapur-Shapu, and a brick embankment along the course of the
Tigris, near Bagdad, the bricks of which bear his name and have
remained undisturbed; and built many temples, walls and other publid
buildings at Cutha, Sippara, Borsippa, Babylon, Chilmad, Bit-Digla
and other places. This indefatigable king either rebuilt or repaired
nearly all the Babylonian cities and temples. No less than a hundred
sites in the vicinity of Babylon testify, by inscribed bricks bearing his
legend, to his wonderful activity and energy.

Nebuchadnezzar is also believed to have constructed the canal called
by the Arabs the Kerek Satdeh, or canal of Sai'deh, and ascribed by
them to a wife of Nebuchadnezzar. This canal, four hundred miles
long, extended from Hit, on the Euphrates, along the extreme western
edge of the alluvium close to the Arabian frontier, to the head of the
Bubian creek, about twenty miles west of the Shat-el-Arab. Traces
of this canal yet remaining attest the magnitude of this great work.
The Pallacopas, or canal of Opa (Palga Opa), which flowed from the
Euphrates at Sippara (now Mosaib) to a great lake in the vicinity,
of Borsippa, whence the neighboring lands were irrigated, is also be-
lieved to have been constructed by this great monarch. It was an old
canal, out of repair, in the time of Alexander the Great ; and is called
the Nahr Abba by the Arabs, who consider it the oldest canal in the
country.

WaUs

and

"Hanging

Gardens"

of
Babylon.

Nebu-
chadnez-
zar's
Other
Gigantic
Public
Works.

Two

Great

Canals.

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252 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Nebu- The Old Testament gives us some knowledge of Nebuchadnezzar's

zar°s^ private life and personal character. The Book of Daniel represents
BriUiant the great monarch at the head of a most magnificent court ; surrounded

^ with " princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, councilors, and

sheriffs '* ; waited upon by carefully-chosen eunuchs, " well-favored "
and educated with care; attended, at his desire, by a host of astrolo-
gers and other " wise men," who sought to reveal to him the divine
will. He was an absolute monarch, having the lives and properties of
his subjects, from the highest to the lowest, at his disposal ; and dis-
pensing all offices at his pleasure. He could elevate a foreigner to a
second place in the kingdom, and even place him over the whole priest-
hood. His immense wealth is proven by the fact that he made an im-
age or obelisk of pure gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide.

His This renowned Babylonian monarch wavered in his religion, some-

R^ffionf ^™cs acknowledging the Jehovah of the Jews as the only real deity,
sometimes relapsing into the idolatrous Babylonian polytheism, and
forcing his subjects to do the same. But his polytheism was charac-
terized by a special devotion to a particular deity, whom he designates
emphatically as " his god." Nebuchadnezzar's inscriptions clearly
show that his favorite god was Merodach.

His Nebuchadnezzar was hasty and violent in temper, but not obstinate.

Outburats His fierce resolves were taken suddenly and repented of quickly. He
andOcca- could occasionally give way to outbursts of gratitude and devotion.
Piety. He was as vainglorious as Orientals generally, but could bow in hu-
miliation before the divine castigation. He often showed a spirit of
sincere piety, self-condemnation and self-abasement, as the following
from the Book of Daniel clearly proves : " I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever, Whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to
generation ; and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as noth-
ing, and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and
among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or
say unto Him, What doest Thou? Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven, Whose works are truth, and
His ways judgment ; and those that walk in pride He is able to abase."

His Another Jewish prophet, Jeremiah, gives a darker shade to the char-

Deeds, acter of the illustrious Babylonian monarch. This writer tells us that
Nebuchadnezzar executed Jehoiakim and treated his body with indig-
nity, murdered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes, put out the eyes of
Zedekiah himself, and kept Zedekiah and Jehoiachin in prolonged im-
prisonment. These acts of barbarous cruelty imply in the great Baby-
lonian king a disposition as ferocious as that of Sargon or Asshur-
bani-pal.

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

258

Berosus informs us that Nebu<:hadiiezzar was devotedly attached to
his Median wife, Amyitis, whom his father had selected for him for
reasons of state. Solely to please her, he erected the celebrated
•'Hanging Gardens" at Babylon. The rocks and trees of this de-
lightful artificial Paradise, where art strove to rival nature, were de-
signed to imitate the beautiful moimtain scenery of Media.

In his later days Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a strange dream, the
meaning of which was interpreted to him by the Jewish prophet Dan-
iel, who, though carried into the Babylonian captivity with his nation,
had arrived at high honors under the Babylonian king. Daniel told
the king that his dream portended that he would for seven years be a
victim to a strange and rare kind of madness. A victim to this mal-
ady, called Lycanthropy^ imagines himself a beast, does not talk, re-
jects the usual human food, and sometimes loses the erect attitude and
walks on hands and feet. Within a year of the warning, Nebuchad-
nezzar was stricken in the very hour in which he had exclaimed in his
pride : ** Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of
the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my
majesty ! " The great monarch became a helpless and wretched mad-
man. He lived in the open air day and night, " and did eat grass as
oxen," and went naked " till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers,
and his nails like birds' claws." After suffering thus for seven years,
Nebuchadnezzar regained his reason, and his recovery was hailed with
rejoicing by his court. His councilors and lords greeted his presence.
He again resumed the government of his empire, issued his proclama-
tions, and discharged all his royal duties. He had now reached old
age, " but ' the glory of his kingdom,' his * honor and brightness ' re-
turned " ; " his last days were as brilliant as his first ; his sun set in an
unclouded sky, shorn of none of the rays that had given splendor to
its noonday." Nebuchadnezzar died in B. C. 561, in the forty-:(ourth
year of his reign, when almost eighty years old.

Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Evil-Meeodach, of whose
short reign of two years but very little is known. He seemed disposed
to favor the Jews. Upon his accession, he released Jehoiachin from
his thirty-five years' imprisonment, and treated him with kindness and
respect, recognizing his royal rank and giving him precedence over
all the captive kings residing at Babylon. Josephus sa^s that he actu-
ally accepted Jehoiachin as one of his most intimate friends. After
Evil-Merodach had occupied the Babylonian throne hut two years he
was accused of lawlessness and intemperance, a conspiracy was formed
against him, his own brother-in-law, Neriglissar, heading the malcon-
tents; and Evil-Merodach lost both crown and life, B. C. 559.

Devotion
to His
Wife

Amyitis.

Nebu-
chadnez-
zar's
Dream

and
Daniel's
Interpre-
tation
FulfiUed.

Nebu-
chadnez-
zar's
Madness,
Recovery
and
Death.

Bvil-Me-
rodach.

His
Release of
Jehoia-
chin.

His
Over-
throw and
Deatii.

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054, CHALD/EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Neriglis- Neriglissar was at once recognized as King of Babylon. His real
^^' name, as seen on his bricks, was Nergal-sar-uzur ; and he is believed
to have been the " Nergal-shar-ezer, Rag-Mag,'* mentioned by the Jew-
ish prophet Jeremiah, and who held an important office among the
Babylonian nobles left to press the siege of Jerusalem when Nebu-
chadnezzar retired to Riblah. It is known that the king bore the office
of Rag-Mag, and that title is also upon his bricks. Neriglissar styled
himself the son of Bel-sum-iskun, " king of Babylon '' — ^a sovereign
whose name is not mentioned by the Canon of Ptolemy, but who was
perhaps a chieftain who took the royal title during the troubles pre-
ceding the fall of the Assyrian Empire. Neriglissar reigned only
three years and four months, and was engaged chiefly in the erection

His Great of the Western Palace at Babylon, an immense edifice at one comer
Palace. ^£ ^j^^ fortified enclosure, directly opposite the old palace, and abutting
on the Euphrates. Diodorus described this structure as most magnifi-
cent, being elaborately ornamented with painting and sculpture in the
best style of Babylonian art, though it may have been smaller than the
ancient royal residence on the opposite side of the river.

Laboroso- Neriglissar died B. C. 556, after the short reign mentioned, and was
archod. succeeded by his son, Laborosoarchod, so called by Berosus and the
Canon of Ptolemy. This monarch, a mere youth, only wore the Baby-
lonian crown a few months, when he was accused of showing many signs
His of a bad disposition, and was deposed and put to death, B. C. 565 ; and

throw and ^^^^ '^^"™ ended the dynasty of Nabopolassar, which had occupied the
Death. Babylonian throne seventy years, from B. C. 625 to B. C. 556.

Accession Nabonadius, so called by the Canon of Ptolemy, and whom the con-

N b - spirators chose from among their own number to succeed Laboroso-
dius. archod, was not related to his predecessor. He was called Nabonnedus
by Berosus. Thus Nabonadius, like Neriglissar, was a usurper; and,
like his father, held the important office of Rag-Mag, as on his bricks
and cylinders he styled himself " Nabonidus, the son of Nabu-
* * -dirba, the Rag-Mag." To secure his usurped throne, Nabo-
nadius married a princess of the royal house of Nabopolassar.

Cyrus the Soon after his accession, in B. C. 555, Nabonadius received an em-
Pwrtia. l^assy from the remote North-west. Three years before, in B. C. 558
— during the reign of Neriglissar at Babylon — Cyrus the Great
founded the Mcdo-Persian Empire by deposing the Median king Asty-
ages and transferring the supremacy of the Aryan race from the Medes
to the Persians. Cyrus at once entered upon a career of conquest
which eventually brought all of Western Asia under the Medo-Persian

AUiance dominion.

Ion a* and Fearing the rising power of Persia in the East, Lydian ambassadors
Lydia. were sent to Babylon in B. C. 555, the very year in which Nabonadius

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 055

ascended the Babylonian throne, proposing an alliance against the new
power which threatened the existence of the other Oriental monarchies
of the time. Nabonadius decided to unite in the proposed offensive
and defensive alliance with Lydia and Egypt to check the growing
power of his new eastern neighbor.

Aware that he thus provoked the hostility of a powerful foe by this Fortifica-
decisive course, and not knowing how soon he might be obliged to de- Babylon,
fend his kingdom against the whole force of Persia, Nabonadius at once
began to strengthen Babylon. Herodotus ascribed these defensive
works to Nitocris, a queen whom he calls the mother of Nabonadius;
but Berosus says that they were erected by Nabonadius himself. These
works consisted partly of defenses within the city, intended to secure it
against an enemy who should enter it by the river, partly of hydraulic
works designed to obstruct the advance of an army by the usual route.
The river had thus far flowed in its natural channel through the middle
of the city ; but Nabonadius confined the stream by a brick embank-
ment extended the whole way along both banks, after which he erected
on the top of the embankment a high wall, pierced at intervals by
gateways, in which were set gates of bronze. He also constructed
cuttings, reservoirs and sluices at some distance from Babylon towards
the north, designed to obstruct the march of a hostile army. Xeno-
phon hkewise spoke of a rampart — ^known as the " Median Wall ** —
extending across the tract between the two rivers — ^a vast barrier a
hundred feet high and twenty feet thick — intended to be insurmount-
able by an unskillful enemy, but this is generally doubted by modern
writers.

Nabonadius was permitted to complete his fortification of Babylon Conquest
unmolested; but his rash ally, Croesus, the wealthy King of Lydia, ^ cyriTs
rushed impetuously into a war with Persia without asking the assist- the Great.
ance of the Babylonian monarch. Cyrus promptly attacked Croesus
by invading Lydia, defeated him in the battle of Pteria, and besieged
and captured Sardis, the Lydian capital, before Nabonadius could
render his impulsive ally any aid. For fourteen years Babylon re-
mained unmenaced by the Persian king.

Finally, in B. C. 589, Nabonadius received tidings that Cyrus the Cyrus
Great was marching from Ecbatana, the Median capital, in the direc- ^j^hisT
tion of Babylon ; but as his defenses were completed and the city amply Babylon.
provisioned, the Babylonian monarch felt perfectly secure behind the
walls of his capital. Herodotus says that the Persian invader paused
half-way between Ecbatana and Babylon, because one of the sacred
white horses which drew the chariot of Ormazd had been drowned in
crossing a river. Declaring that he would punish the insolent stream,
Cyrus employed his soldiers during the whole summer and autumn of

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256 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

B. C. 639 in dispersing the waters of the stream into three hundred
and sixty channels.
His Cyrus renewed his march upon Babylon in the spring of B. C. 538,

over^ crossing the Tigris without opposition and soon appearing before
Nabona- Babylon. The Babylonian army under Nabonadius himself was here
drawn up to oppose him. In the battle which ensued the Babylonian
king was thoroughly defeated, the greater part of his army seeking
refuge inside the walls of the capital, while he himself with a small
body of troops fled for safety into the important city of Borsippa, a
short distance south-west from Babylon.
Siege of In the meantime, the Babylonian crown-prince, Belshazzar, or Bel-
^d^° shar-uzup, the son of Nabonadius, and the grandson of the illustrious
shazzar's Nebuchadnezzar — ^supported by the counsels of his mother and the
*** • officers of the court — for a time successfully resisted all the Persian
assaults, so that Cyrus, almost reduced to despair, resorted to a strata-
gem whose failure might have cost him dear. Leaving a corps of
observation behind him, Cyrus, with the bulk of his army, marched up
the course of the Euphrates for some distance, and dug a new chan-
nel, or channels, from the river, by means of which a part of its water
could be drawn off. Cyrus awaited the arrival of a certain festival
at Babylon, when the entire Babylonian population would be engaged
in drinking and revelry. The festival on this occasion was held witli
more than usual pomp and magnificence, and Belshazzar gave himself
up entirely to the delights of the season, entertaining a thousand dig-
nitaries in his palace. The rest of the population was occupied in
feasting and dancing; and in the midst of drunken riot and mad ex-
citement the siege of the city was wholly forgotten, and the usual
precautions were neglected. The Babylonians abandoned themselves
for the night to orgies characterized by a strange mingling of religious
frenzy and drunken excess.
Capture While this was going on inside the city during this eventful night,
Babylon ^^^ Persians were silently watching outside at the two points where
and Death the Euphrates entered and left the walls. They anxiously and cau-
shazzar. tiously watched the gradual sinking of the river-bed, to discover if
their silent movements would be observed and cause alarm. Had they
entered the river channel to find the river-walls manned and the river-
gates locked fast they would have been caught in a trap. Flanked
on both sides by an enemy they could neither see nor reach they would
have been caught at a terrible disadvantage. In such a case they
would have been entirely cut to pieces without being able to make any
effectual resistance, or to escape from their perilous position. But
as they observed no signs of alarm, but only the shouts of riotous
revelry, on the part of the unsuspecting populace, the Persians grew

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THE LATER BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.

257

bolder, and, when the revelry was at its height, emerged from the deep
river-bed and seized the two undefended gateways. The frightened
Babylonians at once raised a war-shout and spread the alarm. Swift
runners hurried off to " show the King of Babylon that his city was
taken at one end"; so says the Book of Jeremiah. In the darkness
and confusion of the night a frightful massacre occurred, says Xeno-
phon. The drunken revelers were unable to resist. Belshazzar, com-
pletely surprised and utterly helpless " at the awful handwriting upon
the wall," which appeared at this time, was warned of his danger when
too late, and could offer no check to the progress of the assailants,
who had the paralyzed populace completely at their mercy. A band
of Persians forced their way into the royal palace and slew the aston-
ished Belshazzar on the scene of his sacrilegious revelry. Such is the
testimony of Herodotus and Xenophon, of Daniel and Jeremiah.
Says the Book of Daniel : " In that night was Belshazzar slain." The
triumphant Persians destroyed right and left with fire and sword.
The dawn found Cyrus undisputed master of the mighty Babylon.

After ordering the fortifications of Babylon to be dismantled, Cyrus
marched against Nabonadius at Borsippa; but, seeing the folly of
resistance, the unfortunate Nabonadius surrendered himself upon the
approach of his triumphant foe. Cyrus kindly treated the captive
king, sparing his life, and, according to Abydenus, conferring on him
the government of the important province of Carmania.

Thus fell the mighty Babylonian Empire, after an existence of
eighty-seven years, from B. C. 625 to B. C. 638. For half a century
did Babylon, along with Media and Lydia, control the destinies of
Western Asia. The Babylonian dominions then became a part of the
great Medo-Persian Empire, and the great city which had played so
important a part in Oriental history for centuries became the winter
capital of the Medo-Persian kings.

Captivity

Nabona-

ditts.

End of
the Baby-
lonian
Empire.

KINGS OF BABYLON.

B. C.

KiKOfl.

COKTEMPORART
KiKOS OF
ASSYKIA.

Remaskabu: Evbktb.

1300

1150
1130
1110

Assyrian Dynasty....

• • •

Nebuchadnexzar I....
MerodacMddin-akhi .
Merodach-shapik-dri .

• • •

Tiglathi-Nin I....

• • •

Bel-kuduivuanir.
Nin-pala-zira.
Asshur-dayan I,
Mutaggil-Nebo.
Asshur-ris-ilim ...
Tiglath-PQescr I..
Asshur-bil-kala ...

Shamas-Vul I.

• • •

The Assyrians conquer Babylon.
' Babylon.

VOL.

1.— 17

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S58

CHALD/EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Tsibir (Deboras).

880
850
820

775
752

747

745
T33
731
726
721
713(?)

709
704
703

702
699

696(?)

Asshur-Mazur . . . .

• • •

Asshur-dayan II.
Vul-lush II.
Tiglathi-Nin II.
Asshur-izir-pal . . .

Merodach-sum-adin . .jShalmaneser II.,

Merodach-bclaUu-ikbi Shamas-Vul II.
• • • Vul-lush III.

Pul (?)

Nabonassar

Xadius

Chinzinus and Poms..

Klulaeus

Merodach-Baladan ...

Arceanus (Sargon).

Interregnum

Ilagisa

Merodach-Bala-
dan (restored)

Belibus (viceroy) . .

Assaranadius (vice-
roy)

Susub

Shalmaneser III.
Asshur-dayan III.

Asshur-lush.

Tiglath-Pileser II.

Shalmaneser IV.
Sargon.

694(?)

693 iKegibclus (viceroy).
692 'Mesesiinordachus

(viceroy)

688 Interregnum

680 Esar-haddon

667

647

626
625
605

561
559
.)50
555
538

As-

Saos-duchinus (vice-
roy)

Cinneladanus (or

shur-bani-pal) .. . ,
Nebo-sum-isKun ( ?)

Nabopolassar ,

Nebuchadnezzar ....

Evil-Merodach ....

Neriglissar

Laborosoarchod . . .

Xabonadius

Conquest of Babylon
by Cyrus the Great
of Persia

Sennacherib

Esar-haddon

Asshur-banl-pal

Asshur-emid-iUn.

Babylon in alliance with Egypt.
Takes territory from Assyria.

Ass3rria recovers her lost terri-
tory.

Civil war in Babylon. Assyria
helps the legitimate king.

Babylon conquered. Passes un-
der Assyria.

Babylon reestablishes her inde-
pendence.

Embassy of Merodach-Baladan

to Ilezeidah.
Babylon conquered by Sargon.
Babylon revolts.

Sennacherib conquers Babylon.

Babylon revolts. Revolt put
down.

Ditto.

I'roubles in Babylon. Inter-
regnum of eight years, coin-
ciding with last eight years
of Sennacherib.

Babylon recovered by Esar-
haddon.

Babylon revolts and again re-
turns ^o allegiance.

Assyrian Empire destroyed.
Nebuchadnezzar carries the
Jews into captivity.

Babylon taken by Cyrus the
I Great of Persia.

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

259

SECTION IX.— BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

Says Professor Rawlinson : ** In its general character the Baby-
lonian Empire was little more than a reproduction of the Assyrian.
The same loose organization of the provinces under native kings rather
than satraps almost universally prevailed, with the same duties on the
part of suzerain and subjects, and the same results of ever-recurring
revolt and re-conquest. Similar means were employed under both em-
pires to check and discourage rebellion — mutilations and executions of
chiefs, pillage of the rebellious region, and wholesale deportation of
its population. Babylon, equajly with Assyria, failed to win the affec-
tions of the subject nations, and, as a natural result, received no help
from them in her hour of need. Her system was to exhaust and op-
press the conquered races for the supposed benefit of the conquerors,
and to impoverish the provinces for the adornment and enrichment of
the capital. The wisest of her raonarchs thought it enough to con-
struct works of public utility in Babylonia proper, leaving the de-
pendent countries to themselves, and doing nothing to develop their
resources. This selfish system was, like most selfishness, short-sighted;
it alienated those whom it would have been true policy to conciliate and
win. When the time of peril came, the subject nations were no source
of strength to the menaced empire. On the contrary, it would seem
that some even turned against her and made common cause with the
assailants.

" Babylonian civilization differed in many respects from Assyrian,
to which however it approached more nearly than to any other known
type. Its advantages over Assyrian were in its greater originality,
its superior literary character, and its comparative width and flexibil-
ity. Babylonia seems to have been the source from which Assyria drew
her learning, such as it was, her architecture, the main ideas of her
mimetic art, her religious notions, her legal forms, and a vast number
of her customs and usages. But Babylonia herself, so far as we know,
drew her stores from no foreign country. Hers was apparently the
genius which excogitated an alphabet — ^worked out the simpler prob-
lems of arithmetic — ^invented implements for measuring the lapse of
time — conceived the idea of raising enormous structures with the poor-
est of all materials, clay — discovered the art of polishing, boring, and
engraving gems — reproduced with truthfulness the outlines of human
and animal forms — ^attained to high perfection in textile fabrics —
studied with success the motions of the heavenly bodies — conceived of
grammar as a science — elaborated a system of law — saw tlie value of
an exact chronology — in almost every branch of science made a be-

: Rawlin-
son 's
State-
ment.

The
Same

Con-
tinued.

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5^60

CHALD/KA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Chaldaean
Descent
of the
Later
Baby-
lonians.

% New
Semitic
Elements.

Fusion of
Semitic,
Hamitic

and
Turanian
Elements.

Final
Semitic
Prepon-
derance.

ginning, thus rendering it comparatively easy for other nations to
proceed with the superstructure. To Babylonia, far more than to
Egypt, we owe the art and learning of the Greeks. It was from the
East, not from Egypt, that Greece derived her architecture, her sculp-
ture, her science, her philosophy, her mathematical knowledge — ^in a
word, her intellectual life. And Babylon was the source to which the
entire stream of Eastern civilization may be traced. It is scarcely
too much to say that, but for Babylon, real civilization might not even
yet have dawned upon the earth. Mankind might never have ad-
vanced beyond that spurious and false form of it which in Egypt,
India, China, Japan, Mexico, and Peru, contented the aspirations of
the species."

The later Babylonians were a mixed race, as were the early Chal-
daeans, from whom they were mainly descended. The Chaldieans of
the First Empire were chiefly a mixed Hamitic, or Cushite, and Tura-
nian race, with a slight intermingling of Semitic and Aryan elements.
But the Babylonians of the later period — called Chaldasans by the
Hebrew prophets — were still more of a composite race, on account of
the colonization of foreigners in Babylonia in accordance with the
policy of the Assyrian kings, and because of the influence exerted upon
them by their Assyrian conquerors. The conquest of Chalda^a by the
Arabian dynasty B. C. 1546, and the Assyrian conquest of the same
country B. C. ISOO, establishing an Assyrian royal race upon the
Chaldffian throne, tended to the fusion of new Semitic elements with
the old Chaldsan population, as both the Arabs and the Assyrians were
prominent branches of the Semitic race, which played so important a
part in ancient history.

Semitic dynasties reigning in Chaldaea would naturally tend to the
introduction of new Semitic blood into that old land, and bring along
Semitic customs and ideas, and causing the old Turano-Cushite lan-
guage of ancient Chaldaea to give way to a Semitic tongue. The orig-
inal Chaldaean population gradually became intermingled with the new
Semitic settlers, thus tending to the production of a nation composed
about equally of Semitic, Turanian and Cushite, or Hamitic elements.
The colonizations of the Sargonid dynasty brought, in addition, small
proportions of other foreign elements, so that the later Babylonians
could more appropriately be called a " mingled people " than any
other ancient nation of Western Asia. By the time of the Later Em-
pire the Babylonians had become thorouglily Semitized, as the vitality
and energy of the Semitic elements fused in the population predomi-
nated over the original Cushite and Turanian elements; so that the
later Babylonians were scarcely distinguishable from their northern
neighbors, the Assyrians. The Greek writers seem to have regarded

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. ggl

the Assyrians and Babylonians as one apd the same race of people,
and as having a common civilization.

The Babylonian cylinders and three or four representations by Ph3^ical
Babylonian artists give us some scant idea of the physical characteris- teristics.
tics of this renowned ancient people. Among these remains is the
representation of a Babylonian king, believed to be Merodach-iddin- '
ahki, on a black stone in the British Museum ; also representations of
the warrior and the priest in the tablet from Sir-Pal-i-Zohab, the man
accompanying the Babylonian hound, and some imperfect figures on
a frieze. A few Assyrian bas-reliefs represent Assyrian campaigns in
Babylonia. The Babylonian cylinders represent the Babylonians as
of far slighter and sparer physical frames than the Assyrians ; but the
Assyrian sculptures show the Babylonians as having bodily forms as
brawny and massive as their northern neighbors, while the features of
the two peoples were very nearly alike. The Assyrian sculptures rep-
*resent the physiognomy of the Babylonians as distinguished by a low
and straight but somewhat depressed forehead, full lips, and a well-
marked, rounded chin. The few remaining Babylonian sculptures sus-
tain the correctness of the Assyrian, but represent the eye as larger
and less almond-shaped, the nose as shorter and more depressed, and
the general expression of the countenance as more commonplace.
These differences are to be ascribed to the influence exerted upon the
physical form of the race by the primitive Cushite Chaldaean element.
Herodotus states that the Babylonians wore their hair long, and this
statement Is sustained by the Babylonian sculptures. These sculp-
tures commonly represent the hair as forming a single stiff and heavy
curl at the back of the head, but sometimes they give it the form of
long flowing locks depending over the back, or over the back and
shoulders, extending almost to the waist. Sometimes we find types
closely resembling the Assyrian, the hair forming a round mass be-
hind the head, on which there appears to have been sometimes a slight
wave. The style mentioned by Herodotus was the national fashion,
and is represented by the three usual modes. The round mass was an
Assyrian style, aped by the Babylonians during their subjection to
Assyria. The Assyrian sculptures represent the hair of the Babylo-
nians as reaching below the shoulders, and as worn smooth on the top
of the head and depending from the ears to the shoulders in many
large, smooth, heavy curls.

The Babylonians are likewise often represented with a large beard. Long
usually longer than the Assyrian, and reaching almost down to the
waist. Sometimes it curls crisply upon the face, but below the chin
it depends over the breast in long straight locks, while in other cases
it droops perpendicularly from the cheeks and the lower lip ; but here

Beards.

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CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, 13ABV1.0NIA,

Baby-
lonian
Women.

Intellec-
tual
Ability.

Enter-
prise and
Avarice.

the Assyrian sculptures represent the Babylonian beard as little longer
than the Assyrian, Often there is no beard, as in the case of the
priests.

The Assyrian sculptures also represent the Babylonian women as
tall and large-limbed, with the Assyrian physiognomy, and with not
very abundant hair; but the Babylonian cylinders make the hair ap-
pear long and prominent, while the physical forms are as spare and
meagre as those of the male sex.

It is evident that altogether the physical types of the Assyrians and
Babylonians were very nearly alike, though the Babylonians had a
somewhat sparer form, longer and more flowing hair, less strong and
stern features, and a darker complexion. The last characteristic is to
be attributed partly to the infusion of Ethiopian elements in the popu-
lation, and partly to their more tropical location. Babylonia being four
degrees farther south than Assyria. The Cha'ab Arabs, who now
occupy the southern parts of the ancient Babylonia, are almost black ;
while tlie " black Syrians," mentioned by Strabo, were probably the
Babylonians.

The Babylonians were distinguished for their intellectual ability.
They inherited the scientific lore of their predecessors, the early Chal-
daeans, whose astronomical and mathematical knowledge they not only
retained, but advanced and enlarged by their exertions. The fame
of their " wisdom and learning " is recorded by the Jewish prophets.
In alluding to them, Isaiah said : " Thy wisdom and thy knowledge,
it hath perverted thee." Says Jeremiah : " A sword is upon the Chal-
daeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon
her princes, and upon her wise men." Daniel alludes to " the learn-
ing and the tongue of the Chaldaeans." Herodotus mentions their use-
ful inventions, and Aristotle was indebted to them for scientific data.
They were celebrated for their observations of astronomical phenom-
ena, and their careful records of these observations. They were also
famed as mathematicians. But unfortunately their astronomy was
corrupted by astrology; and they professed to cast nativities, inter-
pret dreams, and foretell future occurrences by means of the stars, thus
tinging their astronomy with a mystic and unscientific element ; though
there were always some who confined themselves to pure science and
repudiated all astrological pretensions.

The Babylonians were also a very enterprising people. Their active
spirit led them to engage extensively in manufactures and commerce
by sea and land. The same commercial spirit which so distinguished
the ancient Phoenicians, and which has made the modern Jews such
successful merchants, characterized the Semitized Babylonians, whose
land the Jewish prophet Ezekiel called " a land of traffic," and whose

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 263

chief city Isaiah described as " a city of merchants." The trading
spirit of the Babylonians developed in them the opposite vices of avar-
ice and fondness for luxury. They " coveted with an evil covetous-
ness," as we are informed by the Jewish writers Habakkuk and Jere-
miah. The " shameful custom " which Herodotus relates, requiring Shameful
of every Babylonian woman, rich or poor, high-bom or humble, pros- ugn-
titution as a religious duty in the great temple of Beltis at Babylon tioned by
once in her life, was probably dictated by this spirit of greed, for the tus.
purpose of attacting strangers to the capital; as was also the custom
of selling the marriageable virgins at public auction, which Herod-
otus also mentions. Quintus Curtius, the Roman writer, also says that
the avarice of husbands and parents induced them to sell the virtue
of their wives and daughters to strangers.

Both sacred and profane writers continually dwell upon the luxury Luxury
of the Babylonians. We are informed by Isaiah that the " daughter gensu-
of the Chaldaeans " was " tender and delicate," " given to pleasures," ality.
disposed to " dwell carelessly." Ezekiel tells us that her young men
made themselves " as princes to look at — exceeding In dyed attire upon
their heads." Nicolas of Damascus relates that these young men
painted their faces, wore ear-rings, and dressed in robes of. rich and
soft material. Polygamy prevailed extensively. The pleasures of
the table were indulged in to excess, and drunkenness was a general
vice. Rich unguents, so celebrated by Posidonius, were likewise in-
vented. The tables were loaded with gold and silver plate, according
to Nicolas of Damascus. In short, the Babylonians utterly aban-
doned themselves to self-indulgence and luxurious living, reveling in -
the utmost licentiousness.

They nevertheless were always brave and skillful in war, and in the Warlike
height of their glory they were one of the most formidable of the Bravery.
Oriental nations. The Jewish prophet Habakkuk speaks of them as
** the Chaldieans, that bitter and hasty nation," and also as " terrible
and dreadful — ^their horses' hoofs swifter than the leopard's, and more
fierce than the evening wolves." Isaiah says that they " smote the
people in wrath with a continual stroke," and that they " made the
earth to tremble, and did shake kingdoms." In their great enter-
prises they swept everything before them with irresistible force, in
spite of all opposition, and unmoved by the calls of mercy. Centuries
of warfare with the well-armed and well-disciplined Assyrians made
the Babylonians the worthy successors of the nation which had so long
held them in subjection, so far as the warlike virtues of energy, valor
and military skill are concerned. They extended their conquests from
the Persian Gulf on the east to the Nile on the west. Their invincible
hosts of sturdy warriors speedily crushed all resistance and rapidly es-

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264 CHALD.EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

tablished the Babylonian dominion, fully deserving the title of "tiie
hammer of the whole earth," given them by the prophet Jeremiah.

Brntal The Babylonians stained their triumphs in war with useless violence

^^^1 and with the usual Oriental outrages. The Assyrian policy of whole-
Van- sale deportation of conquered nations was practiced by them, regard-

^Foee. ^^^^ °^ *^^ sufferings which resulted in consequence. Such needless
and inexcusable actrocities as the mutilation of captives, the long im-
prisonments, the massacre of non-combatants, the execution of children
before the eyes of their fathers, disgraced the military annals of the
Babylonians, and exasperated more than they terrified the subjugated
nations, thus weakening instead of strengthening the empire. These
barbarous punishments indicate the general Asiatic temper — a temper
inhuman and savage. The tiger-like thirst for blood which charac-
terized the Babylonians led them to sacrifice their national self-interest
and the peace of the empire to the promptings of a spirit of ven-
geance.
Crael and The Babylonian nobles stood in danger of losing their own heads

pS?hS- ^^ ^y ^^^ ^^^ trifiing fault they aroused the sovereign's displeasure.

ments. The venerable " Chaldaeans," so famed for their " wisdom and learn-
ing,*' were at one time threatened with extermination because they
' failed to interpret a dream forgotten by the king. If a monarch
incurred the displeasure of his court, and was considered as showing
a bad disposition, he was put to death by torture. Such punishments
as cutting to pieces and csisting into a fiery furnace prevailed, as re-
lated by the prophet Daniel, who also informs us that the houses of
offenders were torn down and turned into dung-hills. These harsh
practices indicate the height of Eastern cruelty. When the prophet
Habakkuk denounced the final judgment against Babylon, it was
announced as being inflicted "because of men's blood, and for tht
violence of the land— of the city, and all that dwelt therein.'*
Pride. Pride was another fault of the Babylonians, as it has ever been the

accompaniment of military success in a nation. The sudden transfer
of supremacy in the Mesopotamian region from Assyria to Babylonia
awakened a haughty spirit in the hitherto-subject kingdom. The
Babylonians in the zenith of their power and glory quite naturally
regarded themselves as the greatest nation on earth ; and this spirit was
distinctly manifested by Nebuchadnezzar, who, when walking in his
palace and viewing the splendid edifices which he had erected on all
sides from the plunder of his conquests, and by the forced labor of
his captives, exclaimed: ** Is not this great Babylon, that I have built
for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the
honor of my majesty!'* The arrogance of the Babylonians was as
intense and as deep-seated as that of the Assyrians, if not so offensive.

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

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Truly did Isaiah say, in alluding to this people : " Thou that art given
to pleasure, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am,
and none else besides me."

The Babylonians, in spite of their pride, cruelty, covetousness, and
fondness for luxury, were a very religious people. In Babylonia the
temple held nearly the same preeminence over other edifices which it
possessed in Egypt. The immense ruins of the Birs-i-Nimrud show
the degree of labor expended in the construction of sacred buildings,
and the costly ornamentation of these structures is more wonderful
than their vast dimensions. Immense sums were expended on the idols,
and the entire appendages of worship displayed indescribable pomp
and magnificence. The kings devoutly worshiped the various deities,
and devoted considerable attention to building and repairing temples,
erecting images of the gods, etc. The names given their children
showed their religious feeling and their actual faith in the power of
the gods to protect their devotees. Thus Nabu-kuduri-izzir means
** Nebo is the protector of landmarks " ; Bel-shar-izzir means " Bel
protects the king " ; and Evil-Mcrodach implies " Merodach is a god."
The people in general used names of the same kind, containing in
nearly every case the name of a god as an element, such as Bclibus,
Belesis, Nergal-shar-ezer, Shamgar-nebo, Nebu-zar-adan, Nabonidus,
etc. The seals and signets worn by each man were almost universaUy
of a religious character. Even in banquets and entertainments, while
drinking, they uttered praises of the deities. Says the pr(^het Dan-
iel : " They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver,
of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone."

Nicolas of Damascus tells us that the Babylonians specially culti-
vated the virtues of honesty and calmness. The fact that their trade
was flourishing, that their products were everywhere in demand, suffici-
ently proves their commercial honesty.

Babylon was perhaps the largest and most splendid city of the
ancient Eastern world. On its site great masses of ruins cover a space
much larger than those of Nineveh. Beyond this space in all direc-
tions arc seen detached mounds, showing that there existed in past
times vast edifices, while spaces between the mounds indicate that there
also were buildings in former ages. Modern investigation and ex-
ploration give us no definite idea of the size of Babylon.

Herodotus says that the enceinte of Babylon was a square, one hun-
dred and twenty stadia (about fourteen miles) each way, so that the
whole circuit of the walls was fifty-six miles, and the area enclosed
within them less than two hundred square miles. Ctesias, who, like
Herodotus, saw the city itself, gave the circuit of the walls an extent
of three hundred and sixty stadia, or forty-one miles, thus represent-

Religioas
Senti-
ment.

Commer-
cial
Honesty.

Ruins and
Mounds

of
Babylon.

Its Walls.

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ggg CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

ing the area as little more than one hundred square miles. Clitarchus
gave the circumference as three hundred and sixty-five stadia ; Quint us
Curtius as three hundred and sixty-eight stadia; Strabo as three hun-
dred and eighty-five stadia. Quintus Curtius tells us that there was
a clear space of a quarter of a mile between the city and the wall. The
walls of the city were pierced with a hundred gates, and the streets or
roads led directly to these portals. The houses were usually three or
four stories high, and are said to have had vaulted roofs, unprotected
on the outside with any tiling, because the dryness of the climate ren-
dered such protection unnecessary. The beams of the houses were of
palm-wood, the only plentiful timber in the country. The pillars
were posts of palm-wood with twisted wisps of rushes around them,
covered with plaster and colored.
The River The Euphrates flowed through the city, dividing it into two almost
^^^a^ equal parts. Its banks were lined all the way with quays of brick laid
its Quays, in bitumen, and were also guarded by two brick walls skirting them
BrfdM ^^ong their entire extent. Each of these walls had twenty-five gates,
and corresponding to the number of streets extending upon the river. Out-
Tunnel, gjjg esich gate there was an inclined landing-place, by which the
water's edge could be reached. Boats kept at these landing-places
conveyed passengers across the river. The river was also crossed by
a bridge consisting of a number of stone piers erected in the channel,
firmly held together with fastenings of iron and lead, and connected
only during the day by wooden drawbridges, on which people passed
over, and which were removed at night to prevent the use of the bridge
in the dark. Diodorus gives this bridge a length of five stadia (about
one thousand yards) and a width of thirty feet. He also says that
there was a tunnel under the river, connecting its two sides, and tliat
it was fifteen feet broad and twelve feet high to the spring of its
arched roof.
Temple ol The most remarkable edifices of Babylon were Its two palaces, one
Descried ^^ ^^^^ side of the river, and the great temple of Bel. Herodotus
by Herod- describes the great temple as surrounded by a square enclosure, two
^ ' stadia (almost a quarter of a mile) long, and as wide. Its main fea-
Its Ziggu- ture was the ziggurat, or tower, a gigantic solid mass of brick-work,
TowCT. ^^^^^ ill the same manner as all other Babylonian temple-towers, in
stages, with square upon square, thus forming a rude pyramid, with
a shrine of the god at the top. The basement platform of this temple-
tower, Herodotus says, was a stadium, or a little over two hundred
yards, each way. This tower had eight stages, and the ascent to the
highest, which contained the shrine of the god, was on the outside, and
consisted of a series of steps, or of an inclined plane, carried round
the four sides of the structure, and leading to tlie top in this way.

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 0(57

Strabo says that the tower was a stadium (six hundred and six feet
and nine inches) high, but this is evidently an exaggeration. About
midway up there was a resting-place provided with seats. The shrine Its Upper
on the summit of the structure was large and elegant. It had no im- ^^^'
age in the time of Herodotus, but only a golden table and a large
couch, covered with an elegant drapery ; but Diodorus says that before
the Persian conquest of Babylon the shrine contained gigantic golden
images of Bel, Beltis and Ishtar respectively. Two golden lions were
in front of the images of Beltis, and near these were two colossal ser-
pents of silver, each weighing thirty talents. The golden table was
forty feet long and fifteen feet wide, and was in front of the statues.
Two immense drinking-cups, as heavy as the serpents, were upon the
golden table. The shrine likewise had two vast censors and three
golden bowls for the three deities respectively. There was a second Its Lower
shrine, or chapel, at the base of the tower. In the time of Herodotus Shnne.
this shrine contained a sitting image of Bel, consisting of gold. There
was a golden table before the image, and a golden stand for the image
itself. The Babylonian priests informed Herodotus that the gold of
the image, table and stand together weighed eight hundred talents.
Before the Persian conquest this second shrine had a human figure of
solid gold twelve cubits high. The shrine was also well supplied with
private offerings. Within the sacred enclosure outside the structure
were two altars, the smaller one of gold on which to offer sucklings,
and the larger one of stone on which full-grown victims were sacri-
ficed, and whereon a thousand talents' weight of frankincense was
oflFered yearly at the festival of the god.

The great palace was larger than the great temple. Diodorus says Great
that it was located within a triple enclosure, and that the innermost ^^^iqq
wall was twenty stadia, the middle forty stadia, and the outermost sixty
stadia (almost seven miles) in circumference. The outer wall was
entirely built of .plain baked brick. The other two walls were built
of the same kind of brick fronted with enameled bricks representing
hunting scenes. Quintus Curtius only knew of one enclosure, and this
corresponded to the inner wall of Diodorus, having a circuit of twenty
stadia. Curtius represented this wall as eighty feet high, and its
foundations as lying thirty feet below the surface of the ground. Dio-
dorus says that, the figures in the hunting scenes were larger than life-
size, and that they embraced a large variety of animal forms, and like-
wise of human forms, one of a man thrusting his spear through a Hon,
and another of a woman on horseback aiming a javelin at a leopard.
These last the later Greeks supposed to represent the mythical Ninus
and Semiramis. The palace was said to have had three gates, two of
bronze, which had to be opened and closed by a machine.

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CHAJLDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

"Hangiiig
Gardens "

as De-
scribed by
Ancient
Writers*

Smaller
Palace.

Walls of
Babylon

as De-
scribed by

Ancient
Writers.

Masonry

of the

Walls.

The ** Hanging Gardens '' — regarded by the Greeks as one of the
** Seven Wonders of the World " — ^were the chief glory of the great
palace, and constituted its pleasure-ground. This remarkable con-
struction was a square, each side measuring four hundred Greek feet,
according to Diodorus. It rested upon several tiers of open arches,
built one over the other, and bearing at each stage, or story, a solid
platform, from which arose the next tier of arches. The structure
w^as seventy-five feet high, and at the top it was covered with a vast
mass of earth, in which were grown flowers and shrubs, and even the
largest trees. Quintus Curtius says that the trunks of some of these
trees were twelve feet in diameter, and Strabo states that some of the
piers were hollowed and filled with earth to afford nourishment for the
roots of the trees. Water, conveyed from the Euphrates through
pipes, was said by Strabo to have been raised by a screw working on
the principle of Archimedes. There was a layer of reeds mixed with
bitumen, next a double layer of burnt brick cemented with gypsum,
and then a coating of sheet-lead, between the bricks and the mass of
soil, to protect the building against gradual decay by the moisture pene-
trating the brick-work. The garden was reached by steps. Stately
apartments were among the arches on which rested the structure, on
the ascent to the garden. The machinery which raised the water was
in a chamber within the structure. The object of the structure was
to produce an artificial mountain.

The smaller palace, on the side of the river opposite the larger one,
w^as also surrounded by a triple enclosure, the whole circuit, accord-
ing to Diodorus, measuring thirty stadia. This palace contained some
bronze statues, believed by the Greeks to represent the god Bel and
the legendary king and queen, Ninus and Semiramis, along with their
officers. Painted and enameled bricks representing war and hunting
scenes covered the walls.

The walls of Babylon, in connection with the '* Hanging Gardens,*'
were among the " Seven Wonders of the World." Herodotus says
that they were fifty royal cubits (about eighty-five English feet) wide.
Strabo and Quintus Curtius gave the width as thirty-two feet. Herod-
otus assigned the walls a height of two hundred royal cubits, or three
hundred royal feet (about three hundred and thirty-five English feet).
Ctesias gave the height as fifty fathoms^ or three hundred ordinary
Greek feet. Pliny and Solinus made the altitude two hundred and
thirty-five feet. Philostratus and Quintus Curtius assigned the walk
a heightof one hundred and fifty feet. Clitarchus, according to Dio-
dorus Siculus, and Strabo gave the height as seventy-five feet.

The walls were made of bricks cemented with bitumen, with occa-
sional layers of reeds between the courses. Outside the walls were

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

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protected by a wide and deep moat. Low towers, two hundred and
fifty in number according to Diodorus Siculus, and rising about ten
or fifteen feet above the walls according to Quintus Curtius and Strabo,
served as guard-rooms for the defenders. Herodotus says the space
between the towers was wide ** enough for a four-horse chariot to turn
in." The height and thickness of the walls gave them their strength
and rendered scaling and mining utterly hopeless.

Such was the mighty Babylon in the day of its glory — a great city,
irregularly built, surrounded by populous suburbs interspersed among
fields and gardens, the whole included within a large square strongly-
fortified enceinte^ or wall of brick. There are at present few vestiges
of this vast and magnificent metropolis of the ancient Oriental world.
As Jeremiah foretold, " the broad walls of Babylon " are " utterly
broken." As Isaiah predicted, " the golden city ceased " ; truly is
" it a possession for the bittern, and pools of walls *' ; it has been swept
" with the besom of destruction " ; and " Babylon, the glory of king-
doms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," has become " as when
God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.'* As Jeremiah prophesied,
Babylon has " become heaps," " an astonishment," and " without an
inhabitant." There are great ** heaps " of shapeless and formless
mounds scattered at intervals over the whole region where ancient
Babylon was located, and the soil between the " heaps " is in many
instances composed of remnants of broken pottery and bricks, and
deeply impregnated with nitre, which indisputably proves that the site
was at one time occupied by an immense mass of buildings. On going
southward from Bagdad these remains gradually increase, and between
Mohawil and the Euphrates they are continuous, forming a region of
immense mounds.

These mounds commence about five miles above the modem town of
Hillah, extending more than three miles along the river from north
to south, and are located chiefly on the eastern bank. On the eastern
side the ruins consist mainly of three vast masses of ruined buildings.
The modem Arabs call the most northern of these mounds Basil,
which was the real native name of the great ancient city, meaning
" the Gate of II," or " the Gate of God." The Babil mound is an
immense heap of brick-work shaped like an irregular quadrilateral,
having precipitous sides with ravines, and being flat on the top. The
southern side of the ruin is the most perfect, and extends about two
hundred yards directly east and west. At its eastern end it forms a
right angle with the eastern side, which extends almost due north in a
direct line for about one hundred and eighty yards. The western and
northern sides appear to be much worn away, and here are the prin-
cipal ravines. The Babil mound, whose greatest height is about one

Present
Ruins.

Propbe-

cies of

Jeremiah

and
Isaiah.

The BabU
Mound.

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CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Adjacent
Ruins.

FlKasr
Mound.

hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty feet, consists chiefly of
sun-dried bricks, but appears to have been faced with fire-burned bricks
skillfully cemented with an excellent white mortar. Nebuchadnezzar's
name and titles are on the bricks of this outer facing. The little of
the building uncovered shows that the lines of the structure were per-
pendicular, and that the side walls were supported by buttresses at
intervals.

This great structure was situated within a square enclosure, the
northern and southern sides of which are yet clearly marked. A low
line of rampart extends four hundred yards parallel to the eastern side
of the building, about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and
thirty yards distant from it, and a line of mound a little longer runs
parallel to the northern side, but more distant from it. A third line
on the western side traced early in 'the present century is now obliter-
ated. On the western and southern sides are the remains of an ancient
canal.

The Babil mound stands isolated from the other ruins, and below
it arc two mounds, the more northern of which the Arabs call El Kasr,
meaning " the Palace," and the more southern " the mound of Am-
ran," from the tomb of a prophet called Amran-ibn-Ali, crowning its
summit. The Kasr mound is an oblong square, about seven hundred
yards from north to south, and about six hundred yards from east to
west, the sides facing the cardinal points of the compass. The height
of this mound above the plain is seventy feet. The rubbish uncovered
by exploration is composed of loose bricks, tiles, and fragments of
stone. An underground passage, seven feet high, with floor and walls
of baked brick, and arched at the top with huge sandstone blocks, has
been discovered, and is believed to have been an immense drain. The
Kasr, or " palace " proper, is another important relic, and from it the
mound has received its name. This consists of excellent brick ma-
sonry, remarkably preserved, in the form of walls, piers and buttresses,
and in certain places ornamented with pilasters. The bricks are of a
pale yellow color and of excellent quality, and every one is stamped
with the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar. The mortar in which
they are laid appears like a fine lime cement, which so closely adheres
to the bricks that it is hot easy to get a specimen whole. Many frag-
ments of brick, painted, and covered with a thick glaze or enamel, are
seen in the dust at the foot of the walls. Here, also, have been dis-
covered a few fragments of sculptured stone, among which is the frieze
discovered by Layard; and slabs. giving an account of the erection
of Nebuchadnezzar's palace have likewise been found. Near the north-
ern edge of the mound, and half-way in its width, is a gigantic figure
of a lion, rudely carved in black basalt, standing over the prostrate

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

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figure of a man with extended anns. A solitary tree has grown out
of the great ruin, which the Arabs say is of a species not found else-
where, and which they consider a remnant of the hanging garden of
Bokht-i-nazar. This tree is a tamarisk, with a strange growth and
foliage, on account of its great age and its exposed situation.

Very clearly, the Kasr mound indicates that it was the site of the
great palace of Nebuchadnezzar. Tradition has given the name of
Kasr, or " Palace," to this mound, and this is confirmed by the inscrip-
tions upon slabs found here, in which Nebuchadnezzar caUs the struc-
ture his " Grand Palace " ; while all the bricks of that portion of the
ruin remaining uncovered bear that great king's name. Diodorus says
that the walls were ornamented with sculptured representations of
hunting scenes ; and modern exploration has brought to light from the
soil of the mound vast masses of fragments of enameled bricks with
various hues and containing portions of human and animal forms, such
as portions of a lion, of a horse, and of a human face.

The mound of Amran, or Jumjuma, about eight hundred yards south
of the Kasr mound, has an irregular and ill-defined triangular shape,
with its three sides respectively a little east of north, a little south of
east, and a little south of west. The south-western side, which runs
almost parallel with the Euphrates, appears to have been at one time
washed by the river, and is over a thousand yards long ; while the south-
eastern side is about eight hundred yards long, and the north-western
about seven hundred yards. Countless ravines traverse the mound on
all sides, extending almost to its center, while the surface is altogether
undulating. Sculpture or masonry can nowhere be seen, but only a
mass of rubbish ; no clear outlines of buildings being thus far discov-
ered. Bricks bearing the names and titles of some of the earlier Baby-
lonian kings are sometimes found, but not the slightest vestige of a
wall has been brought to light.

The Amran mound is believed to be the site of the old palace to
which Nebuchadnezzar's structure was an addition. Berosus says that
Nebuchadnezzar's edifice adjoined upon the old palace. On the Am-
ran mound monuments of the times previous to Nebuchadnezzar's day
have been found; and as the early Babylonian kings only left memo-
rials in the old palace, it is reasonable to infer that this mound is the
site of the ancient royal residence. The oblong-square enclosure with
an important building at its south-east angle is believed to have been
the second or smaller palace of Ctesias.

There are likewise many scattered and irregular heaps, or hillocks,
on both banks of the Euphrates ; most of them on the east bank, among
which is the mound called by the Arabs El Homeiray " the Red." Tliis
mound is located about eight hundred yards due east of the Kasr

Identified
as Nebu-
chadnez-
zar's
Great
Palace.

Amran
Mound.

Identified

as the Old

Palace.

£1
Homeira
Mound.

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2T2

CHALOil^A, ASSYRIA. BABYLONIA.

Low
Mounds.

Brick
Embank-
ment.

Walls on
the East
Bank of
the Eu-
phrates.

Walls on
the West
Bank of
the Eu-
phrates.

Unexca-

vated
Mounds.

mound, and is about three hundred yards long and one hundred wide,
and sixty or seventy feet high. It consists of baked bricks of a bright
red color, which are inscribed along their edges, and not, as the others,
on their lower face.

A low line of mounds can be traced between the western side of the
Amran and Kasr mounds and the present eastern bank of the Eu-
phrates, enclosing a narrow valley, in which the main stream, or a
branch of it, appears to have flowed in ancient times.

The remains of a brick embankment are also traceable on the east
bank of the river between the Babil and Kasr mounds, extending about
a thousand yards in a slightly-curved line and a general direction of
south by south-west. The bricks of this embankment are very hard,
of a bright red color, and are wholly laid in bitumen. They bear a
legend showing that the quay was constructed by Nabonidus.

Among other remarkable remains are some long lines of rampart on
both sides of the Euphrates, outside of the other ruins, enclosing all
of them, excepting the Babil mound. On the east bank of the river
are traces of a double line of wall, or rampart, running almost directly
north and south, and situated about a thousand yards east of the Kasr
and Amran mounds. Beyond this rampart is a single line of wall to
the north-cast, which can be traced for about two miles, running in a
direction almost from north-west to south-east, and a double line of
rampart to the south-east, which can be traced for a mile and a half,
extending in a direction from north-east to south-west. The two lines
of this last rampart are between six hundred and seven hundred yards
apart, and diverge from each other as they extend out to the north-
east. The inner line connects with the north-eastern rampart almost
at a right angle, and is a part of the same work.

On the west bank of the river are ruins of the same kind. A ram-
part twenty feet high extends for almost a mile parallel with the gen-
eral line of tlie Amran mound, about a thousand yards from the ancient
course of the stream. Each end of the line of rampart turns at a
right angle, extending down towards the river, and can be traced to-
wards the north for four hundred yards and towards the south for fifty
or sixty. There are evidences that before the Euphrates flowed in its
present channel there was a rectangular enclosure, a mile long and a
thousand yards wide, opposite to the Amran mound ; and at the south-
east angle of this enclosure appears to have been an important edifice,
the bricks here bearing the name of Neriglissar.

All the ruins of Babylon now traceable are found in a space not
much over three miles long and a mile and three-fourths wide. These
remains are surrounded on all sides by nitrous soil and low mounds
which have not been excavated, but which are believed to mark the

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.; 273

locations of smaller temples and other public edifices of the renowned
ancient city. Such masses are most general to the north and east, and
often extend for miles. The mass of Babylonian ruins reaching from
Babil to Amran covers an area about as large as the Koyunjik mound
on the site of Nineveh. These Babylonian ruins appear to have been
** the heart of the city," " the royal quarter." Says Layard : " South-
ward of Babil for the distance of three miles there is almost an unin-
terrupted line of mounds, the ruins of vast edifices, collected together
as in the heart of a great city," Thus Babylon vastly exceeded Nin-
eveh in its dimensions.

The most remarkable of Babylonian ruins is that of the Birs-i- Bira-i-
Nimrud, or ancient temple of Nebo at Borsippa. Upon a crude brick
platform, a few feet above the level of the alluvial plain, was erected
the basement stage of the vast structure, an exact square, two hundred
and seventy-two feet each way, and twenty-six feet high. The second
stage was just as high, and a square of only two hundred and thirty
feet, twelve feet from the south-western edge of the first stage, and
thirty feet from the north-eastern edge. The third stage was placed
the same way upon the second, and was also twenty-six feet high, and
a square of one hundred and eighty-eight feet. The fourth stage was
fifteen feet high, and was a square of one hundred and forty-six feet,
and was placed upon the third in the same way as the others had been
upon those below them. The fifth stage was a square of one hundred
and four feet, the sixth a square of sixty-two feet, and the seventh a
square of twenty feet. These stages were each fifteen feet high. The
shrine or tabernacle was on the seventh and highest stage, which was
fifteen feet high and square. The entire structure was thus one hun-
dred and fifty-six feet high.

This temple was chiefly ornamented by means of color. The seven Its Oma-
stages represented the Seven Spheres in which the seven planets were ™*^^°°
believed to move. Each planet was given a special hue or tint. The Other
sun was golden, the moon silver, the planet Saturn black, Jupiter
orange. Mars red, Venus a pale yeUow, Mercury a deep blue. The
basement stage, assigned to Saturn, was blackened with bitumen. The
second stage, that of Jupiter, was faced with burned bricks of an
orange hue. The third stage, that of Mars, was made red with burned
bricks of a bright red clay. The fourth stage, that of the sun, was
covered with plates of gold. The fifth stage, that of Venus, was faced
with bricks of a pale yellow tint. The sixth stage, that of Mercury,
was given an azure tint by vitrifaction, the entire stage having been
subjected to a great heat after it was erected, which gave the bricks
a blue color. The seventh stage, that of the moon, was coated with
silver plates. The basement stage had a number of square recesses.

Features.

VOL. 1.— 18

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27*J«

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Identified

as the

Tempel of

Bel.

Baby-
lonian
Art, Sci-
ence and
Architec-
ture as
Described
by the
Greek
Writers.

Baby-
lonian
Temples.

Temple

Towers,

or Ziggu-

rats.

The third stage was supported by a number of low buttresses. The
shrine was of brick, and Is believed to have been richly ornamented.
The tower is believed to have fronted to the north-east, on which side
was the ascent, beUeved to have been a broad staircase extending along
the entire front of the structure. The side platforms, towards the
south-east and north-west, were occupied by a series of chambers abut-
ting upon the perpendicular wall. The side chambers communicated
with vaulted apartments within the solid mass of the edifice.

The ruin now known as the Birs-i-Nimrud, about eleven or twelve
miles from the Babil mound, has been supposed by some to be the site
of the old temple of Bel ; but the cylinders found by Sir Henry Raw-
linson in the Birs-i-Nimrud call the structure " the wonder of Bor-
sippa," and all the ancient authorities say that Borsippa was a city
by itself — a town wholly distinct from Babylon. It has also been
believed that the Babil mound itself is the site of the old temple of
Bel — the spot on which was built the Tower of Babel. The great
difficulty in identifying this site with the old temple is the statement
of Herodotus expressly asserting that the temple of Bel and the great
palace were upon opposite sides of the river, whereas the Babil and
Kasr mounds are both on the eastern side of the Euphrates.

The Babylonians were among the most ingenious of all ancient na-
tions, and made great progress in the arts and sciences. The classical
writers usually rank them with the Egyptians in this respect. The
Babylonians especially excelled in architecture and astronomy. The
primitive Chaldaeans, the ancestors of the later Babylonians, first ap-
pear in history as great builders ; and Nebuchadnezzar, the great king
of the Later Babylonian Empire, specially prided himself upon his
architectural works. Herodotus, upon visiting Babylon, was mainly
impressed with its wonderful edifices; and the glowing descriptions of
these structures by the Greek writers have mainly given to the Baby-
lonians their fame and their high rank among the great nations of
ancient Asia.

Their architecture appears to have culminated in the temple. The
temple in Babj^lonia occupied the same rank which it held in Egypt
and in Greece, and unlike in Assyria, where the temple was a mere
appendage of the palace. The temple was the great edifice of a cit}',
or a portion of a city, being higher and more conspicuous than any
otlier building. It rivaled the palace in every respect, being mag-
nificently adorned, and having off^erings of enormous value deposited in
it. It inspired awe by its religious associations, and was not only a
place of worship, but a refuge to many on perilous occasions.

The Babylonian temple was usually surrounded by a walled en-
closure, a square of two stadia each way, or an area of thirty acres.

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ANCIENT BABYLON
Upper Section: The Ziggurrat of the Temple of Bel (6500 B.C.) ^<-^ j

Lower Section: Pavement of Ur-Gur in Temple of Bel (2750 B.C.) d by VjOOQlC

TH& ui% r^K I

^^undatiom

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

876

The temple commonly consisted of two parts. The ziggurat^ or tower,
was either square or rectangular, and built in stages, as high as seven,
or as low as two, in number. A shrine or chapel containing altars
and images was at the top of the tower. The towers were ascended on
the outside by means of winding steps or an inclined plane. Either
the sides or the angles of the tower faced the cardinal points of the
compass. Diodorus Siculus said that the towers were used not only
for worship, but also as observatories. There was a second shrine or
chapel at the base of the tower, in which the images and furniture were
of gold and silver. In the vicinity of this lower shrine was a golden
altar, on which were sacrificed various kinds of victims.

The Babylonian palace stood upon a high mound or platform, like
the Assyrian and the Susianian palace. The palace mound was usu-
ally square, elevated about fifty or sixty feet. It was built chiefly of
sun-dried bricks, enclosed on the outside by burnt bricks, and also on
the inside. The whole was caref uly drained, and the waters were con-
veyed through underground channels to the level of the plain at the
base of the mound. The Babylonian palaces are so completely ruined
that no full description of them can be given with certainty. The
lines of the edifice were straight, the walls arose to a considerable height
without windows, and numbers of pilasters and buttresses broke the
flatness of the straight line. The palace was often ornamented with
sculptured stone slabs, on which were carefully-wrought figures of a
small size. Diodorus states that the general ornamentation consisted
of colored representations of war-scenes and hunting-scenes on brick.
Many such representations have been found on the Kasr mound. They
are alternated with cuneiform inscriptions, in white and on a blue
ground, or with a patterning of rosettes in the same colors.

The Babylonian domestic architecture was of a poor and coarse
style, and displayed little taste. The houses were three or four stories
high, but were of a rude construction ; the pillars were palm posts sur-
rounded with wisps of rushes, and then plastered and painted.

The only Babylonian building material was brick, consisting of two
kinds, sun-dried and kiln-burned, as was the case in ancient Chaldaea
and in Assyria. The Babylonians, however, only applied the sun-dried
bricks to the platforms, and to the interior of palace mounds and of
very thick walls, and never made that kind the only building material.
In all cases there was at least a revetement of kiln-dried brick, while
the more splendid edifices were entirely built of that kind. The baked
bricks were of several kinds and sizes. The finest kind were yellow,
another kind were blackish-blue, while the ordinary and coarser kind
were pink or red. The bricks were always shaped square, and were
twelve or fourteen inches long and wide, and from three to four inches

General
Descrip-
tion of
Baby-
Ionian
Palaces.

Dwell-
ingp.

Baby-
lonian
Bricks.

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«76

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

G«lllBllt8.

Baby-
lonian

Art.

Mechani-
cal ArU.

Metal-
Inrgy.

thick. Half -bricks were used in alternate rows at the comers of build-
ings. They were always made with a mold, and were usually stamped
on one face with an inscription. They were commonly laid horizon-
tally, though sometimes vertically, separated from one another by
single horizontal layers.

The Babylonians used three kinds of cement in their buildings. One
kind was a crude clay, or mud, mixed with chopped straw. A better
material was bitumen ; but the most common kind was mortar, or lime
cement.

There are few remaining specimens of Babylonian mimetic art, and
these are mainly fragmentary, and worn by time and exposure. Be-
sides the quaint and grotesque intaglios on seals and gems, there are less
than a half-dozen specimens of their mimetic art remaining. There
is a sculpture of a lion standing over the prostrate figure of a man,
yet seen on the Kasr mound. There are a few modeled clay figures.
One is a statuette of a mother with a child seated on a rough square
pedestal. The mother is naked, except a hood on the head, and a
narrow apron in front. The child sleeping on her left arm wears a
short tunic, gathered into plaits. The statuette is about three and a
half inches high. There is a figure of a king, principally remarkable
for the elaborate ornamentation of the head-dress and the robes en-
graved on a large black stone. This figure, supposed to represent
Merodach-iddin-akhi, is now in the British Museum. There are en-
graved animal forms on black stones, such as the figure of a dog sitting
and the figure of a bird. The engravings on gems and cylinders are
grotesque figures of men and animals, and men and monsters. The
most elaborate and artistic of the Babylonian works of art were the
enamelings on brick. According to the prophet Ezckiel " the images
of the Chaldaeans, portrayed upon the wall, were vermilion." Other
colors were used in the adornment of palaces and public edifices, such
as white, blue, yellow, red, brown and black.

The Babylonians also made considerable progress in the mechanical
arts, such as cutting, boring and engraving hard stones, and the arts
of agriculture, metallurgy, pottery, weaving, embroidery, etc. Be-
sides the softer stones, such as alabaster, serpentine, and lapis-lazuli,
the Babylonian artisans worked the harder kinds, such as agate, quartz,
jasper, syenite, cornelian, lodestone, and green felspar, or amazon-
stone. The minuteness of the work in some of the Babylonian seals
and gems indicates that they must have been engraved with the aid of
a powerful magnifying-glass. The art of cutting glass was well un-
derstood.

The Babylonians used gold and silver for statues, furniture and
utensils, bronze for gates and images, and iron also for the latter.

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

877

They used lead and iron in building. The golden images were some-
times solid, and sometimes only pliated. The silver images, ornamental
figures and utensils are also believed to have been solid. The city and
palace gates were of bronze. The metal-work of personal ornaments,
such as bracelets, armlets and dagger-handles, resembled the work of
the Assyrians. Small bronze figures of dogs, monsters and grotesque
figures of men, were cast as ornaments for houses, furniture, etc.

The Babylonian pottery was excellent, and the bricks were superior
to the Assyrian. The earthenware is of fine terra-cotta, usually of a
light red color, and slightly baked, but sometimes of a yellow hue,
tinged with green ; and consists of cups, jars, vases and other vessels,
which appear to have been made upon the wheel. The Babylonians
had .small glass bottles, several of which were found by Mr. Layard in
the Babil mound. Broken glass is found generally in the rubbish of
the moimds.

The textile fabrics of the Babylonians were the most celebrated of
all their productions. Their carpets had acquired a wide fame and
were largely exported to foreign lands. They were dyed in various
colors, and represented griffins and other monsters. They ranked
above all others in the ancient world, as those of the Turks and Per-
sians do in the modem. The Babylonian muslins were almost as cele-
brated as the carpets, and were formed of the finest cotton and dyed
with the most brilliant colors. The Orientals regarded them as the
best material for dress, and the Persian monarchs preferred them to
their own wear. Borsippa was the chief seat of the Babylonian linen
manufacture. Long linen robes were generally worn by this people.

In astronomy the Babylonians far excelled all other ancient nations,
as their Chaldaean ancestors were the great pioneers in this sublime
science. The first Greeks who made any advance in this science ac-
knowledged themselves the disciples of Babylonian teachers. Hip-
parchus, the first great Greek astronomer, mentioned the Babylonians
as astronomical observers from a dimly-remote antiquity. Aristotle
confessed that the Greeks were vastly indebted for astronomical infor-
mation to the Babylonians and Egjrptians. Ptolemy made much use
of the Babylonian observatioils of eclipses. Sir Cornwall Lewis says
that ** the Greeks were in the habit of attributing the invention and
original cultivation of astronomy either to the Babylonians or to the
Egyptians, and represented the earliest scientific Greek astronomers
as having derived their knowledge from Babylonian or from Egyptian
priests."

We have alluded to the progress of the early Chaldaeans in astron-
omy. On the broad, flat plains of Chaldasa the clear sky, the dry
atmosphere, and the level horizon, afforded facilities for observation

Pottery

and Glass

Work.

Carpets,
Muslins

and
lanens.

Astron-
omy.

Greeks
Learned
from
Baby-
lonians.

Early
Chaldsan
Observa-
tions in
Astron-
omy.

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278

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Origin of
Uranog-
raphy, or
Constella-
tion
Grouping.

The

Zodiacal

Constella-

tiona.

Obsenra-

tion and
Calcula-
tion of
Eclipses.

Records

of
Bdipses.

and naturally first turned man's attention to the celestial hemisphere.
* At a very early date the fixed stars were distinguished from five larger
luminaries which the Greeks called " planets," which are the only
movable stars that can be seen without the aid of a telescope of high
magnifying power. They also soon discovered that the moon was a
wandering luminary, and observed that the sun rose and set in the
vicinity of different constellations in different parts of the year.

They arranged the' stars in groups, or " constellations," to mark
out the courses of the sun and moon among the stars. The names of
these constellations were derived from some real or fancied resemblance
of the groups to objects with which the early observers were familiar.
This department of astronomy is called uranography. Though these
groupings of the fixed stars is mainly fanciful, its utility is inestimable,
for by its means only are we enabled to point out individual stars and
rctam in the memory a knowledge of their general arrangement and
relative positions.

This old Chaldaean, or Babylonian, uranography is to this day rec-
ognized by scientific astronomers, and is represented on our globes and
maps. The zodiacal constellations, especially those through which the
sun's course lies, originated, as we have said, with the Chaldaeans, and
many of them are represented on Babylonian monuments of a stellar
character. A Babylonian conical black stone now in the British Mu-
seum, and belonging to the twelfth century before Christ, is an ar-
rangement of constellations according to the forms assigned them in
Babylonian uranography. On this stone are recognized the Ram, the
Bull, the Scorpion, the Serpent, the Dog, the Arrow, the Eagle or Vul-
ture. There are similar forms on other monuments of a like character.

The Babylonians called the zodiacal constellations the '* Houses of
the Sun," and distinguished them from another set of asterisms, which
they designated the " Houses of the Moon." They observed and cal-
culated eclipses, but their knowledge was empirical. We have noted
of the early Chaldaeans that they discovered the period of two hun-
dred and twenty-three lunations, or eighteen years and ten days, after
which eclipses, particularly those of the moon, recur again in the same
order. Their knowledge of this cycle enabled them to foretell lunar
eclipses accurately for ages, and solar eclipses with little inaccuracy
for the next few cycles.

The Babylonians carefully noted and recorded eclipses. Ptolemy
had access to a continuous series of such observations dating back from
his own time to B. C. 747. From Babylonian sources Hipparchus
described eclipses of the moon for the years B. C. 721, 720, 621 and
623, the first of which was total at Babylon, the others only partial.
These observations are seen to answer every purpose of modem science.

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 279

We have knowledge of Babylonian observations as far back as Nabo-
nassar, B. C. 7479 as that king, according to the account by Berosus,
destroyed the previously-existing observations, so that exact chronol-
ogy might begin with his own reign.

The Babylonians arranged a catalogue of the fixed stars, which were Star
employed by the Greeks in compiling their stellar tables. They re- i(iuo,
corded their observations upon occultations of the planets by the sun SunDials,
and the moon. They invented two kinds of sun-dials, the gnomon and i^enSh of
the poloSf by means of which they could measure time during the day. Year,
and accurately establish the exact length of the solar day. They dis-
covered the length of the synodic revolution of the moon within a small
fraction. The exact length of the Chaldaean year was three hundred
and sixty-five days, six hours and eleven minutes; which is only two
seconds longer than the true sidereal year.

This renowned ancient people observed comets, and believed them to Cwnets,
be permanent bodies, revolving in orbits like those of the planets. Eclipses
They believed eclipses of the sun to be due to the interposition of the *°^ ^"^
moon between the sun and the earth. They knew very nearly the rela- sun,
tive distances of the sun, the moon and the planets from the earth. ^®^ •^^
Naturally adopting a geocentric system, they decided that the moon
was nearest to the earth; that Mercury was beyond the moon, Venus
beyond Mercury, Mars beyond Venus, Jupiter beyond Mars, and Sat-
urn beyond Jupiter. From the difference in the periodic times of these
luminaries the Babylonians inferred a corresponding difference in the
sizes of the orbits, and therefore their relative distances from the com-
mon center.

The astronomical achievements of the Babylonians thus far described ^%j^^
rest upon the authority of the ancient Greek and Roman writers. and
There are many Chaldaean and Babylonian astronomical tablets in the ^^j^
British Museum, which are not yet thoroughly understood. It is said and Baby-
that there is clear evidence that the Babylonians observed the four xableto.
satellites of Jupiter, and good reason for believing that they had a
knowledge of the seven satellites of Saturn. They so well understood
the general laws of the movements of the celestial bodies that they could
foretell the positions of the different planets throughout the year. Planetary

They must have employed some instruments to acquire the knowl- S*t«lljt®*
edge which they possessed. We have observed that they invented sun- Positions,
dials to measure time during the day. The clepsydra, or water-clock, ^.
commonly used by the Greeks as early as the fifth century before Christ, dra,
is believed to have been a Babylonian invention. The astrolobe, an '^^I'S^
instrument used to measure the altitude of the stars above the horizon, Astro-
and which was known to Ptolemy, is likewise believed to have been in- ^i^^
vented by this people. If, as believed, the satellites of Saturn are tions.

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280 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

mentioned upon the tablets, the Babylonian must have had optical in-
stnmients like the telescope; as it is impossible, even in iJie clear and
vaporless sky of Chaldiea, to see the moons of that remote planet with-
out the aid of lenses. As we have said, a lens has been discovered
among the Assyrian ruins. A people with sufficient ingenuity to dis-
cover the magnifying-glass would naturally be able to invent its oppo-
site. The existence of two opposite kinds of lenses would furnish the
elements of a telescope.
Astrol- Though a class of pure astronomers existed among the Babylonians,
^^' most of those engaged in the study of astronomy followed it because
they believed that the heavenly bodies had some mysterious influence
upon the seasons, and also upon the lives and fortunes of individuals,
and that this influence could be discovered and foretold by long and
Authority careful observation. The ancient Jewish and Greek writers bear wit-
^ and J^^ss to this fact, and their testimony is confirmed by existing astro-
Greek nomical remains. Most of the Babylonian tablets are of an astro-
and logical character, recording the supposed influence of the celestial
^^y" bodies, singly, in conjunction, or in opposition, upon all earthly affairs.
Tablets, from the fate of kingdoms and empires to the washing of hands or the
paring of nails. Says Rawlinson : ^^ The modem prophetical almanac
is the legitimate descendant and the sufficient representative of the
ancient Chaldee Ephemeris, which was just as silly, just as pretentious,
and just as worthless."
Chaldee Chaldee astrology was chiefly genethlialogical, inquiring under what
aa^^ aspect of the heavens individuals were bom or conceived, and pretend-
Described ing to ascertain the entire life and fortunes of men from the position
Dlodoms. ^^ ^^^ heavenly bodies at one or the other of these moments. Diodorus
says that it was believed that a particular star or constellation watched
over the birth of each individual, and thereafter exercised a special
malign or benignant influence over his life. His fortunes de}>ended
on the whole aspect of the heavens, as well as upon this one star. Cast-
ing the horoscope was reproducing this aspect, and then reading by
its means the destiny of the individual.
Weather The Chaldaeans also pretended to predict changes of the weather,
^M^f high winds and storms, great heats, the appearance of comets, eclipses,
tions. earthquakes, etc., from the stars. They published lists of lucky and
unlucky days, and tables indicating what aspect of the heavens poiv
tended good or evil to particular nations. Sir Henry Rawlinson has
discovered both lists among the tablets. They considered their art as
confined to the countries occupied by themselves and their kinsmen;
they being able to foretell storm, tempest, good or poor crops, war,
famine, etc., for Syria, Babylonia and Susiana ; but unable to prophesy
conceming Media, Persia, Armenia or other countries. Like our

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 281

almanacs, their calendars predicted the conditions of the weather for
stated days.

The Chaldaeans also possessed considerable mathematical learning, Katiie-
and their methods seem to have been geometrical. The Greek mathe- ™*™**
maticians are said to have quoted the works of such Chaldaeans as'
Ciden, Naburianus and Sudinus.

Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo and Nicolas of Damascus have given Baby-
accounts of the Babylonian manners and customs. Herodotus tells us ki^^^s
that this people wore a long linen gown extending down to the feet, a *nd
woolen gown or tunic over this, a short cloak or cape of a white color, ^g ^y^
and shoes like those of the Boeotians. Their hair grew long, but was ^7
confined to the head by a head-band or a turban, and they always car- writers,
ried a walking-stick with some kind of a carving on the handle. This
description doubtless applies to the higher and wealthier classes. The
prophet Ezekiel thus alludes to these people : " Girded with girdles
upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them
princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldaea,
the land of their nativity."

The cylinders represent the poor worshiper bringing an offering to Cylinder
a god as dressed in a tunic reaching from the shoulder to the knee, Htrntors
ornamented with a diagonal fringe and confined to the waist by a belt, and Wor-
Rich worshipers usually present a goat, and are attired in a tunic, ^*"'
with a long robe without sleeves over it, and wear a fillet, or head-
band. Figures of hunters attacking a lion, a man accompanying a
dog, and a warrior conducting six captives, are represented on cylin-
ders as dressed in short tunics. These tunics had no sleeves, and were
seldom patterned. Rich worshipers are sometimes represented dressed
in coats without sleeves, fringed down both sides, and extending only a
little below the knees. They have also a fillet around the head.

The Babylonians are, with few exceptions, represented with bare Fbot-
feet, though the soldiers wore low boots, and the king had a kind of seSs^wid
check-work patterned shoe. Herodotus, however, mentions them in his Walking
time as wearing a ** peculiar shoe." Herodotus states that every Baby-
lonian man carried a seal and a walking-stick.

The king wore a long gown, reaching to the feet, and elaborately Royal
patterned and fringed. Over this he had a close-fitting sleeved vest,
reaching to the knees, and ending in a set of heavy tassels. The girdle
was worn outside the outer vest, and in war the king carried besides two
cross-belts. Both the upper and under vests were elegantly embroid-
ered. From the girdle depended in front a heavy tassel fastened by
a cord.

The Babylonian monarch wore a remarkable tiara, it being exceed- Koyal
ingly high, almost cylindrical, slightly tending to swell out toward the ^^'*'

Sticks.

Costume.

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CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

PriesUy
Costume.

Warlike
Weapons

and
Armor.

Baby-
lonian
Armies
According
to Jewish
Prophets.

crown, which was adorned with a row of feathers around its whole cir-
cumference. The space below was patterned with rosettes, sacred trees
and mythological figures. A projection of feathers rose from the mid-
dle of the crown, rounded at the top. This head-dress was worn low
on the brow, and covered most of the back part of the head of the
wearer.

The Babylonian king also wore bracelets. Nicolas of Damascus
says that a Babylonian governor wore necklaces and ear-rings. The
priests wore a long robe or gown with flounces and stripes, over which
they wore an open jacket. A long riband or scarf hung down their
backs. They wore an elaborate crown or mitre on their heads, which
was likewise assigned to many of the gods. Sometimes a homed cap
was worn instead of the mitre. The priests wore their heads unr
covered in all sacrificial and ceremonial acts.

The Babylonian soldiers were armed with bows and arrows, spears,
daggers, maces or clubs, and battle-axes, for weapons of offense ; while
their defensive armor consisted of bronze helmets, linen breastplates
and shields. The prophet Ezekiel mentions the shields and helmets of
the Babylonians, and also their battle-axes; while Jeremiah mentions
their spears and swords, and their breastplates. The favorite weapon
of the Babylonians was the bow, as attested by the Old Testament and
the native monuments. The figure of a king is represented as carry-
ing a bow ; while the soldier conducting captives has a bow, an arrow
and a quiver. An old Chaldaean monument represents a king with a
bow and arrow, a club and a dagger. There is a cylinder represent-
ing a lion disturbed in the act of feasting off an ox by two rustics, one
of whom attacks him in front with a spear, while the other, seizing his
tail, assails him from behind with an ax.

The Babylonian armies consisted of chariots, cavalry and infantry.
The cylinders sometimes represent a curious four-wheeled car, drawn
by four horses, with a raised platform in front and a seat behind for
the driver. The Jewish prophet Habakkuk, in speaking of the Baby-
lonian cavalry, said : ** They are terrible and dreadful.*' He also
said: " Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more
fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall spread them-
selves, and their horsemen shall come from far ; they shall fly as the
eagle that hasteth to eat." Ezekiel, alluding to " the Babylonians
and all of the Chaldaeans," referred to the " desirable young men, cap-
tains and rulers, great lords and renowned; all of them riding upon
horses." Jeremiah spoke of the Babylonian chariots and cavalry thus :
^^ Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a
whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we
are spoiled."

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION.

^8S

In the army of Xerxes the Babylonians were infantry, but Darius,
in the Behistun Inscription, alludes to Babylonian horsemen; and the
Babylonian armies which overran Syria, Palestine and Egypt consisted
chiefly of cavalry. The Babylonian armies, like the Persian, con-
sisted of immense hosts, poorly disciplined, comprising, besides native
Babylonian troops, contingents from the subject nations, such as Su-
sianians, Shuhites, Assyrians and others. They marched with great
noise and tumult, scattering over the country invaded, plundering and
destroying on every side. They assailed the weaker towns with bat-
tering-rams, and raised mounds before the stronger to the top of the
walls, which they then easily scaled or broke down. They were noted
for their determined persistence and unyielding perseverance in sieges,
only taking Jerusalem in the third year, and Tyre in the fourteenth.
Omens often decided which country was to be next attacked.

Diodorus described the Babylonian priests as a caste devoted to the
service of their gods and to the study of philosophy. He says that
they were highly esteemed by the people. They guarded the temples
and served at the altars of the gods, to interpret dreams and prodigies,
to understand omens, to read the warnings of the stars, and to inform
men how to escape the perils with which they were thus menaced, by
purifications, incantations and sacrifices. No one questioned their tra-
ditional knowledge transmitted from father to son. The people con-
sidered them as in possession of a wisdom of the highest importance
to the human race.

The Book of Daniel describes a class of ** wise men " at Babylon,
chief of which were the Chaldaeans, who are noted for a particular
*' learning " and a particular " tongue," and who expounded dreams
and prodigies. They were in high favor with the king, who frequently
consulted them. These " wise men " were of four classes, according
to their occupations — ^'^ ChaldaBans, magicians, astrologers and sooth-
sayers." Jews were enrolled among these " wise men," and the prophet
Daniel was made chief of the whole order by King Nebuchadnezzar.
As a distinct order, these " wise men " had considerable power in the
state. They had direct communication with the king, and were be-
lieved to be endowed with a supernatural power to foretell future
events, as well as in possession of hmnan learning; and some of them
held high civil offices.

Herodotus mentions the Chaldaeans as ** priests " ; and Strabo says
that they were " philosophers," employed chiefly in astronomy.
Strabo also states that they were divided into sects, differing from each
other in their doctrines. The Babylonian priests were an order, not
a caste; and, as in Egypt and Persia, they were an esteemed and im-
portant class. Priests may have brought up their sons to their own

Metiiods
of War-
fare.

Marches

and
Sieges.

Baby-
lonian
Priests.

*'Wise

Men "and

Chal-

dsans

Described

Daniel.

Daniel
and Other
Jews
among
"Wise
Men."

Chal-
daean
Priests
Described
by Herod-
otus and
Strabo.

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CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Thdr
Learning.

Their
Social
Rank.

Baby-
lonian
Mannfac-
tnrea and
Com-
merce.

Authority

Ezekiel,

Isaiahand

ifischy-

lus.

Imports.

Strabo'8
Author-
ity.

occupation, but other persons, even foreigners, were admitted to the
order and to its highest privileges. The Babylonian priesthood was a
sacerdotal and learned body, having a literature written in a peculiar
language, which its members were obliged to study. This language
and literature were inherited from the times of the early Chaldiean
Empire, and were thus transmitted to Assyria and later Babylonia.

They professed especially a knowledge of astronomy, astrology and
mythology, and may have also studied history, chronology, grammar,
law and natural science. They were dispersed over the country, but
had special seats of learning at Erech, or Orchoe (now Warka), at
Borsippa (the site of the present Birs-i-Nimrud), and at other places.
They were diligent and ingenious students, divided into sects with dif-
ferent doctrines, and given to speculation. They particularly culti-
vated astronomy with success, and the value of their knowledge in this
science was afterwards acknowledged by the Greeks.

The priests stood high socially, having access to the king, and being
feared and respected by the people. They were made wealthy by the
offerings of the faithful, and their occupation as interpreters of the
will of the gods secured them influence. The civil offices frequently
conferred upon them added to their wealth and to the esteem in which
they were held.

The Babylonians were a great manufacturing and commercial peo-
ple. Their commerce was both foreign and domestic. Many were
engaged in manufacturing the textile fabrics for which the Baby-
lonians were so famous, especially carpets and muslins. Many were
engaged as engravers on hard stone, with which the seal carried by
every Babylonian was adorned. The trades and handicrafts commonly
practiced in the East also flourished in Babylonia. An active and
constant import and export trade was kept up. The Jewish prophet
Ezckiel called Babylonia " a land of traffic," and Babylon ** a city of
merchants." Isaiah said that " the cry of the Chaldaeans " was " in
their ships." The monuments show that the primitive Chaldaeans navi-
gated the Persian Gulf, and iEschylus calls the Babylonians in the
army of Xerxes " navigators of ships."

The Babylonians imported frankincense from Arabia; pearls, cot-
ton, and wood for walking-sticks from the Persian Gulf; dogs and
gems from India. Strabo says that they had a colony called Grerra,
on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, and this colony was a great
emporium through which the Babylonian trade to the north and the
south was conducted. The products of Western Asia were carried
down into Babylonia by the courses of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Wine, gems, emery and building stone were imported from Armenia
and Upper Mesopotamia ; tin and copper from Phoenicia ; and fine wool.

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BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION. 285

lapis'lazulit silk, gold and ivory from Media and the distant East.
But these articles were brought to Babylon mainly by foreign mer-
chants. The Armenians and Phoenicians, and perhaps also the Greeks,
used the route of the Euphrates for the transportation of goods. The
Assyrians, the Medes and the Paretaceni floated their goods down the
Tigris and its tributaries.

A great portion of the Babylonian people were engaged in agri- Agricnl-
culture- Babylonia was chiefly a grain-producing country, the won- *"••
derf ul fertility of whose soil has been noted in our account of ancient
Chaldasa. The deep and rich alluvium was cultivated with the greatest
care. As before mentioned, wheat, barley, millet and sesame flourished
in luxuriant abundance. By means of canals the country was irri-
gated. Groves of date-palm furnished the chief article of food. Lit- Tlie
tie beyond a proper water supply was needed for the cultivation of the palm,
date. The female palm-tree can only produce fruit by the pollen of
the male palm coming in contact with its blossoms. Herodotus states Authority
that the Babylonians tied the branches of the male to those of the ^^JEl!^"
female palm.

Artificial means increased the yield of the date-palm in Babylonia.
The seeds and cuttings were planted in a sandy soil, to which salt was
applied if necessary. Abundant watering was required, and trans-
plantation was resorted to at the close of the first and second year.
The ground was broken with a plow drawn by two oxen.

Dates were the chief food of the Babylonians, and on this fruit and Foods,
goats' milk the poorer class mainly subsisted. Palm-wine was an oc- ^JJ^
casional beverage. In the marshy regions of the South fish was the Banquets,
principal food of some tribes of Chaldaeans. The wealthy indulged in
luxuries, such as wheat bread, meats, luscious fruits, fish, game and
imported wine. The rich also drank to excess. They had magnificent
banquets, which usually ended in drunkenness. Bands of musicians
entertained the guests. The display of gold and silver plate, the mag-
nificent dresses of the guests, the beautiful carpets and hangings, the
many attendants, all contributed to the splendor of the scene.

The Babylonians and Susianians were both fond of music. Ctesias Mnsic.
and Daniel testify to the musical taste of the Babylonians. Ctesias Authority
states that Annarus, or Nannarus, a Babylonian noble, enlivened a ban- ^ ^^d**'
quet with the music of a band of one hundred and fifty women, some Daniel,
singing and others playing on the pipe, the harp and the psaltery.
The prophet Daniel assigns the same instruments to the Babylonians,
along with the horn, the samhuca and the symphoniay or ** symphony."
The Babylonians also used music in their religious ceremonies. Daniel
mentions their musical instruments in connection with Nebuchadnez-
zar's dedication of a gigantic idol of gold, when the worshipers were

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4^36 CHALDifiA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

obliged to prostrate themselves before the idol upon hearing the music
begin.
Baby- Women were not kept in the same seclusion in Babylonia as in other

W^m Oriental countries, as is apparent from the two curious customs men-
tioned by Herodotus — ^the sale of the marriageable maidens at public
ofHerod^ auction to the highest bidder, and the religious prostitution enjoined
otus in the worship of Beltis. On the Babylonian cylinders are frequentlj'
^ljy_* found images of a goddess suckling a child, and also many represen-
lonian tations of women engaged in different employments. Sometimes they
^^ * are represented in a procession visiting the shrine of a goddess, and
sometimes they are seen among birds and flowers in a garden, plucking
the fruit from dwarf palms and handing it to one another. They are
dressed in a long but scanty robe extending to the feet, and wear a
fillet, or band, round the head, confining the hair, which is turned back
behind the head, and tied by a riband, or held up by the fillet. The
modeled clay image represents bracelets and ear-rings as worn by the
women. A single representation of a priestess exhibits that class as
wearing petticoats only, thus exposing the entire body above the
waist.
Tools And A few Babylonian cylinders have been found representing saws and
^JjjJ^" hatchets, stools, chairs, tables, and stands for water- jars. The Baby-
lonian furniture was made from the wood of the palm-tree.

SECTION X.— CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COS-
MOGONY AND RELIGION.

Chaltean Bebosus begins his history by recounting the Chaldiean traditions
mogony regarding the creation of the world and the origin of the human race.
asRelated »phe following is an account of the Chaldaean cosmogony : ** In the
Berosos. beginning all was darkness and water, and therein were generated mon-
strous animals of strange and peculiar forms. There were men with
two wings, and some even with four, and with two faces; and others
with two heads, a man's and a woman's, on one body; and there were
men with the heads and horns of goats, and men with hoofs like horses,
and some with the upper parts of a man joined to the lower parts of a
horse, like centaurs ; and there were bulls with human heads, dogs with
four bodies and with fishes* tails, men and horses with dogs' heads,
creatures with the heads and bodies of horses, but with the tails of
fish, and other animals mixing the forms of various beasts. Moreover,
there were monstrous fish and reptiles and serpents, and divers other
creatures, which had borrowed something from each other's shapes;
of all which the likenesses are still preserved in the temple of Bel. A

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 287

woman ruleth them aU, by name Omorka, which is in Chaldee Thalatth,
and in Greek Thalassa (or * the sea '). Then Bel appeared, and split
the woman in twain; and of the one half of her he made the heaven
and of the other half the earth; and the beasts that were in her he
caused to perish. And he split the darkness, and divided the heaven
and the earth asunder, and put the world in order; and the animals
that could not bear the light perished. Bel, upon this, seeing that
the earth was desolate, yet teeming with productive power, commanded
one of the gods to cut off his head, and to mix the blood which flowed
forth with earth, and form men therewith, and beasts that could bear
the light. So man was made, and was intelligent, being a partaker
of the divine wisdom. Likewise Bel made the stars, and the sun and
moon, and the five planets."

There is a remarkable likeness between certain Chaldaean and Jewish
legends, such as the traditions of the destruction of mankind by a
great Flood, because of its wickedness, and the Tower of Babel and
dispersion of the human race. Among some clay tablets brought from
Assyria to London by Mr. George Smith are a series of fragments
which, joined to some smaller pieces in the British Museum coUection,
give the history of the world from the Creation down to some period
after the fall of man. Mr. Smith succeeded in translating these le-
gends in 1875, and the following is his brief account of the contents
of the tablets : " Whatever the primitive account may have been from
which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident
that the brief narrative given in the Pentateuch omits a number of in-
cidents and explanations — for instance, as to the origin of evil, the
fall of the angels, the wickedness of the serpent, etc. Such points as
these are included in the cuneiform narrative.'*

Mr. Smith then proceeds to give a sketch of the Assyrian cosmog-
ony, as follows : ** The narrative on the Assyrian tablets commences
with a description of the period before the world was created, when
there existed a chaos or confusion. The desolate and empty state of
the universe and the generation by chaos of monsters are vividly given.
The chaos is presided over by a female power named Tisalat and Tia-
mat, corresponding to the Thalatth of Berosus ; but as it proceeds the
Assyrian account agrees rather with the Bible than with the short
account from Berosus. We are told, in the inscriptions, of the fall
of the celestial being who appears to correspond to Satan. In his
ambition he raises his hand against the sactuary of the God of heaven,
and the description of him is really magnificent. He is represented
riding in a chariot through celestial space, surrounded by the storms,
with the lightning playing before him, and wielding a thunderbolt as
a weapon. This rebellion leads to a war in heaven and the conquest

Chaldaan

and

Jewish

Legionds.

Assyrian
Cosmog-
ony as
Revealed

by
Tablets

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288

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

AntedUu-

vian

History

by
Berosns.

Chaldsaii
Account
of the

Deluge as

Narrated
by

Berosns.

of the powers of evil, the gods in due course creating the universe in
stages, as in the Mosaic narrative, surveying each step of the work
and pronouncing it good. The divine work cuhninates in the creation
of man, who is made upright and free from evil, and endowed by the
gods with the noble faculty of speech. The Deity then delivers a long
address to the newly-created being, instructing him in all his duties
and privileges, and pointing out the glory of his state. But this con-
dition of blessing does not last long before man, yielding to tempta-
tion, falls ; and the Deity then pronounces upon him a terrible curse,
invoking on his head all the evils which have since afflicted humanity."

After his mythical account of the Creation, Berosus mentions a
sea-monster, half man and half fish, named Oan, who came out of the
deep to teach men language and letters, astronomy, the arts, agricul-
ture and all that pertains to civilization. During the fabulous reigns
of the ten antediluvian kings of Chaldaea, there appeared at different
times six other fish-monsters who, like Oan, instructed mankind. The
ten kings whom Berosus mentions as reigning in Chaldaea during the
antediluvian period, and who correspond in "number with the ten patri-
archs of the same period mentioned in the Mosaic record, wiU now
be named with the lengths of their reigns. Alorus, a Chaldiean,
reigned 36,000 years; Aloparus, son of Alorus, 10,800 years; Al-
melon, a native of Sippara, 46,800 years; Ammenon, a Chaldasan,
43,S00 years; Amegalarus, of Sippara, 64,800 years; Daonus, of
Sippara, 86,000 years; Edorankhus, of Sippara, 64,800 years;
Amempsinus, a Chaldaean, 36,000 years ; Otiartes, a Chaldaean, ^8,000
years; and Xisuthrus, the Chaldaean Noah, 64,800 years — ^the ten
reigns covering a period of 43S,000 years.

The Chaldaean or Babylonian account of the Deluge, as narrated
by Berosus, is as follows : " The god Bel appeared to Xisuthrus
(Noah) in a dream, and warned him that on the fifteenth day of the
month Dassius mankind would be destroyed by a deluge. He bade
him bury in Sippara, the City of the Sun, the extant writings, first
and last; and build a ship, and enter therein with his family and his
close friends ; and furnish it with meat and drink ; and place on board
winged fowl, and four-footed beasts of the earth; and when all was
ready, set sail. Xisuthrus asked * Whither he was to sail? ' and was
told, * To the gods, with a prayer that it might fare well with man-
kind.' Then Xisuthrus was not disobedient to the vision, but built
a ship fifteen stadia (8125 feet) in length, and six stadia (1250 feet)
in breadth; and collected all that had been commanded him, and put
his wife and children and close friends on board. The flood came;
and as soon as it ceased, Xisuthrus let loose some birds, which, finding
neither food nor a place where they could rest, came back to the ark.

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 289

[After some days he again sent out the birds, which again returned
to the ark, but with feet covered with mud. Sent out a third time,
the birds returned no more, and Xisuthrus knew that land had reap-
peared; so he removed some of the covering of the ark, and looked,
and behold ! the vessel had grounded on a mountain. Then Xisuthrus
went forth with his wife and his daughter, and his pilot, and fell down
and worshiped the earth, and built an altar, and offered sacrifice to
the gods; after which he disappeared from sight, together with those
who had accompanied him. They who had remained in the ark and
not gone forth with Xisuthrus, now left it and searched for him, and
shouted out his name; but Xisuthrus was not seen any more. Only
his voice answered them out of the air, saying, * Worship the gods ;
for because I worshiped them, am I gone to dwell with the gods ; and
they who were with me have shared the same honor.' And he bade
them return to Babylon, and recover the writings buried at Sippara,
and make them known among men; and he told them that the land
in which they then were was Armenia. So they, when they had heard
all, sacrificed to the gods and went their way on foot to Babylon, and,
having reached it, recovered the buried writings from Sippara, and
built many cities and temples, and restored Babylon. Some portion
of the ark still continues in Armenia, in the Gordiaean (Kurdish) moun-
tains ; and persons scrape off the bitumen from it to bring away, and
this they use as a remedy to avert misfortunes.'*

The Assyrian inscriptions discovered by George Smith give an ac- Aflsyrian
count of the Deluge much resembling the narrative of the same event '^???**
by Berosus. Among the ruins of the palace of the Assyrian king Deluge as
Aisshur-pani-pal, tablets have been discovered from which the account ^^^f^
of the Deluge has been deciphered, agreeing in some particulars with scrip-
the Chaldasan tradition. The legend found recorded on the tablets **®°"*
states that the god Hea commanded Sisit to build a ship of specified
size ^nd to launch it on the deep, as he intended to destroy
the wicked. Then Hea said : '' When the flood comes which I
will send thou shalt enter the ship, and into the midst of it
thou shalt bring thy com, thy goods, thy gods, thy gold and
silver, thy slaves male and female, the sons of the army, the wild and
tame animals; and all that thou hearest thou shalt do. And Sisit
gathered together all his possessions of silver and gold, all that he
had of the seeds of life, and caused all of his slaves, male and female,
to go into the ship. The wild and tame beasts of the field also he
caused to enter, and all the sons of the army. And Shamas, the Sun-
god, made a flood, and said : * I will cause rain to f aU heavily from
heaven ; go into the ship and shut the door.* Overcome with fear Sisit
eirtered into the ship, and on the morning of the day fixed by Shamas
VOL. 1.— 19

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ago CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

the storm began to blow from the ends of heaven, and Vul thundered
in the midst of heaven, and Nebo came forth, and over the mountains
and plains came the gods, and Nergal the Destroyer overthrew, and
Nin came forth and dashed down ; the gods made ruin ; in their bright-
ness they swept over the earth. The storm went over the nations; the
flood of Vul reached up to heaven; brother did not see brother; the
lightsome earth became a desert, and the flood destroyed all living
things from the face of the earth. Even the gods were afraid of the
storm, and sought refuge in the heaven of Ana ; like hoimds drawing
in their tails, the gods seated themselves on their thrones, and Ishtar,
the great goddess, spake : * The world has turned to sin, and there-
fore I have proclaimed destruction. I have begotten men, and now
' they fill the sea like the children of fishes.' And the gods upon their
seats wept with her. On the seventh day the storm abated, which had
destroyed like an earthquake, and the sea began to dry. Sisit per-
ceived the movement of the sea. Like reeds floated the corpses of the
evil-doers and all who had turned to sin. Then Sisit opened the win-
dow, and the light fell upon his face, and the ship was stayed upon
Mount Nizir, and could not pass over it. Then on the seventh day
Sisit sent forth a dove, but she found no place of rest, and returned.
Then he sent a swallow, which also returned ; and again a raven, which
saw the corpses in the water and ate them, and returned no more.
Then Sisit released the beasts to the four winds of heaven, and poured
a libation, and built an altar upon the top of the mountain, and cut
seven herbs, and the sweet savor of the sacrifice caused the gods to
assemble, and Sisit prayed that Bel might not come to the altar. For
Bel had made the storm and sunk the people in the deep, and wished
in his anger to destroy the ship, and allow no man to escape. Nin
opened his mouth, and spoke to the warrior Bel: *Who would then
be left? ' And Hea spoke to him: * Captain of the gods, instead of
the storm let lions and leopards increase, and diminish mankind; let
famine and pestilence desolate the land and destroy mankind.' When
the sentence of the gods was passed, Bel came into the midst of the
ship and took Sisit by the hand and conducted him forth, and caused
his wife to be brought to his side, and purified the earth, and made a
covenant; and Sisit and his wife and his people were carried away
like gods, and Sisit dwelt in a distant land at the mouth of the rivers."
Tradl- Traditions of a great Flood have been prevalent in all countries

Great subject to overflows of rivers, with the exception of Egypt, where the
^ood- annual inundation was so regular. Legends like those of Chaldaea
and Assyria have been discovered among the inhabitants of Armenia,
Greece, India and all countries exposed to dangerous floods. The
account of the Deluge as narrated by Moses is a record of the same

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CHALDEE-^ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. ggi

story as given by Berosus and as found inscribed upon the Assyrian
tablets. It is not known when the great Flood occurred in Chaldaea,
the dates assigned by Berosus being fabulous, as are his accounts of the
antediluvian dynasty and the first postdiluvian dynasty in Chaldsea.

** In a valuable contribution to the London Academy^ in the year Phoeni-
1875, Mr. Sayce showed that the Phoenician legends form, as it were, i^ends.
the link between the Chaldaean and ,the Hebrew so far as the so-called
Elohistic portion of Grenesis is concerned; this being especially notice-
able in the legend of the Creation and the sacrifice of Isaac. Mr.
Sayce also explained the very close resemblance between the Baby-
lonian and Jewish legends of the Garden of Eden, the Deluge and
the Tower of Babel, the Phcenician analogies failing us here alto-
gether."

The following is the Chaldsan account of the Tower of Babel, as Chaldsan
related by Berosus : " The earth was still of one language, when the ^^^
primitive men, who were proud of their strength and stature, and Tower of
despised the gods as their inferiors, erected a tower of vast height, in Qiyen by
order that they might mount to heaven. And the tower was now near Berosus.
to heaven, when the gods caused the winds to blow and overturned
the structure upon the men, and made them speak with divers tongues ;
whereupon the city was called Babylon."

Says Rawlinson, concerning Chaldaean mythology: **The striking Kaolin-
resemblance of the Chaldffian system to that of classical mythology pJf®?,®°
seems worthy of particular attention. This resemblance is too gen- Myth-
eral, and too close in some respects, to allow of the supposition that ology.
mere accident has produced the coincidence. In the Pantheons of
Greece and Rome, and in that of Chaldaea, the same general grouping
is to be recognized; the same genealogical succession is not unfre-
quently to be traced; and in some cases even the familiar names and
titles of classical divinities admit of the most curious illustrations and
explanations from Chaldaean sources. We can scarcely doubt but
that, in some way or other, there was a communication of beliefs — a
passage in very early times, from the shores of the Persian Gulf to
the lands washed by the Mediterranean, of mythological notions and
ideas. It is a probable conjecture that * among the primitive tribes
who dwelt on the Tigris and Euphrates, when the cuneiform alphabet
was invented, and when such writing was first applied to the purposes
of religion, a Scythic or Scytho- Aryan race existed, who subsequently
migrated to Europe and brought with them those mythical traditions
which, as objects of popular belief, had been mixed up in the nascent
literature of their native country,' and that these traditions were
passed on to the classical nations, who were in part descended from
this Scythic or Scytho- Aryan people."

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292 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Chaldasan The religion of Chaldaea, or Babylonia, was from the most ancient
a pSy- ^™^® ^ gross polytheism, and was a kind of Sabaean worship, the
theifliiu heavenly bodies being objects of adoration and represented by their
special deities. Local divinities abounded, every town being under
the protection of some particular deity. The Chaldiean gods and
goddesses therefore dwelt in the sky. The deities of the first order
were grouped as follow^ : At the head of the Chaldaean Pantheon stood
Elf or /Z, or Ra; after whom was named the great city, Babylon, or
Bab-El, meaning Gate of El, Next to the chief deity was a triad
of gods — Ana, or Anu; BU, or Bel, or Bellas; and Hea, or Hoa — who
corresponded to the classical Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune. Each of
these three gods was accompanied by a female principle, or wife;
Anat, or Anata, being the wife of Ana ; Mvliia, or Beltis, the wife of
Bel ; and Davkma, the wife of Hoa. These were followed by a second
triad of gods, consisting of Sin, or Hurki, the Moon-god; San, or
Sansi, the Sun-god; and Vul, or Iva, or Bin, the Air-god. Each of
this second triad was also accompanied by a feminine power, or wife;
a goddess called " the Great Lady," whose name is uncertain, being
the consort of Sin, or Hurki ; Gvla, or Anunit, the companion of San ;
and Shala, or Tola, the wife of Vul. Next to these great gods and
goddesses at the head of the Pantheon were a group of five minor
deities representing the five planets then known — Nin, or Ninip (Sat-
urn), Merodach (Jupiter), Nergal (Mars), Ishtar (Venus), and
Nebo (Mercury). All the deities thus far named constituted the
principal gods and goddesses, and after them were numerous divini-
ties of the second and third order.
Relattoa- The chief Chaldaean gods and goddesses were not all descended from
th^S*^ the same parentage, like the Egyptian, or the Greek or Roman deities,
yet some relationship existed among them. Ana and Bel were broth-
ers, the sons of II. Vul was the son of Ana ; and Sin, or Hurki, the
Moon-god, was the son of Bel. Nebo and Merodach were sons of
Hoa. Among the many deities without parentage were II, the chief
god; Hoa; San, the Sun-god; Ishtar, the planetary Venus; and Ner-
gal, the representative of the planet Mars. Sometimes the relation-
ship is confused and contradictory ; Nin, the planetary Saturn, being
represented as the son and father of Bel, and as the son and husband
of Beltis.
EI, or n, El, or II, is the root of the well-known Biblical Elohim, and also of
Ch?f 'ood ^^^ Arabic or Mohammedan AUah. It is the name which Diodorus
of the represents as Elus; and Sanchoniathon, or rather Philo-Byblius, un-
dsiuDs ^^^ ^^^ name of Elus, or Ihis. The meaning of the word El, or 71,
and Baby- is simply " Grod," or " the Grod." Ra had the same meaning in Chal-
onians. ^^^^ y^^^ j^ Egypt it was the special designation of the Sun-god.

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. ggg

The Semitic name of Babylon was Bab-Ily signifying ** The gate of

n," or " the gate of God.'* Ra was a sort of fount or origin of deity

and had few attributes. He was not much worshiped, and does not

appear to have had any temple in eariy times. He was the common

father of Bel and Ana. Though Babylon, from its name BabU, was

originally under IPs protection, Bel was the god chiefly worshiped in

that city in early times, and Merodach in later times. El, or II, was

the lord of heaven. He was styled " the Warrior," " the Prince of

the gods," " the Lord of the universe." In an Assyrian tablet he is

styled " the Lamp of the divinities." In his anger at the wickedness

of mankind II sent the great Flood to destroy the human race, and

Sisit with the rest.

The residence of Ana, the first god of the first triad, w€is in the Ana,

concave dome of the sky, to which the other gods fled to escape the ^goSs.

ravages of the Flood, which the wrath of II had sent against the

wicked world. On some tablets Ana was called " the Old Ana," ** the

Original Chief," " the Father of gods," « the Lord of spirits and

demons," " the King of the lower world," " the Lord of darkness,"

" the Ruler of the far-off city," etc. The old city of Erech, or

Huruk (now Warka), was the chief seat of Ana's worshipy and here

was a favorite burial-ground of the Chaldees, over which Ana was

believed to preside as a tutelary .divinity. He was worshiped in the

most remote antiquity, and Urukh alluded to him as one of the gods

of Ur. King Shamas-Yul built a temple to Ana at Asshur (now

Kileh-Sherghat), about 1880 B. C. The temple of Erech bore the

name of Bit- Ana, or House of Ana; and the goddess Beltis, whose

worship superseded that of Ana, in this temple, was the companion

of Ana and was called " the Lady of Bit- Ana.'*

Anat, or Anata, the wife of Ana, was but a reflection of her hus- Ana's
.... Wife

band, and had no distinguishing characteristics, being nothing but Anat, or

the feminine form of the masculine Ana. All his epithets were ap- Anata.
plied to her with only a distinction of gender, and she had no per-
sonality different from his, and is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the
historical or geographical inscriptions. One tablet represents Ana
and Anata as having nine children. Two of Ana's sons were Vul, the
Air-god, and Martu^ the representative of " Darkness," " the West,"
etc., corresponding to the Erebus of the Greeks.

Bel, also called Enu, and known as Beltis by the Greeks, was the Bel, or
second of the first triad of gods. His name BU or Bel signifies BelnsJ^or
" Lord." He was caUed " the Supreme," « the Father of the gods," Bel-Nim-
" the Procreator," " the Lord," " the King of aU the spirits," « the '^^^'^
Lord of the world," ** the Lord of all the countries." When Nimrod, Hipru.
** the mighty hunter before the Lord," the legendary founder of the

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294 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

I>6ifica- Chaldaean Empire, after his death was deified as Bel-Nimrod, or Bilu-
Nimrod Nipni, "the Hunter Lord," his attributes and titles were mingled
the with those of Bel. Calneh, or Nipur, the modem Niffer, was his
Founder^ sacred city and the seat of his worship, and here was the great temple
consecrated to him. Many legends and traditions connect his name
with this ancient city, which was also dedicated to his wife Beltis.
Bel-Nimrod was called " Lord of Nipra,'* and his wife " Lady of
Nipra." His temple at Nipur, called Kharris-Nipra^ and famed for
its wealth, magnificence and antiquity, was an object of intense ven-
eration to the Assyrian monarchs. Temples were likewise dedicated
to his worship at Calah (now Nimrud), and Dur-Kurri-galzu (now
'Akkerkuf ). He is sometimes said to have had four " arks " or " taber-
nacles." Inscriptions are found on Assyrian tablets, in which his
name is invoked as " the Lord of the world." This fact attests that
his worship was general throughout Chaldiea and Assyria. In Assyria
he was inferior only to Asshur, and in Chaldaea only to El and Ana.
Thus Bel and Bel-Nimrod were virtually the same god. Beltis was
his wife; and Nin, the Assyrian Hercules, was their son, and was fre-
quently joined in their invocations. Sin, the Moon-god, is also said
to be Bel-Nimrod's son, in some inscriptions. His title " Father of
the gods " would indicate an almost infinite paternity. Bel-Nimrod
was worshiped during the whole period of the monarchy. Urukh
built him his temple at Calneh, or Nipur (now Nifl^er), and Kurri-
galzu erected the one at Akkerkuf. Urukh often mentions him in the
inscriptions in connection with Sin, or Hurki, the Moon-god, whom
he calls Bel-Nimrod's " eldest son."
Bel's Beltis, or Mulita — ^the Mylitta of Herodotus — ^as the wife of Bel-

Beltis 'or Nimrod, presented a strong contrast to Anata, the wife of Ana. Bel-
Malita,or tis was not only a female power of Bel-Nimrod, but was really a dis-
tinct and important deity. Her common title was " the. Great Crod-
dess." Her Chaldaean name, Mulita, or Enuta, signifies " the Lady."
Her Assyrian name, Bilta or Bilta-Nipruta, were the feminine forms
of Bil and Bilu-Nipru. Her favorite title was " the Mother of the
gods," or " Mother of the great gods," likewise " Queen-mother of
the gods," " the Queen of the land," " the Great Lady," « the God-
dess of war and battle," " the Goddess of birth." Though usually
classed as the wife of Bel-Nimrod and the mother of his son Nin, she
is sometimes called " the wife of Nin," and in one place ** the wife of
Asshur." She is likewise styled " the lady of Bit- Ana," " the lady of
Nipur." Her worship was general, and her temples were numerous.
At Erech (now Warka) she was worshiped on the same platform with
Ana. At Calneh, or Nipur (now Nifl^er), she shared fully in her
husband's honors. She had a shrine at Ur (now Mugheir), another

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CHALDEE-^ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMCXK)NY AND RELIGION. J95

at Rubesi, and another outside the walls of Babylon. Some of these
temples were very ancient, those at Erech and Nipur being built by
Urukh, while that at Ur was either built or repaired by Ismi-Dagon.
One record makes Beltis the daughter of Ana, and as " Queen of
Nipur " she was " the wife of Nin." Beltis was " the Groddess of
fertility and birth," " the Lady of offspring." The worship of Beltis
was general throughout Chaldaea, and the magnificence of her temples
prove the adoration of the Chaldaeans and the Later Babylonians for
her as the source of beauty and the dispenser of love. \

Hea, or Hoa, the third of the first triad of deities, was the Sea-god, Hea, or
who, Berosus says, taught language and letters, art and science, and hIb Wife,
agriculture to the primitive Chaldees. Though he is represented as a Davldna.
fish-monster, Berosus calls him "the Great Giver of good gifts to
man," and he also bears the title of " Lord of the abyss," and " Lord
of the great deep." He was adored as the dispenser of life and
knowledge, and as such his emblem was the serpent, which Eastern
races generally employed as the symbol of more than human wisdom.
Rawlinson considers the legend of Hea in the form of a serpent teach-
ing men wisdom, as bearing some relation to the story of the serpent
in the Garden of Eden, enticing Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden
fruit of the tree of knowledge by promising them extended wisdom.
The connection of Hoa with the introduction of letters is symbolized
in the arrow-head in the cuneiform inscriptions. The Assyrian kings
built him temples at Asshur and Calah. Davkina was the wife of Hoa,
and her name signifies ** the Chief Lady." Like Anata, Davkina had
no distinctive titles or important position in the Pantheon, but took
her husband's epithets with a simple distinction of gender. Merodach
and Nebo were the sons of Hoa and Davkina.

Sin, or Hurki, the Moon-god, was the first deity of the second triad. Sl**> <>'
He was called " the Powerful," " the Lord of the spirits," " He who the Moon-
dwells in the great heavens," ** the Chief of the gods of heaven and J?^v,5.^*
earth," « the King of the gods," « the Bright," " the Shining," " the "the
Lord of the month." As the patron and protector of buildings and j?!®*^,
architecture, he was styled "the Supporting Architect," "the
Strengthener of fortifications," " the Lord of building." Bricks were
under his protection, and the sign of the month under his special care
was the one by which they were designated. His common symbol was
the crescent, or new moon. The monuments represent him in the form
of an aged bearded figure with illustrations of the different phases of
the crescent near his head. The signet-cylinder of King Urukh, now
in the British Museum, bears this representation of the Moon-god.
In this figure he is represented as offering one hand in salutation in
the presence of three worshipers standing before him. The Moon-god

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296 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

was the special object of kingly worship. Ur, or Hur, which derived
its name from Hurki, was his sacred city, and here was the great
temple built for his worship by King Urukh and his famous son and
successor, Ilgi. This deity was likewise worshiped by the princes of
Borsippa and Babylon, and one dynasty of Chaldaean monarchs bore
the title of the Sm kings. The Moon-god was adored by the Chal-
daeans and Babylonians to the latest days of antiquity, through the
period of Assyrian supremacy to the times of Nebuchadnezzar and
Nabonadius, the last of whom restored his shrine at Ur and bestowed
on him high-sounding titles, such as " the Chief of the gods of heaven
and earth, the King of the gods, God of gods, He who dwells in the
great heavens." In some inscriptions the Moon-god is called the eld-
est son of Bel-Nimrod. His wife, the Moon-goddess, called ** the
Great Lady," was often associated with him in the lists. Hurki and
his wife were the tutelary deities of Ur, or Hur, and a part of the
temple was dedicated to his wife. Her ** ark " or ** tabernacle," which
was separate from that of her husband, was also deposited in this
sanctuary. It was called '* the lesser light," while his ark was styled
" the light."
San, or San, or Sansi, the Sun-god — ^whose Semitic names were Samas,
Sansi, or ghamas, and Shemesh — ^was the second deity of the second triad. He
the Suni was regarded as the lord of the daylight, and was represented as light-
^®^* ing the universe. His emblem was the circle. He was called "the
Lord of fire," " the Light of the gods," " the Ruler of the day," ** He
who illumines the expanse of heaven and earth," ** the Regent of all
things," " the Establisher of heaven and earth." The Sun-god in-
spired warlike thoughts in the minds of kings, and directed and
favored their military expeditions. He caused the Chaldsan mon-
archs to assemble their chariots and warriors, and went forth with their
armies and defeated their foes in battle. He extended their domin-
ions, and brought them back to their own land as conquerors. He
chafed their enemies before them and crushed all opposition. He
aided them to sway the kingly sceptre and to enforce their authority
over their subjects. He was thus called ** the Supreme Ruler who
casts a favorable eye on expeditions," " the Vanquisher of the king's
enemies," " the Breaker-up of opposition." As the sun diffused light
and warmth throughout the realm of nature, so San lightened men's
minds and hearts with wisdom and inspiration. The chief seats of
the Sun-god's worship were at Larsa and Sippara. At Larsa was the
great temple to San, called Bit-Parra, built by Urukh, and restored
at times to as late a period as the age of Nebuchadnezzar. At Sip-
para the worship of this deity took precedence of all others, so that
the Greeks called this place Heliopolis, or City of the Sun. The

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CHALDEB-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 297

idolatry of the "Fire-king," Adrammelech, which the Second Book
of Kings mentions as being set up in Samaria, was the worship of
the Chaldasan Sun-god. At Sippara, called Tsipar sha Shamas,
" Sippara of the Sun," in the inscriptions, was the large temple to
the Sun-god which was repaired and adorned by many of the ancient
Chaldaean kings, as well as by Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonadius.
Most of the signet-cylinders of the Chaldaean monarchs have the em-
blem of the sun among their symbols of divinity.

Ai, Gula, or Anunit, the wife of San, as the female power of the
sun, was usually associated with the Sun-god in temples and invoca-
tions. Gula signifies " great." As a deity separate from her hus-
band, she presided over life and birth. She was worshiped with her
husband both at Larsa and Sippara, and her name appears on the
inscriptions at both places. She is believed to have been the Anam-
melech whom the Sepharvites adored in combination with Adram-
melech, the " Fire-king." In later times she had temples independent
of her husband at Babylon and Borsippa, as well as at Calah and
Asshur. Her emblem was the eight-rayed disk or orb, which is often
associated with the four-rayed orb in the Babylonian representations,
or sometimes an eightrrayed star, and frequently a star of only six
rays.

Vul, or Iva, the Aiivgod — ^also variously translated as Bin, Yem,
Ao or Hu — ^was the third god of the second triad. Like the Zeus of
the Greeks and the Jupiter of the Romans, Vul wielded the thunder^
bolt and directed the storm and the tempest. The Chaldaean account
of the great Flood represents Vul as thundering in heaven. He was
considered the destroyer of crops, and consequently the author of
famine, scarcity and pestilence. The " flaming sword " which he is
said to have held in his hand is represented as his symbol on the tablets
and cylinders, where it is figured as a thunderbolt. He was regarded
as " the Prince of the power of the air." His usual titles were ** the
Minister of heaven and earth/' " the Lord of the air," " He who
makes the tempest to rage." He was the great destroyer in the realm
of nature, but as the dispenser of rain he was adored as the source
of the fertility of the nourishing earth. He was regarded as the
protector of rivers, canals and aqueducts. Thus he was styled ** the
Careful and Beneficent Chief," " the Giver of abundance," " the Lord
of canals," and " the Establisher of works of irrigation." The name
of King Shamus-Vul, son and successor of Ismi-Dagon, indicates that
Vul must have been worshiped in early times, as that king set up his
worship at Asshur (now Kileh-Sherghat), in Assyria, where a temple
was built to him and. Ana conjointly. All through the period of
Assyrian ascendency and to the end of the Later Babylonian Empire

San'8

Wife,

Gula, or

Anunit.

Vul, or
Iva, the
Air-god,
and His

Wife,
Shala, or

TalA.

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298 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

the Air-god was highly venerated. Shala, or Tala, was the wife of
Vul, or Iva, and her usual title is sarrat or sharrat, meaning *' queen,'*
the feminine of the word sar^ which signifies *' king," " chief,'* or
" sovereign."
Nin, or First among the deities who represented the five planets then known
Bar, or was Nin, or Ninip, also called Bar, or Adar, who was the representa-
w^^'JS* tive of Saturn. Bar, the Semitic name, and Nin, the Hamitic desig-
Plaart ' nation, signify " Lord " or " Master." Ninip signifies " Nin by
Satam. name," or ** He whose name is Nin." Barshen signifies " Bar by
name," or " He whose name is Bar." In his character and attributes
Nin most nearly corresponded to the Hercules of the Greeks, as he
was adored as the god of strength and heroism, according to the tes-
timony of the inscriptions. He boldly faced the foe in battle, and
his name was invoked to encourage the warrior in the deadly conflict.
He was styled " the Lord of the brave," " the Champion," " the War-
rior who subdues foes," " He who strengthens the hearts of his fol-
lowers," ** the Destroyer of enemies," " the Reducer of the disobedi-
ent," " the Exterminator of rebels," " He whose sword is good." In
character he thus very much resembled Bel-Nimrod and Nergal, and
also the Greek Ares, the Roman Mars, and the Scandinavian Odin.
The inscriptions call Nin, and not Hoa, the " Fish-god." His em-
blem was generally the fish; and on some reliefs he is represented as
part man and part fish, and beneath are such titles as " the Grod of
the sea," ** He who dwells in the deep," " the Opener of aqueducts."
On other tablets he is styled " the Powerful Chief," " the Supreme,"
"^the First of the gods," " the Favorite of the gods," " the Chief of
the spirits," and like titles. In his planetary character, he is caUed
** the Light of heaven," " He who, like the sun, the light of the gods,
irradiates the nations." In the sculptured courts of the Assyrian pal-
aces, Nin is represented as a winged man-bull, the impersonation of
strength and power. He guards the palaces of the Assyrian kings,
who consider him their tutelary deity, and whose capital city, Nineveh,
is named in his honor. Nin does not rank with the most ancient of
the Chaldaean gods on the monuments; but as the Fish-god, whom
Berosus represented as coming out of the sea to teach the Chaldieans
letters and science, he must have been an object of veneration from
primeval times. His oldest temples were the two at Calah (now Nim-
rud), and his temple at Nineveh was widely famed for its splendor,
and is noticed in the " Annals " of Tacitus. His worship was very
general throughout Chaldaea and Assyria, as is shown by the fre-
quency with which his emblems are found among the inscriptions. As
we have said, Nin was the son of Bel-Nimrod, and the inscriptions
represent him as the husband and son of Beltis. One tablet calls Nin

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. ^99

the father. Instead of the son, of Bel-Nimrod. This contradiction
is the result of the double character of Nin, who, as Saturn, was the
father, but as Hercules, the son of Jupiter.

Merodach, or Bel-Merodach, represented the planet of Jupiter, and
was called "the Old Man of the gods," "the King of the earth,"
" the Most Ancient," " Senior of the gods," " the Judge," and the like.
He was regarded as the god of judgment, justice and right. He was
believed to preside wherever justice was dispensed by kings sitting in
the gates, the early seats of justice. He was considered the most
spiritual of the Chaldsean deities, and in the Babylonian inscriptions
he is classed as superior to all celestial and terrestrial divinities, under
the title of Belrabu. The Tel Sifr tablets indicate that Merodach
must have been worshiped in the early Chaldasan kingdom. He is
beUeved to have been the tutelary deity of Babylon from the most
remote antiquity, and as the city grew into importance his worship
became more and more prominent. The Assyrian kings always asso-
ciated Babylon with Merodach, and in the Later Babylonian Ejnpire
his worship took precedence of that of the other gods. Herodotus
minutely described his temple, and the prophet Daniel bore testimony
to the devotion with which he was worshiped by the Babylonians.
Nebuchadnezzar called him " the King of the heavens and the earth,"
" the Great Lord," " the Senior of the gods," " the Most Ancient,"
"the Supporter of sovereignty," **the Layer up of treasures," and
the like; and attributed to this god all his glory and success. His
emblem is not definitely known; but Diodorus states that the great
statue of Merodach at Babylon was a figure " standing and walking,"
and such a form frequently appears upon the Babylonian cylinders.
Merodach's wife, Zir-Banit, had a temple at Babylon, attached to her
husband's, and is believed to have been the goddess whose worship
was introduced into Samaria by the Babylonian colonists, and who is
called Succoth-benoth in the Old Testament.

Nergal, the War-god, was the representative of the planet Mars,
and his name, which is Hamltic, signifies " the Great Man " or " the
Great Hero." In the Assyrian account of the Deluge, Nergal Is al-
luded to as the destroyer ; but he was chiefly celebrated for his power
over the chase and the battle-field, thus partaking of the character
and attributes of Bel-Nimrod, with which deity he is compared In the
adoration bestowed upon him as the ancestor of the Assyrian mon-
archs. He was called " the King of battles," " the Champion of the
gods," "the Storm ruler," "the Strong Begetter," "the Tutelary
Grod of Babylonia," and "the God of the chase." He is usually
coupled with Nin, who also presides over battles and hunting. The
chief seats of NergaPs worship were the ancient cities of Cutha and

Mero-
dach, or
Bel-Mero-
dach, God
of Justice,
Planet
Jnpiter.

Nergal,
the War-
god, God
of Hunt-
ing,
Planet
MaxB.

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800 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Tarbissa. Cutha was the sacred city where he was said to " Kve,"
and in which was his famous shrine. The " men of Cuth," when
transported as colonists to Samaria by the Assyrians, naturally " made
Nergal their god/' introducing his worship into the land of their
forced adoption. Nergal's emblem was the famous winged man-lion,
the impersonation of human intelligence and physical strength, as
seen at the entrances of the great palaces of Susa and Nineveh. Of
NergaPs wife, called Lax, only her name is known.

Ishtar, Of Ishtar, or Nana, was the representative of the planetary Venus,
^^J*^*» and in character and attributes she mainly corresponded with the

of Spring, classical goddess whose name the planet bears. Ishtar was her As-
yimofli Syrian name, and Nana was her Babylonian appellation. The Phoe-
nicians called her Astarte, and the Hebrews Astoreth. Ishtar is styled
in the inscriptions ** the Goddess who rejoices mankind," and her most
common epithet is Asurah, " the Fortunate,'* or " the Happy.*' She
is also called " the Mistress of heaven and earth," ** the Great Grod-
dess," " the Queen of all the gods " ; and also " the Croddess of war
and battle," " the Queen of victory," " She who arranges battles,"
and " She who defends from attacks." In the inscriptions of one
monarch she is represented as " the Groddess of the chase." Her
worship was general, and her shrines were numerous. She is often
styled " the Queen of Babylon," and must have had a temple in that
city. She likewise had temples at Asshur, Arbela and Nineveh. Her
symbol, as represented on the cylinders, is the naked female form.

Aoooant Ishtar, in her journey to the under-world, symbolized the disap-

DMcei^^to P^^rance in winter of the Life in nature as ushered in at spring.
Hades. Ishtar is represented as going down to the House of Iskalla. Mr.
Fox Talbot, the English Orientalist, gives the following translation
of the descent of Ishtar to Hades, or the House of Iskalla:

" To the land of Hades, the land of her desire, Ishtar, daughter
of the Moon-god Sin, turned her mind. The daughter of Sin fixed
her mind to go to the House where all meet, the dwelling of the god
Iskalla, to the house which men enter, but cannot depart from — ^the
road which men travel, but never retrace — the abode of darkness and
of famine, where earth is their food, their nourishment clay — ^where
light is not seen, but in darkness they dwell — ^where ghosts, like birds,
flutter their wings, and on the door and the door-posts the dust lies
undisturbed.

" When Ishtar arrived at the gate of Hades, to the keeper of the
gate a word she spake : * O keeper of the entrance, open thy gate !
Open thy gate, I say again, that I may enter in ! If thou openest
not thy gate, if I do not enter in, I will assault the door, the gate I
will break down, I will attack the entrance, I will split open the por-

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. gQl

tals. I will raise the dead, to he the devourers of the living ! Upon
the living the dead shall prey.' Then the porter opened his mouth
and spake, and thus he said to great Ishtar : * Stay, lady, do not
shake down the door; I will go and inform Queen Nin-ki-gal.* So
the porter went in and to Nin-ki-gal said : ' These curses thy sister
Ishtar utters; yea, she blasphemes thee with fearul curses.* And
Nin-ki-gal, hearing the words, grew pale, like a flower when cut from
the stem ; like the stalk of a reed, she shook. And she said, * I will
cure her rage — I will speedily cure her fury. Her curses I will repay.
Light up consuming flames! Light up a blaze of straw! Be her
doom with the husbands who left their wives; be her doom with the
wives who forsook their lords; be her doom with the youths of dis-
honored lives. Gro, porter, and open the gate for her; but strip her,
as some have been stripped ere now.' The porter went and opened
the gate. * Lady of Tiggaba, enter,' he said: * Enter. It is per-
mitted. The Queen of Hades to meet thee comes.' So the first gate
let her in, but she was stopped, and there the great crown was taken
from her head. * Keeper, do not take ofl^ from me the crown that is
on my head.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon
its removal.' The next gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there
the ear-rings were taken from her ears. * Keeper, do not take off
from me the ear-rings from my ears.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen
of the Land insists upon their removal.' The third gate let her in,
but she was stopped, and there the precious stones were taken from
her head. * Keeper, do not take off from me the gems that adorn my
head.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon their
removal.' The fourth gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there
the small jewels were taken from her brow. * Keeper, do not take off
from me the small jewels that deck my brow.' ' Excuse it, lady, the
Queen of the Land insists upon their removal.' The fifth gate let
her in, but she was stopped, and there the girdle was taken from her
waist. * Keeper, do not take off from me the girdle that girds my
waist.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon its
removal.' The sixth gate let her in, but she was stopped, and there
the gold rings were taken from her hands and feet. * Keeper, do not
take off from me the gold rings of my hands and feet.' * Excuse it,
lady, the Queen of the Land insists upon their removal.' The seventh
gate let her ill, but she was stopped, and there the last garment was
taken from her body. * Keeper, do not take off, I pray, the last
garment from my body.' * Excuse it, lady, the Queen of the Land
insists upon its removal.'

" After that Mother Ishtar had descended into Hades, Nin-ki-gal
saw and derided her to her face. Then Ishtar lost her reason, and

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802 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

heaped curses upon the other. Nin-ki-gal hereupon opened her
mouth, and spake : * Go, Namtar, ♦ ♦ ♦ and bring her out for pun-
ishment, ♦ ♦ ♦ afflict her with disease of the eye, the side, the feet,
the heart, the head' (some lines effaced). ♦ ♦ ♦

** The Divine messenger of the gods lacerated his face before them.
The assembly of the gods was full. ♦ * ♦ The Sun came, along with
the Moon, his father, and weeping he spake thus unto Hea, the king:
' Ishtar has descended into the earth, and has not risen again ; and
ever since the time that Mother Ishtar descended into hell, ♦ ♦ • the
master has ceased from commanding; the slave has ceased from obey-
ing.' Then the god Hea in the depth of his mind formed a design;
he modeled, for her escape, the figure of a man of clay. Gro to save
her. Phantom, present thyself at the portal of Hades ; the seven gates
of Hades will all open before thee; Nin-ki-gal will see thee, and take
pleasure because of thee. When her mind has grown calm, and her
anger has worn itself away, awe her with the hames of the great gods !
Then prepare thy frauds! Fix on deceitful tricks thy mind! Use
the chief est of thy tricks! Bring forth fish out of an empty vessel!
That will astonish Nin-ki-gal, and to Ishtar she will restore her cloth-
ing. The reward — a. great reward — for these things shall not fail.
Gro, Phantom, save her, and the great assembly of the people shall
crown thee! Meats, the best in the city, shall be thy food! Wine,
the most delicious in the city, shall be thy drink! A royal palace
shall be thy dwelling, a throne of state shall be thy seat! Magician
and conjuror shall kiss the hem of thy garment!'

" Nin-ki-gal opened her mouth and spake ; to her messenger, Nam-
tar, commands she gave : * Go, Namtar, the Temple of Justice adorn !
Deck the images! Deck the altars! Bring out Anunnak, and let
him take his seat on a throne of gold ! Pour out for Ishtar the water
of life ; from my realms let her depart.' Namtar obeyed ; he adorned
the Temple ; decked the images, decked the altars ; brought out Anun-
nak, and let him take his seat on a throne of gold; jwured out for
Ishtar the water of life, and suffered her to depart. Then the first
gate let her out, and gave her back the garment of her form. The
next gate let her out, and gave her back the jewels for her hands and
feet. The third gate let her out, and gate her back the girdle for
her waist. The fourth gate let her out, and gave her back the small
gems she had worn upon her brow. The fifth gate let her out, and
gave her back the precious stones that had been upon her head. The
sixth gate let her out, and gave her back the ear-rings that were taken
from her ears. And the seventh gate let her out, and gave her back
the crown she had carried on her head."

Ishtar's return to earth symbolized the reappearance of spring.

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 308

The god Nebo represented the planet Mercury, and was the last of Nebo,6od
the five planetary deities. Nebo was the god of wisdom and intelli- ^^^j^
gence, the patron and protector of knowledge and learning, and the Planet
teacher of mankind. His attributes were the same as those of the •'^ury.
Greek Hermes. He was styled " the God who possesses intelligence,"
** He who hears from afar,*' " He who teaches," or " He who teaches
and instructs." He thus somewhat resembled Hoa, whose son he is
called in some inscriptions. Like Hoa, he had for his emblem the
simple wedge or arrow-head, the primary element in the cuneiform
writing, to signify his association with that god in the patronage of
letters. Nebo's other titles were " the Lord of lords, who has no equal
in power," " the Supreme Chief," " the Sustainer," " the Supporter,"
"the Ever-ready," "the Guardian over the heavens and the earth,"
** the Lord of the constellations," " the Holder of the sceptre of
power," " He who grants to kings the sceptre of royalty for the gov-
ernment of their people." Sometimes he is classed with the inferior
deities. His worship was more general in Chaldaea than in Assjrria.
In the later ages Borsippa was the chief seat of Nebo's worship, and
there the great temple, called Birs-i-Nimrud, was consecrated to him.'
The ruins of one of his shrines are found on the site of the ancient
Assyrian city of Calah (now Nimrud), whence imposing statues of.
this god have been transferred to the British Museum. He was a
favorite deity of the later Babylonian kings, many of whom were
named after him, such as Nabonassar, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar
and Nobanadius. Nebo's wife was Varamit, or Urmit, a name sig-
nifying " exalted," who was only a companion of her husband and
had no special attributes. Besides the deities described, the Chaldican
Pantheon embraced a multitude of inferior divinities, of whom but
very little is known.

It is thus seen that the Chaldxean religion was, from the most re- Chaldsan
mote antiquity, an astronomical worship. The twelve constellations nomical
of the Zodiac were the sun's " twelve houses," and his proper abode WoreWp.
was in the constellation of Leo. The planets likewise traversed twelve
stages in their course, and each sign or " house " passed by any one
of these celestial bodies was regarded as a seat of divine power, while
the planets themselves were considered gods. Thirty of the fixed stars
were associated with the planets as '* counseling gods " ; and twelve
others in the northern heavens, and twelve in the southern firmament,
were designated " the judges." The twelve " judges " above the hori-
zon controlled the destinies of the living, while the twelve below were
masters of the fate of the dead. Each of the twelve months of the
year was assigned to one of the twelve great gods, beginning with
Ana. The seven days of the week were controlled by the seven great

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804 CHALD-«:A, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

heavenly bodies — ^the sun, the moon, and the five planets then known.
The hours were assigned to certain stars.
Chaldean Thus in the earliest twilight of Oriental history, more than four
L^" thousand years ago, the Wise Men of ancient Chaldaea — priests, bards,
sages and prophets — ^by their observations of the heavens and their
explorations of the paths of the celestial luminaries, became the great
pioneers of astronomical science, and the founders of that semi-
mythical and semi-scientific learning which became diffused through-
out the whole West of Asia. The priests performed the task of
watching the courses, positions and phases of the celestial orbs and
luminaries, and estimating and calculating the influence of this ever-
varying aspect upon the destinies of men and nations. The seer and
the prophet endeavored to show how the good and evil fortune of the
state was blended with conjunctions and oppositions in the starry
firmament. Thus astrology became mingled with astronomy. In the
Book of Daniel the Chaldaeans are mentioned as interpreters of stars
and signs. The following inscription has been deciphered from a
tablet found at Nineveh : " If Jupiter is seen in the month of Tam-
muz, there will be corpses. If Venus comes opposite the star of the
fish, there will be devastation. If the star of the great lion is gloomy,
the heart of the people will not rejoice. If the moon is seen on the
first day of the month, Accad will prosper." From that ancient period
to the present there has prevailed among the superstitious, in aU ages
and nations, a belief that stars and astrological signs bear some rela-
tion to the fate of men and nations.
Assyrian The Assyrian religion was almost identical with the Chaldasan, the
- *5^ o^^ly essential point of difference being that the supreme national deity
ReUgion of Assyria, Asshur, " the Great Lord," was unknown in Chaldaea,
I^^^ where II was the chief god. With this solitary exception, the gods of
Chaldaea were also the gods of Assyria. The minor points of difference
were that certain deities prominent in the Chaldasan pantheon occupied
a subordinate position in the pantheon of Assyria, and vice versa.
Each pantheon began with the preeminence of a single god followed
by the same groupings of identically the same divinities, and, after
that, by a multitude of local deities. Each country had almost the
same worship — temples, altars and ceremonies of a similar character —
the same religious emblems — ^the same religious ideas. But Assyria
furnishes us with a clearer knowledge of the material aspects of the
religious system so nearly common to the two nations.
Asshnr, Asshur, the head of the Assyrian pantheon, is usually called "the
Assyrian Great Lord," " the King of all the Gods," " He who rules supreme
God. over the Gods." He is also called " the Father of the Gods," though
that title is more properly assigned to Bel. Asshur always has the

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CHALDEE--ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 506

first place in invocations. The testimony of the Assyrian inscriptions
shows that Asshur was considered the special tutelary deity of the
Assyrian monarchs and of the nation. He put kings on the throne,
firmly established them in authority, prolonged their reigns, main-
tained their power, protected their fortresses and armies, made their
names famous, and the like. They turned to him for victory in war,
to give them all they desire, and to permit their thrones to be occu-
pied by their dynasty to the latest posterity. They usually spoke of
him as '* Asshur, my Lord." They represented themselves as devot-
ing their lives to his service. They prosecuted their wars to extend
his worship. In his name they fought their battles and carried ruin
and destruction among their enemies. When they conquered a coun-
try they " set up the emblems of Asshur," and spread a knowledge
of his laws and his worship.

The tutelage of Asshur over Assyria is significantly indicated by
the identity of his name with that of their country. The god Asshur,
the country Asshur, and the city Asshur, and " an Assyrian " are all
represented by the same term, which is written both Ashur and Asshur.
This tutelage is likewise shown by the circumstance that Asshur had
no famous temple or shrine in any particular Assyrian city like the
other deities, and that his worship was general throughout Assyria.
The early Assyrian capital was named after this supreme national
deity; and all the local temples and shrines in the land were open to
his worship, in addition to that of the divinities to whom they were
dedicated. The inscriptions continually describe the Assyrians as
** the servants of Asshur," and aUude to their foes as ** the enemies
of Asshur." No phrases of a like character have been employed in
referring to any other deity of the Assyrian pantheon. It is certain
that the ancSestor and founder of the Assyrian nation, Asshur, the son
of Shem, had been deified after his death, as Nimrod had been; and
that he was thenceforth " the Great Lord " of the Assyrians — ^the
supreme ruler over heaven and earth — ^the chief object of Assyrian
adoration.

The favorite emblem of Asshur was the winged circle or globe, from
which is frequently seen issuing a figure in a homed cap, sometimes
holding a bow only, sometimes discharging arrows from a bow against
the enemies of Assyria. It has been conjectured that the circle sym-
bolizes eternity, that the wings signify omnipotence, and that the
human figure typifies wisdom or intelligence. There are numerous
varieties of this emblem. Sometimes the human figure has no bow,
and only extends the right hand. Sometimes both hands are extended,
and a ring or chaplet is held in the left. In one instance there is no
full human figure, but a pair of hands are seen issuing from behind
VOL. 1.— 90

The God

Asshur,

the City

Asshur

and the

Assyrian

Ancestor

Asshur.

Deifica-
tion of
Asshur,
Son of
Shem.

Asshur's
Emblem.

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S06

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Sculp-
tured
Hepresen-
tation of
Asshur's
Symbol.

Sacred
Tree.

Other
Assyrian
Deities.

the winged disk, the right hand showing the palm, and the left hold-
ing a bow. In many cases the winged circle appears alone, with the
disk either plain or ornamented. Sennacherib's signet-cylinder bears
an emblem of Asshur having three human heads, that on the entire
human figure, and one on each side of it, resting on the feathers of
the wing.

The sculptures represent the winged circle in close connection with
the king, who has it embroidered upon his robes, engraved upon his
cylinder, represented over his head in the rock tablets on which his
image is carved ; and who stands or kneels in adoration before it, fights
under its shadow, returns in triumph under its protection, and assigns
it a prominent place in the scenes in which he himself is represented
on his obelisks. It is when the king is engaged in battle that Asshur
is represented as drawing the bow and aiming the arrow towards the
king's enemies. It is when he is returning in triumph from the field
of conquest that Asshur is represented as only carrying the bow in
his left hand, and holding out his right. In peaceful scenes Asshur
is represented without a bow. In representations of the king at wor-
ship Asshur extends his hand in aid. Where the mpnarch is repre-
sented as engaged in secular matters Asshur's presence is indicated
by the winged circle without the human figure.

The sacred tree is an emblem frequently seen, under various forms,
in connection with the symbol of Asshur. The simplest form consists
of a short pillar springing from a solitary pair of ram's horns, upon
which is mounted a capital consisting of two pairs of rams' horns,
with one, two or three horizontal bands between them ; while above this
capital is a scroll like that usually surmounting the winged circle, and
above the scroll is a flower like the Greek " honeysuckle ornaments."
In some cases the pillar is elongated, with a capital in the middle as
well as one at the top; the blossom above the upper capital, and usu-
ally the stem also, throwing out many smaller blossoms of the same
kind, or fir-cones, or pomegranates. Sometimes there is likewise an
intricate network of branches forming an arch surrounding the tree.
This Assyrian sacred tree has been compared with the Scriptural " tree
of Ufe."

In early times the Assyrians ranked Anu and Vul next to Asshur;
but later they accorded this honor to Bel, Sin, Shamas, Vul, Nin and
Nergal. Gula, Ishtar and Beltis were favorite goddesses. Hoa, Nebo
and Merodach were less worshiped in Assyria than in Chaldaea, or
Babylonia, though they were more esteemed in the later period of
Assyrian history. As the characteristics of these deities have been
described in our account of the religion of Chaldaea, we will here sim-
ply refer to their worship in Assyria and the temples dedicated to them.

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 307

The worship of Anu was introduced into Assyria from Babylonia Ann^ or
during the period of Chaldaean supremacy before Assyria had become j^ggyjin^
an independent kingdom. Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, King
of Chaldsea, erected a temple to Anu and Vul at Asshur, the early
Assyrian capital, about B. C. 1820. The Inscription of Tiglath-
Pileser I. says that this temple lasted six hundred and twenty-one
years, when, on account of its decayed condition, it was torn down
by Asshur-dayan I., the great-grandfather of Tiglath-Pileser I. Its
site remained vacant for sixty years, after which Tiglath-Pileser I.
rebuilt the temple more splendidly than before, and thenceforth it was
one of the principal shrines of Assyria, A tradition relating to this
ancient temple was the source from which the site of the city of
Asshur in later times derived the name of Telan^, or " the Mound of
Asshur.'* Ann's name is no element in the names of monarchs or of
other prominent characters, and is not found in many solemn invoca-
tions; but where his name occurs it is always placed next to that of
Asshur, and Tiglath-Pileser I. mentions him in his great Inscription,
as his lord and protector, in the place next to Asshur. Asshur-izir-
pal calls himself "him who honors Anu," or "him who honors Anu
and Dagon." Asshur-izir-paPs son and successor, Shalmaneser II.,
gives Anu the second place in the invocation of thirteen gods with
which he begins his record. The monarchs of the New or Lower
Assyrian Empire did not usually esteem Anu very highly, with the
exception of Sargon, who glorified him, coupled him with Asshur, and
made him the tutelary god of one of the gates of his new city, Dur-
Sargina (now Khorsabad), uniting him in this capacity with the
goddess Ishtar. Anu did not have many temples in Assyria, having
none at Nineveh or Calah, the only important one being at Asshur.

Bel, or Bel-Nimrod, according to the testimony of the Assyrian Bel, or
monuments, was worshiped as extensively in Assyria as in Chaldaea, ^Za^^'
or Babylonia. From the time of Tiglath-Pileser I. to the fall of the Assyria.
Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians, as a nation, were specifically denom-
inated " the people of Bel " ; and a certain part of Nineveh was desig-
nated " the city of Bel." The word Bel was an element in the names
of three Assyrian kings. In the invocation of the gods Bel's place
is next to Asshur's when Ann's name is omitted ; but when Anu occupies
his proper place next to Asshur, Bel ranks third. In several places,
however, where Anu is omitted, Shamas is second and Bel third. Bel
was worshiped in early Assyrian times, as indicated by the^ royal names
of Bel-sumili-kapi and Bel-lush, as borne by two of the earliest Assyr-
ian monarchs. Bel had a temple at Asshur in connection with H, and
its antiquity is proven by the fact that as early as the time of Tiglath-
Pileser I., B. C. 1130, it had fallen into decay and was rebuilt by that

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308 CHALDJEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

famous king. Bel had also a temple at Calah, and four '^ arks " or
'^ tabernacles," whose sites are not identified. Sargon accorded high
honor to Bel, coupling him with Anu in his royal titles, and dedi-
cating to him, in conjunction with his wife, Beltis, one of the gates
of his city. In this dedication Bel is called " the establisher of the
foundations of his city " ; and in many passages Sargon attributes
his royal authority to the favor of Bel and Merodach. Probably the
homed cap, the general emblem of divinity, was the special symbol
of Bel. Esar-haddon says that he set up over ^Hhe image of his
majesty the emblems of Asshur, the Sun, Bel, Nin and Ishtar." The
other kings invariably mention Bel as one of the chief objects of
their worship.
Hoaln Hoa was not prominently worshiped in Assyria. Asshur-izir-pal

Assyria, g^yg ^j^^ jj^^^ alotted the senses of hearing, seeing and understanding
to the four thousand deities of heaven and earth ; and then, mentioning
that the four thousand deities had transferred these senses to himself,
he assumes Hoa's titles and identifies himself with this god. Asshur-
izir-pal's son and successor, Shalmaneser II., the Black Obelisk king,
in his opening invocation, assigned Hoa his proper place, between Bel
and Sin. Sargon placed one of the gates of his new city under
Hoa's protection, in conjunction with Bilat-Ili, " the Mistress of the
Gods," believed to be Gula, the Sun-goddess. Sennacherib, after his
successful expedition across tlie Persian Gulf, offered sacrifice to Hoa
on the sea-shore, presenting him with a golden boat, a golden fish
and a golden coffer. Hoa's emblem, the serpent, was found on the
black stones on which were recorded benefactions, and on the Baby-
lonian cyUnder-seals, but was not adopted by the Assyrian monarchs
among the divine symbols worn by them, nor among those inscribed
by them above their effigies. Hoa's name seldom occurs among the
royal invocations. His only two known temples in Assyria were the
one at Asshur (now Kileh-Sherghat) and the one at Calah (now Nim-
rud). The Assyrian devotion to Nin, the tutelary god of the Assyrian
monarchs and of their capital, caused Nin's worship gradually to
supersede that of Hoa.
Hoa'i Beltis, ** the Great Mother," the wife of Bel, ranked in Assyria

Beltii or ^^^ ^^ ^^^ triad embracing Anu, Bel and Hoa. She is usually men-
MylitU, tioned in the Assyrian inscriptions in close relation with her husband.
Aasyria. '^^^ Assyrians particularly considered Beltis " the Queen of fertility,"
thus resembling the Greek Demeter, the Roman Ceres, who was also
known as " the Great Mother." Sargon put one of the gates of his
new city under the protection of Beltis, along with her husband, Bel;
and Sargon's great-grandson, Asshur-bani-pal, repaired and re-dedi-
cated to this goddess a temple at Nineveh, originally erected by As-

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CHALDEE^ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 309

shuT-izir-pal. She also had a temple at Asshur; and at Calah was a
temple dedicated either to Beltis or to Ishtar, the epithets used apply-
ing to either goddess. The goddess, though known in Assyria as
Beltis, was called Mylitta in Babylonia.

Sin, the Moon-god, occupied the next place to Beltis in the Assyrian
pantheon, the sixth place among the gods where Beltis was inserted,
and the fifth place wherever her name did not occur. His worship
in the early period of the Assyrian Empire is indicated by the invo-
cation of Tiglath-Pileser I., where he is mentioned in the third place
among the gods, between Bel and Shamas. Sin's emblem, the crescent,
was worn by Asshur-izir-pal, and is always seen among the divine
symbols which the Assyrian monarchs inscribed over their effigies. Sin
was one of the most highly esteemed of the Assyrian deities, and his
sign is found as often as any other among both Assyrian and Baby-
lonian cylinder-seals. His name is sometimes seen in the appellation
of kings and princes ; as in that of Sennacherib, signifying " Sin
multiplies brethren." Sargon was particularly devoted to the wor-
ship of Sin, after whom he named one of his sons, and to whom, in
connection with Shamas, the Sun-god, he erected a temple at his new
city, assigning to him the second place among the tutelary deities of
the city of Dur-Sargina. The Assyrians seem to have regarded Sin
as a very ancient god, and when they desired to mark a very old period
they would say : " From the origin of the god Sin." This was a
vestige of the old connection of Assyria with Chaldtea, whose primi-
tive capital, Ur, was under the special protection of the Moon-god,
and where the most ancient temple was dedicated to his worship. The
only two temples known to have been erected to Sin in Assyria were
the one dedicated to him, along with Shamas, by Sargon at his new
city, and the other to Sin alone at Calah.

Shamas, the Sun-god, ranked next below Sin, but was more popular
and far more generaUy worshiped in Assyria. Many passages would
seem to indicate that the Assyrian kings esteemed him next to Asshur,
as they really ranked him above Bel in some of their lists. The
emblem of the Sun-god, the four-rayed orb, was worn upon the neck
of the Assyrian king, and is seen more generally than most others upon
the cylinder-seals. In some cases the emblem of Shamas is even united
with Asshur's emblem, the central circle of which is marked by the
fourfold rays of Shamas. It is known that the worship of Shamas
in Assyria extended to a very remote antiquity. Tiglath-Pileser I.
mentions him in his invocation, and represents himself as ruling spe-
cially under his auspices. Asshur-izir-pal names Asshur and Shamas
as the tutelary gods under whose influence he conducted his wars.
Asshur-izir-pal's son and successor, Shalmanaser II., the Black Obe-

Sin, the
Moon-
god, in

Assyria.

Sluunas.
the Sun-
god, in
Assyria.

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810

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Gala, the
Wife of
Shamas,

in
Assyria.

Volatile
Air-god,

in
Assyria.

lisk king, gives Shamas his proper place among the gods whom he
invokes at the beginning of his long Inscription. The kings of the
New or Lower Assyrian Empire rendered him more devotion than their
predecessors. Sargon dedicated the north gate of his new city to
Shamasy along with Vul, the Air-god; and erected a temple to both
Shamas and Sin at the same city, assigning the Sun-god the third
place among the tutelary gods of the new city. Sennacherib and
Esar-haddon named Shamas next to Asshur in passages when men-
tioning the gods whom they considered their chief protectors. It
seems the only special temple dedicated to the worship of Shamas was
the one assigned to him and Sin jointly at Sargon's new city; but his
images are frequently seen among the lists of idols, so that he may
have been worshiped in temples consecrated to other deities. His
emblem is usually seen united with that of the Moon-god, either beside
or above it. ,

Gula, the Sun-goddess, the wife of Shamas, was not very highly
ranked among the Assyrian deities. It is true, her emblem, the eight-
rayed disk, was borne by the Assyrian kings, along with her husband's
symbol, and is often inscribed on the rock tablets, on the stones on
which benefactions are recorded, and on the cylinder-seals. But her
name is not often found in the inscriptions, and, where it does occur,
it is seen low down in the lists. Gula is the next to the last among
the thirteen deities named in the Black Obelisk invocation. The only
other places where she is mentioned is in inscriptions of a distinctly-
religious nature. At Asshur was a temple dedicated to Gula, Ishtar
and ten inferior deities. Gula's other Assyrian temple was at Calah,
where her husband likewise had a temple. Gula has been identified
with Bilat-Hi, " the Mistress of the Gods," to whom, together with
Hoa, Sargon dedicated one of the gates of his new city.

Vul, the Air-god, was known in Assyria from the earliest times; a
temple having been erected at Asshur, during the period of Assyria's
subjection to Chaldaea, by Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, King
of Chaldaea ; as well as the temple which the same king dedicated to
both Anu and Vul. As these edifices had fallen to ruin by the time
of Tiglath-Pileser I., that monarch rebuilt them from their base; and
Vul, being regarded as one of the special " guardian deities,'* was wor-
shiped in both temples. In Shalmanaser II.'s Black Obelisk invoca-
tion the intermediate place between Sin and Shamas is assigned to Vul,
and on that obelisk is recorded the fact that Shalmanaser II. held a
festival in honor of both Asshur and Vul. Sargon gave Vul the fourth
place among the tutelary deities of his new city, and dedicated to him
the north gate in connection with Shamas, the Sun-god. Sennacherib
spoke of hurling thunder on his enemies like Vul, and other Assyrian

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION.

311'

monarchs say they " rush oh the enemy like the whirlwind of Vul," or
** sweep a country as with the whirlwind of Vul." The Tiglath-
Pileser Inscription mentions Vul as " he who causes the tempest to rage
over hostile lands." The name Vul often occurred as an element in
the names of kings and other personages, as in Vul-lush, Shamas-Vul,
etc. The symbol of Vul, the double or triple bolt, is often seen among
the emblems worn by the Assyrian monarchs, and engraved above their
heads on the rock tablets. Besides his two temples at Asshur, Vul had
a temple at Calah dedicated to him and his wife, the goddess Shala.

Nin was one of the most devotedly worshiped in Assyria among the
second order of gods. The oldest traditions mention Nin as the
founder of the Assyrian royal race, and the mighty city which finally
became so famous as the capital and metropolis of the Assyrian Em-
pire derived its name from this god. As far back as the thirteenth
century before Christ, Nin became an element in royal names. The
Ninus of the Greek writers has been regarded by modems as the Nin
of the Assyrian inscriptions. Hejodotus and Ctesias both consid-
ered Ninus as the founder of the Assyrian dynasty. Nin's name en-
tered as an element into the names of three Assyrian kings — Nin-
pala-zira and the two Tiglathi-Nins. The principal temples dedicated
to Nin were at Calah. The vast edifice at the north-western comer
of the great Nimrud mound, including the pyramidal elevation con-
stituting the most conspicuous feature of the ruins, was a temple dedi-
cated to Nin by Asshur-izir-pal, who erected the north-west palace.
It has been supposed that this edifice was the " busta Nini " of the
Greek writers, where Ninus, whom the Greeks considered the hero-
founder of the Assyrian nation, was interred and specially worshiped.
This great temple was named Bit-zira, or Beth-zira, and from its fane
Nin had the title Pal-ziray " the son of Zira." Nin's other temple at
Calah was named Bit-kura, or Beth-kura, from the fane of which Nin
was called Pal-kuray " the son of Kura."

Tiglath-Pileser I., the first Assyrian king who has left us an his-
torical inscription, and who considered himself under Nin's guardian-
ship, is called "the illustrious prince whom Asshur and Nin have
exalted to the utmost wishes of his heart." This monarch mentions
Nin sometimes alone, and sometimes along with Asshur, as his " guard-
ian deity." Nin and Nergal are spoken of as sharpening weapons for
Tiglath-Pileser, and it is further said that under the auspices of Nin
the most ferocious animals fall beneath these weapons. Asshur-izir-
pal erected a splendid temple to Nin at Calah. Asshur-izir-pal's
grandson, Shamas-Vul I., dedicated to Nin the obelisk which he set
up at Calah to commemorate his victories. Sargon put the new city
which he founded under Nin's protection, and invoked this god spe-

Nin, the

ABsyrian

Dyaaa-

ty'i
Ancestor
Deified,

and

Honored

in the

Name

Nineveh.

TheNinne
of the
Greek

Writers.

Assyrian

Kingly

Reverence

for Nin.

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812

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

His

Symbol,
Winged

headed
BnU.

Merodach

in
Aaayila.

Nergaly

the

Assyrian

Dyiias-

ty's

Divine

Ancestor.

His
Symbol,
Winged

headed
Lion.

cially to guard his gorgeous palace* Sargon's veneration for Nin
was strikingly indicated by the ornamentation of that magnificent
structure ; and Nin's emblem, the winged man-headed bull, stood guard
at all its principal gateways. The figure strangling a lion, occupy-
ing so prominent a place on the harem portal facing the great court,
represented this god. Sargon attributed his victories in war to the
favor of Nin, and for this reason he placed Nin's emblems on the
sculptures representing his military expeditions. Sennacherib, Sar-
gon's son and successor, had the same reverence for Nin, as he also
placed the winged man-headed bull at most of the doorways of his
magnificent palace at Nineveh, and assigned the figure strangling the
lion a prominent place on the grand f afade of the same splendid edifice.
£sar-haddon states that he continued in the worship of Nin, and that
he set up the emblem of that god over his own royal effigy, in connec-
tion with the symbols of Asshur, Shamas, Bel and Ishtar.

Merodach was a god mentioned by most of the early Assyrian kings
in their opening invocations, and an allusion in their inscriptions in-
dicates that he was regarded as a very powerful god. Shalmaneser
II., the Black Obelisk king, says in one place that ^' the fear of Asshur
and Merodach fell upon his enemies." But Merodach was not a popu-
lar deity in Assyria until the later times of the empire, Vul-lush III.
being the first monarch who assigned him a prominent place in the
Assyrian pantheon. Sargon and his successors continued the worship
of Merodach. Sargon constantly ascribed his power to the united
favor of Asshur and Merodach, and Esar-haddon sculptured the em-
blems of these two gods over the images of foreign gods presented to
him by a suppliant prince. But Merodach did not have any temple
in Assyria.

Nergal was a god highly reverenced, being regarded by the Assyr-
ian monarchs as their divine ancestor, Sargon having traced the line
of descent through three hundred and fifty generations. NergaPs
sjmibol was the winged man-headed lion, or the national lion, whose
figure enters largely into Assyrian architecture. The confident reli-
ance of the Assyrians on NergaPs protection is proven by the con-
spicuous place his emblems everywhere occupied in their palaces. Nin
and Nergal, as the gods of war and hunting, in which occupations the
Assyrian kings spent their lives, were tutelary gods of these monarchs ;
and these two deities are found equally associated in the royal inscrip-
tions and sculptures. Sennacherib dedicated a temple to Nergal at
Tarbisi (now Sherif-Khan) ; and he may have had one at Calah, as a
smaller temple with the lion entrance is found in the ruins on the
northwest comer of the Nimrud mound, and as he was mentioned as
one of the " resident gods " of Calah.

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CHALDEE-^ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 313

Ishtar was a favorite goddess of the Assyrian kings, who styled her Ishtar, or
** their lady," and sometimes coupled her with Asshur, ** the Great /^^^^
Lord," in their invocations. Ishtar had a very old temple at Asshur,
the primitive Assyrian capital, and this temple Tiglath-Pileser I. re-
paired and beautified. Asshur-izir-pal erected a second temple to her
at Nineveh, and she had a third at Arbela, which Asshur-bani-pal says
he restored. Sargon put the western gate of his new city under the
united protection of Ishtar and Anu.x Sargon's son and successor^
Sennacherib, spoke of Asshur and Ishtar as about to ^^ call the kings
his sons to their sovereignty over Assyria," and implored Asshur and
Ishtar to ** hear their prayers." Sennacherib's grandson, Asshur-
bani-pal, the royal hunter, was devoted to Ishtar, whom he considered
the special patron of his favorite pastime, the chase of the lion and
the wild bull. Ishtar appears as one goddess divided into many; as
the Ishtar of Nineveh, the Ishtar of Arbela and the Ishtar of Baby-
lon are all distinguished from each other, a separate address being
made to each of them in the same invocation, as in that of Sennacherib
and in that of Esar-haddon. Thus though Ishtar was a general object
of worship throughout Assyria, she had a distinctly local character
in the various Assyrian and Babylonian cities.

Nebo was one of the most ancient of Assyrian gods, and his name Heboln
enters as an element into a king's name in the twelfth century before Assyria.
Christ, namely that of Mutaggil-Nebo, But he was not extensively
worshiped until Vul-lush III. had given him a prominent place in the
Assyrian pantheon after leading an expedition into Babylonia, where
Nebo had always been highly honored. Vul-lush III. set up two
statues to Nebo at Calah, and perhaps erected to him the temple there
called Bit-Saggil, or Beth-Saggil, from which Nebo derived his name
of PcH'Bit'SaggtL. Sennacherib and Esar-haddon held this god in
high veneration, the latter putting him above Merodach in an im-
portant invocation. Asshur-bani-pal also paid Nebo much reverence,
alluding to him and his wife, Warmita, as the deities under whose
auspices he engaged in some literary work.

After these chief deities, the Assyrians recognized and adored a TheClii«f
multitude of inferior divinities. Beltis, the wife of Bel; and Gula, Vwi?"
the wife of Shamas; also Ishtar, who is sometimes alluded to as the Assyria,
wife of Nebo, were all goddesses of exalted rank and importance. But
Sheruba, the wife of Asshur ; Anata, or Anuta, the wife of Anu ; Dav-
kina, the wife of Hoa; Shala, the wife of Vul; Zirbanit, the wife of
Merodach ; Laz, the wife of Nergal ; and Warmita, usually called the
wife of Nebo, did not occupy a place in the Assyrian pantheon at all
in comparison with the dignity and rank of their husbands. Nin, the
Assyrian Hercules, and Sin, the Moon-god, had wives also; but their

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814

CHALD^EA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Thdr
Inferior
Poution.

The

Minor

Gods in

Assyria.

Good
Genii.

BadGeoii.

proper names are not known, Nin's wife being called " the Queen of
the Land," and Sin's wife " the Great Lady."

Thus the Assyrians usually combined in the same temple the wor-
ship of the male and the female principle; the female deities — ^with
the exception of Beltis, the wife of Bel; G^ula, the wife of Shamas;
and Ishtar, either as an independent goddess or as the mdfe of Nebo,
who are as strong and distinct as- their husbands — are in most cases
only the reflection of their husbands, thus having an unsubstantial
character, and occupying a very insignificant position in the pantheon.
Some minor goddesses, among whom was Telita, the goddess of the
great marshes near Babylon, stood alone, unassociated with any male
deity. Most of the minor male divinities likewise had no female com-
panions, the notable exceptions to this rule being Martu, whose wife
was called "the Lady of Tiganna," and Idak, Grod of the Tigris,
whose wife was Belat-Muk.

Prominent among the minor male divinities were Martu, called a
son of Anu and " the Minister of the deep," and corresponding to the
Greek Erebus ; Sargana, also ranked as a son of Anu, and from whom
Sargon is supposed to have derived his name ; Idak, God of the Tigris ;
Supulat, Lord of the Euphrates ; and H, who, though the Babylonian
chief god, occupied an humble position in the Assyrian pantheon.
Tiglath-Pileser I. repaired a temple to H at Asshur about B. C. 1160.
Besides these just mentioned, there were a multitude of minor Assyr-
ian divinities, of whom but very little is yet known.

The Assyrians are supposed to have believed in the existence of
genii, some of whom they considered powers of good, others powers of
evil. The winged figure wearing the homed cap, usually represented
as waiting upon the king when he is engaged in any sacred capacity,
is believed to be his tutelary genius, the spirit carefully watching over
him and protecting him from the spirits of darkness. This figure
generally carries a pomegranate or a pine-cone in the right hand, and
sometimes holds a plaited bag or basket in the left, while at other
times this hand is free. The pine-cone, when carried, is always pointed
towards the king, as if signifying the means of communication be-
tween the protector and the protected, the instrument conveying grace
and strength from the genius to the human being whom he had taken
under his care. The sacred basket is often very elegantly and elabo-
rately ornamented, sometimes with winged figures in adoration before
the sacred tree, and they themselves holding baskets. The hawk-
headed figure, also found attending upon the king and watching his
actions, is likewise believed to represent a good genius.

Few representations of evil genii have been discovered. 'Among
these is the monster — ^half lion, half eagle, driven into retreat by Vul's

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ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE
Figure of a Genius with head of an Eagle

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THS ii'*' YO^K
pilBiK LIBRARY]

TILOEN roUNOATlOHll

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 315

thunderbolts — found among the sculptures at Nimrud, the ancient
Calah. Certain grotesque statuettes found at Ehorsabad, represent-
ing a human figure having a lion's head with the ears of an ass, have
likewise been classed with these evil genii. In one case we see two mon-
sters with heads like the one just described, placed on human bodies
whose legs end in eagle's claws, both armed with daggers and maces^
and struggling with each other. This sculpture — found in the ruins
of Asshur-bani-paPs great palace at Nineveh, and now in the British
Museum — ^is believed to be a symbolical iUustration of the tendency
of evil to turn upon itself and waste its strength by internal conten-
tion and turmoil. Instances are abundant in which a human figure
with the head of a hawk or an eagle threatens a winged man-headed
lion, the emblem of Nergal, with a strap or a mace; thus typifying
the spirit of evil attacking a god, or the hawk-headed genius driving
Nergal out of Assyria — aij emblematic representation of war.

The Assyrian religion had a strongly-idolatrous character in its
mode of worship. The different images of the same deity came to
be regarded as separate objects of worship in their different temples;
and thus we find the Ishtar of Arbela, the Ishtar of Nineveh and the
Ishtar of Babylon invoked by the same monarch in the same inscrip-
tion as separate divinities. The identification of the god with the
image is exemplified in the gteat Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I.,
where the king boasts that he set up Anu and Vul in their places, and
where he constantly identifies the images which he carries off from
foreign lands with their gods. In the same spirit Sennacherib in-
quires, through Rabshakeh: " Where are the gods of Hamath and
of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah?'*
The meaning of these interrogatory expressions is that the gods of
those foreign lands had been carried captive to Assyria when their
idols were conveyed there. When Hezekiah, King of Judah, had de-
stroyed all the images throughout his dominions Sennacherib thought
that monarch had deprived his subjects of all divine protection. The
usual Assyrian custom of carrying off the idols of foreign countries
was designed to weaken the enemies of Assyria by depriving them of
their divine protectors. These idols were not removed in an irreverent
or sacrilegious manner, and were deposited in the chief Assyrian tem-
ples, so that these gods would thereafter be among the celestial guard-
ians of the Assyrians.

Assyrian idols were made from stone, baked clay or metal. Some
images of Nebo and of Ishtar have been found among the ruins.
Those of Nebo are standing figures somewhat larger than the human
size. They show the marks of the ravages of time, and, like many
of the winged man-headed lions and bulls, are disfigured by several

Aasyrlan
Idolatry.

Inscrip-
tions of
Tiglath-
PUaserl.
and Sen-
nacherib.

Captnre

Foreign

Idols.

Idols of
Nebo.

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316

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Clay
Idols.

Asfyrian
Sacrifi-
ces.

Bas-relief
Scenes of

Sacrifices.

Lord
Aber-
deen's
Black
Stone
Repre-
senting a
Bull Sac-
rifice.

lines of cuneiform inscriptions, stating the fact that the statues rep-
resent Neboy and relating the circumstances of their dedication.

The few clay idols found are usually of good material and of dif-
ferent sizes, smaller than the full human stature, but are commonly
mere statuettes less than a foot high. These statuettes are believed
to have been mostly intended for private use among the people in gen-
eral, while the stone idols were designed for public worship in the
shrines and temples. Idols in metal have not been found among the
Assyrian remains, but a passage from the Hebrew prophet Nahum
indicates that the Assyrians had images made of that material in their
temples. In alluding to Nineveh, Nahum says : " And the Lord hath
given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be
sown ; out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and
the molten image."

The Assyrian method of worship consisted mainly of sacrifices and
offerings. Tiglath-Pileser I. states in his long Inscription that he
offered sacrifices to Anu and Vul when he had finished repairing their
temple. Asshur-izir-pal states that he sacrificed to the gods after
having embarked on the Mediterranean. Vul-hish III. sacrificed to
Merodach, Nebo and Nergal in theip respective temples at Babylon,
Borsippa and Cutha. Sennacherib offered sacrifices to Hoa on the
seashore after his expedition in the Persian Gulf agadnst Susiana.
Esar-haddon " slew great and costly sacrifices " at Nineveh when he
had finished his great palace in that city. The Assyrian monarchs in
general considered sacrifice a duty, and this was the usual method by
which they propitiated the favor of the national deities.

The bas-reliefs give us scant information concerning the manner
of the Assyrian sacrifices, but they show that the animal specially
sacrificed was the bull. The inscriptions inform us that sheep and
goats were likewise used for sacrifice, and there is a representation of
a ram or wild goat being led to the altar. On Lord Aberdeen's Black
Stone, a monument of Esar-haddon's reign, a bull is represented as
brought up to a temple by the king. On a mutilated obelisk of As-
shur-bani-paPs time, now in the British Museum, the whole sacrificial
scene is presented to our view. The king and six priests, one of whom
carries a cup, while the other five are employed about the sacrificial
animal, advance in procession towards the front of the temple, where
the god with the horned cap on his head occupies a throne, while a
beardless attendant priest is paying adoration to him. ' The king
pours a libation over a large bowl, fixed in a stand, just in front of a
tall fire-altar, from which flames arise. The priest stands close be-
hind with a cup in his hand. The bull's advance is stayed by a
bearded priest just in front of the animal. Two priests walk behind

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Altars.

CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. 317,

the bull and hold him with a rope fastened to one of his front legs
near the hoof. These two priests and two others behind them appear,
from the position of their heads and arms, to be engaged in a solemn
chant. The flame on the altar indicates that the sacrifice is to be
burned upon that altar, which is only large enough to bum a p€urt
of the animal at a time.

Assyrian altars differed in form and size. Some were square and AMyrian
not high, with the top ornamented with gradines, below which the sides
were plain or fluted. Others about the same height were triangular,
with a round top consisting of a plain flat stone, sometimes inscribed
round the edge. An altar of this form was discovered by M. Botta
at Khorsabad. Another of almost the same shape was found by Mr.
Layard at Nimrud, and is now in the British Museum. A third kind
of altar resembled a portable stand, narrow but reaching up to a man's
head. These kinds of altars the Assyrians carried about in their
expeditions, and in the entrenched camps priests are sometimes seen
officiating at them in their sacerdotal costume.

The Assyrian kings deposited in the temples of their gods, as thank- Asayiian
offerings, many precious products from the countries which they in- offerines.
vaded with their armies. Various kinds of stones or marbles, rare
metals and images of foreign deities, are specially named in the Tig^
lath-Pileser Inscription as among such offerings. Silver and gold —
so largely employed in the adornment of temples that they were said
to have been sometimes " as splendid as the sun " — ^were thus dedicated
to the gods.

The sculptures, mostly monuments erected by the kings, represent Scnlih
their own religious performances, but not those of the people. The o^^^^f
^Assyrian kings thus exercised priestly functions, and in the religious the
scenes which illustrate their acts of worship no priest is represented ^IJJSJ"
as intervening between the king and the god, but all priests occupy Wonhip.
a very unimportant position. The king himself stands and worships
near the holy tree, pours out libations with his own hands, and may
himself have slain victims for sacrifice. As the Babylonians and all
other Oriental nations had their priesthoods. It is likewise probable that
the religious affairs of the Assyrian people were conducted under the
auspices of their priests, whom the cylinders represent as introducing
worshipers to the gods, and who are attired in long robes and wearing
mitres upon their heads. The worshiper is usually represented as
carrying an antelope or a young goat, intended to propitiate the deity.
The Assyrian sculptures generally represent the priests without
beards. Assyrian

At the Assyrian festivals great multitudes, particularly of the chief ^••tivals
men, assembled; many sacrifices were offered, and the festivities con- Fasts.

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818

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

A883rruui
Religioas
Senti-
ment.

Assyrian
Religions
Ceremo-
nial.

tinued several days. Many of the worshipers were afforded accom-
modations in the royal palace, to which the temple was commonly only
an addition, and were fed at the monarch's expense and given lodging
in the halls and other apartments. The Assyrian religion also em-
braced fasting, as attested exclusively by the Book of Jonah. When
a fast was proclaimed, the king, the nobles and the people attired
themselves in sackcloth, sprinkled ashes upon their heads, and abstained
from eating and drinking until the fast was ended. The animals
within the walls of the city where the fast was ordered were also robed
in sackcloth, and were likewise denied food and drink. Business was
suspended, and the entire populace united in prayer to Asshur, ^' the
Great Lord," thus imploring his pardon and seeking to propitiate his
favor. These were not simply formal ceremonies. On the occasion
alluded to in the Book of Jonah, the repentance of the Ninevites ap-
pears to have been sincere. Says this authority : ** Grod saw their
works, that they turned from their evil way ; and God repented of the
evil that he said he would do unto them; and he did it not."

Altogether the Assyrians were a strongly-religious people, although
not as intensely so as the Egyptians. Their temples, however, were
subordinated to their palaces, and the most imposing emblems of their
gods, such a,s the winged man-headed bulls and lions, symbolizing
respectively Nin and Nergal, were degraded to mere architectural
ornaments. Their religion was very gross and sensuous in its nature^
and its intensely-materialistic character is attested by the practice
of image-worship. The Assyrians worshiped more by means of sacri-
fices and offerings than by prayer, though in times of distress and
misfortune they could offer prayers of the deepest sincerity, which
goes to prove that they were actuated by honest motives and purposes
concerning their numerous solemn addresses and invocations, as read
in their public and private documents. The devotion of the learned
to religious subjects is shown by the many mythological tablets; and
the piety of the masses is indicated by the general character of their
names, and by the almost universal custom of inscribing sacred figures
and symbols upon their signets.

The sensuous nature of the religion consequently led to an osten-
tatious ceremonial, a taste for pompous processions, and the use of
gorgeous vestments ; the last being very elaborately represented in the
Nimrud sculptures. The costume of the priests was magnificent, their
robes being elegantly embroidered, mostly with religious figures and
emblems, such as the winged circle, the pine-cone, the pomegranate,
the sacred tree, the winged man-headed lion, etc. The officiating
priests wore armlets, bracelets, necklaces and ear-rings; and their
heads were encircled with an elegantly-adorned fillet, or covered with

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CHALDEE-ASSYRQ-BABYLONIAN CX)SMOGONY AND RELIGION. 319

a mitre or a showy cap. In the religious processions the musicians
performed an imposing part.

The later Babylonian religion being almost identical with the old Old
Chaldasan, it will not be necessary to go into detail upon the subject ^^^ Late
in this connection. The early Chaldasans, and their successors in the Baby-
same country, the later Babylonians, worshiped the same gods in the KeUrion
same temples and with the same rites, and had the same cosmogony. Almost
the same religious symbols, and the same priestly costume. If Urukh *°
or Chedorlaomer could have risen from their graves, and again visited
the shrines in which they had offered sacrifices fourteen centuries be-
fore, they would have seen little difference between the ceremonies of
their own times and those of the ages of Nabopolassar and Nebuchad-
nezzar. In the later times the temples and the idols were more mag-
nificent, music was more extensively employed in the ceremonial, and
corruption concerning priestly impostures and popular religious cus*
toms made some advance; but in other respects the religion of Nabo-
nadius and Belshazzar was like that of Urukh and Hgi, the religion of
both periods being the same in the objects and the mode of worship,
in the theological ideas entertained and the ceremonial observances
and practices.

The repair and restoration of the ancient temples by Nebuchad- Nelm-

nezzar, and their rededication to the same deities, attests at once the .^f*"
. . • lar s

identity of the gods and goddesses worshiped, as do likewise the old Worship

appellations of the gods as elements in the names of the later kings jferodach
and nobles. But with all this general uniformity, there was a fluctua- and
tion of rank and place among the gods at various times, and distinct ^^^" .
deities were often confounded with each other. Nebuchadnezzar Favor for
showed special devotion to Merodach, bestowing upon him titles of
honor signifying his supremacy over all the other gods, and identify-
ing him with Bel, the ancient tutelary god of Babylon. Among the
titles which Nebuchadnezzar assigned to Merodach were the following :
" the great lord," " the first-bom of the gods," " the most ancient,"
** the supporter of sovereignty," " the king of the heavens and the
earth." Nabonadius, however, restored Bel to his former place among
the gods, as distinct from and above Merodach, and showed particular
devotion to the former. This is proven by the fact that in his day
the great temple at Babylon was known as the temple of Bel, and by
the aditional circumstance that Nabonadius named his eldest son Bel- . ^JT
shazzar, meaning " Bel protects my son." of ishttf,

In the same way the goddesses Beltis and Ishtar, or Nana, are often otJXmbaj
confounded, though the same was the case in this instance in the old Beltis, or
Chaldaean monarchy. The basis of this confusion of deities was the JJ^S^.
esoteric doctrine known by the priests and taught by them to the kings, Ionia,

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320

CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

Bel,
KefO*
dach, and
Nebothe
Chief
Later
Baby-
lonian
Goda.

Wonhip
of Nergal
in Baby-
lonia.

Local
Worship

of the
Various
Gods in

Baby-

Baby-
lonian
Idolatry.

showing the actual identity of the several gods and goddesses, whom
the more intelligent and better informed may have considered various
phases of the Divine Nature and not as separate and distinct deities.
The ancient polytheisms apparently had this origin among all na-
tions, the various, names and titles of the Supreme Being designating
His different attributes or His different spheres of action gradually
coming to be misapprehended by the ignorant masses, who regarded
this seeming difference as appellations of a number of deities.

Bel, Merodach and Nebo were the deities chiefly worshiped by the
later Babylonians, as attested by the native monuments, and confirmed
by the Jewish writers. Nebo, the special deity of Borsippa, was con-
sidered a kind of powerful patron-saint, under whose protection it was
regarded important to place individuals. Nebo's name is the most
common divine element in the names of the kings and courtiers of the
later Babylonian monarchy. Three of the seven monarchs of the
kingdom had names composed with Nebo's-— Nabopolassar, Nebuchad-
nezzar and Nabonadius. Among courtiers we find such names as
Nebu-zar-adan, Samgar-Nebo and Nebu-shazban. It is also believed
that Nebuchadnezzar's Master of the Eunuchs named one of the young
Jewish princes whom he was educating Abed-Nebo, " the servant of
Nebo" — ^a name which the Jews afterwards corrupted into Abed-
nego.

Nergal was also highly reverenced by the Babylonians. He was
worshiped at Cutha as the tutelary divinity of the city, and was also
greatly esteemed by the nation in general. His name is often found
on cylinder seals; and is sometimes an element in the names of men,
as in " Nergal-shar-ezer, the Rag-Mag," and in Neriglissar, the king.

The Babylonian religion had a strong local character. Bel and
Merodach were the special gods of Babylon ; Nebo of Borsippa ; Ner-
gal of Cutha ; the Moon-god of Ur, or Hur ; Beltis of Niff er ; Hea, or
Hoa, of Hit ; Ana of Erech, or Huruk ; the Sun-god of Sippara, etc.
These deities were particularly honored at their respective places,
though all were recognized in a general way throughout the land.
Each god was specially worshiped in his own city, where was located
his most magnificent shrine. A god was only respected to any account
out of his own city by such as considered him their special personal
protector.

- The Babylonians worshiped their deities directly through their im-
ages, thus giving their religion the same idolatrous character bestowed
upon it by the Assyrians. Each shrine had one idol at least, and this
idol was most impiously reverenced by the ignorant, who identified it
in some way with the god whom it represented. Some of them appear
to have believed that the idol ate and drank the ofi^erings ; while others

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CHALDEE-ASSYRQ-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. ggi

regarded the idol as a mere symbol of the god, who was supposed to
pay an occasional visit to the shrine where he was worshiped. Those
who held the last doctrine nevertheless entertained gross anthropo-
morphic views, as they regarded the god as coming from heaven to
earth to pass the night with the chief priestess in the inner shrine of
the temple of Bel, which was furnished by the priests with a magnifi*
cent couch and a golden table.

Some of the idols were of wood, others of stone, and others again
of metal, either solid or plated. The metals used were gold, silver,
brass or bronze, and iron. Sometimes the metal was laid over a clay
model. In some instances images of one metal were overlaid with
plates of another, as in the case of one of the great images of Bel,
originally of silver, but coated with gold by Nebuchadnezzar.

The Babylonian worship was conducted with great pomp and mag- Baby-
nificence. A body of priests in each temple conducted the ceremonies ^qi^JS,
and held custody of the treasures. The priests were married, and Priest-
lived with their families in the temple itself or in its immediate vicin- g^cSflceB
ity. They were supported by lands belonging to the temple or by the and
offerings of the faithful. These offerings were usually animals, ^'"®"^8*-
mostly oxen and goats, which are sacrificial animals represented on
the cylinders. The priest always intervened between the worshiper
and the deities, introducing him to them and making intercession in
his behalf with upraised hands.

In the temple of Bel at Babylon, and perhaps in most of the tem- Annual
pies throughout Babylonia, a great festival was celebrated once a year. Jj^^^f
Many victims were sacrificed on such occasions, and on the great altar Babylon,
in the precinct of Bel at Babylon it was the custom to bum a thou-
sand talents' weight of frankincense. There were processions accom-
panied by music and dancing. The priests were magnificently cos-
timied. The people were in holiday attire. Banquets were held, and
the city was given up to merry-making. The king entertained his
lords in his palace. There was dancing and revelry in private dwell-
ings. Wine was drunk freely, passion was aroused, and the day often
ended in wild orgies, in which the grossest sensual appetites were al-
lowed free indulgence under the sanction of religion. Acoonnt

In the temples of one deity such excesses occurred daily. Every ^^3^^
Babylonian woman was obliged once in her lifetime to visit a shrine the Re-
of Beltis, and stay there until some stranger cast money into her lap p^^SJ*
and took her along with him. Herodotus witnessed this scene, which tion at
he described as follows: "Many women of the wealthier sort, who g|J^* f
are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the Beltis, or
precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take ^^^^f
their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the holy Babylon*

VOL, 1.— «1

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322 CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, BABYLONIA.

enclosure, with wreaths of string about their heads — ^and here there is
always a great crowd, some coming and others going. Lines of cord
mark out paths in all directions among the women ; and the strangers
pass along them to make their choice. A woman who has once taken
her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws
a silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy
ground. When he throws the coin, he says these words : * The god-
dess Mylitta (Beltis) prosper thee.' The silver coin may be of any
size ; it cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once
thrown it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws
her money, and rejects no one. YiThen she has gone with him, and
so satisfied the goddess, she returns home; and from that time forth
no gift, however great, will prevail with her. Such of the women as
are taU and beautiful are soon released ; but others, who are ugly, have
to stay a long time before they can fulfill the law. Some have even
waited three or four years in the precinct." Thus prostitution was
enjoined as a religious duty, and its demoralizing tendency could not
well be exaggerated. The statement of Herodotus, that " from that
time forth no gift, however great, will prevail with a Babylonian
woman," is not repeated by Strabo, and is bluntly contradicted by
Quintus Curtius.
Baby- The Babylonian religious system had notions concerning legal

Seligioas cleanliness and uncleanliness similar to those prevailing among the
Notions Jews. They believed that both man and woman were made impure
by the consummation of the marriage rite, and also by every subse-

quent act of the same kind. Every vessel touched by either was con-
taminated with this impurity. In order to cleanse themselves of this
impurity, the pair were obliged first to sit down before a censer of
burning incense, and then to wash themselves thoroughly. Only by
these means were they able to again enter a condition of legal cleanli-
ness. A like impurity afi^ectcd such as came into contact with a
human corpse.
Baby- The Babylonian symbolism in religion was quite extensive. First
R^li^^ they assigned to each god a special mystic number, which was used
Symbol- as his emblem and might also stand for his name in an inscription.
**°^- To Anu, Bel, and Hea, or Hoa — the gods of the First Triad — ^were
given respectively the numbers 60, 60 and 40. To the Moon-god,
the Sun-god and the Air-god — ^the gods of the Second Triad — ^were
assigned the numbers SO, 20 and 10. To Beltis was attached the
Various ^^™ber 16, to Nergal 12, to Bar, or Nin, 40, as to Hea, or Hoa, but
Cylinder this last is uncertain. Other numerical emblems remain undiscovered.
J^^Ij^* There were likewise pictorial symbols of the various gods, as repre-
Goda. sented on the cylinders, many of these forms filling every vacant space

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CHALDEE-ASSYRO-BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY AND RELIGION. ggg

where room could be found for them. A certain number may be
given definitely to particular divinities. A circle, either plain or
crossed, symbolized San, or Shamas, the Sun-god ; a six-rayed or eight-
rayed star the Sun-goddess, Gula, or Anunit ; a double or triple thun-
derbolt the Air-god, Vul; a serpent probably Hea, or Hoa; a naked
female form Ishtar, or Nana; a fish Bar, or Nin. There is a multi-
tude of other symbols, whose meaning is obscure; such as a double
cross, a jar or bottle, an altar, a double lozenge, one or more birds, an
animal between a monkey and a jerboa, a dog, a double horn, a sacred
tree, an ox, a bee, a spear-head. The inscribed cylinders inform us
that these emblems do not refer to the god or goddess mentioned in
the inscription upon them. Each seemingly represents a distinct
deity, and their appearance upon a cylinder implies the devotion of
the man whose seal it is to other deities besides those whose particular
servant he regards himself. In some instances one cylinder has eight
or ten such emblems.

The principal Babylonian temples had special sacred names trans- Principal
mitted from the old Chaldaean times, and belonged to the Turanian loniJa
form of speech. The great temple of Bel at Babylon was known as Temples.
Bit-Saggath; that of the same god at Niffer as Kharris-Nipra ; that
of Beltis at Erech (now Warka) as Bit- Ana; that of the Sun-god at
Sippara as Bit-Parra ; that of Anunit at the same place as Bit-Ulmis ;
that of Nebo at Borsippa as Bit-Tsida. These names seldom admit
of explanation.

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CHAPTER III.
PH(ENICIA AND SYRIA.

SECTION L— PH(ENICIA AND ITS PEOPLE.

Ph(enicia was the name anciently applied to a narrow strip of ter- Geog-
ritory bordered on the east by the mountains of Lebanon, and on the '*^ ^'
west by the Mediterranean sea, being only about twenty miles wide
from east to west, and about one hundred and twenty miles long from
north to south. Near Sidon the Lebanon mountains are only two
miles from the sea, and at Tyre the Phoenician plain is only five miles
wide. The entire Phoenician plain was exceedingly fertile, being
abundantly watered. The coast abounded with good harbors, and the
cedars of Lebanon furnished material in great abundance for ship-
building. The most important and renowned cities upon the Phoeni- CitiM.
cian coast were Tyre and Sidon. Tyre — " the daughter of Sidon '' —
was the most southern city, and the only one whose political history
can be traced. Sidon, the most ancient city of Phoenicia, was twenty
miles north of Tyre, and its modem name is Saide. Berytus, now
Beyreut, was sixteen miles north of Sidon, and is now the principal
seaport of Syria. North of Berjrtus was Byblus, the Gebal of the
Bible, inhabited by seamen and caulkers. North of Byblus was Tripo-
lis, now called Tarabulus; and the most northern of all Phoenician
cities was Aradus, the Arvad of Genesis and Ezekiel.

The Phoenicians were a branch of the Semitic race, being therefore Origin
a kindred people with the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Syrians, the As- ^J^,
Syrians and the later Babylonians. They have sometimes, however, cians.
been considered as the Canaanites of the coast and descendants of
Canaan, a son of Ham ; in which case they would belong to the Hamitic
nations, but their Semitic language seems to identify them with the
other nations classed as descended from Shem. The Phoenicians mi-
grated from the plains of Chaldaea soon after the death of Nimrod.
They were never united under one government, being divided into a
number of petty states, or kingdoms, each Phoenician city with its
adjacent territory constituting a small independent state with an

S2&

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826

PHCENICIA AND SYRIA.

PhoBnida
a Prey to
Conquest.

hereditary sovereign at its head, the political power being shared with
the priests and the nobles. In certain emergencies the Phoenician
cities would unite in a confederacy, one of the cities being usually
recognized as the leader of the confederation. This supremacy was
only exercised in war, when a common danger threatened the existence
of the separate cities, or when a common interest demanded unity.
Each city was at all times allowed to manage its domestic affairs in its
own way.

Owing to its geographical situation and its sources of wealth, Pho&-
nicia was a prey to all the great conquerors who made Syria their
battle-ground in ancient times. For these reasons Phoenician inde-
pendence was of short duration, and only in their national infancy
were this renowned commercial people free from the yoke of foreign
masters. At an early period Phoenicia was forced to acknowledge the
supremacy of Egypt, and was successively reduced to subjection un-
der the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medo-Fersians and the Grseco-
Macedonians.

SECTION II.— TYRE AND SIDON.

Origin

of
Tyre.

Its Early
History.

First

King

Hiram.

SiBON — ^whose name Is the same as the oldest son of Canaan, a son
of Ham — ^was the oldest of the Phoenician cities, and the first which
became wealthy and powerful It early engaged in commercial en-
terprises with other nations, by land and sea, and was the first to found
colonies, a system which afterwards became a distinctive feature of
Phoenician policy. Tyre was the first of Sidon's colonies. Sidon
enjoyed the supremacy over the other Phoenician cities until about
B. C. 1050, when the city was taken and destroyed by the Philistines
from the South of Palestine. The inhabitants found refuge in Tyre,
which became the leading city of Phoenicia, and so remained for seven
centuries.

It is not known exactly when Tyre was founded. The city orig-
inally was situated on the mainland, but in after years a new city was
erected on an island about half a mile from the shore. This insular
city soon eclipsed the old Tyre in wealth and splendor, and its name
became a byword for commercial greatness.

In the eleventh century before Christ, Tyre rapidly grew to be the
leading city and kingdom of Phoenicia. Under the government of
its own kings it advanced very fast in commercial wealth and internal
magnificence. The first known King of Tyre was Abibaai., who was
partly contemporary with King David. On his death, about B. C.
10^5, he was succeeded on the Tynan throne by his son Hibam, who
reigned during the remainder of. that century. Hiram was a great

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J'Tftm :»tfrfCgraph, cepyrighi iqoo oy LndcriMfooa cr Lnderwocd

GREAT RESERVOIR, BUILT BY KING HIRAM AT TYRE

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'^'^';|^n'^;v^^^^no

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TYRE AND SIDON.

327

friend of the illustrious Hebrew monarclis, David and Solomon, with
both of whom he entered into commercial alliances. He furnished
Solomon with a great part of the materials used in the construction
of the great Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, and with the workmen by
whom that grand edifice was erected. Hiram's reign of thirty-four
years was a period of wonderful prosperity for the great Phoenician
cities, Tyre's supremacy being acknowledged throughout the whole
of Phoenicia. The other Phoenician kings, profiting by previous ex-
perience, entered into a close confederation and recognized the suzer-
ainty of the King of Tyre, " the true and only monarch of the na-
tion," who, in consequence, was called " King of the Sidonians." This
title was not to be confounded with that of the King of Sidon, who
was the local sovereign of the early Phoenician metropolis. The King
of Tyre regulated the general interests of Phoenicia, its commerce and
its colonies, concluded treaties with other nations, and directed the
fleets and armies of the confederation. H^ waa aided by deputies
from the other Phoenician cities. "" • '

On the death of Hiram, in B. C. 99lVUs'son, Baalbazar, became
King of Tyre. He died after a reign of seven years, and was suc-
ceeded by his son Abdastartus (or Abdastoreth), who, after reigning
nine years, fell a victim to a plot of assassination. A long period of
civil wars then distracted Tyre, in consequehce of the claims of a
number of pretenders who disputed the throne in quick succession.
Order was restored about B. C. 941 when Eth-baai, (or Ithobalus),
the High-Priest of Astarte, slew the last pretender, Phales, and seated
himself on the throne of Tyre as King of the Sidonians. He gave
his daughter Jezebel in marriage to Ahab, King of Israel. By her
force of character, Jezebel controlled her imbecile husband and ren-
dered Phoenician influence predominant in Israel during Ahab's reign.
Eth-baal died about B. C. 909, and was succeeded by his son Badb-
ZOR, who reigned six years, dying in B. C. 90S, when his son, Matgen,
became his successor.

Matgen died in B. C. 871, after a reign of thirty-two years, leav-
ing a son named Pygmalion and a daughter named Elissar, or Elissa,
but better known as Dido; the daughter being then thirteen and the
son eleven years old. Matgen desired that his children should reign
jointly. The people wanting a change in the aristocratic form of
government, revolted and proclaimed Pygmamon king, excluding his
sister, who married Zicharbaal, the Sichseus of Virgil. Zicharbaal
was High-Priest of Melkarth, next in rank to the monarch among
the Phoenicians, and the head of the aristocratic party. Shortly after-
ward he was assassinated by order of Pygmalion, whereupon Elissar
organized a conspiracy of the Phoenician nobles to avenge her hus-

Hlram'8

Suc-
oasson.

Pyg-
malion.

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328

PHOENICIA AND SYRIA.

Fiight

Dido

and
Founding

of
Carthage.

Snb-
Jection

to
Assyria.

Second
King

Assyrian
Yoke.

Unsnc-

cessful

Assyrian

Siege

of
Tyre.

band's death and to dethrone her brother, but she was foUed in her
design by the vigilance of the popular party. Thereupon the con-
spirators, several thousand in number, seized a number of ships in
the harbor of Tyre and sailed away under the leadership of Elissar,
who was thereafter called Dido, " the fugitive." They landed on the
northern coast of Africa and founded Carthage, a city whose great-
ness, glory and prosperity eventuaDy eclipsed that of the mother
country.

In consequence of the migration of the aristocratic party from
Tyre the Tyrian king was thereafter an absolute monarch. During
Pygmalion's reign the Assyrians under Asshur-izir-pal first appeared
on the Mediterranean coast. The Phoenician cities submitted to the
invaders and agreed to pay tribute — a condition of dependence which
lasted almost a century. Pygmalion's reign ended in B. C. 824, but
we have no record of any Phoenician king until the middle of the next
century. The Phoenician cities were governed by native sovereigns
tributary to Assyria, but this vassalage did not apparently retard the
prosperity of Phoenicia, or weaken its maritime power and its commer-
cial glory and greatness.

The Phoenicians quietly bore the yoke of Assyrian supremacy until
the middle of the eighth century before Christ, when they became
restive. About B. C. 743, another Hiram, King of Tyre, headed a
Phoenician revolt against the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pilcser II., but
the Phoenicians were again reduced to submission and tribute when
the Assyrians advanced into Palestine. In B. C. 727, Phoenicia, un-
der the leadership of Elul^eus, revolted against Shalmaneser IV.,
King of Assyria; whereupon the Assyrian monarch led an army into
the country, occupied Old Tyre, on the mainland, which made no oppo-
sition, but the Island Tyre withstood a siege. Shalmaneser was un-
able to assail the insular city from the land without the aid of a fleet,
and was obliged to content himself with a simple blockade of the city,
the most important feature being the cutting ofi^ of the water of the
island city which had been supplied by means of aqueducts from the
mainland. The besieged are said to have drunk rainwater during the
five years that they held out against the besiegers. While the siege
was in progress Shalmaneser IV. was hurled from the Assyrian throne
by the usurper Sargon, who continued the siege. The other Phoe-
nician cities had in the meantime submitted to the Assyrians, and Sar-
gon collected a fleet of sixty ships from these cities and attempted to
attack insular Tyre from the sea, but the Tyrians sallied out with
twelve ships and defeated and destroyed Sargon's fleet. Finally, after
the siege had lasted five years, the Assyrians relinquished it and re-
tired.

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J ?o

> -^
. O

D
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.^S. >^. I -N"A AND 5

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TYRE AND SIDON.

329

Notwithstanding its successful resistance to the Assyrians, Tyre
emerged from the siege greatly exhausted. Its supremacy had been
shaken off by the other Phoenician cities, which had become tributary
to Sargon ; and finally, in B. C. 708, its flourishing colony of Cyprus
submitted to the Assyrians. In B. C. 704, just after Sennacherib
had ascended the Assyrian throne, Elulaeus reestablished Tyre's su-
premacy over Phoenicia and proclaimed the independence of the coun-
try. In B. C. 700 Sennacherib led a large Assyrian army into Phoe-
nicia, whereupon the Phoenician cities forsook Tyre and submitted to
the Assyrian king. Elulaeus retired to the Island of Tyre, relying
upon his usual good fortune, which, however, deserted him on this
occasion. Tyre was taken and Elulaeus was obliged to flee for safety.
Sennacherib spared the city, and made Tubal (or Ethbaal) king, as
his vassal and tributary.

The capture of Tyre by Sennacherib put an end to the supremacy
which that city had for some time exercised so oppressively over the
other Phoenician cities. Tyre had retained most of the profits of
Phoenician commerce for herself, and t"he other cities willingly aided
Sennacherib in reducing her to submission. All the cities of Phoenicia
were now placed on an equality as tributaries of Assyria. Upon the
assassination of Sennacherib, Sidon rebelled against Assyria, and en-
deavored to acquire the supremacy over Phoenicia formerly exercised
by Tyre. The. revolt was mercilessly punished by Esar-haddon, who
destroyed Sidon about B. C. 681 and reduced its inhabitants to slavery.
At Esar-haddon's death the Phoenician cities cast off the Assyrian
yoke, and allied themselves with Egypt, the enemy of Assyria. But
the next Assyrian king, Asshur-bani-pal, after reestablishing the As-
syrian dominion over Egypt, suppressed the Phoenician revolt. About
B. C. 630^ or B. C. 629, Phoenicia fell a prey to the ferocious Scythian
invaders, who devastated the open country, but did not take any of the
fortified cities. The overthrow of the Assyrian Empire in B. C. 625
gave the Phoenicians a temporary relief; but about B. C. 608 they
submitted to the yoke of Neko, King of Egypt. The Egyptian sway
over Phoenicia was ended by the defeat of Neko by Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon at Carchemish in B. C. 605 ; and after a short respite from
foreign domination, the Phoenician cities found a new master in the
Babylonian king. In B. C. 598 Nebuchadnezzar led an army into
Phoenicia, quickly reducing the country, and besieging Tyre, which
resisted him for thirteen years, at the end of which he took the city
and reduced it to a heap of ruins. Most of the inhabitants fled to
their fleet and sailed to Carthage, carrying with them their wealth
and industry, but a miserable remnant of the population remained in
the city under a king named Baal, whom the conquering Babylonian

Assyrian

Yoke
Cast Off.

A8S3rriaii
Capture

of
Tyre.

Phoenicia
Tributary

to
Assyria.

Sidon's
Unsuc-
cessful
Revolt.

ScytUan
Invasion.

Sub-
jection
to

Kgypt

and
Babylon

Baby-
lonian
Siege
and
Capture

of
Tyre.

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330

PHCENICIA AND SYRIA.

ftian

Kgypoj
Defeat.

Sub-
jection

to
Persia.

Alexan-
der's
Siege
and
Capture
of Tyre.

Sub-
jection

Macedon

and

Borne.

monarch had set up as his vassal. Some years afterward Uaphris,
King of Egypt, attempted to wrest Phoenicia from the dominion of
Babylon; but the Phoenicians remained loyal to Nebuchadnezzar, and,
aided by Cyprus, defeated the Egyptian fleet, which was manned by
Greek and Carian mercenaries. Uaphris was checked in his career
by this reverse, and after having taken and sacked Sidon and ravaged
the Phoenician coast, he returned to Egypt with a vast amount of
spoils.

Upon the subversion of the Babylonian Empire, In B. C. 538, Phoe-
nicia passed under the dominion of the Medo-Persian kings. The
greater portion of tKe naval forces in the expedition of Cambyses,
King of Persia, into Egypt consisted mainly of Phoenician ships and
seamen. Phoenicia remained a province of the great Medo-Persian
Empire for two centuries; and in B. C. 332 Tyre was taken after a
vigorous siege and destroyed by Alexander the Great, who thus put an
end to the national existence of Phoenicia, and inflicted the death-blow
upon the Medo-Persian Empire in the memorable battle of Arbela the
following year. Phoenicia then became a part of Alexander's vast
empire and was absorbed in the dominions of his successors, sometimes
falling under the dominion of the Ptolemies of Egypt and sometimes
under the Seleucidae of Syria. In the first century before Christ it
shared the fortunes of Syria in being swallowed up by the overshadow-
ing power of Rome. It has ever since shared the fortunes of Syria
and Palestine, and has been under the Turkish dominion for almost
four centuries.

SECTION in.— PHOENICIAN COMMERCE AND COLONIES.

Hann-
factnres,
Com-
merce,
Coloniza-
tion.

Colonies.

Cyprus.

Largely because of the physical condition of their country and
other circumstances, the Phoenicians devoted their entire attention to
manufactures, commerce and colonization; and at a very early period
they became the greatest manufacturing, commercial, colonizing and
maritime people of antiquity.

The rapid growth of their commerce placed the carrying trade of
antiquity almost exclusively in the hands of the Phoenicians. They
extended their trade by establishing colonies and trading stations in
distant lands, and many of these became important cities in later times.
The location of these colonies indicates to some degree the extent of
Phoenician commerce, and the colonies were centers from which ven-
tures were made into more remote regions. The Phoenician colonies
proceeded from east to west along the Mediterranean coasts, occupy-
ing the chief islands. The island of Cyprus — called Kittim, or Chit-

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PHCENICIAN COMMERCE AND COLONIES.

331

tim, in Scripture — ^was a province, as well as a colony, of the Tynans ;
and vestiges of their establishments on the island may yet be seen.
Their principal settlements on Cyprus were Paphos, Amathus, Tamisus
and Ammochosta. In the island of Rhodes were lalyssus and Cama-
rius. In the iEgean sea the Phoenicians had stations on the islands
of Thera and most of the Cyclades, and also on Thasos. In the
island of Sicily were the flourishing Phoenician colonies of Lilybseum
and Panormus (Mahaneth). Their establishments in Sicily and Sar-
dinia were only naval stations for vessels employed in the trade with
Western Europe, especially with Spain, " the Mexico or Peru of the
ancient world." Spain — called Tarshish in Scripture — was the coun-
try from which the Tyrians had the most lucrative trade ; and in that
country they established on the Mediterranean the colonies of Carteia
and Malaca (now Malaga), and beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now
Straits of Gibraltar) several flourishing colonies, such as Tartessus,
on the Bcetis (now Guadalquivir), and Gades (now Cadiz), on an
island near the Spanish coast; the latter of which is said to be the
oldest town in Europe. These colonies soon became independent
states, Tyre preferring a close alliance with them to retaining a polit-
ical supremacy over them. From Gades and Tartessus voyages were
made to the west coast of Africa for apes, to the mines of Cornwall
in Britain for tin, and to the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic
for amber. The principal Phoenician colonies on the Mediterranean
coast in North Africa, in the modern land of Tunis, were Leptis,
Hadrumetum, Utica and Carthage; which attained a degree of splen-
dor not reached by any other Phoenician cities, and eventually rivaled
Tyre itself in Wealth and magnificence. The Phoenicians formed com-
mercial stations along the coasts of Asia Minor and the shores of the
Euxine, or Black Sea, before the Greeks ; thus establishing intercourse
with Thrace, Colchis and Scythia. In the Persian Gulf the Phoe-
nicians had trading stations on the islands of Tylos and Aradus (per-
haps Bahrein), from which their vessels descended the Persian Gulf
and traded with India and Ceylon, bringing diamonds and pearls from
those Eastern lands. At the head of the Red Sea they had a station
at Elath, or Ezion-geber, which was the starting-point for voyages
to Ophir, a rich country in the distant South or East, believed by
some to have been in the South-west of Arabia, or Arabia Felix (now
Yemen), by others to have been on the Eastern coast of South Africa,
in the modem Sofala, and by others still to have been on the peninsula
of Malacca, in the Southern part of Farther India*. Ophir was famed
for its gold, which the Phoenicians brought from there in large quan-
tities.

Colonies

in
Sidly.

In Spain.

Carteia,

Gadee,

or
Cadiz.

Trade

Cornwall

and

Baltic

Shores.

Commerce

with

the East

and

South.

With

Arabia

Felix

and

Ophir.

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sss

PH(ENICIA AND SYRIA.

Land
Trade
East,
North

and
South.

Commer-
cial
Caravans.

Trade

with
Egypt.

With
Judsea

and
Syria.

Northern
Land
Trade.

The land-trade of the PhcEnicians was divided into three great
branches — the Egjrptian and Arabian ; the Babylonian to Central Asia
and the far East; and the Armenian and Scythian. From Arabia
Felix (Arabia the Happy) — now called Yemen — caravans brought
through the desert such articles as frankincense, myrrh, cassia, gold
and precious stones. Before the Phoenicians had a port on the Red
Sea they brought by way of Arabia the products of Southern India
and Africa, particularly cinnamon, ivory and ebony. The Hebrew
prophet Ezekiel described this trade. The Arabian trade was mainly
carried by caravans. The Northern Arabs, especially the princes of
Kedar and the Midianites, were great traveling merchants; and the
Kingdom of Edom, afterwards Idumaea, ♦ in the North of Arabia,
reached a high degree of commercial prosperity. On the sea-coast
the Edomites were in possession of the ports of Elath and Ezion-geber
(now Akaba), at the head of the Red Sea; in the interior they had
the metropolis of Petra, whose magnificent remains were discovered in
the present century. As is characteristic of the immutable civilization
of Asia, the commercial caravans of antiquity resembled those of the
present day. Merchants traveled in bands organized like an army,
conveying their merchandise on the backs of camels, *' the ships of
the desert.'' They were escorted by armed forces, sometimes fur-
nished from home, but more frequently consisting of some plundering
tribe, hired at a great price, to secure the caravan from the exactions
and attacks of other like marauding tribes. Most of the Phoenician
trade with Egypt was overland, at least so long as Thebes was the
capital and metropolis of Egypt; and when Memphis rose to preemi-
nence an entire quarter of the city was assigned to the Phoenician
merchants, and the trade by sea to the Delta became important and so
remained for centuries.

The first branch of the Phoenician trade in the East was with Judsea
and Syria. The Phoenicians depended on Palestine for their grain,
and this explains the cause of their close alliance and friendship with
the Hebrew nation in the days of David and Solomon. The most
important branch of Eastern trade was through Babylon with Central
Asia. A considerable portion of the route lay through the Syrian
desert ; and, to facilitate the passage of the caravans, two of the most
remarkable cities of antiquity — Baalath (afterwards Baalbec, or
Heliopolis) and Tadmor (afterwards Palmyra) were founded in the
Syrian desert by King Solomon, who desired to procure for his sub-
jects a share in this lucrative traffic.

The Northern land-trade of the Phoenicians is thus described by the
Hebrew prophet Ezekiel : " Javan, Tubal and M^shech, they were
thy merchants; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass

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PHCENICIAN ARTS AND CIVILIZATION.

sss

in thy markets. They of the house of Togarmah, traded in thy fairs
with horses and horsemen and mules."

But the Mediterranean sea was the great commercial highway of the
Phcenicians. Spain was the richest country of the ancient world in
the precious metals. The Phoenician colonies reduced the natives to
slavery, and forced them to work in the mines. Says the prophet
Ezekiel : " Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of
all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded in thy
fairs." From Spain the Phoenicians entered the Atlantic Ocean and
proceeded to the British Isles, where they obtained tin from the mines
of Cornwall; and probably from the coasts of the Baltic they pro-
cured amber, which was considered more precious than gold in ancient
times. From their trading stations on the Red Sea and the Persian
Gulf, the Phoenicians traded with the coasts of India and the island
of Ceylon, and with Africa. During the reign of Neko, King of
Egypt, a Phoenician fleet, in a three years' voyage, discovered the pass-
age around the Cape of Good Hope, returning home by way of the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as we have seen in the history of
Egypt.

Concerning the ancient Phoenicians, a certain writer says : ** Though
their voyages did not equal in daring those of modem times, yet, when
we consider that they were ignorant of the mariner's compass, and of
the art of taking accurate astronomical observations, it is wonderful
to reflect on the commercial enterprise of a people whose ships were to
be seen in the harbors of Britain and Ceylon."

Mediter-
ranean
Trade.

Tarshish.

Atlantic
Trade.

Oriental
Trade.

PhCB-

nician
Enter-
prise.

SECTION IV.— PHOENICIAN ARTS AND CIVILIZATION.

Besides their carrying trade the Phoenicians derived great wealth
from" their manufactures. The textile fabrics of the Sidonians, and
the purple cloths of the Tyrians, were celebrated from the most re-
mote antiquity. The " Tyrian purple," the chief product of the
Phoenicians, was a famous dye, obtained in minute drops from two
shell-fish, the buccinum and the murex. This purple was of a dark
red-violet, of various shades, according to the species of mussel em-
ployed. Cotton, linen and silk fabrics were dyed with this hue, but
the most beautiful effects were obtained from woolen goods. The dye
being very costly, it was used only for stuffs of the best quality. The
manufacture and use of this dye prevailed in all the Phoenician cities.
Homer represents his heroes as clad in Sidonian robes dyed with Tyrian
purple.

Vegetable dyes of exceeding beauty and variety were also in use,
the dyeing being always performed in the raw materials; and the art

Textile
Fabrics.

T3rrian
Purple.

Veg^ble
I^res.

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PHCENICIA AND SYRIA.

Glass
Blowing.

Pottery.

Jewelry.

Ivory
Canrings.

Agricul-
ture.

Wines,

Silk,

Fmits.

Alphabet.

Semitic
Origin.

of producing shot colors by using threads of various tints was only
understood by the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians claimed to be the
inventors of glass-blowing; and, though the Egyptians have as good
a claim to the discovery, the Phoenicians were the first to attain the
highest skill in the art. Sidon and Sarepta were the chief seats of
the glass manufacture. The sand used was procured from the banks
of the little river Belus, near the promontory of Carmel. Numerous
specimens of Phoenician glassware yet remain, and bear witness to
the skillful workmanship of this renowned ancient people. The Phoe-
nicians were likewise skilled in pottery; and the Greeks acquired from
them the art of making painted vases, which they afterwards carried
to remarkable perfection. They largely exported pottery in exchange
for tin in their voyages to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. The Phoe-
nicians likewise achieved great skill in bronze- work and in jewelry.
The specimens of their jewelry found by modern explorers testify to
the wonderful skill and taste exhibited by these ancient people in this
branch of industry. They were also celebrated for their beautiful
carvings in ivory.

The Phoenicians also displayed some skill in agriculture. Excel-
lent wines were produced in the vicinity of Tyre, Berytus and Grebal,
and also in the Lebanon mountain region. Silk, then as at present,
was an important product. The fruits of this region were famed for
their excellence and abundance.

It was once thought that the Phoenicians invented letters, but recent
investigations and discoveries throw considerable doubt upon this claim.
But, while other ancient Oriental nations had ideographic systems of
writing — as, for example, the Egyptians — ^the Phoenicians had an al-
phabet of twenty-two letters apparently selected from the characters
of the Egyptian hieratic writing. Each letter of this alphabet in-
variably represented one articulation, and the Phoenicians seem to have
been the first people to use such a system. It is believed that the
Phoenician alphabet was invented about the time of Avaris, one of the
Shepherd Kings of Egypt, several centuries prior to the exodus of the
Israelites from that country. It is the first real alphabet which has
been thus far discovered; and whether the Phoenicians invented letters
or not, they were the first people to use them in their proper manner,
as a system different from hieroglyphic or ideographic writing. The
Phoenicians established their alphabet wherever they carried their com-
mercial enterprises, and thus they instructed other nations in the use
of letters. As M. Renan asserts, the alphabet was a Phoenician export.

According to the evidence furnished us by the Hebrew Scriptures,
the Phoenicians were descended from Canaan, a son of Ham, thus im-
plying that they were a Hamitic people; but they spoke a purely

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PHOENICIAN ARTS AND CIVILIZATION.

336

Semitic language — ^a language akin to that of the Hebrews, the Syr-
ians, the Assyrians and the Semitic Babylonians. Says a certain
writer : " It is certain that the Phoenician idiom differed but slightly,
and in no important point, from that of the Hebrews. The identity
of grammatical forms and of the vocabulary are so complete between
the Hebrew and the Phoenician that they cannot be considered as two
distinct languages, but merely as two slightly differing dialects of
the same language."

The Phoenicians were a literary people at a very early day. Their
written law embraced the principles of their religion and their social
and political systems. They had books treating on religion, agricul-
ture and the practical arts; and the different Phoenician cities had
regular archives or records in writing, going back to very early times,
and preserved with wonderf ur care. They made remarkable progress
in the sciences. The Sidonian architects were regarded as the best
in Syria. In Phoenicia, particularly in Sidon, did astronomy, arith-
metic, geometry, navigation and philosophy flourish; and the Sido-
nians endeavored to atone for the loss of their political and commercial
supremacy among the Phoenician cities by their intellectual glory.
The eminent characters of ancient Phoenicia were the historian, San-
choniathon, of Tyre, and the philosopher, Moschus, of Sidon; both
of whom are said to have lived in the twelfth century before Christ.

The character of Phoenician architecture is shown by a few remain-
ing buildings. Its prominent characteristic, in the words of M.
Renan, " is its massive and imposing strength — a want, indeed, of
finish in details, but a general effect of power and grandeur. In short
it is a monolithic art.'* The Phoenician buildings were constructed of
enormous stones, similar to those yet to be seen in the lower walls of
the Temple at Jerusalem, which were built by Phoenician architects
and masons, and like those still to be seen in the sea-wall of the ruins
of Tyre. The Phoenician tombs were original in design and grand in
construction. All their edifices seemed intended to last; and so dur-
able have they been that, notwithstanding the hard fate to which they
have been subjected, many monuments of the days of Phoenician glory
remain to give us some light on the antiquities of this famous race of
merchants and colonizers.

Phoenician statuary seems to be a mingling of the styles of Egypt
and Assyria, the general form being Egyptian, while the execution is
Assyrian. There were few large statues, but many small statuettes,
some of which display remarkable artistic skill, and are made of stone,
while others are constructed of baked clay and bronze, exhibiting
neither taste in design nor elegance in execution. Both kinds of
statuettes were designed as idols, of which one or more were in every

Litera-
tim.

Sdeiice.

Sanchon-
iathon.

Moschns.

Architec-
tiin.

Sculp-
ture:

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336

PHCENICIA AND SYRIA.

DnM.

Phoenician dwelling. The first class were those belonging to the
wealthy ; while the rougher and coarser sort belonged to the poor.

The ancient Egyptian paintings represent the Phoenicians as hav-
Painting. ing dark, florid complexions, and well-formed, regular features, ap-
proaching the European cast. They are also represented with blue
eyes and flaxen hair. The hair, when dressed for ornament, was pow-
dered white and covered with a network of blue beads, or a close cap
wound around by a fillet of scarlet leather, with two long ends hang-
ing down behind, in the Egyptian style.

The Phoenician dress was usually a short cloak or cape thrown over
the shoulders and extending to the elbows, and fastened at the waist
by a golden girdle, which, in some cases, encircled the body many
times, and was tied in front with a large bow-knot. The inner gar^
ment was of fine linen, confined to the waist and extending almost
down to the feet. The Phoenicians also wore woolen mantles and
tunics, of fine texture and edged with gold lace.

The Egyptian paintings represent the Sidonians as allies of the
Pharaohs in their wars with the Canaanitcs. The statesmen and mer-
chants are represented as having long hair and beards, and with a
fillet around the head. The soldiers are depicted with short hair and
beard. The arms and accouterments of the Sidonians were very ele-
gant. The helmet was of silver, with a peculiar ornament at the crest,
consisting of a disk and two horns of k heifer, or of a crescent. The
breast-plate was also of silver, quilted upon a white linen garment,
which was laced in front and extended to the armpits, being held by
shoulder-straps. The shield was large and round, and made of iron,
rimmed and studded with gold. The sword was two-edged and made
of bronze. The spear was remarkably long.

It is believed that the Hebrews obtained their ornaments of dress
and their articles of domestic luxury from their Phoenician neighbors.
Says the Jewish prophet Isaiah : " In that day the Lord will take
away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and
their cauls, and their round tires like the moon ; the chains, the brace-
lets, and the mufflers ; the bonrtets, and the ornaments of the legs, and
the head-bands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings ; the rings, and nose-
jewels; the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wim-
ples, and the crisping-pins; the glasses, and the fine linen, and the
hoods, and the veils."

inutary

Dress,

Arms, etc.

Isaiah's
Prophecy.

Poly,
theism.

SECTION v.— PHCENICIAN RELIGION.

The Phoenician religion was a gross polytheism, and is but imper-
fectly understood, as there is no sacred book^ like the Old Testament

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PHCENICIAN RELIGION.

887

of the Hebrews, or like the Zend-Avesta of the Medes and Persians, or
the Vedas of the Sanskritic Hindoos, or the Ritual of the Dead of the
Egyptions, to spread before us a view of the system. Neither is there
any extensive range of sculptures or paintings to give us an idea of
the outward aspect of the worship, as in Egypt, Assyria and Greece.
Neither has any ancient writer given us any account of this religion
excepting Philo Byblius, a Greek writer of the first or second century
after Christ, and who was a native of Byblus. This author is quoted
by Eusebius in his " Evangelical Preparation '' several centuries later.
But the work of Philo Byblius deals exclusively with Phoenician cos-
mogony and mythology, and thus gives us no light upon the real
character of the religion. We are obliged to rely mainly upon the
notices of the Phoenician religion by the writers of portions of the
Old Testament, upon incidental allusions by classical authors, upon
inscriptions, upon tl\e etymology of names, and upon occasional repre-
sentations accompanying inscriptions upon stones or coins. These
are, however, so disconnected and vague as to give us but scanty and
unsatisfactory knowledge of the inner nature of the Phoenician re-
ligious system.

The Phoenician religion evidently was derived from the same source Origin,
from which the religions of Chaldaea and Assyria took their origin. It
was based on the conception of one Supreme and Universal Divine
!Being, ** whose person was hardly to be distinguished from the mate-
rial world, which had emanated from his substance without any distinct
act of creation." The Universal Supreme Being was usually termed
Baal, meaning " the Lord." He represented the sun, which was re-
garded as the great agent of creative power. He was divided into
a number of secondary divinities, named Baalim, who emanated from
his substance and were simply personifications of his various attributes.
" The supreme god, considered as the progenitor of diff^erent beings,
became Baal-Thammuz, called also Adon, * the Lord,' whence the Gre-
cian Adonis. As a preserver, he was Baal-Chon ; as a destroyer, Baal-
Moloch ; as presiding over the decomposition of those destroyed beings
whence new life was again to spring, Baal-Zcbub." Other gods were
El, Elium, Sadyk, Adonis, Malkarth, Dagon, Eshmun, Shamas cuid
Kabiri.

Each divinity had his female principle, or wife. Each secondary
Baal had a corresponding Baalath, representing the same god under
a diff^erent aspect. The female principle of the great god Baal at
Sidon was Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the representative of the moon, there-
fore corresponding to the Grecian goddess Artemis, or Diana. The
planets were worshiped under the generic title of Cabirim, the " power-
ful ones." Fire was likewise reverenced, and the sun and star deities
VOL. 1.-93

Baal.

Other
Gods.

Moloch.

Astarte.

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38g PHCENICIA AND SYRIA.

Fin Gods, were emphatically ** fire gods." Movers describes the Phoenician re-
ligion as ^^ an apotheosis of the forces and laws of nature ; an adora-
tion of the objects in which these forces were seen, and where they
appeared most active.'*
Cruel The most cruel and licentious ceremonies accompanied the worship

of the Phoenician deities. Children were burnt alive to appease the
wrath of Baal-Moloch ; a custom carried to great excess in Carthage.
There was a systematic offering of human victims as expiatory sacri-
fices to El and other gods. The reason for this shocking superstitious
custom is to be found in the words addressed by Balak to Balaam, as
follows: "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself
before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands
of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-
bom for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul ? " Philo Byblius says : " It w^as customary among the ancients,
in times of great calamity and danger, that the rulers of the city or
nation should offer up the best beloved of their children, as an ex-
piatory sacrifice to the avenging deities ; and these victims were slaugh-
tered mystically.*' The Phoenicians were instructed that at one time
the god El himself, under the pressure of extreme peril, had taken his
only son, clad him in kingly attire, set him as a victim upon an altar,
and killed him with his own hand. Thereafter it was the duty of
rulers to follow this divine example, and private persons, when sur-
rounded by difficulties, might offer up their children to appease the
divine anger. Porphyry says that ** the Phoenician history was full
of instances in which that people, when suffering under great calamity
from war, or pestilence, or drought, chose by public vote one of those
most dear to them, and sacrificed him to Saturn."

LicMitioiis The worship of Ashtoreth in Phoenicia and Syria was accompanied
with licentious rites. The worship of the great Nature-go3dess
^^ tended to encourage dissoluteness in the relations between the sexes,
and even to sanctify impurities of the most abominable description,"
" This religion silenced all the best feelings of human nature, de-
graded men's minds by a superstition alternately cruel and profligate,
and we may seek in vain for any influence for good it could have
exercised on the nation." The religion well illustrated the moral
character of the Phoenicians, who were generally insubordinate, but
also servile, gloomy and cruel, corrupt and fierce, covetous and selfish,
vindictive and treacherous. Being traders in everything they were
devoid of every kindly feeling and lofty impulse.
Jlf» The Phoenicians did not worship images of their deities, and were
therefore not idolaters, in the usual acceptation of the term. In the

Rites.

Idolatry.

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ANCIENT SYRIA-DAMASCUS. 339

temple of Melkarth at Gades there was no material emblem of the god
whatever, excepting a constantly-burning fire. In other places con-
ical stones, called bcetylij were dedicated to the different deities, and
were honored with a limited adoration, being considered as possessing
a certain mystic virtue. These stones were sometimes replaced by
pillars, which were erected in front of the temples and had sacrifices
off^ered to them. The pillars were mostly of wood, though sometimes
of stone or metal, and were called asherahs^ " uprights," by the Jews.
On festive occasions they were adorned with boughs of trees, flowers
and ribbons, and constituted the chief object of a worship of a sensual
and debasing nature. An emblem in the Assyrian sculptures is re-
garded as conveying a correct idea of the usual appearance of these
asherahs at such times.

Phoenician worship was conducted publicly, and included praise. Worship,
prayer and sacrifice. Animals were generally sacrificed, though, as Sacrifices,
we have observed, there were frequently human sacrifices. The vic-
tims were usually consumed entirely upon the altars. Libations of Libations,
wine were lavishly poured out in honor of the principal deities, and
incense was burnt in extravagant profusion. Sometimes an endeavor
was made to influence the deity by vociferous and prolonged cries, and
even by self-inflicted wounds and mutilation. Festivals were fre-
quently held, particularly one at the vernal equinox, on which occa-
sion sacrifices on a large scale were made, and vast multitudes of people
assembled at the leading temples.

Says Rawlinson : " Altogether the religion of the Phoenicians, while Rawlin-
posscssing some redeeming points, as the absence of images and deep vi^.
sense of sin which led them to sacrifice what was nearest and dearest
to them to appease the divine anger, must be regarded as one of the
lowest and most debasing of the forms of belief and worship prevalent
in the ancient world, combining as it did impurity with cruelty, the
sanction of licentiousness with the requirement of bloody rites, revolt-
ing to the conscience, and destructive of any right apprehension of
the true idea of Grod.'*

SECTION VI.— ANCIENT SYRIA— DAMASCUS.

Syria — at present a province of the Turkish Empire — ^now em- Ancient
braces ancient Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia ; thus having an area of ,-??^
about seventy thousand square miles and a population of two millions. SyrU.
It is located between the Arabian desert on the east and the Mediter-
ranean sea on the west. The Greeks regarded Syria as including
Palestine and Phoenicia, but the Jews always considered these three
countries as distinct from each other. Aram was the Jewish name

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PHCENICIA AND SYRIA.

Momi-
tainsand
Rivers.

Products

and
Animals.

Syrian
Cities.

Ara-

Petty
Kings.

for Syria. Ancient Syria proper was bounded on the west by the
Mediterranean, on the north by Mount Amanus, on the east by the
Euphrates and Arabia, and on the south by Arabia. Its principal
geographical divisions in the time of the Romans were Syria proper;
Coele-Syria, or Hollow-Syria; and Commagcn^, in the North.

The chief mountains of Syria were Amanus, now 'Al Lucan ; Casius,
now Cas ; Libanus and Anti-Libanus, the Mount Lebanon of Scripture,
whose summit is said to be perpetually capped with snow. The prin-
cipal rivers of Syria are the Euphrates, the Orontes and the Leontes.
The small river called Eleutherus was anciently said to be haunted by
a dragon, whose immense jaws could receive a mounted horseman.
The Sabbatum was represented as ceasing to flow on the Sabbath.
The Adonis, tinged with reddish sand in the rainy season, was believed
to flow with blood on the anniversary of the death of Adonis, who was
said to have been killed on its banks by a wild boar. The palm, the
plane-tree and the cypress are among the forest trees of Syria.
Grapes are produced in abundance, as are also the difi^erent kinds of
grain, and millet. The climate is delightful. The animals of Syria
are those usually found in South-western Asia. The Syrian goat is
remarkable for its long hair dnd its pendulous ears, the hair having
been a valued article of commerce for many centuries. The wolf, the
jackal and the fox are seen in the mountains.

Damascus — the chief city of ancient, as of modem, Syria — ^is be-
lieved by its people to be the original seat of paradise. Antioch, the
Greek capital of Syria, was celebrated for its beauty and magnificence.
In the famous grove of Daphne, near Antioch, Venus was worshiped
with licentious ceremonies. Hieropolis was renowned for its temple
of Venus, which was so rich that the Roman general Crassus was en-
gaged for several days in weighing the spoils when he captured the
city. Emessa had a temple to the sun. Other famous cities of ancient
Syria were Tadmor, in the desert, later known as Palmyra, and Baal-
bec, the Greek Heliopolis, or City of the Sun.

The earliest inhabitants are believed to have been the Aramites, or
Aramaeans, the descendants of Aram, Shem's youngest son. Some o^
the posterity of Hamath, a son of Canaan, is also said to have dwelt
there in primitive times. The Hebrew Scriptures represent primeval
Syria as divided into a number of small kingdoms, among which were
Damascus, Hamath, Zobah and Geshur. Syria is believed to be one
of the earliest inhabited regions of the globe, and the modem Syrians
have traditions representing their country as the oldest in the world.

The Syrians were at first governed by numerous petty chiefs, called
kings, a title which the ancient writers applied to every ruler or leader,
or chief, of a community.

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ANCIENT SYRIA-DAMASCUS. .

341

Previous to its organization into a satrapy of the Medo-Persian Em-
pire, Syria had never been united under one government. During the
period of Assyrian supremacy the country was divided into no less
than five leading states, some of which were mere loose confederacies.
The five states were the Northern Hittites, whose capital was Car-
chcmisli, on the Euphrates; the Patena, on the Lower Orontes, whose
capital was Kinalua; the Hamathites, on the Upper Orontes, whose
capital was Hamath (now Hamah); the Southern Hittites, in the
region south of Hamath; and the Syrians of Damascus, whose capital
was Damascus.

The history of Syria, like that of Asia Minor, has little political
unity. Since its petty ancient states have lost their independence the
country has been under the successive sway of the Assyrians, the
Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Graeco-Macedonians, the Romans,
the Saracens, the Scljuk Turks, the Mongol Tartars, and for the last
four centuries under the Ottoman Turks. Under its present masters
the country has everywhere fallen into decay, and can scarcely be
said to have any history; though in ancient and mediaeval times it
was the theater of many important events, having witnessed the prow-
ess and martial deeds of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Pompey, Abu-
bekir and Omar, Godfrey of Bouillon, Saladin and Richard the Lion-
hearted, Zingis-Khan and Tamerlane.

Of all the petty states of ancient Syria just mentioned, the most
powerful and the best-known was Syria of Damascus. The city of
Damascus is the oldest known city of the world, its existence dating
far back before the time of Abraham, over four thousand years ago.
The kingdom of Damascus arose in the twelfth century before Christ,
after the Hebrew king Saul had vanquished the King of Zobah, one
of the most ancient Syrian kingdoms. Hadad, King of Damascus,
assisted Hadadczar, King of Zobah, against the great Hebrew king
David, but was defeated in a great battle by David, who captured
Damascus, Belah and Berothai; and Hadad submitted to the suprem-
acy of his Hebrew conqueror. Near the close of the reign of Solo-
mon, David's illustrious successor, Rezon, King of Damascus, who
had originally been a slave, revolted against the Hebrew rule and
reestablished the independence of the kingdom of Damascus. Tab-
EiMMON, King of Damascus, was contemporary with Abijah, King of
Judah, from about B. C. 960 to B. C. 950. Ben-hadad L, his son
and successor, was contemporary with Baasha in Israel and Asa in
Judah, about from B. C. 950 to B. C. 920, and warred with Baasha
and his successor, Omri. Ben-hadad II., son and successor of Ben-
hadad I., was contemporary with Ahab, King of Israel, about B. C.
900, and warred with that monarch. He was a powerful monarch,

Five
Syrian
States.

Danus-

CI18.

Its Kings.
Hadad.

Rezon.

Tab-rim-
mon.

Ben-
hadad I.

Ben-
hadad II.

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342

PIKKNICIA AND SYRIA.

V J.-

gf«fl

Ben-
hAdadm.

Reiin.

Fall of

Damas-

cns.

and had thirty-two vassal kings In his army. He adorned Damascus
with splendid edifices^ and did much to advance the glory of bis king-
dom. He was finally murdered treacherously by his servant Hazajsl,
who then usurped the throne of Damascus. Hazael was a great war-
rior and an able monarch, and reigned contemporaneously witli Jehu,
King of Israel, and Shalmancser II., the Black Obelisk King of As-
syria, about B. C. 850. He won several great victories over the armies
of Israel and Judah, wresting important territories from the kings of
both of those nations, and forcing them to pay him tribute. He also
seized Elath, on the Red Sea, and largely advanced the commercial
prosperity of his dominions. After his death the Syrians deified him,
and thus rendered him an object pf worship. Hazael's son and suc-
cessor, Ben-hadad III., contemporary with Jehoahaz and Joash of
Israel, about ^B. C. 840, oppressed the Israelites, but was three times
defeated by Joash, and lost the provinces which his father had wrested
from the Israelites. The Syrians of Damascus were now for some
time tributary to Jeroboam II., King of Israel. They, however, re-
covered their independence amid the dissensions which prevailed in
Israel upon Jeroboam's dt^ath. Rrzin, the last King of Damascus,
became the ally of Pekah, King of Israel, against Ahaz, King of
Judah, for the purpose of dethroning the latter, and putting a stran-
ger named Tabael on the throne of David. The allied kings besieged
Jerusalem, but without success. They, however, carried on a preda-
tory war during the following year, and the Syrians returned to Da-
mascus with much valuable booty and many captives. Ahaz, in re-
venge, sent valuable presents to Tiglath-Pileser II., King of Assyria,
for the purpose of securing his aid against Damascus. The Assyrian
king at once led an army into Syria, took Damascus and put Rezin to
death. Most of the Damascenes were carried captive to Kir, in Media,
and the ancient kingdom of Damascus came to an inglorious end,
about B. C. 782.

KINGS OF DAMASCUS.

Known Kings.

Time of Reion.

CONTEMPORABY K1NG8.

Hadad

About B. C. 1040 . . .
" 1000 ...
" « 960^950.
" 950-920.
" 900 ....
" 850 ....

" 840 ....

" « 745-732.

David in Israel.

Solomon in Israel.

Abijah in Judah. |

Baasha in Israel and Asa in Judah.,

Ahab in Israel.

Jehu in Israel and Shalmaneser IIJ

Reson

Tab-rimmon

Ben-hadad I

Ben-hadad II

Hazael

Bcn-hadad III

» ♦ »

Rezin

in Assyria.
Jehoahaz' in Israel.

AhftK in JndAh and Pf^WAh in IsriK^I.

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MAY 2 195J

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