^ THE \ J LisRARiES r; ^ ^ ^'^K OF ^^^"^ ^ GENERAL LIBRARY ANCIENT iHrsaPOBY-: \ THE HI j^a^H OF THK EGYPTIANS, ASSYRIANS, CHALDEANS, MEDES, LYDIANS, CARTHAGINIANS, PERSIANS, MACEDONIANS, THE SELEUCIDiE IN SYRIA, AND PARTHIANS. FROM ROLLIN, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC SOURCES, BOTH ANCIENT AND MODERN. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. II. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS, CHALDEANS, MEDES, LYDIANS, AND CARTHAGINIANS. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET. PITTSBURG :— THOMAS CARTER. 1844. STBBBOTYPED BY T. B. SMIT] 216 WILLIAM-STREET, NEW YORK. HENRY LUDWIG, PRINTER. CONTENTS. VOL. II. THE HISTOEY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF ASSYRIA. PAGE. Mountains 8 Plains 11 Vegetation 11 Climate 14 ASSYRIA PROPER. Rivers 16 BABYLONIA, OR CHALDEA. Ancient Canals 24 Modern Canals 27 The Euphrates 28 The Productions of Babylonia 30 Climate 33 CHAPTER II. TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ASSYRIA. Tower of Babel 35 Tower of Belus ^ 37 The Mujelibe .T. 39 Birs Nemroud 40 Nimrod's Tower 43 City of Babylon 43 Nineveh 65 20308 IV CONTENTS. PAGE Resen 72 Calah 72 Rehoboth 73 Erech 73 Accad 73 Calneh 74 Sittace 74 Apollonia 75 Artemia 75 Arbela 75 CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE POLITY OF THE ASSYRIANS. The Government 77 Laws , 84 Punitive Laws 86 Military Power 86 Commerce 87 The Priestly Power 88 Caste 95 CHAPTER IV. THE KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA PART I. ASSYRIAN ADMINISTRATION. Pul 100 Tiglath-Pileser *.. 101 Shalmaneser, or, Shalman 103 Sennacherib 104 Esarhaddon 107 Ninus 110 Nabuchodonosor ^ 110 Sarac, or Sardanapalus Ill CHAPTER V. THE KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA. PJP,T II. BABYLONIAN ADMINISTRATION. Nabopolassar » 113 Nebuchadnezzar 114 Evil Merodach 123 Belshazzar 124 CONTENTS. V PAGB Laborosoarchad J26 Nabonadius J^^ Dynasties of Assyria l-^o THE HISTORY OF THE MEDES. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MEDIA. Mountains ^30 Rivers 131 Climate, Productions, etc 131 CHAPTER n. TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF MEDIA. Halah, Habor, and Hara 134 Ecbatana 138 Rages, or Rey 142 CHAPTER IIL HISTORY OF THE POLITY OF THE MEDES. The Government, Laws, etc 144 War, Arts, etc 145 CHAPTER IV. THE KINGDOM OF MEDIA Dejoces 150 Pliraortes 151 Cyaxares i., or Kai Kobad 152 Astyages, or Kai Kaus 154 Cyaxares ii., Fraiborz, or Darius the Mede 155 1* CONTENTS. THE HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF LYDIA. PAGE Mountains 159 Rivers 160 Fertility, etc 163 CHAPTER n. TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF LYDIA. Sardis 164 Philadelphia 167 Thyatira 168 Magnesia 170 CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE POLITY OF LYDIA. The Government, etc 172 Commeio© 176 CHAPTER IV. HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF LYDIA. Gyges • 177 Ardyes 178 Sadyattes 178 Alyattes 178 Croesus , 180 '^ UIIRAEY. THE HISTOJ^-^'OlilC OF THE ASSYRIANS, CHALDEANS, ETC. THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF ASSYRIA. The country of Assyria derived its name from Asshur, the son of Shem, by whom it was first peopled, Gen. x. 11. Its boundaries varied with the limits of the empire, but the geo- graphical limits of Assyria Proper, which formed the nucleus of that empire, nearly corresponded with those of the present Koordistan, being bounded by Armenia on the north. Baby- lonia and Lusiana on the south, part of Media and the moun- tains called Zagros on the east, and the Tigris on the west. In its most extensive signification, both in sacred and profane history, it comprehended not only this tract of country, but Aram, or Syria, eastward and westward of the Euphrates. In Scripture, Assyria Proper was called Kir, 2 Kings xvi. 9 ; Amos i. 5 ; ix. 7 ; which name may be still traced in that country. Thus the Karduchian or Koordistan mountains, Kiare, the name of the loftiest ridge ; and the large town of Kerhook, evidently retain the original word Kir, with some slight variation. This was a rich and fertile, though moun- tainous region, whence it was called by the Greeks Adiabene, "impassable," finely watered by the springs of the Tigris, the greater and lesser Zab, the Diala, and the Mendeli. Aram, or Syria, eastward of the Euphrates, was divided into two districts, the northern and the southern. The north- ern district is denominated in the sacred writings, Aram Naharaim, " Aram between the two rivers j" and by the 8 HISTORY OP THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. Greeks, Mesopotamia, a term bearing the same signification, Gen. xxiv. 10 ; xxxi. 20 ; Numb, xxiii. 7 ; Deut. xxiii. 4. This district extended from Mount Masius to the wall of Media southwards, including all the fertile tract between the two rivers. The lower part of this division was called Padan-aram, or " the champaign Aram," Gen. xxv. 20. The southern district, called " the land of Shinar," or Baby- lon, Gen. X. 10; xi. 2; "the land of Nimrod," Mic. v. 6; and Babylonia, by the Greek and Latin writers, — reached from the wall of Media, or contracted the space between the two rivers, about 300 miles down to the Persian Gulf, never exceeding four-score miles in breadth. Aram, or Syria, westward of the Euphrates, is divided in Scripture into Aram Zobah, which reached from the Euphra- tes to the north and east of Damascus, 1 Sam. xiv. 47 ; 2 Sam. viii. 3 ; and Aram of Damascus, which lay to the south and west of the former, 2 Sam. viii. 5. These corresponded to the Upper Syria, north of Mount Libanus, including Coelo-Syria, or Hollow Syria, so called from its situation between the two great ridges of Libanus and Anai-Libanus, and Syria Pales- tina, which included the Holy Land, and that maritime border on its north-western side, which the Greeks called Phenicia. A late writer on the physical features of Assyria says, that the country, including Taurus, is distinguished by its moun- tains^ plains, and vegetation. MOUi^TAINS. This feature of Assyria comprises the country of mountains and hills called Taurus, and w^hich is composed of many dif- ferent chains. The Taurian range encircles the whole of the interior ; presenting a bold precipitous front round the whole coast of this peninsula, and so lofty as to be visible at one-third of the whole breadth of the Mediterranean, or upwards of 130 miles. Strabo described Taurus as beginning to rise from Pamphylia, and, in advancing to the east, to send off two branches ; on one side Amanus, and on the other Anti-Taurus ; but he says that its elevation is not great till it reaches Lycia. The chieif summits mentioned by him are, Mount Docdala, on the western extremity ; Anti-Cragus and Cragus, which lat- ter is a steep range fronting the sea, having eight promonto- ries or lofty capes ; Olympas ; the mountain and valley of HISTORY or THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 9 Chimasra; Solyma ; and, finally, Climax, between which mountain and the shore Alexander marched with his army. Concerning the mountain Chimoera, which is celebrated in poetic mythology, its existence till lately was doubted ; but this doubt arose solely from our ignorance of the coast. It is now called Taktalu, and is in the vicinity of Deliktash, about five miles from the shore. A recent traveller examined the whole of this coast, and ascended its summit, which he states to be elevated 7,800 feet above the sea. The mountain emits a con- stant and brilliant flame during the night, which consists of ignited hydrogen gas. The flame is most brilliant during the time of heavy rains, or previous to their approach ; a phe- nomenon resembling the Pictra Mala of the Apennines. This flaming mountain (as physical phenomena were ge- nerally in former times ascribed to preternatural causes) has been converted by the ancient poets, Homer, Hesiod, Lucre- tius, and Virgil, into a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent, which was van- quished by the famous Bellerophon and his steed Pegasus. Thus Homer, describing the more than mortal feats required to be performed by him, by his host the king of Lycia, says : " First, dire Chimaera's conquest was enjoin'd, A mingled monster of no mortal kind; Behind a draojon's fiery tail was spread ; A goat's rough body bore a lion's head ; Her pitchy nostrils flaky flames expire ; Her gaping throat emits infernal fire." Bochart imagines this triple monster to represent the three deities worshipped by the Solymi, the ancient inhabitants of Lycia. Others say, that it signified the kind of enemies with whom Bellerophon had to contend: the Solymi, Amazons, and the Lycians, adumbrated by the lion, the goat, and the ser- pent. But this is contradicted by the poet in the lines im- mediately following the description. They read thus : " This pest he slaughter'd (for he read the skies, And trusted heaven's informing prodigies,) Then met in arms the Solymaean crew, (Fiercest of men,) and those the warrior slew. Next the bold Amazons' whole force he tried, And conquer'd still ; for heaven was on his side. Nor ended here his toils ; his Lycian foes At his return a treach'rous ambush rose, With levell'd spears, along the winding shore ; There fell they breathless, and return'd no more." 10 mSTORY or THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. This indicates that the conquest of these nations succeeded that of the triple-formed monster, Chimcera. There are others, finally, who conceive that the poetical picture repre- sents the state of the mountain when Bellerophon visited Ly- cia : namely, that its base was infested with serpents ; its mid- dle afforded pasture for goats ; and that its summit was inha- bited by lions. These they imagine Bellerophon slew, ren- dering the mountain habitable ; whence he was said to destroy the triple monster. That part of Taurus which is above the plain of Tarsus and Adanah, commonly known as the Ramadan Oghlu moun- tains, is continued by the Dardun Dagh to the Amanus ; but the direction of the two chains is different, as is also their structure and geognostic relations. The southern prolonga- tion of Amanus is Rhossus, which terminates in the Jebel Kasserikj above Rhas Khanzir ; and Jebel Musah, above Seleucia. The mountain of Taurus, stretching east on Commagena, separates Sophena from Osroene, and then divides itself into three portions. The most northerly and highest are the Ni- phates, in Acilicene. The central chain comprises the Aza- rah Dagh, and mountain country round the mines, called Maden Gomush, or Kapan, and Maden Kapur. The most southerly is the antique Masius, and includes the Karadjia Daghli, the Jebel Tur, and Baarem hills, extending to the Je- zirah. To the south of these are the Babel and Sinjar ranges of hills, united by the isolated hill of Kuka to the hills of Ab- del Hassiz. These various hills are composed of granite, gneiss, mica shist, limestones, diorites, diallage rocks, serpentines, actyno- lite rock, stea shists, sandstones, feldspatho-pyroxenic rocks, limestones with nummulites, limestones with pectin ides and ostracea, fossils, indurated chalk, quartz shist, granular chalk, clay-slate, chlorite-slate, hornblende rock, hornblende shist, gypsum, siliceous limestones, conide limestones, etc. • The elevation of the crest of Taurus, viewed as the mean between the height of the culminating points and that of the passes, is, at Maden Gomush, 5,053 feet ; at Dawa Boini, 4,453 feet ; at Kuhtel, 3,379 feet : at the Gul Dagh, 4,808 feet ; Ayeli mountain, 5,650 feet ; Seliski, 4,250 feet ; the crest of the Kara Bel, 5,790 feet ; that of the Chamlu Bel, 5,260 feet ; and the Aklo Dagh, 2,900 feet. At the foot of these mountains are valleys or plains various- ly characterized. Some are composed of the feldspatho-pyro- mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 11 xenic rocks, some of chalk, some of limestone, sandstone marls mica shist, and gypsum, and some are very fertile. PLAINS. The second district includes all the territory which extends from 37*^ north lat. to 34°, and comprises the plains of Syria, Mesopotamia, and the country east of the Tigris to the Kur- dish mountains. The whole of this country consists of creta- ceous and super-cretaceous deposits, occasionally interrupted by plutonic rocks of the feldspatho-pyroxenic family. The character of these plains varies with the altitude and latitude, as well as with the quality of the soil, and the presence or ab- sence of dewy moisture. The structure of the plains consists of indurated, compact, granular chalks, flints, sihceous sandstone, limestones, gyp- sum, calcareous gypsum, sands, and sandstones, bitumen, naphtha, sulphur, limestone breccia, red saliferous and gyp- siferous sands, cerithia, fresh-water limestones, marls, fossili- ferous marls, clays, pebbles, ironstones, soil, etc. The upland of feldspatho-pyroxenic rocks, extending from Jezirah to Tel Sakhan, near Nisibin, is a stony wilderness, amidst which there is very little cultivation. Numerous flocks of sheep and cattle, however, obtain a scanty support here during a large portion of the year, and wolves are very numerous. This plain has a mean elevation of 1,550 feet. The plains of northern Syria, the plains of northern Meso- potamia, from Urfah to Kakkah, and from Nisibin to El Hathr, and the Chaldean plain east of Nineveh, that of Erbil and of Akun Kupri, possess a soil with good agricultural qualities, but barren from want of irrigation. The elevation, of these plains averages 1,300 feet. The remaining differences are the comparative fertility of some places, which are exposed to temporary inundations at the heads of rivers or rivulets. These become the permanent abode of agricultural tribes, the seat of cukivation and pros- perity, and the resort of the Nomadic Arab and Turkoman, where at certain seasons they lead their flocks. Thus the Shamar Arab tribes frequently pitch their tents, in winter, in the plains of Seleucia, and in the summer overrun the fertile district of El Hathr. VEGETATION. Concerning the natural productions of ancient Assyria very little is known ; but as it lay between_33° and 39° N. lat., it 13 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. must in its happy times have been a land of plenty. We learn this, indeed^ from the vaunting- speech of Rabshakeh to the Hebrews, when he besieged Jerusalem. " Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me : and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the waters of his own cistern ; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards," Isa. xxxvi. 16, 17. See also 2 Kings xviii. 31, 32. In his narrative of the expedition of Julian to Ctesiphon, Gibbon says, that nature had denied to Assyria, the vine, the olive, and the fig tree, the choicest of her gifts. This is not correct ; these choicest gifts of nature's bounty are at the present time to be found, both in Assyria and Babylonia, fallen as these countries now are from their pristine glory. Kinnier says, they may be seen almost in every garden. That the Assyrians possessed luxuries in ancient times, may be gathered from the statements of Xenophon. Speak- ing of the provision villages, he says, " Here we found wine made of the fruit of the palm tree, and also vinegar drawn by boihng from the same fruit. Some of these they dried for sweetmeats. The wine that was made of this fruit was sweet to the taste, but apt to give the headache ; here also the soldiers eat for the first time the fith of the palm tree, and many admired both the figure and peculiar sweetness of it. This also occasioned violent headaches." Ammianus and Herodotus bear the same testimony ; and that palm wine was very abundant, we may conclude, from the fact that the boats which descended the Tigris from Armenia, some of which were large, had, in the latter historian's days, palm wine for their chief article of commerce. Palm wine is now no longer made in that country, as when the date trees abounded: but Burckhardt, in his travels in Nubia, describes it as made in that country, which may give the reader an idea of what it was, as made in Assyria and Babylonia. He says : " In all the larger villages of Nubia, the use of palm wine is very common, and at Derr a vast deal of spirits is consumed. The wine does not taste amiss ; but it is too rich and too thick to be drank with pleasure. When the date fruit has arrived at its full maturity, it is thrown info large earthen boilers, and left to boil without interruption for three or four days. It is then strained, and the clear juice put into earthen jars, which are well shut up, and then buried in the ground, where it ferments. It is left for ten or twelve HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 13 days under ground ; at the expiration of which time it is fit to drink. It keeps a twelvemonth, and then turns sour. The acguavitoB, made from dates, is of very good quality, and keeps for years. The upper classes of people at Derr are every evening intoxicated, either with date wine or spirits, of which large quantities are consumed. They are sold openly. From Siout southward, all through Upper Egypt, date spirits are made, and probably sold ; the Pasha receiving a tax on it from the innkeepers. There is also made from the dates a kind of jelly or honey, which serves the rich people for a sweetmeat. The features of the vegetation of Assyria may be divided into two sections: — 1. That of the mountains; and, 2. That of the plains. The most remarkable feature in the vegetation of Taurus is the abundance of trees, shrubs, and plants in the northern, and their comparative fewness in the southern districts. The Masius is woody in parts ; such, for instance, are a few dis- tricts in the Baarem, and the Jebel Tur, near Nisibin, from whence some have supposed Trajan collected the wood for the construction of his fleet. From the summit of Ayeli, pine and fir forests are first visible in the distance, and they ulti- mately cover the Kara Bel and the Chamlu Bel, as the latter name indicates. On the contrary, around the Arganah, Ma- den, Kirtchu, and Gul Dagh hills, no trees are to be seen. The forest trees consist of several variations of the oak ; of pine, chesnut, ash, alder tree, hazel, maple trees, etc. Among the useful and cukivated plants of Taurus, are the vine, fig, almond, and olive trees ; pears, apples, and apricots also are abundant; and several kinds of wheat are cultivated there. On the flanks of forests, or isolated, are found the carob, medlar, and plum trees ; by the banks of streams, the tama- risk, etc. ; and in shubberies and low woodlands, the box, juniper, myrtle, scarlet oak, buckthorn, cypress trees, etc. Heaths are rarely met with ; the Erica arborea, however, flourishes near Sis, and the Erica scoparia, in the valley of Antioch. Among the plants which distinguish the plains are the fol- lowing: wheat, barley, vetches of different kinds, spurge, cucumbers of various kinds, banewort, marsh mallow, ect. The plains also produce trees of various kinds : among which may be mentioned the plane tree, which grows near springs and tombs, and attains an enormous size. One at Bir, says Ainsworth, measured thirty-six feet in circumference; and VOL. 11. 2 14 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. one at Daphnse, near Antioch, forty-two feet in girth, and is supposed to have existed upwards of a thousand years. Among the fruits of the plains are the fig, mulberry, nut, pomegranate, pine, plum, vine, pear trees, etc. Among cul- tivated plants, Sesanum, of which an oil is made ; the cotton tree, etc. And among the useful vegetables furnished by the field, the herb mallows, sorrel, mustard, and asparagus. For two months in the year, October and November, vege- tation ceases in Assyria, every thing being parched up. After this period, clouds from the Lebanon, in Syria, and reverses in the mountain temperatures to the north and east over Me- sopotamia and Adiabene, bring down refreshing rains, and cause the grass to grow, and, notwithstanding subsequent frosts and storms, some compositjs do bud. The succession of vegetation is preserved by those plants which have succu- lent roots, nodes or bulbs, which preserve sufficient moisture to ensure life amidst the most arid soil. They seem to sleep during the summer drought, and awake to life again by the first rains, and prematurely put forth their buds in October. Among these are a species of tulip, crocus, and itia, an herb called by some chameleon. These are soon, however, en- veloped in snow, or blasted by the wintry winds, till early in spring they again make their appearance, with all that vivid beauty of colour, and those variety of forms, which are so glowingly depicted on the canvass, or described in the pages, of eastern painters and poets. CLIMATE. The climate of Assyria is various. That of Taurus pre- sents us with cold winters, with much snow, and hot sum- mers. In some of the villages, the natives complain of exces- sive summer heats, especially at Amasiyah and Kapan. Ains- worth says, that in crossing the Marash hills in February, the snow was from two to three feet deep, and so hard as to bear a horse ; and yet in occasional bare spots crocuses were in flower, and spiders were running about. At the same time of the year, in sheltered valleys, various coloured ane- mones bloom ; and in March, the almond tree, pear, medlar, and laburnum, are in bloom. The climate of the plains is characterized by great dryness, combined with great variations in the temperature of the air From the Mediterranean to the Tigris, there is an increase of cold in the same parallels, from west to east j but this is not HISTORY OP THE ASSYEUNS AND CHALDEANS. 15 the case in the plains east of the Tigris, which, sheltered hy the Kurdish mountains, possess a more temperate winter. The influence of the Taurus, clad for so many months with snow, is supposed to reduce the rigour of the winter's cold, and to cause the vegetation on the plains of North Syria and Mesopotamia to be less southern than that of Sicily and An- dalusia. On the other hand, the heat of the summer sun, in- creased by radiation and equality of level, is almost without an extenuating influence, there being scarcely an evaporation. Hence, when the winter temperature is low, the summer heats are fervid ; from which cause, there are few annual and tender plants found in Assyria. Those divisions of the Assyrian empire which demand par- ticular notice in this section, inasmuch as they were at differ- ent periods the seat of government, are Assyria Proper, and Babylonia. ASSYRIA PROPER. The country within the limits of Assyria Proper, is called by Pliny, Adiabene ; and by Strabo, after the barbarians, Aturia or Atyria, which, as Dion Cassius observes, is a mere dialetic variety of pronunciation, instead of Assyria. Ptolemy divides Assyria Proper into five provinces or districts, thus : 1. Adiabene. — This was the chief province of Assyria. It was so called, according to Ammianus, from the two rivers, Diasa and Adiaba. Adiabene had the Tigris to the west, the province of Apolloniatis to the east, Calachene to the north, and Sittacene to the south. It answers in modern times to that tract of land which extends from the river of Zaco, or the Khabour, to the south-east of the little Zab. From Strabo's expression, Adiaheni vocantur etiam Saccopodes, we learn that Adiabene lay in the north-west quarter, as the appella- tion of Saccopodes is now recognized in the region and district of Zaco, seventy-seven miles north-west of Mosul. 2. Arrapachitis. This province, according to Ptolemy, was the most northern, its country being watered by the Gyndes. It corresponds exactly to the modern Matiene, or, more properly, Mardiene, where the Gyndes, according to Herodotus, has its source, the 'mountainous region to the north-west of Ecbatana, or Hamadan, and enters the Tigris half way between Koote and Korna. Both the Little Zab und the Gyndes originated in this district j the former run- 16 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. ning- west and south-west to the Tigris, the latter south and south-east to the same stream. 3. Calachene. — This province lay north of Adiabene, and corresponds to the modern district of Julameric, or the Ha Kiare Koords. 4. Chalonitis. — According to Strabo, Chalonitis was a mountainous region, about the ascent of Mount Zegros, an- swering to the Kelonce of Diodorus and the pass of the mod- ern Ghilanee, leading to Kermanshah. It probably contained the tract between the Hamerine hills, to the pass of Ghilanee, on the road to Kermanshah, or the tract between the Hame- rine hills and Mount Zagros, now called the Aiagha Dagh. 5. Sittacene. — Sittacene lay south-east of Chalonitis, be- tween the Silla and the Gyndes. Strabo says, Sittacene and ApoUoniatis are names of the same province, the latter being the name imposed by the Greeks after the Macedonian con- quest. It was so called from Apollonia, a new city founded by the Greeks. Both Strabo and Stephanus of Byzantium agree in placing Apollonia in the road from Babylon to Susa, and the latter makes it the twelfth town in that road. If, therefore, Sittacene and ApoUoniatis be the same province, and the road from Babylon to Susa lay through that district, then it must have been the most south-eastern subdivision of As- syria, and must have extended from the Deeallah, or ancient Gorgos, to the Gyndes, or Hud. These five districts were again subdivided into minor dis- tricts. Thus, in Adiabene were Aturia and Arbelitis; and in the province of Calachene was the district of Marde, now Amadia. RIVERS. The whole country of Assyria Proper is naturally divided into three parts, by two rivers which rise in the Zagros moun- tains, and, after traversing Koordistan, fall into the Tigris. The first of these is the Lycus. — This river is the Zabatus of Xenophon, and the modern Greater Zab. It is a stream equal in volume to half the Tigris at the confluence. Sometimes it is called the river of Julameric, from the Ha Kiare Su, its great north-western branch, which, in its course to the Zab, passes by a town of that name, and capital of the district of the Kiare Koords. The river rises in the moimtains of Persian Koordistan, and pursues a north-westerly direction, and, traversing the breadth HISTORY OF THE ASSYHIANS AND CHALDEANS. 17 of Turkish Koordistan, empties itself with rapidity into the Tigris, about forty-five miles below Mosul, and imparts its own turbid character to the subsequent course of that river. Its breadth, where it enters the Tigris, does not exceed sixty feet ; but at the low water horse ford, on the road to Mosul, it is two hundred feet wide, at the least. In the line of road from Mosul to Arbela, now Irbil, considerably to the east of the Tigris, it is deep and unfordable, especially when swelled by the melted snows of Mount Choatras, whose hoary summits are discovered at a great distance on the right hand of the road from Bagdad to Mosul. The second river, the Caprus, also named Zabas, or Anzabus, by the latter Greek and Roman writers, is probably the present Lesser Zab. ^ The Little Zab is a narrow but deep river, which rises in the nearer declivity of the Koordistan mountains, and pursues nearly a direct south-west course 'of 150 miles to the Tigris, which it enters in lat. 35°. 10'. At this point, the width of the Little Zab is only twenty-five feet, although in its upper course, after it has received the Altun Su (golden water) at Akun Kupri, (golden bridge,) its breadth is nearly three times as great. It, however, discharges an immense body of water into the Tigris, which immediately after forms a fear- ful rapid and fall, which greatly endangers the rafts that nav- igate the river between Mosul and Bagdad. These two rivers, according to Bochart, are the Diaba and Adiaba, or the Diava and Adiava. Diava, he observes, is lupus, or lupinus, " wolf," or " wolfish ;" diva being the Chaldee for "a wolf;" hence he derives the Greek Lycus, which bears the same signification. Ptolemy calls it the Lukos, or " White river," an appellation which corresponds with the colour of its waters, which is most probably the pro- per term, Lycus being Lukos latinized. This appellation is very common in many countries ; as in America, where we read of the White, Red, Yellow, and Black rivers. The larger branch of the Nile is also called the Abiad, or White River, from its muddiness ; as the other is called Azrek, or Blue, from its clearness. Adiaba, the name of the second river, is derived by the same learned writer from an Arabic word signifying " swift ;" but this point is by no means clear. The modern name, Zab, he says, is corrupted from Diaba, or derived from the Hebrew Zeeb, which differ but in dialect. Thevenot, in his " Travels to the Levant," speaks of one river only, calls it Zarb, and says he saw it fall into the Tigris. By the natives these 2* 18 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. rivers are called Zarpi. The Zarb is spoken of by Thevenot as a large river, half as broad as the Tigris ; and he observes that it is very rapid, and that its waters are whitish and very cold ; whence he conceives that it is merely snow-water fall- ing from the mountains of Koordistan. This agrees with Bochart's conjecture of the Adiaba ; namely, that it derives its name from the swiftness of its course. Among the rivers of Assyria, may be justly reckoned the Tigris, not only because it bathed all the western skirts o this country, but also because all the other rivers flowed into it, and because the great cities of this kingdom, as Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and others, were situated thereon. Tigris. — The Tigris is said by some to have borrowed its name from the number of tigers on its banks, as Lycus did from the wolves that haunted the margin of that river. Others derive it from a Persian word signifying an arrow ; both terms importing it to be rapid and violent in its course. Some travellers, however, contradict this ; stating that it is a slower stream than the Euphrates, and that this is caused by the meanders with which it abounds, as well as its numerous islands and large banks of stone. Ainsworth, who accom- panied the Euphrates expedition in 1838, states that the Ti- gris has a moderate current below Bagdad, but passing over several ledges of rock in its course from Mosul to that city, it forms rapids of greater or lesser importance. The Scripture name of this river is Hiddekel, Gen. ii. 1 4 ; Dan. X. 4 ; and Bochart derives its present name from that Hebrew word. Rauwolf says, that the natives of that part of the world call it Hiddekel to this day. It is locally and usually distinguished by the term Digel, or Diglah ; and if we deprive the Scripture name of the prefixed aspiration, the remainder, Dekel^ has considerable analogy with it. The passage in the book of Genesis speaks of the Tigris as one of the rivers that watered the garden of Eden. " And the name of the third river is Hiddekel : that is it Avhich goeth toward the east of Assyria ;" that is, towards, or before, Assyria. Rennell, in his Geography of Herodotus, describes the source of the Tigris thus : " The Eiiphrates and Tigris spring from opposite sides of Mount Taurus, in Armenia ; the former, from its upper level, northward ; the latter, from its southern declivity ; and certain of the sources of the two rivers are only separated by the summits of Taurus. And yet, notwithstanding this vicinity, the sources of the Tigris, by being in a goiithern exposure, where the snow melts much HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 19 earlier than at the back of the mountain, and in a more ele- vated situation, occasion the periodical swelling of the river to happen many weeks earlier than the swellings of the Euphrates. Of the two, the Tigris seems to be the largest body of water." Pliny represents the Tigris as rising in the region of Armenia Major, from a spring in a remarkable plain, called Elongosine. It runs, he says, through the lake Arethusa, and meeting with Mount Taurus, buries itself un- derground, and rises again on the other side of the mountain. This account of Pliny has been adopted by Milton, in the fine description he gives of the garden of Eden. Describing the rise and course of the river which watered the garden, issuing from the country of Eden, he says : " Southward through Eden, went a river large, Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill, Pass'd underneath, ingulph'd ; for God had thrown That mountain, as his garden-mound, high raised Upon the rapid current, which through veins Of porous earth, with kindly thirst updrawn, Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill Water'd the garden ; thence united, fell Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood, Which from his darksome passage now appears ; And now divided into four main streams, Runs diverse, wand'ring many a famous realm And country,"— iv. 223-235. That by " the river large" the poet meant the Tigris, ap- pears evident from the parallel passage, wherein he describes Satan as obtaining admission into the garden through the subterranean course, which lay remotest from the cherubic watch at the entrance. -There was a place. Now not, (though sin, not time, first wrought the change,) Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise, Into a gulf, shot underground, till part Rose up a fountain, by the tree of life. In with the river sank, and with it rose Satan, involved in rising mist; then sought Where to lie hid." ix. 69.-76. The whole course of the Tigris to the sea is 854 British miles ; thus : — From the remotest source to Korna, is 734 miles, and from thence to the sea, 120 miles ; in all, 854, ex- clusive of the windings. From the source to Diyarbekr, 65 ; from Diyarbekr to Mosul, 230 ; from Mosul to Bagdad, 224 ; from Bagdad to the mouth of the Deeallah, 15 ; to the Synne, 20 HISTORY OF THE ASSYHIANS AND CHALDEANS. or river of Mendali, 70 ; from the Mendali Su, to the Hud, or ancient Gyndes, 100 ; from thence to the mouth of the Kera, or Kara Su, 60 ; and from Kara Su to the sea, 90 : total, 854. From our imperfect knowledge of Asiatic geography, it is impossible to fix precisely the remotest source of the Tigris. It appears to have two sources ; one from the southern route of the Taurus, and the other from the northern front of the same range : the intervening space being either a collection of small valleys, or a large valley, watered by different streams, which fall into one or the other of the branches. The western branch runs north-east along the foot of another ridge of Taurus, by which it is divided from the small lake of Gurgick, the Colchis of the ancients. It then runs east to Maaden, or the mine town, about four hours' journey, or eighteen miles west from Agana, where, when the water is low, it is not above twenty feet wide. At Agana, it enters the great valley of Diyarbekr, fifty-two miles north-west of that city, through the gorge formed by the junction of the Niphates and Masius, which here form the western hmits of the valley. This branch is joined a few miles above Diyar- bekr, or Amida, by the northern branch coming from the southern slope of the Niphates, or the Nimrood Dagh. This branch rises sixty-five miles to the north-west of Diyarbekr, and is probably the largest and most distant branch of the two. A little above this junction, the Tigris receives a branch from the south. At Diyarbekr, the Tigris is fordable at all times, except when swollen by the rains or melted snows, when it rises to a great height, and is very rapid. Below this city it receives several other streams from Mount Masius ; and fifty miles below Diyarbekr it receives the Batmum Su, a larger stream than itself, which rises in Mount Niphates, and runs from the north-east to the south-west. In its further progress through the large oval valley of Diyarbekr, the Tigris receives a multitude of streams on the right and left from the Karadgia Dagler and the Nimrood Dagh. These parallel ridges gradually approximate ; the one from the north-west, and the other from the south-west, till they form a stupendous narrow gorge, through which the Tigris rushes onwards. The mountains on either side run so close to the river bank, and rise so abruptly from their basis, as to render it difficult for man or beast to penetrate the lofty defile. Eleven geographical miles below this rocky barrier, the HISTORY OF THE ASSYHIANS AND CHALDEANS. 21 Tigris forms a low sandy island, three miles in circumference, called Jezeerat-ul-Omar, or Jezeerat-Beni-Omar, signifying the island of the sons of Omar. Of the two branches forming the island, the northern is the larger, being 360 feet wide, very deep and rapid. From Mosul to Bagdad, the Tigris varies greatly in depth and breadth. Between the Great and Little Zab, it is broad and shallow, interspersed with islands spreading from half a mile to a mile in breadth. Below the Little Zab, it is from 600 yards to half a mile, and sometimes a mile wide, occa- sionally opening into a vast aqueous expanse, composed of islands and channels. At Tekrit, it is very wide ; and at Samarra, once the royal seat of Abasside khalifs, it is a mile broad, with high banks, but shallow sti^am. Below the mouth of the Kufri Su, the Tigris is reduced to a width of 300 yards, across which is stationed a bridge of boats. Soon after, it expands to half a mile in breadth. At Bagdad, it is about 870 feet wide from bank to bank. Below the confluence of the Deeallah, the Tigris, augmented by the accession of this large stream, assumes a magnificent appear- ance, extending at intervals to a mile and a half, and even two miles wide, with high and steep banks elevated from fifteen to twenty feet above the surface of the river. At Koote-al- Hamara, about midway between Bagdad and Bussorah, it is a mile broad ; and at this place the Tigris discharges a large branch equal to the Thames at London Bridge, called the Shat-ul-Hye. Seven miles below Koote-al-Hamara, the piers of an ancient stone bridge are to be seen ; but by whom, and at what date they were erected, is unknown. In the lower part of its course, the Tigris runs on a higher level than the country adjoining its banks ; hence the inun- dations are great on both sides during the periodical swellings. At Kornah, the Tigris combines with the Euphrates, and becomes an immense stream, and so deep, that a large frigate may anchor close to the angle of land formed by the junction. Fifty miles below Kornah is Bassora, where the tide rises and falls nine feet ; and seventy miles below this city it falls into the Persian Gulf _ ^ ^ Like the Nile, at certain seasons of the year, the Tigris overflows its banks. According to Parsons, who spent most of a summer and autumn at Bagdad, and whose account ap- pears to demand greater credence than any other, the com- mencement of this periodical inundation, or rise, begins in the 22 mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. latter end of October, and continues to June 7, or a space of nearly eight months. For about a week, the river continued stationary ; and the first symptom of decrease took place on the 14th of the same month. At this date, it fell an inch and a half, and continued gradually to fall till September 30, when the river was at the lowest. The amount of decrease, from June 14 to September 30, was thirty-one feet ten inches, which, added to fourteen feet six inches, its depth at the latter date when at its lowest, makes the total depth of the Tigris, at the maximum of its height, forty-six feet four inches. The depth was taken by Parsons in the centre of the stream, op- posite the middle of the bridge of boats. The breadth of the river he states to be, at this point, 87 1 feet, from bank to bank. The hydrographic ba«in of the Tigris may be considered as enclosing an area of 36,000 geographical miles. There is an illusion to the overflowing of the Tigris in the book of Nahum. That prophet, in denouncing the destruc- tion of Nineveh, says : " The gates of the rivers shall be opened, And the palace shall be dissolved." — Nah. ii, 6. And again : " But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, And darkness shall pursue his enemies." — Nah. i. 8. Both these passages mark distinctly the agency of an inun- dation in opening the way to the beseigers (the Medes) of Nineveh. Diodoris says, that the king of Assyria was greatly encouraged by an ancient prophecy. That Nineveh should never be taken until the river became its enemy ; and that when the Tigris overflowed its banks, and swept away about twenty furlongs of its wall, he was filled with such conster- natiori and despair, that recalling to memory the words of the prophecy, he gave all up for lost. This historian does not specify the time of year in which this inundation of the Tigris occurred ; hence it is not cer- tain by which of the causes (which still periodically operate m swelling its streams, and which sometimes occasion it to overflow its banks to an alarming extent) it was produced. In autumn it is swollen by rains, and in the spring by the melting of the snows in the mountains of Armenia. The latter cause replenishes the river more than the former and more frequently causes inundations ; hence, it is supposed, it HISTORY OF THE ASSYUIANS AND CHALDEAN8. 28 was by this the proud walls of Nineveh were cast down. A circumstance, remarkably illustrative of this event, occurred A. D. 1831, to the great city Bagdad, that now exists on the same river. While the inhabitants were anticipating a seige, the river overflowed its banks, producing one of the most ex- tensive and destructive river inundations recorded in history. In one night, a great part of the city wall, with a great num- ber of houses, were overthrown by the irruption of the wa- ters, and thousands of the sleeping inhabitants perished. BABYLONIA, OR CHALDEA. This portion of the Assyrian empire was a part of that territory called in Scripture, " the land of Shinar," Gen. xi. 2 ; a name it retained till the days of the prophet Daniel, Dan. i. 2. The name of Babylonia is generally supposed to have been borrowed from the town of Babel, and the name of Chaldea from the Chaldeans, or Chasdim. Sometimes, these two names extend to the whole country, being taken indifferently for each other, and sometimes they are limited to certain districts ; by Babylonia, being meant the country in the immediate neighbourhood of Babylon ; and by Chal- dea, that which extends southward to the Persian Gulf Chaldea is used by sacred writers for the whole country, and Babylonia by profane writers. The limits of Babylonia have been already defined ; hence it need only be observed here, that it nearly corresponds to the present Irak Arabi. The plain of Babylon, properly so called, extends from Pylae on the Euphrates, to the district of Accad, or Sittacene. It is bounded on the south by the marshes of Lemlun, and on the north by the Median wall, which, according to Xeno- phon, was fifty-eight miles in length. This plain, (so celebrated as the spot to which the descend- ants of Noah attached themselves, and as involving the fall of empires, and the destruction of cities,) in ancient times, and even as late as the days of Xenophon, was a highly cul- tivated and fertile country. This did not arise from the fer- tilizing influences of the atmosphere, nor from the inunda- tions of the river Euphrates, but from artificial means. He- rodotus says, that the inhabitants either watered the country by the hand, or dug trenches, or canals, for its refreshment and fecundation. Hence it was, combined with the richness of its soil and an excellent climate, that it was agj^y compared by this author to Egypt. 24 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. ANCIENT CANALS. The antiquity of the canals of Babylonia dates from the remotest period of the Chaldceo-Babylonian monarchy. The great empire of Babylonia arose upon this alluvial plain, amid a system of irrigation and draining, which spread like net-work over the land. It was crossed by innumerable canals in all directions, the largest of them being navigable, and feeding others ; diminishing in importance as they re- ceded from the trunk. These, as well as the parent river, were bordered with vast numbers of hydraulic machines, by which the water was raised and distributed into the fields and gardens. The exact number of these canals it is now im- possible to determine, as the ancients are not only confused, but often contradict each other in their description of them. Their number would, indeed, depend much upon the political state of the country. Doubtless, they were most numerous, and kept in the best repair, during the flourishing period of the Assyrian and Babylonian dynasties. When Nineveh was destroyed, however, and Babylon ceased to be the capital of an empire ; when the seat of royalty was transferred to Susa and Persepolis ; and the navigation of the Euphrates from the sea was stopped by the Persians ; and cities on the Euphrates and Tigris were mouldering away ; the prosper- ous state of the canals would be interrupted, and some of them would probably go to ruin. But when the seat of power, during the Parthian and Sassanian dynasties, was once more transferred to the Tigris, the canals would be repaired and new ones excavated, as new cities arose in the vicinity. Hence, in the days of Julian, Ammianus Marcellinus de- scribes the country of Babylonia, called Assyria by him, as being full of populous cities, date gardens and canals. But a change once more took place under the baneful influence of Mohammedanism ; and although during the khalifate of Bagdad, a temporary prosperity was experienced, yet that was soon overthrown by the ravages of the Turks and Tar- tars, and a country which was once as the garden of Eden, lovely in appearance, became remarkable for sterility, poverty and neglect. On the map of Rennell, there are eight of these commu- nicating canals, exclusive of smaller ones, the traces of several of which are still visible, but many more have been destroyed. In the days f^ the khalifate, four canals of communication are recorded by Abulfeda to have existed ; but at present, and for HISTOR.Y OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 25 several ages back, one only has remained open, and even that one runs only during- the period of the floods of the Eu- phrates. I'his is called the Nahar Isa, or the canal of Isa. This was the first and most northerly of these ancient canals, and it was derived from the Euphrates, at a place called Dehmah, near Anbar, the Macepracta of Julian. In the time of Abulfeda, it lost itself in the Tigris, in the heart of western Bagdad. By Ammianus Marcellinus it was called Barax, or Baia Malchi ; its modern name was derived from Isa Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abbas. Nahar Sarsar. — No traces of the Sarsar canal, which ex- isted under the khalifs, are now visible. It seems to have been a very ancient canal, as it is one of those mentioned by Xenophon, which joined the Tigris immediately below Sit- tace, and which seems to have been the shortest of all the canals between the two rivers. It derived its sources below the Isa, and flowed into the Tigris above Madayn, which cor- responds to the modern Zimberaniyah. Ammianus notices a canal between Macepracta and Perisabor, on the Nahar Malcha, which is identified with the Sarsar. He denomi- nates it Maogamalcha, and mentions a city of that name in connexion with it. Nahar Malcha. — The bed of the Nahar Malcha, or Royal Canal, is still traceable, and must have occupied the same position in Macedonian and Roman times, as in those of the khalifate. Tradition attributes its excavation to Nimrod, and by Tabari it is described as the work of Cush, king of Babel ; from which we may conclude that its origin is coeval with the earliest period of the Babylonian monarchy.* The Na- har Malcha extended from Macepracta, on the Euphrates, to Seleucia, on the Tigris, and it was the canal by which Trajan and Julian transported their respective armies to Ctesiphon. Herodotus says it was of sufficient breadth and depth to be navigable for merchant vessels ; hence it is, that some theo- logical writers have considered it as the ancient bed of the Euphrates. Kntha Canal. — According to Abulfeda, this canal was de- rived from the Euphrates, a little below the Nahar Malcha, and it watered the territory of Irak. It is mentioned by Ah- med Ibn Yusuf, and is the same as the Kawa of Rennell. It * Abydenus attributes it to Nebuchadnezzar, who excavated it, he says, to convey the waters of the Euphrates, when it overflowed, into the Tigris, before they reached Babylon. ^ VOL. II. 3 26 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. derived its name from Kutha, near Babel, in the province of Irak, where the text of the Talmud, in Bava Vathra, says, that the patriarch Abraham was imprisoned three years. Besides these canals, which are termed the canals of Xeno- phon, there were many others, the names of which are un- known. Thus below Samarra, once the regal seat of several Abasside khalifs, there was a large canal drawn to a consi- derable distance to the west of the Tigris, and which ex- tended from thence as far south as the canals of communica- tion, three of which were intersected by this large branch, and the third of which reconveyed its waters at the place now called Imaum Musa, three miles above the bridge of Bagdad, and at the termination of the Median wall. The space in- cluded by this large canal between Samarra and Imaum Musa was denominated by both Greek and Roman geographers, Mesene, or " the island," and Apamia Mesene, from the city of Apamia, below Samarra. This was a beautiful, fertile, and populous tract, being also intersected with other canals, drawn from the large canal to the Tigris. It was navigable, and from its size was called Didjel, or " Little Tigris." From the Euphrates, two other canals were drawn to the Didjel. The first of these commenced about thirty geographical miles from the Pass of Pylce ; the second, seen by Balbi, com- menced four geographical miles below this. Two other canals are mentioned by Xenophon, as occurring in the space of three parasangs, or about eight miles from this. Canals of Babylon. — In the time of Abulfeda, when the Nahar Malcha ceased to carry off a main part of the waters of the Euphrates, this river is described as dividing, after passing the Nahar Kulbah by six parasangs, or about fifteen miles, into two streams, previous to which, it parted with more canals, which belonged to the city of Babylon Proper. The quarter of Babylon called Bosippa, or Bursif, had its canal ; and Abulfeda describes the main stream of the Euphrates as flowing to the city of Nil, that quarter in which Babylon was situated, and giving off the canal of Nil, after which it is called Nahar Sirat. The mounds of Babel, and the Mujelibe, or "overturned," are nearly surrounded by two canals which bear that name at the present date. The Euphrates, more- over, in all probability, flowed between the Kasr, or palace, and the Amram, which is identified with the western palace of Diodorus. On the authority of Abulfeda, the Euphrates, after passing the Nahat Kulba by the distance before men- tioned, and giving off' the Nil, was divided into two streams, HISTORY OP TIIE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 27 the southernmost of which passed into Kufah, and going be- yond it, was lost in the marshes of the Rumiyah. Anterior to the days of this geographer, it flowed by Ur, or Orchoe, being joined in the parallel of Davamyeh by the Pallacopas of Alexander, and ultimately emptied itself into the sea in the neighbourhood of Teredon. The same authority describes the prolongation of the larger branch of the Euphrates, be- yond the Kasr Ibn Hobierah, by the name of Nahar Sares. This name means " fetid river," and it appears to have been given to that portion of the Euphrates which lay below the Royal Canal, at a time when that derivative carried away a large part of the waters of the Great River. The remainder, flowing sluggishly onward, by Babel and Suza, to lose itself in the marshes of Babylon, became impure from stagnation, and hence it obtained its name. MODERN CANALS. Among the canals of more recent date, according to Al Brissi, was that of the Rehoboth of Scripture, Gen. x. 11 ; and, upon the same authority, and that of most oriental geo- graphers, the canal Al Kadder, or Alcator. Tavo other canals are mentioned, under the names of the Kerbelah, and the Nesjiff canal. The Kerbelah canal derived its name from Kerbelah, a populous town in the time of Abdul Khurrim. This canal was reopened by Hassan Pasha, of Bagdad, at an expense of 20,000/. sterling, after the Persians had retreated to the tomb of their prophet, from the oppressions of Nadir Shah. The Nesjiff canal was constructed by the Nadir Shah ; and, according to Abdal Khurrim, it is sixteen parasangs, or about forty miles, from Kerbelah, and one from Kufali. Of the present appearance of Babylonia, Ainsworth says — " The great extent of the plain of Babylonia is every where altered by artificial works: mounds rise upon the otherwise uniform level; walls, and mud ramparts, and dykes intersect each other ; elevated masses of friable soil and pottery are suc- ceeded by low plains, inundated during great part of the year; and the antique beds of canals are visible in every direction. There is still some cultivation, and some irrigation. Flocks pasture in meadows of the coarse grasses, (sedges and cype- raceoe :) the Arabs' dusky encampaments are met with here and there; but, except on Euphrates' banks, there are few re- mains of the date groves, the vineyards, and the gardens, which adorned the same land in the days of Artaxerxes ; and 28 mSTOEY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. Still less of the population and labour, wliich must have made a garden of such a soil, in the times of Nebuchad- nezzar." This leads to a notice of THE EUPHPwATES. The original Hebrew name of this river was Phrat, by which name it is locally distinguished to the present day, the elements of which still remain in what we have adopted from the Greek. In Scripture, the Euphrates is frequently mentioned as "the great river," to which distinction it is fully entitled. The stream of the Euphrates rises in two widely separated sources, one in the elevated regions of Armenia, near Erze- roum, and the other near town of Bayazid, on the Persian frontier. The junction of these streams takes place in the re- cesses of the Taurus, near the town of the Kebban. After having pierced the mountains, the river continues its south- western course towards the Mediterranean ; but being re- pelled by the mountains near Samosata, it inclines a little to the south-east, and afterwards takes more decidedly that direc- tion, which it pursues, until it ultimately joins the Tigris at Korna, in Irak Arabi. The united stream then takes the name of Shut ul Arab, or river of the Arabs, and finally enters the Persian Gulf, above seventy miles below the city of Bussora. The total course of the Euphrates is estimated at 1755 British miles. Its breadth from Bir to its junction with the Tigris, varies from 300 to 450 yards, though it is occasionally little more than half that breadth. At times, where islands occur in the middle of the stream, it widens to 800 yards, and in some instances to three-quarters of a mile in breadth. Con- cerning the breadth of rivers, lakes, and inlets of the sea, how- ever, the guesses of ordinary travellers are generally vague. The comparative size of the basin of the Euphrates, including that of the Tigris, is forty-two times larger than that of the Thames, and its annual average discharge 108,000 cubical feet per second, or sixty times that of the Thames. Of itself, the basin of the Euphrates may be considered as enclosing an area of 180,000 geographical miles. The stream of the Euphrates flows at the rate of five miles an hour, in the season of the flood ; but at other times it does not exceed three miles an hour in the greater part of its HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 29 course. Rich however, says, that at Hillah, the maximum velocity of the Euphrates is seven miles an hour ; and Ains- worth reports that the rapidity of the stream varies in different places. He says, in the depressions of the alluvial plain, it is often not a mile an hour, but over the high ground, as at Kalat Gerah, it runs nearly three miles an hour; that at Hillah, where the stream is confined, it flows four knots through the bridge^ and that the Upper Euphrates averages from three to four miles. The Euphrates flowing, in the lower portion of its course, through a vast plain between low banks, the periodical in- crease of its waters causes it to overflow, like the Nile, some- times inundating the country to a great extent, and leaving extensive lakes and marshes in its neighbourhood, after the river has retired to ks channel. The rise of the Euphrates begins in March, and continues till the commencement of June, at which time, there is nowhere less than from twelve to sixteen feet depth of water. In the low season, it is generally from six to ten feet ; but in some places, even at this season, it is eighteen feet. In describing the average depth, the na- tives are accustomed to say, that is equal to the height of two men. The water is lowest in November and the three suc- ceeding months • but sometimes there is a slight increase in January. Ainsworth, in describing the alluvial soil, which the Euphrates, like the Nile, brings down in its course, says: "The period at which the waters of Euphrates are most loaded with mud, are in the first floods of January ; the gra- dual mehing of the snows in early summer, which preserve the high level of the waters, do not, at the same time, contri- bute much sedimentary matter. From numerous experiments made at Bir, in December and January, 1836, I found the maximum of sediment mechanically suspended in the waters, to be equal to l-80th part of the bulk of the fluid, or every cubic inch of water contained l-80th part c^ its bulk of sus- pended matters ; and from similar experiments, instituted in the month of October of the same year, at the issue of the waters from the Lemlun Marshes, I only obtained a maximum of l-200th part of a cubic inch of water (mean temp. 74°.) The sediments of the river Euphrates, which are not deposited in the upper part of the river's course, are finally deposited in the Lemlun Marshes. In navigating the river in May, 1836, the water flowing into the marshes was coloured deeply by mud, but left the marshes in a state of comparative purity, 3* 30 HISTORY OP THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. and this is equally the case in the Chaldean Marshes, helow Orun el Bak, the "Mother of Musquitoes." According to Pliny, the ancient method of navigating the Euphrates was very remarkable. The vessels used were round, without distinction of head or stern, and little better than wicker baskets coated over with hides, which were guided along with oars or paddles. These vessels were of different sizes, and some of them capable of carrying burdens of palm wine or other merchandize, to the weight of 5,000 talents, (equal, according to Bishop Cumberland's calculation, to about sixty-two tons English,) having, according to their size, beasts of burden on board. When the vessels had thus fallen down the river to Babylon, the crew unloaded their car^o, and sold their vessel, but kept the hides, and, loading their beasts with them, retu^rned home by land, the force of the stream preventing their backward course by water : steam navigation alone can overcome this disadvantage. THE PRODUCTIONS OF BABYLONIA. Herodotus declares that, of all the countries he had visited, none was so suitable as Babylonia for cuhivation; and he says that the return was generally two and sometimes three hundred fold, in which testimony Strabo, the first of ancient geographers, agrees. This fertility arose from the system of irrigation before described, as well as from the richness of the alluvial soil of the plain and the salubrity of the climate. It does not appear, however, that the plains of Babylonia abounded in the various luxuries of life. The contrary, in- deed, appears from the songs of the captive Hebrews, while sitting on the margin of its waters. This song shows how acutely they regretted their exile from their own pleasant land, the land of the olive and vine, (which Babylonia is not, in the strict sense of the word,) and their own possessions and high enjoyments there. See Psa. cxxxvii. The productions for which Babylonia was chiefly celebrated were the date palm, which flourished naturally through the breadth of the plain, and which afforded the Babylonians meat, wine, and honey ; sesame, which affords them oil in- stead of the olive ; barley, millet, and wheat. For grain, it exceeded every other land. The millet and the sesame, says Herodotus, grew up as trees, and the leaves of the barley and wheat were four fingers broad. Babylonia, indeed, for vege- table productionsj in ancient times, might be justly compared HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 31 with Eg-ypt. But it is not so now. According to the predic- tion of the prophet, the sower is cut off from Babylon, and a drought is upon her waters, and they are dried up, Jer. 1. 16, 38. All is now an arid desert, offering only some few patches of cultivation near the few settlements which it contains. The grove trees, so numerous, beautiful and flourishing, in the days of Xenophon and Ammianus Marcellinus, have disap- peared with the villages, and are only to be found in and about the principal tov;ns, a few instances excepted, where they mark the site of a place not long deserted. In the city of Babylon itself, which, according to ancient historians, con- tained within the Walls much spare ground that was cultivated and ploughed for corn, there are now no pastures : thus lite- rally fulfilling prophecy, which saith : — " Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; Neither shall the shepherds make their fold there." — Isa. xiii. 20. The soil of Irak Arabi, which, as the reader has seen in a former page, nearly corresponds to ancient Babylonia, may in general be characterized as a sandy clay, covered with the rubbish of ruined towns and canals. The banks of the Euphrates and Shat-al-Hie are not so perfectly desolate as those of the Tigris ; but it is only near rivers and canals that we may expect any redeeming features in the landscape. On the Euphrates, the territory of the Khezail Arabs contains rich pastures and good cultivation, and many villages. But this territory is very limited, and all the remaining portion of the plain bears its testimony to the truth of Holy Writ, which " Behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be A wilderness, a dry land, and a desert." — Jer. i. 12. The banks of the rivers, and particularly the Tigris, are skirted to a great extent with the tamarisk shrub, which in some places attains the height of twenty or twenty-five feet. The common tamarisk of the country, the Athleh or Alte^ of Sonini, is the Tamarisk Orientalis of Forskal. The solitary tree of a species which, Heeren says, is altogether strange to this country, and which Rich calls Lignum Vitce, found growing upon the ruins of the Kasr at Babylon, and which has been supposed to be a last remnant or offspring of the sloping or hanging gardens, that appeared to Q^uintus Cur- tius like a forest, is also a tamarisk, but it differs from the Athleh in size. This tree possesses scaly branches and long 82 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS iVND CHALDEANS. slender petioles, with few leaves ; the appearance, however, is supposed by some to* have been produced by a scanty supply of water and great age, from whence they argue that it may belong to the common species. Curtius says this tree was eight cubits, near fifteen feet in girth. The tree bears every mark of antiquity in appearance, situation, and tradition. By the Arabs it is regarded as sacred, from a tradition that it was preserved by the Almighty from the earliest times, to be a refuge in after ages for the khahf Ali, who, fainting from fatigue at the battle of Killah, reposed in security beneath its shade. It must have been more than 1,000 years old at the re- puted time of the engagement, so that it niay be supposed a germ from the royal gardens at Babylon. The willow and the poplar appear in Babylonia, but they rather resemble shrubs than trees, and are more rare than the former plants. The willow was doubtless more abundant on the banks of the Euphrates, in ancient times • for the Hebrews, in their captivity, "High on the willoves, att untuned, unstrung, Their harps suspended." Isaiah speaks of Babylonia as " The brook of the willows," or, as Prideaux and Bocharf would render it, " The valley of the \^411ows," Isa. xv. 7. Ainsworth say^, however, that the weeping willow, Saliz Bahylonica^ is not met with in Babylonia, and that a poplar, Gharab, with lanceolate and cordate leaves on separate parts of the same branch, has been mistaken for a willow. Tradition states that the castor oil plant once grew luxu- riantly in the plains of Babylonia, but there is only one speci- men existing, and that grows as a tree on the site of ancient Ctesiphon. The Asclepias Syririca is tall and abundant in some places, and when young, though deemed by us poison, it is eaten by the Arabs. The Carob plant sometimes attains the height of six or seven feet. Camel-thorn is very common and the Arabs express a sweet juice from it, and eat the leaves as we do spinach. Among other plants which grow in this desolate region, are a rare species of rue, cnlacynth^ eheno-po- dium, mucronatum ; a beautiful species of mesembriantke- mum, carex, alopecarus, centaurea, lithosjiermnm^ heliotrope^ lycium, and a beautiful twining species of solanum. The marshes near the Tigris are thickly covered Avith the blos- soms of the white floating crowfoot. Of the cultivated fruit treeSj near the tt>wnsj the date palm is the most importantj as HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 83 it contributes largely to the subsistence of the population. Grapes, figs, pomegranates, quinces, etc., are good ; but ap- ples, pears, oranges, etc,, are of inferior size and quality. Melons, cucumbers, onions, and other plants of this family are abundant and excellent. But these only grow, as stated be- fore, in certain parts of the district. The plains of Babylonia, for the most part are characterized, according to the sure word of prophecy, by desolation, as the reader will discover more at large in the ensuing pages. CLIMATE. Babylonia, generally speaking, enjoys a salubrious and wholesome air, though at certain seasons, no air can be more dangerous. Plutarch relates, that the heats were so extraor- dinary, that the rich were accustomed to sleep in cisterns of water. The country is exposed to a pestilential wind, called the Samiel This wind is popularly considered to prevail during forty days, but its actual duration is often twice as long. During this period, it commonly rises about noon, or some- what earlier, and continues until three or four o'clock in the afternoon. It is felt like a fiery breeze which has passed over the mouth of a lime-kiln. It seldom or never rains in Babylonia, during the space of eight months ; and it has been known not to rain for two years and a half Rauwolf says, the inhabitants reckon, that if it rains two or three times in the year, it is sufficient for their purpose. An idea may be gath- ered of the temperature of the air of the plains of Babylonia from the following table, which was taken at Bagdad, situated in its vicinity, in the years 1830 and 1831. 1830. April May June July August September October November December 1831. January February March Room. Open Shade. Sun. Lowest. o Highest. Lowest o . Highest. Lowest, Highest. 81 88 113 73 94 71 108 80 122 87 98 79 109 86 125 89 102 84 113 90 134 93 104 87 119 95 140 88 97 77 106 89 127 70 90 61 100 72 121 59 77 45 84 54 102 57 64 51 67 58 90 48 63 37 68 43 88 55 66 48 77 54 95 59 52 — 61 — . 34 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS, At three in the afternoon, during the heat of the summer; it was found that the temperature in inhabited cellars was^ two or three degrees less than it had been in the ordinary rooms at eight o'clock in the morning of the days when it was taken. CHAPTER II. TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OP ASSYRIA. Under this section, the reader will find all the principal places mentioned in the sacred writings, and by profane wri- ters, as belonging to the empire of Assyria. We com- mence with those mentioned in the inspired volume, Gen. x. and xi. TOWER OF BABEL After the deluge, it appears from the sacred writings, that the children of Noah congregated, in their first emigration, upon the banks of the Euphrates, in "the land of Shinar," and in that part of the land which has been defined under the term Babylonia. While there, they consulted together, to build a very lofty tower. " Go to," said they, " let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth," Gen. xi. 4. The plan was put into execution, the tower was reaching towards heaven, when the work was stopped by the Almighty. He confounded the language of the builders, and, by this new dispensation, scat- tered them abroad upon the face of the earth, ver. 5 — 9. We should take a narrow view of the works of the Al- mighty, if we supposed that he looked with jealousy on this impotent attempt. Although the works of man may appear fair and magnificent in his own eyes, yet to Him they are no- thing ; for in his sight " The nations are as a drop of a bucket, And are counted as the small dust of the balance : Behold, he taketb up the isles as a very little thing.^' — Isa. xl. 15, It was not the building but the object, which was displeas- 36 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALD-EAN^, ing in the sight of the Alnlighfy ; and hence the result of his displeasure, their dispersion. " When Babel was confounded, and the great Confederacy of projectors, wild and vain, Was split into diversity of tongues, Then, as a shepherd separates his flock, These to the lipland, to the valley thos^, God drave asunder, and assign'd their lot To all the nations. Ample was the boon He gave them, in its distribution fair And equal; and he bade them dwell in peace." — Cowpjer. But has man obeyed his high commands ? Ask of history, and of observation, and they will answer, No ! The same rest- less ambition has been displayed by man in all ages of the world ; and many, full many, are the Babel builders of our own day. But what availeth their devices and designs ? Opposed by the powerful arm of Omnipotence, they were quickly brought to nought : and men are taught to experience the truth of the wise man's words, that "There is no wisdom, nor understanding Nor counsel against the Lord." — Prov. xxL 30. He sits in the heavens, and defeats the impotent attempts of those who oppose his will ; and though the whole world should confederate against him, the rebuke of the prophet might be applied to them with beautiful propriety. " Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces ; And give ear, all ye of far countries ; Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces ; Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces- Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought . Speak the word, and it shall not stand," — Isa. viii. 9 10. It is the wisdom of man to bow at the footstool of his Crea- tor, to ask of him wisdom to know, and strength to perform his holy will ; it is his happiness to lay down his arms of re- bellion, and to seek his mercy through Christ. The building of a lofty tower is applicable, in the most re- markable manner, to the wide and level plains of Babylonia. In that plain no object exists, different to another, to guide the stranger in his journeying ; and which, in those days, as in the present, was a sea of land, the compass of which was un- known. The effect of these high places remains as striking as ever. HlSfOHY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 37 " Chaldean beacons over the drear land Seen faintly from thick tower'd Babylon Against the sunset." as the pile of Akkerkoof, the memorable Birs, and the still more colossal mounds of Urchoe, Teredon, and Irak, al- though they deceive the traveller as to distance, yet still faith- fully guide him to one point in his destination. There is no statement that this great work sustained any damage at the confusion : it is simply stated that the erection ceased. What, were its precise dimensions, it is not possible to state : different writers make it range from a furlong to five thousand miles in height ! As there was no stone to be found in the alluvial tract washed and produced by the floods of the Euphrates and Tigris, all the building, of whatever kind, must have been built of brick, and cemented in the manner mentioned in Scripture. " And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar," Gen. xi. 3. It is generally supposed, that this fabric was in a consider- able state of forwardness at the confusion, and that it could have sustained no considerable damage, when the building of Babylon was recommenced. From hence, it is not improb- able that the original Tower of Babel formed the nucleus of that amazing tower which, in the time of the early authors of classical antiquity, stood in the midst of the temple which was built by Nebuchadnezzaf, in honour of the idol god Be- lus. This was called the TOWER OP BELtS. It would appear that Nebuchadnezzar, whose reign coni- menced about 605 years b. c, took the idea of making this ancient pile the principal ornament of the city, Avhich it was his delight to render famous. The earliest authentic irifor- mation concerning this tower, in common history, is derived from the pages of Herodotus. This author did not inspect it, however, till thirty years after it had been damaged by Xerxes, king of Persia, who did so in his indignation against the form of idolatry with which it had become associated. He describes the spot as a sacred inclosure, dedicated to Jupiter Belus, consisting of a regular square, of 1,000 feet on each side, and adorned with gates of brass. In the midst of this area arose a tower, whose length, breadth, and ahitude, was .500 feet. The structure consisted of eight towers, one above another, and on the outside, steps were formed, wind- VOL II. 4 88 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS, ing up to each tower, and in the middle of every flight seats were provided as resting places. In the topmost tower there was a magnificent chamber sacred to Belus. This chamber was furnished with a splendid couch, near which was a table of gold. There was no statue there when Herodotus visited Babylon, whence some have concluded that the Assyrians imagined the deity frequented his temple when he pleased. Diodorus, however, states, that there was originally a statue of Belus, forty feet high, erected on its summit ; and Hero- dotus himself was informed by the Chaldeans, that there formerly stood in the temple of Belus, a statue of solid gold, twelve cubits high, which was spared by Darius Hystaspes, but afterwards was taken away by Xerxes, who slew the priest that forbade its removal. But this latter statue is supposed by Dr. Hales to be the " golden image," made by Nebuchadnez- zar, in all the pride of conquest, which he set up as an object of idolatrous worship to his subjects, as recorded by the pro- phet Daniel. See Dan. iii. 1. It was evidently, he says, distinct from the statue of Jupiter Belus, noticed by Diodorus, and was designed to represent Nebuchadnezzar himself, or the genius of his empire, according to Jerome, supported by Daniel : — " Thou art this head of gold," Dan. ii. 38. The riches of the temple of Belus, in statues, tables, cen- sers, cups, and other sacred vessels, were immense. All were of massy gold. According to Diodorus, the sum total amounted to 6,300 Babylonish talents of gold, or rather more than 21, 000,000/. sterling. About two centuries after the devastations conmiitted by Xerxes, Alexander, among other projects, conceived an idea of restoring this celebrated tower to its pristine splendour. As a preparatory step to this undertaking, he employed 10,000 men to remove the rubbish which had fallen from the dilapi- dated structure ; but, after they had laboured therein two months, Alexander died, and the work ceased. From this it may be inferred by the reader, that but faint traces of the ori- ginal structure can remain at the present day. Such is the case ; and hence it is that some identify it with the Mujelibe, about 950 yards east of the Euphrates, and five miles above the modern tower of Hillah ; others with the Birs Nemrud, to the west of that river, and about six miles to the south- west of Hillah; and others with Nimrod's tower at Ak- kerkoof. mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 39 THE MUJELIBE. The Mujelibe was first supposed by Pietro Delia Velle to he the Tower of Belus, This traveller examined its rums A.D. 1616) and he characterizes the mass as "a mountain of ruins," and again, as a " huge mountain." He is supported in his opinion by D'Anville, Rennell, and other high names; but none of them, except Kenneir, possessed any distinct in- formation concerning the Birs Nemroud. The Mujelibe, or " overturned," is one of the most enorm- ous masses of brick-formed earth, raised by the art and labour of man. According to Rich, the mound is of an oblong shape, irregular in its height, with its sides facing the cardinal points. The measurement of the northern side being 200 yards in length ; the southern 219 ; the eastern 182 ; and the western 136. The elevation of the south-east, or highest an- gle, he says, is 141 feet. The western face of the building is most interesting, on account of the appearance which it presents. It is a straight wall, that seems to have cased and parapeted this side of the magnificent pile. The south-west angle is rounded off'; but whether it was so formed, or it has been thus worn by the hand of time, cannot be stated. On the summit, it is crowned with something like a turret^ or lan- tern. The other angles are not so perfect, but it is probable, they were originally thus ornamented. The western face is the easiest, and the northern the most diflicuk of access. Every portion of this mighty structure, though erected as if it would resist the utmost shock of time, has been torn by the rains, which here fell in torrents, with the force and body of water-spouts, in a terrific manner. The eastern face, parti- cularly, is worn into a deep channel, from the summit to the base. The summit is covered with heaps of rubbish ; in digging into which, layers of broken burned brick, cemented with mortar, are discovered, and whole bricks, with antique inscriptions on them, are not unfrequently found. The whole is covered with fragments of pottery, brick, bitumen, pebbles, vitrified scoriae, and even shells, bits of glass, and mother of pearl. Dens of wild beasts (in one of which Rich found the bones of sheep and other animals) are very numerous among this ruin ; and in most of the ravines are numbers of bats and owls. Yes, these mighty buildings, which were once, perhaps, the chambers of royalty, are now the haunts of jackals, and other ferocious animals ; reminding us of the awful prediction of the prophet : — 40 History of the assyriaks and chaldeans. " Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; And their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; And owls shall dwell there, And satyrs shall dance there, And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, And dragons in their pleasant palaces."— /sa. xiii. 21, 22. It may be mentioned that the Hebrew word Sheirim, ren- dered " satyr" here, is translated by Dr. Henderson " wild goats," and it literally signifies " hairy ones ;" a signification still preserved in the Vulgate. In Gen. xxvii. 11,23; in Lev. iv. 24, xvi. 9, it is applied to the goat ; and in Lev. xvii. 7. 2 Chron. xi. 15, to objects of idolatrous worship, perhaps in the form of goats, and translated " devils." It is probable, that in the verse quoted, and in Isa. xxxiv. 14, some kind of wild goat is intended ; but it may be interesting to observe, that Rich, who explored these masses a. d. 1812, heard the oriental account of satyrs while thus employed. He had always imagined the belief of the existence of such creatures to be confined to the mythology of the west, but a Tahohadar who accompanied him accidentally mentioned that, in this desert, there is an animal resembling a man from the head to the waist, and having the thighs and the legs of a goat and a sheep. He also informed him that the Arabs hunt it with dogs, and eat the lower parts, abstaining from the upper, on account of their resemblance to the human species The belief of the existence of such creatures, however ideal, is by no means rare in the vicinity of the Babylonian wilds. BIRS NEMROTJD. It has been observed, that every one who sees the Birs Nemroud feels at once, that of all the masses of ruin found in this region, there is not one which so nearly corresponds with his previous notions of the Tower of Babel ; and he will decide that it could be no other, if he is not discouraged by the apparent difficuhy of reconciling the statements of the ancient writers concerning the Temple of Belus with the situation of this ruin on the western bank, and its distance from the river and the other ruins. This difficulty is not in- superable ; but without identifying the Birs Nemroud with the Temple of Belus, we prefer giving the reader a descrip- tion of it, leaving him to draw his own conclusions. This sublime ruin stands in the midst of a solitary waste, like the awful figure of Prophecy herself, pointing to the HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 41 complete fulfilment of her thrilling denunciations. Just, says Rich, as we were within the proper distance, so necessary to the production of grandeur of view, the Birs at once burst upon our view in the midst of rolling masses of black thick clouds, partially obscured by that kind of haze, whose indis- tinctness is one great cause of sublimity ; while a few catches of stormy light, thrown on the desert, in the back ground, served to give some idea of the immense extent and dreary solitude of the waste surrounding the venerable pile. The Birs Nemroud is a mound of an oblong form, the total circumference of which is 762 yards. At the eastern side, it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is not more than fifty or sixty feet high ; but on the western side, it rises in a conical figure, to the elevation of 198 feet; and on its summit is a solid pile of brick, thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight in breadth, diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken and irregular, and rent by a large fissure, extending through a third of its height. It is perforated by small square holes, disposed in rhomboids. The fire-burned bricks of which it is buik have inscriptions on them, and so excellent is the ce- ment, which appears to be lime-mortar, that it is nearly im- possible to extract one whole. The other parts of the sum- mit of this hill are occupied by immense fragments of brick- work, of no determinate figure, tumbled together and con- verted into solid vitrified masses, as if they had undergone the action of the fiercest fire, or had been blown up with gunpowder, the layers of brick being perfectly discernable. The ruins stand on a prodigious mound, the whole of which is itself in ruins, channelled by the weather, and strewed with fragments of blackstone, sandstone, and marble. In the east- ern part, layers of unburned brick, but no reeds are discern- ible. In the north side, may be seen traces of building, ex- actly similar to the brick pile. At the foot of the mound a step may be traced, scarcely elevated above the plain, exceed- ing in extent, by several feet each way, the true, or measured base ; and there is a quadrangular enclosure around the whole, as at the Mujelibe, but more distinct, and of greater dimensions. This stupendous structure is believed, both by Rich and Ker Porter, to be the remains of the celebrated Temple and Tower of Belus, completed, if not commenced by Nebuchad- nezzar. Porter seems to show that three, and part of the fourth original stages of the tower, as described by Diodorus, may be traced in the existing ruins of Birs Nemroud ; and 4* 42 HISTORY OF THE ASSYHIANS AND CHALDEANS. with regard to the intense vitrifying heat, to which the sum- mit has evidently been subjected, he says, that he has no doubt that the fire acted from above, and was probably lightning. This circumstance is assuredly most remarkable, in connexion with the tradition of the Arabs, that the original Tower of Babel was rent and overthrown by fire from heaven. The same author conceives that the works of the Babylonish kings concealed, for a season, the marks of the original de- vastation, and that now, the destruction of time and man have reduced it to nearly the same condition in which it appeared after the confusion. As it exists, it reminds the beholder of the emphatic words of the prophet : — " Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, Which destroyest all the earth : And I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, And roll thee down from the rocks. And will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, Nor a stone for foundations ; But thou shall be desolate for ever, saith the Lord."— Jer. li. 25, 26. Scarcely half this elevation now stands. In the piece of brick wall, now surmounting the pile, 270 feet from the east- ern face of the Birs, is a great mound, equal to the Kasr in elevation, and 1,242 feet broad by 1,935 feet in length. The whole of its summit and sides are furrowed into hollows and traversing channels, the effect of time, violence, and accident, and all are imbedded with fragments of the same nature as the-other mounds. It is supposed that this mound contained the minor temples of the attendant gods of the chief divinity, and also the abodes of the priesthood, with their attendants. Within the quadrangle of two miles and a half, stood the mound and the temple itself, with a large open are expanding on all sides ; but on the north side, from the top of the mound, at the distance of 400 feet, mounds of various elevation are descried. Clustering ranges appear to continue curving round to the west, where a vacuum occurs, after which they recommence running eastward. Other chains, of apparently greater magnitude, rise to the west, at 200 yards from the Birs, and these are connected with others to the north and south ; so that the whole quadrangle seems to have been filled with variously erected structures. These were doubt- less erected for the protection of the various animals worship- ped according to the Sabian ritual, the officers in attendance, and the many occasional residents of the place ; for the in- mSTORY OP THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 43 habitants regarded the Birs Nemroud as a temple, a college, a royal sanctuary, and even a fortress, in the days of extremity. nimrod's tower. This pyramidal mass, which many travellers have taken for the ruined Tower of Babel, stands about ten miles to the north-west of Bagdad. By the Arabs, who refer every thing ancient to Nimrod, it is denominated Tel Nemroud ; and by the Turks, Nemroud Tepasse: which appellations some translate " The Tower of Nimrod," but which signifies " The hill." The term Akkerkoof, given it by the Arabs, is m- tended to signify the ground around it; and the word havmg no distinct meaning, it is supposed by some that it was proba- bly the name of some ancient city of the Babylonians, now buried in the dust. Thus Rennell thinks it to be the ancient Agrani ; D'Anville, the ancient Sitace ; and Ker Porter, the city of Accad, mentioned Gen. x. 10, as one of the principal cities of Nimrod's kingdom. The ruined mass of the Tower of Nimrod rises 1 80 feet above the level of the plain, and 126 feet above the mound whereon it is erected. Its circumference at the base of the upper struc- ture is 300 feet, and 900 feet within ten feet of the base on the mound. The whole mass is computed at 300,000 cubical feet. It is composed of the same materials as the structures before described, and seems to be solid, except certain square perforations, resembling those of the turret of the Birs Nem- roud. Like that of the Birs, there is reason to believe that this pile, as well as the lofty conical mounds of Al Hymer, were the temples and mansions of the Sabian priesthood, and dedicated to the worship of the host of heaven. A number of relics of Babylonish idolatry have been dug out of the ruins of the Kasr, and the hill of Amzam; and it is probable many more might be discovered on a close investigation. CITY OF BABYLON. There can be no doubt that this famous metropolis of the Assyrian empire was erected upon the site of that first post- diluvian city of which there is any record, and which was built by Nimrod, Babel. See Gen. x. 10. The town founded by Nimrod could have been but of little importance ; but its greatness, aftei it had been enlarged and improved by Belus, Semiramis, Nebuchadnezzar, and his queen, whom Herodo- 44 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. tus calls Nitocris, is shown by the writings of ancient histo- rians, and the ruins now found on the site. Herodotus, with whom Pliny and Solinus agree, says that Babylon was a per- fect square, each side of which was about twelve miles, and its circuit forty-eight, and that it was so magnificent, that no city could be compared with it. The walls were about 350 feet high, and eighty wide, and it was encompassed with a Avide ditch, deep, and full of water. On the top were erected small watch towers, of one story high, leaving a space be- tween them through which a chariot and four horses might pass and turn. In the circumference of the wall, at stated intervals, were a hundred massy gates of brass, whose hinges and frames were of the same metal. The Euphrates ran through the city, and divided it into two parts. Each wall formed an elbow, or angle on the river, at which point a wall of baked brick commenced, and the two sides of the river were lined with similar walls. The houses were built of three and four stories. The streets were straight, and inter- sected by others, which opened at the side of the river. Op- posite the end of the streets, small gates of brass were formed in the walls which lined the river ; and there were as many gates as there were transverse streets. The external wall served for defence, and there was also an internal wall, nar- rower, but still very strong. A bridge was built by Nitocris, queen of Babylon, to con- nect the two parts of the city divided by the Euphrates. The piers of this bridge were formed of large hewn stones, and in order to fix them in the river, the waters of the Euphrates were turned, leaving the bed of the river dry. It was at this time that the banks of the river were lined with the walls, and the descents to the river from the smaller gates were made. The bridge was built about the middle of the city, and the masonry connected with iron and lead. During the day, pieces of squared wood were laid from pier to pier, which were removed at night, lest the inhabitants on each side should rob one another. When the whole was com- pleted, the waters of the Euphrates were turned back into their ancient course. Among the curiosities of Babylon, the most celebrated were, the temple and tower of Bel us, which ran through the centre of the city, from north to south ; the palace of Nebuch- adnezzar, which formed the citadel ; and the spacious hang- ing gardens, contiguous to the royal palace, which were built by Nebuchadnezzar, to gratify his wife, who was a native of HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 45 Media, a mountamous country, with the resemblance of her own, in the level country of Babylon. The magnificence of this renowned city, after its enlarge- ment and improvement by Nebuchadnezzar, when it became one of the wonders of the world, is strongly expressed by the arrogant boast of that haughty monarch : " Is not this great Babylon, that 1 have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ?" Dan. iv. 30. But where now is all its greatness ? Reader, while in the plenitude of its power, and, according to the most accurate chronologers, one hundred and sixty years be- fore the foot of an enemy entered its gates, the voice of pro- phecy pronounced its doom, and a succession of ages has brought it gradually to the dust. " The kings thy sword had slain, the mighty dead, Start from their thrones, at thy descending tread ; They ask in scorn. Destroyer, is it thus 1 Art thou — thou too ! — become Hke one of us 1 Turn from the feast of music, wine, and mirth, The worm thy covering, and thy couch the earth 1 How art thou fall'n from thine ethereal height, Son of the morning, sunk in endless night ! How art thou fall'n, who saidst in pride of soul, I will ascend above the starry pole, Thence rule the adoring nations with my rod. And set my throne above the mount of God. Spilt in the dust, thy blood pollutes the ground ; Sought by the eyes that feared thee, yet not found. Thy chieftains pause, they turn thy relics o'er, Then pass thee by, for thou art now no more." — Montgomery. It is a common opinion, that the destruction of Babylon has been so complete, that its site cannot now be discovered, not even by the investigation of the most scientific geographers, and learned antiquarians. This opinion is founded upon the declaration of the prophet, that the Almighty would " cut off from Babylon the name and remnant," and that he would perform this by making it " pools of water," Isa. xiv. 22, 23, This prediction, however, does not mean that every vestige of Babylon should be annihilated, but, that it should cease to exist as a city so called ; and that every remnant of it, as an inhabited city, should be cut off, that no human being should make it his abode. Nor does it mean that the whole space including the city, should become a pool of water, for if it did, that very circumstance would point out to the traveller its an- cient site. That such was never intended, is distinctly de- monstrated by the present aspect of the remains, pointed out 46 mSTOPcY OF THE ASSYUIANS AND CHALDEANS. as those of Babylon, which answers in a remarkable manner to the recorded predictions of Holy Writ. These predictions will be noticed, after describing briefly the site and the ruins of that once " golden city." The best authorities place Babylon near Hillah, a town situated on the Euphrates, which was erected out of the ruins in its vicinity, a. d. 1101, and which is about forty-eight miles south of Bagdad. This opinion is founded on, 1. The latitude of the place, as given by the best oriental geographers, compared with the situation of Babylon, as recorded by clas- sical writers ; 2. The stupendous magnitude and extent of the adjacent ruins ; 3. Its vicinity to the bituminous fountains of Hit, mentioned by Herodotus, as being eight days' journey above Babylon, upon a stream of the same name, which falls into the Euphrates ; and, 4. From the circumstance that the whole surrounding district has been distinguished by the name of Babel, from the remotest ages to the present hour. The author of " Critical Geography," after ably analyzing the opinions of ancient and modern geographers, concludes by saying, that, taking all these authorities together, the site of old Babylon is clearly pointed out to be at, or in the direc- tion of Hillah ; and he thus determines its geographical posi- tion : — As the longitude of Bagdad is, accordhig to Rich, 44° 45' 45" E. of Greenwich, and n. latitude 33° 19' 40"; and as the longitude of Hillah, by the same authority, is 44° 33' 9", or 12° 36' of Bagdad, and its latitude 32° 31' 18" n., or 38 geographical miles s. of the parallel of Bagdad, and its gene- ral bearing from that place is s. 13° w., and the road distant 50 geographical, or rather more than 57^ English miles ; we may fix the southern limit of the ruins indicating its site, in 32° 43' N. latitude, and e. longitude 44° 32' e. of Greenwich, two miles w. of Hillah. It is not possible to determine precisely the extent and cir- cumference of ancient Babylon, so as to decide which of the various statements of Herodotus, Pliny, Strabo, Solinus, Cte- sias, Diodorus, Clitarchus, and Curtius, are correct. The broad walls of Babylon are broken down, and neither wall nor ditch exists within the area to point out where they stood. Untraceable, however, as the walls now are, some traces of the ancient city commence at two canals, rising east and west, immediately to the south of the village of Mahowil, and a lit- tle east of the eastern bank of the Euphrates. One of these canals is crossed by a brick bridge, and as soon as the travel- HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 47 ler has gained the opposite side, the vestiges of the fallen city- present themselves to his view in awful grandeur. For the distance of twelve miles along the banks of the Euphrates, his eye wanders over mounds of temples, palaces, and human habitations of every kind, now buried in shapeless heaps ; and he travels onward amidst a silence, profound as that which presides over the abodes of the dead. The first object surveyed, after crossing the bridge, is a mound of considerable elevation, about five hundred yardt from the second canal. The sloping sides of this mound are covered with broken bricks and other fragments of buildings, while the ground around its base presents a nitrous surface. A few hundred yards in the advance, is another mound of still greater elevation, from which other elevations project in several directions. Two miles from the bridge are the re- mains of a larger and higher embankment than that of a sim- ple watercourse, and which seems to be the remnant of some interior boundary. The road from this embankment, for the space of four miles, though somewhat even, is nevertheless broken by several mounds, detached portions of canal em- bankments, and ether indications of a place in ruin. These are mingled with large marshy hollows in the ground, and large nitrous spots, which arise from the deposits of accumulated rubbish. At the end of this tract of four miles, a spacious canal is encountered, beyond which, eastward, is a vast unin- terrupted flat. At the distance of half an hour's ride from this canal, the eastern face of the Mujelibe is described. Af- ter a further ride of an hour and a quarter in the same direc- tion, the^uphrates appears in sight ; the view of its north- eastern flSnk being hitherto totally excluded by the long intervening lines of ruin, which in the ear of reason reiterates the words of the prophet : — " Babylon is fallen, is fallen." — Isa. xxi, 9. From this point to the base of the Mujelibe, large masses of ancient foundations spread on the right, more resembling natural hills than mounds, and concealing the ruins of splen- did edifices. Amid these ruins, the majestic Euphrates flows in peaceful solitude ; and although the glory of that river is also departed, it is still a noble feature of the waste scenery. The ruins which claim most attention are comprised within an area of rather more than two miles, from east to west, and about the same distance from south to north. This space is bounded by the river along its western limits, and contains 48 HISTOEY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. a great number of small mounds, and three immense masses of ruins, denominated the Amram Hills, the Kasr, or palace, and the Mujelibe. This latter mound is five miles north of Hillah. To the north-west of this mound commences a mag- nificent rampart, which, running along its northern and eastern sides, takes its course southward, till intersected by the Nil canal. At this point it makes a curve, stretching away direct for rather more than two miles, at the end of which is an opening of three hundred feet, which is supposed to have been once intended for a majestic gateway. The rampart recommences on the southern side of this opening, and runs in an answering and expanding direction south- west, for a mile and a half, where it unites with a clu^tre of low mounds, connected with the great mass of ruins south of the hill of Amram. The whole of this rampart is broad and elevated, and along its summits and slopes are traces of ancient buildings ; but no moat has been discovered. This space has been compared to a drawn bow from whence the arrow has just been discharged ; the river forming the bow, and the two lines of the rampart the string. It is intersected by another ridge of mounds, commencing seven hundred yards south of the Nil canal, and running direct across the area to the opposite side of the rampart. A little to the west of this, another mound commences, which appears rather low till an opening occurs, when it is seen again rising in high elevations, covered with the wreck of ancient buildings. At the north end of this ridge of mound another commences, striking ofT nearly at an angle from that point, and running direct west to the river, whe|| it termi- nates in an elevated mass ; the shore being ther^ixtremely steep and high, forming an admirable defence against the river, and the sudden invasion of an enemy. This is sup- posed to be the river embankment built by Nebuchadnezzar, who fortified it with brick and bitumen fortifications, and over against every street leading to its banks placed a brazen gate, with stairs leading down to the w^ter. Diodorus and Ctesias say, that these embankments were formed of sun-dried bricks in courses ; and such may yet be found in regular layers along the steep shore, from north to south, and huge fragments of the exterior walls are discerned both on the margin of and beneath the stream. From this point, the river bulwark runs north-west to the mouth of the Nil canal ; and from the same point it runs south along the bending course of the river for three quarters of a mile, till it arrives at a HISTORY or THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 49 point where the river has changed its channel westward. Beyond this deviation, the bulwark commences in a rapid ascent of forty-five (eet, following the course of the stream for about 700 yards, till it is lost in the dense woods of bushes and date trees leading to Hillah, Thus this famous embank- ment has been distinctly traced for the space of 2,000 yards, along the eastern shore of the Euphrates, On the north of Hillah, the first ruin that meets the eye of the traveller is a mound called Jumjuma, an epithet which, like Golgotha and Calvary, signifies, " the place of a skull." South of this is the Amram hill, which is 1,100 yards in length, and 800 in breadth, and the figure of which nearly resembles that of a quadrant. The elevation of this mound is somewhat irregular, but at intervals it rises to seventy feet above the level of the plain. It is broken by deep ravines and long winding furrows, and the whole appears one vast elevated mass of earth, mixed with fragments of brick, pottery, vitrifications, mortar, and bitumen. At the foot of the nar- rowest and most elevated part of the embankment, a number of urns are cemented into the burned brick of the wall, which are filled with ashes, intenningled with small fragments of human bones. A little to the north of the Amram hill is the Kasr, or Pa- lace, an august ruin, rising full seventy feet above the general level. The whole of this mass is furrowed into deep ravines, intersecting each other in every direction, and as the traveller passes over it, his feet sink into dust and rubbish. Every ves- tige discovered in it shows it to have been composed of build- ings superior to ail the rest in this section of the ruins, but the excavations which are constantly going forward there to ob- tain bricl^, make it difficult to decipher the original designs of the mound. In some places, the workmen have bored into the solid mass, discovering on every hand walls of burned brick laid in lime m.ortar, fragments of alabaster vessels, fine earthenware, marble, and varnished tiles. Rich discovered a colossal lion, standing on a pedestal of coarse granite of a grey colour, and of rude workmanship. This was on the north side of the mound ; and immediately west of it are the ruins peculiarly denominated the Kasr, or Palace. There is one remarkable difference between the material of the Kasr, and that of the Mujelibe and the Birs Nemroud. The latter piles are vast internal courses of sun-dried bricks, consohdated by the intervention of reeds and slime ; but the Kasr is formed of furnace-burned brick, with its necessary voL« n. 5 50 HISTORY OF THE ^S,ci. It appears that the city of Nineveh extended its length along the eastern banks of the Tigris, while its breadth reached from the river to the eastern hills. According- to Diodorus, it was of an oblong form, fifteen miles long, and nine broad, and consequently forty-eight miles in circuit. Its walls were 100 feet high, and so broad, that three chariots could drive on them abreast, and on the walls were 1 ,500 towers, each 200 feet high. The reader must not imagine, however, that all this vast enclosure was built upon. Like Babylon, it con- tained parks, fields, and detached houses and buildings, such as may be seen in the east at the present day. This representation of the greatness of Nineveh corres- ponds with the notice given of the city in Holy Writ. In the days of the prophet Jonah, about b. c. 800, it is said to have been "an exceeding great city of three days' journey," Jonah i. 2 ; iii. 3 ; which most probably refers to its circuit ; for sixteen miles is, according to Rennell, an ordinary day's journey for a caravan. The population of Nineveh, also, is represented as being very great ; it contained more than six score thousand persons that could " not discern between their right hand and their left hand ; and also much cattle," Jonah iv. 11. This statement is generally understood to include young children, who are usually reckoned to form one-fifth of the entire population, which would thereby give, 600,000 persons as the population of Nineveh, which is by no means extraordinary for a town of such extent. Pliny assigns the same number for the population of Seleucia, on the dechne of Bab3don ; and London, in 1831, contained not less than 1,776,500 persons, within a circle, with a radius of eight British miles from St. Paul's cathedral. It was while the city of Nineveh enjoyed this high state of prosperity, that the prophet Jonah was commissioned to pro- claim to the inhabitants this startling message, " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," Jonah iii. 4. The monarch and the people believed his word, and warned by it, by a general repentance and humiliation, averted the blow. The king of Nineveh " arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying. Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God : yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 67 violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, and they turned from their evil way ; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not," Jonah iii. 6 — 10. How long the inhabitants of Nineveh continued repentant is not recorded. It is probable that when they saw the dan- ger past, they returned every one to his evil ways — that their goodness vanished as the morning cloud that passeth away. It is certain, indeed, that the generation that followed them Avere notorious for their wickedness. Hence, the prophet Nahum, about fourscore years after, or b. c. 721, was com- missioned with " the burden," or " doom," of Nineveh. But still mercy kept the sword of justice sheathed one hun- dred and fifteen years before the catastrophe occurred. Ano- ther prophet, indeed, foretold its doom before its downfall. See Zeph. ii. 13 — 15. But these warnings were unheeded; the people went on sinning with a high hand against the Ma- jesty of heaven. How great their iniquities were, may be in- ferred from the advice given by Tobit to his son Tobias, shortly before his death, and which is here offered to the no- tice of the reader, as illustrating an historical fact, and not as an inspired record. " Go into Media, my son, for I surely believe those things which Jonas the prophet spake of Nineveh, that it shall be overthrown ; and that for a time peace shall rather be in Me- dia. And now, my son, depart out of Nineveh, because that those things which the prophet Jonas spake shall surely come to pass," Tobit xiv. 4, 8. The sword that had been thus long hovering over Nine- veh, at length fell upon the devoted city. It was taken by the Medes and Babylonians under Arbaces, about b. c. G06, in consequence of the river demolishing part of the wall, where it is said to have been destroyed. Like the city of Babylon, however, the utter ruin of Nineveh was the work of ages and successive spoliators were engaged in its demo- lition. And here, again, it may be profitable to trace how beautifully the predictions concerning Nineveh harmonize with historical facts, and the testimony of travellers. The prophet says, " But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, And darkness shall pursue his enemies.— AViA. i. 8. 68 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRFANS AND CHALDEANS. " The gates of the rivers shall be opened, And the palace shall be dissolved. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water."- A'aA. ii. 6. 8. Diodoms Siculus relates, that the king of Assyria, after the discomfiture of his army, confided in an ancient prophecy, "that Nineveh should never be taken till the river became its enemy ;" but that after the allied revolters had besieged the city for two years without effect, there occurred a prodigious in- undation of the Tigris, which inundated part of the city, and threw down the wall for the space of twenty furlongs. The king then, he adds, deeming the prediction accomplished, despaired of safety, and erecting an immense funeral pile, on which he heaped his wealth, which with himself, his house- hold, and palace were consumed. The prophet says — " For while they be folden together as thorns, And while they are drunken as drunkards, They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." — Nah. i. 10. " Woe to the bloody city ! It is full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, And of prancing horses, and of jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear : And there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases ; And there is none end of their corpses — they stumble upon their corpses." — Nah. iii. 1 — 3. Diodorus Siculus says, the king of Assyria, elated with his former victories and ignorant of the revok of the Bactrians, had abandoned himself to inaction, had appointed a time of festivity, and supplied his soldiers with- abundance of wine ; and that the general of the enemy, apprized by deserters of their negligence and drunkenness, attacked the Assyrian army, while the whole of them were fearlessly giving way to indulgence, destroyed great part of them, and drove the rest into the city. The prophet says — < " Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold : For there is none end of the store and glory Out of all the pleasant furniture." — Nah. ii. 9. The historian affirms, that many talents of gold and silver, collected from the ashes of the funeral pile and the rubbish of the burned palace of the Assyrian king, Avere carried to Ecbatana. mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 69 The prophet says — "There shall the fire devour thee." — Nah. iii. 15. And as Diodorus relates, partly by water, partly by fire, it was destroyed. As regards the predictions which refer to the utter desola- tion of Nineveh, how awfully have they been fulfilled ! The prophet says — "He will make an utter end of the place thereof. What do ye imagine aqrainst the Lord 1 He will make an utter end : Affliction shall not rise up the second time." — Nah. i. 8, 9. " She is empty, and void, and waste." — Nah. ii. 10. " And he will stretch out his hand against the north, And destroy Assyria; And will make Nineveh a desolation, And dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall like down in the midst of her, All the beasts of the nations : Both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it. Their voice shall sing in the windows: Desolation shall be in the thresholds : For he shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, That said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me : How is she become a desolation, A place for beasts to lie down in !" — Zcph. ii. 13 — 15. In the second century, Lucian, a native of a city on the. banks of the Euphrates, testified that no vestige of Nineveh was then remaining, and that none could tell where it was once situated. According to Abulfaray, and the general tes- timony of Oriental tradition, most modern writers suppose Nineveh to have been situated on the left, or east bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul, and partly on the site of the modern village of Nunia, or Nebbe Yunus, which contains about 300 houses. The utter ruin of Nineveh was expressed by the prophet Nahum, under this emphatic figure : "Make thyself many as the canker worm, Make thy.self many as the locusts. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven : The cankerworin spoilcth, and fleeth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts. And thy captains as the great grasshoppers. Which camp in the hedges in the cold day, But when the sun ariseth they flee away, And their place is not known where they are." — Nah. iii. 15 — 17. 70. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. The extent of the desolation here denounced will be better understood if the figure is explained. It is supposed, that by the " great grasshoppers" here mentioned, are to be understood locusts before they are in a condition for flight ; and, certainly, the insect in this state of its existence could not fail to have been matter of sad experience to the Hebrews. The descrip- tion, indeed, is perfectly analogous to the habits of these de- vouring insects. The female lays her eggs in the autumn, amounting, some say, to 200 or 300, and she makes choice of a light earth, under the shelter of a bush or hedge, wherein to deposit them. In such a situation, they are defended from the winter's blast, and, having escaped the rigour of the cold, they are hatched early in the season by the heat of the sun, at which time the hedges and the ridges swarm with them. Their ravages begin before they can fly, consuming, even in their larva state, the roots of herbage which spread around them. When they leave their native hedges, they march along, as it were, in battalions, devouring every leaf and bud as they pass ; till, at length, when the sun has waxed warm, about the middle of June, their wings are developed, and they flee away, to inflict on other places that utter desolation to which they reduced the place of their birth. This figure, therefore, implies that the desolation of Nine- veh should be so complete, that its site would in future ages be uncertain and unknown ; and that every vestige of the palace of its monarchs, of the greatness of its nobles, and the wealth of its merchants, would wholly disappear. The supposed remains of ancient Nineveh have been ex- amined and illustrated by Rich, in his " Second Memoir of the Ruins of Babylon." He says : " Opposite Mosul is an enclosure of a rectangular form, corresponding with the cardinal points of the compass, the eastern and western sides being the longest, the latter facing the river. The area, which is now cultivated, and offers no vestiges of building, is too small to have contained a place larger than Mosul, but it may be supposed to answer to the palace of Nine- veh. The boundary, which may be traced all round, now looks like an embankment of earth or rubbish of small ele- vation, and has attached to it, and in its line, at several places, mounds of greater size and solidity. The first of these forms the S. W. angle, and on it is built the village of Nebbe Yunus, (described and delineated by Neibuhr as Ni- mia,) where they show the tcmb of the prophet Jonah, much revered by the Mohammedans. The next, and largest of all, niSTOTlY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 71 is the one which mny oe supposed to be the monument of TSinus. it iS .situated near the centre of the western face ol the enclosure, and is joined, Hke the others, by the boun- dary wall. The natives call it ' Koyonjuk-Tepe.' Its form IS that of a truncated pyramid, with reg-ular steep sides, and a flat top. It is composed, as I ascertained from some excavations, of stones and earth, the latter predominating sufficiently to admit of the summit being cultivated by the inhabitants ol the village of Koyonjuk, which is built on it at the N. E. exiremity. The only means I had, at the time i visited it, of asceitaining its dimensions, was by a cord, which 1 procured from Mosul. This gave 178 feet for the greatest height, 1,850 fset for the length of the summit E. and W., and 1,147 for jis breadth, N. and S. Out of a mound, in the north face of the boundary, was dug, a short time ago, an immense block of stone, on which were sculptured the figures of men and animals. So remarkable was this fragment of antiquity, that even Turkish apathy was roused, and the pasha, and most of the principal people in Mosul, came out to see it. One of the spectators particularly recollected, among the sculptures of this stone, the figure of a man on horseback, with a long lance in his hand, followed by a great many others on foot. The stone was afterwards cut into small pieces, for re- pairing the buildings of Mosul, and this inestimable specimen of the arts and manners of the earliest ages irrecoverably lost. To this day, stones of the largest dimensions, which clearly attest their high antiquity, are found in or near the foot of the mound." Thus the reader will perceive, that Nineveh is left without any monuments of royahy, and without any tokens of its splendour or its wealth ; that their place is not known where they were ; that it is, indeed, a desolation, " empty, and void, and waste," and an utter ruin, according to the Divine pre- dictions. " Her walls are orone ; her palaces are dust : The desert is around her, and within Like shadows have the mighty passed away ! Whence, and how came the ruin ? Ry the hand Of the oppressor were the nations bowed. They rose against him, and prevailed; for he, The haughty monarch, who the earth could rule, By his own furious passions was o'er-ruled. With pride his understanding was made dark. That he the truth knew not ; and by his lusts, And by the fierceness of his wrath, the hearts 72 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. Of men he turned from him. So to kings Be he example, that the tyrannous And iron rod brealcs down at length the hand That wields it strongest ; that by virtue alone And justice, monarchs sway the hearts of men ; For there hath God implanted love of these, And hatred of oppression, which, unseen And noiseless though it work, yet, in the end, Even like the viewless elements of the storm. Brooding in silence, will in thunder burst! So let the nations learn, that not in wealth, Nor in the grosser pleasures of the sense, Nor in the glare of conquest, nor the pomp Of vassal kings, and tributary lands. Do happiness and lasting power abide ; That virtue unto man's best glory is, His strength, and truest wisdom : and that guilt, Though for a season it the heart delight, Or to worst deeds the bad man do make strong, Brings misery yet, and terror, and remorse ; And weakness and destruction in the end. So if the nations learn, then not in vain The mighty one hath been, and is no more!" Atherstone, RESEN. The site of Resen is indicated in the sacred text (Gen. x. 12) with more than ordinary precision ; but we have no evi- dence to show where it stood. Most writers agree in stating that it was erected on the margin of the Tigris, between Nineveh and Calah ; and Bochart conjectures it to be the La- rissa of Xenophon, which, according to that historian, stood near the Tigris, and had been formerly a great city, eight miles in circumference, inhabited by the Medes, but was, at that date, destitute of inhabitants, and in ruins. CALAH. The best authorities concur in placing Calah on the Great Zab, before it enters the Tigris. From this city, the country on the north-east of the Tigris, and south of the Gordian mountains of Armenia, was called Callachene, or Calacine. It was one of those cities founded by Asshur, as recorded Gen. X. 11, but it has long since perished from off the earth. Bochart conceives that this is the same city with Halah, where the king of Assyria placed the captive Israelites, 2 Kings xvii. 6. HISTORY OF TIIE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 73 REHOBOTH. The site of Rehoboth has been fixed at many parts of As- syria. Thus some place it below Nineveh, others below Calah, and others fix it on the western banks of the Tigris, opposite Resen. By some, again, it is considered to be the Oroba of Pliny, while others translate it to signify the streets of Nineveh. In the English translation, it is spoken of as one of the cities built by Asshur. See Gen. x. 1 L ERECH. The rabbins say, that Erech, mentioned Gen. x. 10, as one of the cities built by Nimrod, is the same as Ur, the seat of the nativity of Abraham, and the death of Haran, and which is to the present day denominated by the Syrians, Urhoi, and by the Arabs, Urfah, or Orfah. But this is an unreasonable distance from Babel, in the vicinity of which it was erected j and it would, likewise, give too great an extent to the king- dom of Nimrod. It is generally believed to have been a city of Chaldea, from whence the present name of Irak is de- rived. Herodotus, Ptolemy, and Ammianus Marcellinus mention cities, the names of which are evidently also formed from Erech. There was a city distinguished as And-Erech, in Susiana, near some fiery and bituminous pools ; and there was another, denominated Ard-Erech, on the Euphrates, be- low Babylon. This latter city, perhaps, occupied the site of the original Erech. ACCAD. This city is considered by the most able geographers to be the Sittace of the Greeks, and the Akkerkoof of the present time ; both of which names retain some elements of its ancient denomination. ' It is situated about nine miles west of the Ti- gris, at the place where that river makes its nearest approach to the Euphrates. The opinion that this was the site of the original Accad, is founded, not only upon the circumstances of its situation and name being favourable to its identity, but also, because there is a remarkable monument there, which the Arabs, to this day, call Tel Nemroud ; and the Turks, Nemroud Tepasse : both which appellations signify, the " Hill of Nimrod." This hill is surmounted by a mass of building, which has the appearance of a tower, or an irregular pyra- VOL. II. 7 74 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. mid, according to the point from which it is viewed. It is 300 feet in circumference at the bottom, and rises 125 or 130 feet above the inclined elevation on which it stands. The foundation of the structure is composed of a mass of rubbish, formed by the decay of the superstructure. The different layers of sun-dried bricks, of which it is composed, may be traced very distinctly in the tower itself These bricks are cemented together by lime or bitumen, and are divided into courses, varying from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and separated by layers of reeds, such as grow in the marshy parts of the country. These reeds are in a state of wonder- ful preservation. It is supposed, from the solidity and lofti- ness of the pile, as well as the difficulty of discovering any other use for it, that it was one of those towers which were consecrated by the ancient heathen to the worship of the heavenly bodies, and which served at once as temples and observatories. Piles of this nature have been found in all the primitive cities of this region : the Tel Nemroud, there- fore, sufficiently indicates the site of a primitive town ; and, consequently, it may have been Accad, CALNEH, Both ancient and modern, European and Oriental authori- ties, concur in fixing the site of this city at what was the great city of Ctesiphon, upon the eastern bank of the river Tigris, about eighteen miles below Bagdad. On the opposite side of the river stood Seleucia, which was built by the Greeks for the express purpose of draining Babylon of its inhabitants, and which was made the capital of their empire, east of the Euphrates. After the lapse of several ages, Ctesiphon, which appears to have been in existence as a sm.all town, (which small town was ancient Calneh, built by Nim- rod,) began to assume an importance as a rival to Seleucia, in the hands of the Parthians, those inveterate and fierce foes of the Greeks. SITTACE. There is a diversity of opinion among authors concerning the situation of this city. By Ptolemy and Pliny it is placed at a great distance from the Tigris ; but Xenophon, who traversed the whole country, and had himself been at Sittace, HISTORY OF TILE ASSYHIANS AND CHALDEANS. 75 says, that it stood only about a mile and a half from that river. In the days of this historian, it was a large and populous city. APOLLONIA. This city is placed by Ptolemy between the rivers Gorgus and Silk. It is mentioned by Polybius and Stephanas, who reckon it the twentieth town between Babylon and Susa. ARTEMIA. According to Strabo, this city was anciently of great note, and stood about fifty miles east of Seleucia. It is noticed by Tacitus, Isidore, Characenus, Stephanus, Pliny, Ptolemy, and other Oriental geographers. By Isidore it is placed on the river Silla. Both this city and Apollonia were, without doubt, as their names indicate, of Greek origin. ARBELA. The city of Arbela (now Arbil, or Erbil, a miserable vil- lage, according to Niebuhr's observations) stood on the ordi- nary route from Bagdad to Mosul, in 36'^ 11'. According to Rennell, it was forty-six miles from Mosul. It was situated between the Lesser and the Greater Zab, but nearer the latter, in a hilly and fertile district. The city was once in possession of an hereditary race of Mohammedan princes, whose do- minion extended to Tabreez, in Azerdbijan, and it was then (about the fifteenth century of the Christian era) a large city, defended by a castle, situated on a hill of a conical shape. Part of the present town, which consists of wretched houses, built of sun-dried bricks, is on this hill, and part around it. The castle has almost disappeared. There are no antiquities at Erbil, but there is a minareh, belonging to a mosque, at a little distance, which was erected by sultan Musaffer. This minareh is strongly built of burned bricks and mortar, and has two entrances facing one another, each leading to a flight of steps, by which two persons may ascend the tower without seeing ©ne another till they meet on the summit. The city of Arbela is famous in history for having given name to the last great battle between Alexander and Darius, B. c. 331. The battle was fought at a spot called Gaugamela, now Karmelis, a little place, about thirty-six miles W. by N. from Arbela, according to Niebuhr ; but, according to Arrian, about sixty miles E. of Gaugamela, on a stream called the 76 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRUNS AND CHALDEANS. Chaser, the Bumades, or Bamelas of Arrian. After the battle, Alexander, in pursuit of Darius, crossed the Greater Zab, and arrived at Arbela ; from which circumstance it obtained its celebrity. Besides the cities enumerated in the preceding pages as. ex- isting anciently in Assyria, etc., there were others, as Charra- charta, Thebura, Arrapa, Marde, Bessara, Opis, etc. ; but no- thing is knowTi concerning them beyond their names. At a later date, when the country was under the dominion of foreign rulers, other cities, also, are mentioned by geographers and historians, as Ctesiphon, Seleucia, etc. ; and these, also, for the most part, are passed away. " So sink the monuments of ancient might, So fade the gauds and splendours of the world ; Her empires brighten, blaze, and fade away, And trophied fanes, and adamantine domes, That threaten an eternity, depart !" — R. Montgomery. CHAPTER III HISTORY OF THE POLITY OF THE ASSYRIANS. THE GOVERNMENT. The idea given of the government of the kings of Nineveh and Babylon is, that it was haughty and despotic, and the kino-domhereditary. The whole power centered in the king, and life and death were at his command. All decrees issued from the throne, and none might revoke them. Thus, after Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been delivered from the burning fiery furnace, by the merciful interposition of Di- vine Providence, Nebuchadnezzar, astonished at the event, ex- claimed, " Therefore I make a decree. That every people, na- tion, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill : because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort," Dan. iii. 29. And when the same monarch, troubled by a dream, which had escaped his memory, sought of his wise men for a revelation and an interpretation thereof, because they could not resolve it, he showed his absolute power over his subjects, by issuing a decree, that all the wise men of Babylon should be slain: "And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain ; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain," Dan. ii. 13. This despotism was the natural result of impious arrogance. The monarchs of Nineveh and Babylon affected even Divine honours, as will be seen in their history, and set themselves above all the nations and the gods of the nations they vanquished. " Hath any of the gods of the na- tions," said Sennacherib, by the lips of the vaunting Rabsha- keh, '•• deUvered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah ? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand ? Who are they 78 HISTORY OF THE ASSYFwIANS AND CHALDEAN'S, among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jeru- salem out of mine hand?" 2 Kings xviii. 33 — 35. Enter- taining such arrogant notions as these, it is no wonder that they lorded it over their own people, and the nations whom they might conquer. Their impious arrogance did not even stop here. Sometimes they required that none under heaven should be worshipped but themselves. Speaking of Holofer- nes, the writer of the book of Judith says : " Yet he did cast down their frontiers, and cut down their groves : for he had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only, ftnd that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god," Judith iii. 8. The monarchs of Nineveh and Babylon sometimes even presumed to pass sentence upon the whole world. Of the same monarch it is said : " So he called unto him all his offi- cers, and all his nobles, and communicated with them his secret counsel, and concluded the afflicting of the whole earth out of his own mouth. Then they decreed to destroy all flesh, that did not obey the commandment of his mouth. And when he had ended his council, Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians called Holofernes the chief captain of his army, which was next unto him, and said unto him. Thus saith the great king, the lord of the whole earth, Behold, thou shalt go forth from my presence, and take with thee men that trust in their own strength, of footmen a hundred and twenty thou- sand ; and the number of horses with their riders twelve thousand. And thou shalt go against all the west country, because they disobeyed my commandment. And thou shalt declare unto them, that they prepare for me earth and water:* for I will go forth in my wTath against them, and will cover the whole face of the earth with the feet of mine army, and I will give them for a spoil unto them : so that their slain shall fill their valleys and brooks, and their river shall be filled with their dead, till it overflow : and I will lead them captive to the utmost parts of all the earth. Thou therefore shalt go forth, and take beforehand for me all their coasts : and if they will yield themselves unto thee, thou shalt reserve them for me till the day of their punishment. But concerning them that rebel, let not thine eye spare them ; but put them to the slaughter, and spoil them wheresoever thou goest. For as I * This was after the manner of the kings of Persia ; to whom, accord- ing to Herodotus, earth and water were wont to be given, to acknow- ledge that they were lords of land and sea. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 79 live, and by the power of my kingdom, whatsoever I have spoken, that will I do by mine hand. And take thou heed that thou transgress none of the commandments of thy lord, but accomplish them fully, as I have commanded thee, and defer not to do them," Judith ii. 2 — 13. The happiness or misery of the subjects of these arrogant monarchs wholly depend on their arbitrary will and pleasure. The only doctrine in politics promulgated by them was pas- sive obedience and non-resistance. Their right to rule as they pleased, and as their passions dictated, was constantly inculcated and universally believed. It is no matter of aston- ishment, therefore, that these monarchs, invested with such extraordinary powers, should require proportionate homage, and assume correspondent titles. No subject could approach their presence but by humble prostrations, and none durst ad- dress them, (no, not even their own offspring,) by any other title than that of Lord, great king, and king of kings. Thus, Rabshakeh, in addressing the messengers of Hezekiah, called Sennacherib the " great king, the king of Assyria," Isa. xxxvi. 4. And Daniel, speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, called him, " king of kings," Dan. ii. 37. In later ages the Parthian sovereigns assumed to themselves the same titles. Vologeses, in writing to the emperor Vespasian, used the following su- perscription : " Arsaces, king of kings, to the emperor Fla- vius Vespasian ;" and he was answered in his own style : thus, " Flavius Vespasian to Arsaces, king of kings," Phrahates in., before this, had sent ambassadors to Pompey, to expostulate with him, for omitting in his letter to him the title of " king of kings." None durst appear in their presence, without prostrating themselves on the ground. Nay, more, they were obliged, at what distance soever the king appeared, to pay him that adoration. And this was not only exacted of their own subjects and vassals, but also of foreign ministers and ambassadors : the captain of the guard being charged to inquire of those who sought admittance to the king, whether they were willing to pay him that homage. If they refused, they were informed, that the king's ears were open only to such as were willing to gbey the royal command of rendering this homage. Philostratus says, that in the days of Apollonius, a golden statue of the Parthian king was exposed to all who entered Babylon : and that only such who adored it were ad- mitted within the walls. The kings of Assyria appear to have administered their government by different kinds of officers, both civil and mill- 80 mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS ANLi CITAL DEANS. tary. Strabo divides them into three classes, and says that they were chosen from among the gravest and noblest per* sonages in the empire. The first of these had the charge of virgins, and their disposal in marriage ; the second took cog- nizance of thefts ; and the third of all other crimes. From Scripture it may be gathered, that the subordinate powers of the king of Assyria were divided into princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counsellors, sheriffs, and rulers of provinces, Dan. iii. 2, 3. So that it would appear, nothing was wanting to preserve peace and good order in the empire j and that the civil and military economy was under severe re- gulations. In their own household, the monarehs of Assyria had offi- cers high in rank. The chief of these officers appears to have been "the captain of the guard," who had the execution of all hjs master's arbitrary and sanguinary commands. This appears evident from Dan. ii. 14, 15, wherein it is related that Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, was commis- sioned to slay all the wise men of Babylon. Whenever an officer of this rank, among the Egyptians or Babylonians, is mentioned in Scripture, he is called Sar^ or Rabhatlubbachim, literally, " chief of the slaughtermen ,-" the same word being appKed to the slaughterer of beasts ; and, hence, it is equiva- lent to '^ chief of the executioners;" the body gimrd, under the direction of their chief, being, in the east, charged with the execution of capital punishments, and the commander himself often putting the more distinguished offenders to death with his own harxl. The second in authority in the king's palace- had charge of the education and subsistence of the youth of the palace: " And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eu- nuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes ; children in whom was no blemish, but well-favoured, and skilled in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king," Dan. i. 3 — 5. This ha.s always been the custom in the eastern countries ; and, at this day it may receive illustration from the customs in the Ottoman court. Rieaut. in his " State of the Ottoman Empire," saySj HISTORY OF THE ASSYHUNS AND CHALDEANS. 81 ** The youths that are designed for the great offices of the Turkish empire must be of admirable features, and pleasing looks, well shaped in their bodies, and without any defects of nature ; for it is conceived that a corrupt and sordid soul can scarce inhabit in a serene and ingenuous aspect ; and I have observed, not only in the seraglio, but also in the courts of great men, their personal attendants have been of comely, lusty youths, well habited, deporting themselves with singular modesty and respect in the presence of their masters. So that, when a pasha, aga, or spahee travels, he is always at- tended with a comely equipage, followed by flourishing youths, well clothed and mounted, in great numbers ; that one may guess of the greatness of this empire, by the retinue, pomp, and number of servants which accompany persons of quality in their journeys." The whole of the account given of the arrangements for the Hebrew youths, together with the distinction which Dan- iel, as well as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ultimately attained, is not only instructive as to the usages of the Chal- dean court, but may be illustrated by the customs of Turkey, before the alterations made in the present century. The pages and officers of the court, as well as the greater part of the public functionaries and governors of provinces, were originally youths taken captive in war, or bought or stolen in times of peace. The finest and most able of these were sent to the palace, and, if accepted, were placed under the charge of the chief of the white eunuchs. Those that were accepted, were brought up in the religion of their masters ; and there were schools in the palace, in which they received such complete instruction in Turkish learning and science, as few others could obtain. Among the accomplishments, great pains were taken to teach them to speak the Turkish language with the greatest purity. The youths were well clothed, but their diet was temperate. They slept in large chambers, where there were rows of beds. Every one slept separately ; and between every third or fourth bed lay a white eunuch, whose duty it was to keep a watchful eye upon the conduct of those near him, and report it to his superior. When any of them arrived at a proper age, they were in- structed in military exercises, and great pains were taken to render them active, robust, and brave. Every one, also, was taught some mechanical or liberal art, that they might have a resource in time of adversity. When their education was completed, those who had displayed the greatest capacity and 82 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. valour were employed about the person of the king-, and the rest given to the service of the treasury, and the other offices of the establishment to which they belonged. The more talented were promoted to the various high court offices, which gave them access to the private apartments of the serag- lio, so that they could converse at almost any time with their great master. This advantage paved the way for their pro- motion to the government of provinces, and to military com- mands ; and it often happened, that favourite court officers were promoted to the post of grand vizier, or chief minister, and other high offices of state, without having been previously pashas or military commanders, A third officer in the court of the Assyrian monarchs, was the prime minister, who resembled the Turkish vizier, and who more immediately represented the person of his great master. To this dignity Daniel was promoted, after he had revealed and interpreted the forgotten dream of Nebuchadnez- zar. It is said : " Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon ; but Daniel sat in the gate of the king," Dan. ii. 48, 49. The object for which this offi- cer " sat in the gate," as it is called, was to hear complaints, and to pass judgments ; and, therefore, he may be said to have been the representative of the king. Besides these officers, there seems to have been a master of the magicians at court, whose business it was to satisfy the king upon any subject he might require to know with regard to futurity and prognostications. To this post, also, Daniel was exalted. See Dan. iv. 9. It has been before recorded, that none was allowed the honour of serving in the monarch's presence that was not re- markable for comeliness of person and excellency of parts. As might be expected, this rule extended to their wives and concubines. Of these latter there appears to have been a great number, as there afterwards was in the Persian court ; for it is said of the impious Belshazzar, that he brought " the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple w^hich was in Jerusalem ; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink there- in," Dan. V. 2. From this latter quotation, it would appear, that though the HISTORY OF THE ASSYEIANS AND CHALDEANS. 83 monarchs of this mighty empire considered the whole world as created for their use and service, they nevertheless mingled with their subjects in banqueting and revelling, more espe- cially with the lords and chief men in their dominion. The common style of addressing them was, " O king, live for ever," Dan. ii. 4; v. 10; and those who gained their favour were clothed in purple or scarlet, adorned with chains of gold about their necks, and invested with some government. Thus the guiky Belshazzar, smitten with fear of the handwrking upon the wall, asserted to the wise men, while yet his knees were smiting one against another : " Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom," Dan. v. 7. The exhortation of the psalmist is peculiarly suitable to the circumstance we here relate. '*' Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; In that very day his thoughts perish." — Psa. cxlvi. 3, 4. Even the mighty tyrants of Babylon and Nineveh stooped to the stroke of the mightier tyrant. Death ! and though they exalted themselves as gods on earth, in the common course of nature, or by the hand of violence, they were eventually proved to be mortals ! According to Arrian, when the kings of Assyria died, they were buried in the Lemlun marshes ; and Ainsworth in writ- ing of these plains, which the Euphrates expedition explored, says : " The easterly extent of the valley of the Lemlun marshes leaves a narrow band of soil between the marshes and the Tigris, which is everywhere covered, like the plains of Babylonia and of Chaldea, wkh the monuments of antique industry and enterprise. Thus the words of Arrian receive confirmation from existing mounds and ruins. This territory, inhabited by the Zobeid Arabs, contains the great mounds of Mizisitha, Ithahr, Uffrin, Jerrah Supli, Nimalah, and many others of minor importance, skuated between the more mas- sive, lofty, and extended ruins which belong to Zibliyah, in. the north, and to Jayithah Tel Siphr, and Irak, or Erech, on. the south. On some of these monumental mounds, Messrs. Frazer and Ross found glazed earthen coffins, still more cor- roborative of the descriptions of Arrian, who says, the monu- ments or tombs of the kings of Assyria are said to be placed 84 History op tlie Assyrians and citaldean?. among these marshes. As in the present day, the reed tombs of a sheik, or holy man, are often to be seen islanded amidst a wilderness of water and of aquatic vegetation." Here, then, is the sum of human greatness ! The mighty of the earth, ahke with " the mean man," are brought loW; and mingle with the dust. *^' Proud royalty ! how altered in thy looks \ How blank thy features, and how wan thy hue I Son of the mornfng^ ! whifher art thou gone 1 Where hast thou hid thy niony-spangltMi head, And the majestic menace of thine eyes, Felt from atar'^ Pliant and powerless now, Like new-born infant hound up in his swathes J Or victim tumbled flat upon his back, That throbs beneath tlie sacriflcer's knife. Mute must thou bear the strife of little tongues. And coward insults of the base-born crowd^ That grudge a privilege thou never hadsT^ But only hoped for in the peaceful grave. Of being uimwlested and alone. Arabia's gums and odoriferous drugs, And honours by the herald chdy paid, In mode and form, e'en to a very scruple j Oh cruel irony ! these come too late ; And only mock whom they are meant to honoan Surely there's not a dungeon slave, that's buried In the highway, unshrouded and uncolfined, But lies as soft, and sleeps as sound as he. Sorry pre-emmence of high dpscent, Above the baser born to rot in state."-"BLAiK. Who could look upon the tombs (j{ the kings of Assyria^ buried in the solitude of these marshes, and thirst for humaa greatness ? Rather, they would teach the beholder its vanity, and cause him to exclaim Avith the psalmist, " There be many that say, Who will show us any good 1 Lord, hft thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Psa. iv. 6, *' Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity ; And quicken thou me in thy way." — Psa. cxix, 27. Laws. The laws of the Assyrians and Babylonians, as may be in- ferred from the preceding article, were vague, and entirely dependent on the caprice or pleasure of their monarchs. Ac- cording to Herodotus, however, there was one law, which ap- t)ears to have been irrevocably fixed. This law was calcu- lated to increase the number of the inhabitants, by obliging HISTORY OF TtfE ASSntlANS AND CHALDEANS. 85 all, especially the meaner classes, to marry. But though this law was calculated to increase the poAver of the empire, it wag, nevertheless, one of the most unjust, cruel, and unnatural en- actments that has ever been enacted by an}^ state, ancient or modern ; for, by one clause, it deprived a parent of exercising his natural right of bestowing his own daughters in marriage. This right was assumed for the king and his officers ; and, as soon as they were arrived at the age of maturity, they were exposed in some public place for sale. The most beau- tiful were put up first, and the highest bidder became the purchaser, When all who had charms were disposed of, the money that was raised by this sale was applied in behalf of some of those to whom nature had not been so lavish of her exterior gifts. These were offered to such as would take the least money with them ; and the poor, who valued money more than beauty, v/ere as eager in underbidding each other, as the rich w^ere in overbidding for the beautiful. The re- sult of this was, that their females were all disposed of in mar- riage : the poor, however, were obliged to give security, that they would take those they had chosen, before they received the sum they agreed to take with them. Concerning many other customs, and even laws, as recorded by Herodotus and Strabo, we forbear to speak, recalling to memory the sentiments of the apostle with reference to the works of darkness committed by the heathen world : " For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret," Ephes. v. 12. Those which we have re- corded, as done openly, are sufficient to make the Christian blush for the honour of humanity, and to call forth the deep- est gratitude of Christian parents and their children, for their privileges ; which, however, are attended Avith corresponding duties and responsibilities. But it is to be feared, that many professing Christian parents neglect their duty in this partic- ular. Too many sacrifice the happiness of their offspring at the shrine of the god of this world, Mammon ! An old writer, looking at this evil in a worldly point of view, and aiming a blow at its root, says, " There be two towns in the land of Liege, called Bovins and Dinant, the inhabitants whereof bear an almost incredible hatred one to another ; and yet their children, notwithstanding, usually marry together: and the reason is, because their is none other good town or wealthy place near them. Thus parents, for a little pelf, often marry their children to those whose persons they hate ; and thus, union betwixt families is not made but the breach rather VOL II. 8 86 HISTORY or THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. widened the more." To borrow a figure from the same writer, grace and goodness should be the principal loadstone in the affections of those who unite in holy matrimony ; for love which hath ends will have an end ; whereas, that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue. That is a wise injunction of the apostle, " Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," 2 Cor. vi. 14. Neither gold nor honours should tempt the Christian parent to endanger the everlasting welfare of the souls of their offspring by such un- equal marriages ; for the word of God repeatedly warns them against such connexions, and the severest judgments follow them. PUNITIVE LAWS. Like the general laws, so were the punishments among the Assyrians and Babylonians, vague and uncertain. They were, indeed, arbitrary and rigorous, in proportion to the ty- rant's present rage and fury. Nothing is recorded of them by profane historians ; but it may be gathered from the pro- phecies of Daniel, that beheading, cutting in pieces, turning the offender's house into a dunghill, and burning in a fiery furnace, were sentences ordered by the kings of Babylon ; and hence it may be inferred that these were the usual modes of punishment. See Dan. i. 10; ii. 5 ; iii. 19. MILITARY ^0^VER. Little is known concerning the military force of the empire of Assyria, except that it was very great. Thus when Sen- nacherib invaded Jerusalem, it is recorded that the angel of the Lord smote in the Assyrian camp " a hundred and four score and five thousand" men, Isa. xxxvii. 36. That they were noted for their power in horses and chariots is plain, from Isa. v. 26 — 28, where the prophet predicts the execu- tioners of God's judgments upon his people in these emphatic words : — " And he will lifl up an ensign to the nations from far, And will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: And, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: None shall be weary nor stumble among them; None shall slumber nor sleep ; Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, Nor the latchet of their shoes be broken : Whose arrows are sharp, HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 87 And all their bows bent, Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, And their wheels like a whirlwind," Here, says Dr. Henderson, the rapidity with which the Assyrians advanced is beautifully expressed, by comparing the revolution of the wheels of their war-chariots to that of the sudden whirlwind, which seizes upon all within its reach, and rolling it up with indescribable velocity, bears it into the air. The allusion to the hardness of the hoofs of the horses, prob- ably arises from the fact that the ancients did not shoe their horses by nailing iron-plates to the bottom of the hoof, as in our own country. They had, indeed, shoes of leather, gold, and silver, but these enclosed the whole hoof, and were only used on particular occasions. Xenophon, who, in his Cyro- pcedia, represents the Babylonians in his day as supplying 20,000 horse and 200 chariots, to the force opposed to Cyrus, lays much stress on this point, observing that the good hoof is hard and hollow, and when struck on the ground, sounds like a cymbal. Homer continually uses the epithet, " brazen- hoofed," to the horses of his heroes, which proves that he con- sidered hard hoofs to be requisite in war-horses. COMMERCE. The trade of this ancient people iS no where described at large, but that it must have been considerable, cannot be doubted, especially when Babylon was in the meridian of her glory. This mighty city was, as it were, situated in the midst of the old world, and by the medium of the Euphrates and Tigris, had ready communication with the western and northern parts, as it had also with the eastern, by means of the Persian Gulf Babylon, moreover, was not only the seat of a potent monarchy, but it also afforded many productions and manufactures of its own, to exchange with its neighbours. In Josh. vii. 21, a " goodly Babylonish garment," or, literally, " a mantle of Shinar," of which Babylon was, in after ages, the famous and dominant capital, is mentioned, which indi- cates that this district had early acquired the reputation for its manufactured robes, for which its capital was famous among the ancients. That the Babylonians had shipping of their own, may be inferred from the fact, that the prophet denomi- nates their city a " city of waters ;" and the description of the fall of Babylon, in the book of Revelation, under Avhich figure the mystical Babylon, Rome, is represented, proves at 68 History of the assytjans and chaldeans. once the mighty riches of this city as an emporium, that the Babylonians had an extensive commerce, and that they abounded in shipping. " The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her ; for no man buyeth their mer- chandize of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls and fine hnen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, — and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. The mer- chants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and pre- cious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every ship-master, and all the com- pany in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried, — Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costli- ness! for in one hour is she made desolate," Rev. xviii. 11 — 19. THE PRIESTLY POWER. In several passages of Scripture we read of magicians, as- trologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans, in connexion with the government of the Assyrian empire. This refers to the priests, who appear to have formed the learned caste ; occu- pying the same station as the priests did in Egypt. It does not seem clear, however, that they possessed the same power in the councils, or over the actions of the monarchs. What influence they possessed arose from their learning. This, it is probable, greatly distinguished them from the rest of the peo- ple, and caused them to be as much revered as the Egyptian priests were. They chiefly spent their time in the study of philosophy, and they were especially famous in the art of as- trology, which would give them immense influence over the minds of the credulous muhitude, and cause them to be regard- ed with deference, even by the haughty monarchs who ruled over them. That they held a conspicuous place in the em- pire appears evident, from the several transactions recorded m the book of Daniel, and from the fact that Isaiah notices them in his denunciations of woe upon that empire. " Stand now with thin6 enchantments, And with the multitude of thy sorceries, HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 89 Wherein thou hast, laboured from thy youth ; If so be thou shalt be able to profit, If so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, The monthly prognosticators,* Stand up and save thee From these things that shall come upon theC; Behold, they shall be as stubble ; The fire shall burn them ; They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame : There shall not be a coal to warm at, Nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, Even thy merchants, from thy youth : They shall wander every one to his quarter ; None shall save thee"— Isa. xlvii. 12—15. Profane history bears its testimony to the truth of the sacred writings. Diodorus says, that the Chaldeans were greatly given to divination, and the foretelling of future events ; and that they employed themselves, either by purifications, sacri- fices, or enchantments, in averting evils, and procuring good fortune and success. The art of divination was performed by the rules of augury, the flight of birds, and the inspection of victims. They interpreted dreams and prodigies ; and the presages which they derived from the inspection of the en- trails of sacrifices, were received as oracles by the multitude. The same author states, that their knowledge and science were traditionally transmitted from father to son, thus proceeding on long established rules, and that they held the world to be eternal, having neither beginning nor end. They maintained however, that all things were ordered, and that the beautiful fabric of the universe was supported, by Divine Providence, and the motions of the heavens performed by some unseen and overruling power. It was from their long observations of the stars, and their knowledge of their motions, that they professed to foretell future events. The Sun, Mars, Venus, Mer- cury, and Jupiter, they denominated " interpreters," as being principally concerned in making known to man the will of the gods. They maintained that future events were fore- shown by their rising, setting, and colour : presaging hurri- canes, tempestuous rains, droughts, famines, appearances of comets, eclipses, earthquakes, and every circumstance which * These probably were men who marked out for every year the events which, as they pretended, were to occur in each month of that year, after the manner of our ancient almanack makers. Such a custom was both ancient and oriental. 90 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEAISb. was thought to bode good or evil to nations, kings, and pri- vate individuals. Like modern astrologers, they held also that the planets in their courses through the twelve signs, into which the divided they visible heavens, possessed an influence, either good or bad, on men's nativities ; so that from a con- sideration of their several natures, and respective positions, it might be known what should befall them in after life. Several remarkable coincidences are mentioned by ancient historians to have occurred between their prognostications and events, but they partake too much of the fabulous to be ad- mitted into these pages. They are as incredible as the num- ber of years during which the Chaldeans allege that their predecessors were devoted to this study ; for when Alexan- der was in Asia, they reckoned up 470,000 years since they first began to observe the motions of the stars, a circum- stance which fully proves their disposition for the marvel- lous.* The immense amount of mischief which the study of this vain science gave rise to cannot be estimated. One of the greatest evils which arose from it, was that of idolatry. From the motions and the regularity of the heavenly bodies, they inferred that they were either intelligent beings of themselves, or that they were each under the power of a presiding intel- ligence. Hence the origin of Sabiism, or the worship of the host of heaven. Their observations led them first to judicial astrology, and then to make images of those intelligences, which they imagined either animated the celestial orbs, or guided their motions. The highest object of regard would be that most glorious of all orbs — the sun. Hence it is sup- posed, that Belus was the sun itself, with the ancient Assy- rians and Babylonians ; or the Baal Shemain, or Lord of the * Dr. Hales seems to set this statement in its proper light. He says : " Cicero represents the foolish and arrogant pretensions of the Chaldeans to a series of recorded observations of the stars for 470,000 years, in round numbers. Diodorus is more particular, and raises it to 473,000 years be- fore Alexander's expedition into Asia. The correct number is somewhat more, 473,0-10 years ; the additional forty years being omitted by Diodorus, as insignificant in so great an amount, upon the same principle that even the 3,000 (fortunately preserved by Diodorus) were omitted by Cicero. But this correct cycle of 473,040 years was evidently formed by the multi- plication of two factors ; the square of the Chaldean Saros, l8-)-l8 = 324 years, and the Nobonassarean or Sothiacal period of 1,460 years. The square of eighteen seems to have been employed, in order to furnish a larger period, approximating more nearly to the true lunar motions than the Saros itself, or rather its' deficient value eighteen years, neglecting the eleven days over." HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 91 Heavens, with those nations dweUing in the vicinity of Pales- tine. If this supposition be correct, then the image of Belus would be that of the sun, and the tower of Belus would he dedicated to that luminary. Accordingly, we are told, that there was a sacellum, or small chapel, on the summit of the tower, where his image was kept, and where he was wor- shipped. This form of worship prevailed, from all that appears, in the days of Job, whose trials were, it is believed, within that period in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived. In refer- ence to this mode of worship, the writer of the instructive book of Job says : — " If I beheld the sun when it shined, Or the moon walking in brightness ; And my heart hath been secretly enticed, Or my mouth hath kissed my hand : This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: For I should have denied the God that is above." Job xxxi. 26—28. It would not appear, however, that the Chaldeans or As- syrians bowed down to the heavenly hosts as God ; at least, in their first stages of defection from their Maker. When men first became idolaters, they had not forgotten the exist- ence of God, but had become unmindful of his character and attributes. They were aware of his existence ; but they saw him not as Adam and Eve did in their state of innocence, and imagining that he was too high and distant to concern himself in the affairs, or in the management of the world on which they lived, they concluded that he must have left these small matters to beings greatly inferior to himself, bu^ higher than man in their nature and existence. They sought for these, and beholding the sun when it shined, and the moon walking in brightness, and the planetary bodies moving un- erringly onward in their courses, they believed them to be the regent governors, who took an immediate interest in their concerns, and turned to them in prayer. They esteemed them as mediators between God and them ; for that there was a necessity for a mediatory office between God and man, is observed to have been a notion held by mankind from the beginning. " Conscious of their own meanness, vileness, and impurity," says Prideaux, " and unable to conceive how it was possilDle for them of themselves alone, to have any ac- cess to the all-holy, all-glorious, and Supreme Governor of all things, they considered him as too high and too pure, and 92 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. themselves as too low and polluted, for such a converse ; and therefore concluded, that there must be a mediator, by whose means only they could m.ake any address to him, and by whose intercession alone any of their petitions could be ac- cepted of But no clear revelation being then made of the mediator, whom God had appointed, because as yet he had not been manifested unto the world, they took upon them to address themselves unto him by mediators of their own choosing ; and their notion of the sun, moon, and stars, being that they were the tabernacles or habitations of intelligences, which animated those orbs in the same manner as the soul of man animates his body, and were the causes of all their motions, and that those intelligences were of a middle nature between God and them ; and, therefore, the planets being the nearest to them of all these heavenly bodies, and generally looked on to have the greatest influence on this world, they made choice of them in the first place for their mediators, who were to mediate for them with the Supreme God, and pro- cure from him the mercies and favours which they prayed for ; and accordingly they directed divine worship to them as such ; and here began all the idolatry that hath been prac- tised in the world." This was the first step in the defection of man from his Creator. And now no longer practically acknowledging " the God that is above," the knowledge even of his existence faded from the popular mind. For though some might know, by reason or tradition, that there was one great God, they knew it but obscurely and erroneously, and they also retained the original error, believing him to be too high to be honoured by adoration, or moved by prayer ; and hence Uie most stupid 'idolatry usurped the place of true re- ligion. At first, the sun and moon were worshipped by the Chal- deans in the open air, and their altars blazed high upon the mountains. At length, symbolical representations and statues were introduced, as supplying their place when absent, tem- ples were erected, gods multiphed ; and the actual worship of the heavenly bodies, from the one end of heaven to the other was adopted, as fear, avarice, ambition, or imposture might dic- tate. Under the influences of these causes it was that these first idolaters began to furnish the Sacella, tabernacles or temples, with images, and to erect the same under trees, and upon the tops of mountains : and from hence it was that they assembled themselves together, to worship the hosts of heaven, to hope for all good fi-om them, to dread all evil as proceeding from HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 93 them, and to honour and fear them ; regardless of Him, by the word of whose mouth they were created. Such appears to have been the rise and progress of idolatry, such the original doctrines of Sabiism, as fabricated by the Chaldean priests, adopted by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and finally by all the nations of the east. " Oh, that men, Canst thou believe, should be so stupid grown, — While yet the patriarch lived who scap'd the flood, As to forsake the living God, and fall To worship their own work in wood and stone For gods V Milton. But the evil did not stop here. As man departed further from his God, he seems to have hewn out to himself idols of a more ignoble kind, till at length the very dead were deified. This, however, did not take place till idolatry had attained its height. Josephus says, that the first instance of the kind was amongst the Syrians of Damascus, who deified Benhadad, and Hazael, his successor. Now, Adad, or Hadad, was the name of the sun with that people, and Benhadad signified the " son of the sun ;" and from this it would appear, that the sun was the primary object of their worship, as it was with their neighbours, the Assyrians and Chaldeans, and that afterwards the°deified Benhadad usurped those honours ; or, that they were given to him by his subjects under the belief that he was amongst them, what the sun was amongst the moon and stars. In like manner, it has been supposed that Belus, among the Assyrians, may have been in after ages a deified hero. This honour has, indeed, been ascribed to Pul, the founder of their political grandeur, he being, as will be seen in a future page, the first Assyrian monarch who ex- tended his conquests west of the Euphrates. Nothing is more probable than this ; for it was finally the beUef of star worshippers, that the souls of their monarchs, when they ceased to animate their bodies, went to the sun, or illuminated some star in heaven, and they were consequently deified upon this opinion of their migration. Such being the lamentable fact, it is more than probable that this warrior king under- went an apotheosis, or had the same divine honours paid to him in after ages, that were in former days given to the orb, whither, they asserted, he was ascended. Preparatory to this, he would have been represented as the delegated god of Belus, or the sun upon earth. Accordingly, Herodotus tells us, 94 HISTORY OF THE ASSYTJAKS AND CHALDEANS. that in the temple of Bekis, there were two gods and two altars, both of gold : one larger and one smaller ; that on the lesser altar none but sucking victims w^ere offered ; and on the greater, none but such as were full grown. These suck- ing victims may denote that the sun is the nourisher of all living creatures ; and the full grown may signify that, being thus perfected by the nourishing power of Belus, he com- mitted them to the care of his deified vicegerent on earth. In accordance with the view here taken of the religion of the Chaldean priests, the author of the book of Wisdom, in speaking of idols, says : " By the vain glory of men they entered into the world. — Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of kings. Whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from far, and made an express image of a king whom they honoured, to the end that by this their forwardness they might flatter him that w^as absent, as if he were present," Wisd. xiv. 14, 16, 17. This was certainly the case with regard to the deification of kings, who aspired, like the fallen angels, to be gods. The same author assigns two other cogent reasons for this practice, which must have powerfully operated with the for- mer : " For a father afiiicted with untimely mourning, when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now honoured him as a god, which was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and sacri- fices," ver. 15. "Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set forward the ignorant to more superstition. For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion. And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured as a man. And this was an occasion to deceive the world : for men, serving either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones and stocks the incommunicable name," ver. 18 — 21. From what has been said, therefore, it appears that idolatry had its first rise among the Chaldean priests, and that the vain science of astrology was its parent. The evils to which it gave rise, are well described by the author before quoted : " For whilst they slew their children in sacrifices, or used secret ceremonies, or made revellings of strange rites ; they kept neither lives nor marriages any longer undefiled : but either one slew another traitorouslyj or grieved him by adul- mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 95 tery. So that there reigned in all men without exception blood, manslaughter, theft, and dissimulation, corruption, un- faithfulness, tumults, perjury, disquieting of good men, forget- fulness of good turns, defiling of souls, changing of kind, dis- order in marriages, adultery, and shameless uncleanness. For the worshiping of idols not to be named is the beginning, the cause, and the end of all evil," ver. 23, 27. Contrasting such a state of things as this with those that present themselves to our view, under the influence of thp. Christian religion, how ought we to admire and prize those doctrines which produce the good fruits of holiness. Sitting under our vine, and under our fig trees, we can live in peace, and, walking abroad in the world, can adopt the language of the poet, with reference to the beautiful scenes which nature presents to our view, " And snuling say, My Father made them all." — Cowper. But our happiness, under the benign influences of revealed religion, does not stop here. If we are Christians indeed, we are not only raised in the scale of nature, in a moral point of view, but in a spiritual ; not only profited for time, but for eternity. Like Enoch of old, who, by faith, was translated, that he should not see death, we can " walk with God," and stretching our thoughts beyond the narrow bounds of time, and looking up to heaven, in humble dependence upon a crucified Redeemer, can say, " There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart is there, And my abiding home." For such as by faith are united to Christ, by whose blood they are justified, and by whose Spirit, through the means of the word, that immortal seed of regeneration, they are sancti- fied, are reserved unto life everlasting, and have mansions prepared for them in the eternal world. See John xiv. 1 — 3; 2 Cor. V. 1, 2. CASTE. As the Chaldeans were peculiarly the men of learning, and the priesthood in the Assyrian empire, so the Baby- lonians, properly so called, according to some authors, applied themselves to the arts and sciences, in which they excelled, as their manufactures, buildings, etc., testify. Besides these, there 96 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS, were other subordinate sects, but nothing is known of their constitution. Herodotus says, that three of them fed upon nothing but fish, and therefore infringed a sacred law among the Babylonians, who abstained from such food, out of respect to their great goddess. As these tribes, however, lived in the fens, where no corn grew, it may not, as Strabo observes, have been upon a religious principle, but out of necessity, that they departed from the usages of their countrymen. Strabo relates something more extraordinary of the inhabi- tants of Borsippa, where the bats being much larger than in other places, they salted them for food ; but whether this practice proceeded from want, or superstition, is not related. This is all- that can be safely narrated of the constitution of the empire of the Assyrians and Babylonians ; for the statements of writers in general on this subject, are so vague and uncertain, that there are no satisfactory data on which to form correct opinions ; and to record those which are palpa- bly fabulous, forms no part of our plan. The writer and the reader of ancient history are constantly reminded, that they have no certain data, excepting as to what is derived from, or confirmed by the Holy Scriptures. CHAPTER IV. ; THE KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA. PART I.— ASSYRIAN ADMINISTRATION. The Assyrian empire was one of the most powerful that has ever been established upon the face of the earth. By it, the nations around were long kept in awe, ruled by its iron rod. It g-rew so mighty, indeed, that its monarchs, eventually, lifted up with pride, forgot that they were mortal, and arro- gated to themselves divine honours. Some authors contend that there were two Assyrian em- pires, and that Nimrod founded the first, which subsisted, in more or less extent and glory, upwards of 1450 years. The evidence, however, on v/hich this proposition rests, is very slender. It is highly improbable that empires should have been in existence at so early a date after the dispersion. Kingdoms might, and were, but not empires. Besides, Nim- rod was not an Assyrian, or descendant of Asshur, the son of Shem, but a Hamite, or Cushite. Ham, his grandfather, or, at least, his son Mizraim, settled in Egypt ; others of his sons in Phenicia and Palestine, and Nimrod's brethren of the Cushite race appear to have settled in Arabia, and perhaps in India. Neither the writings of sacred nor profane histo- rians relate that Babel was a city of consequence, till it was rendered such by Semiramis and Nebuchadnezzar. It is not probable that empires should have been at that early age of great importance. But a few years before, mankind had been involved in one general destruction, for their iniquities, eight souls excepted. And prior to the date at which it is said Nimrod founded his empire, the dispersion took place, and the souls then living were, as the sacred historian tells us, scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth. Gen. xi. 9. It may be safely asserted, therefore, that this city, like others in the east, rose gradually to the enormous magnitude it at- VOL. II, 9 ..\^_' _ 98 mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. tained, as ag-es rolled on, and the empire of which it was the capital rose to its height of prosperity ; just as the metropolis of our own country has arisen, as its population, weahh, and power increased. It is said, Gen. x. 11," Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh ;'* that is, being driven out of Shinar, or Babylonia, he went out into Assyria, and builded Nineveh. Who, then, is so likely to have founded Nineveh as Asshur himself? It is not even suggested in the Bible, that Nimrod went forth into the land of Assyria, and buih Nineveh ; but we read, Isa. xxiii. 13, that Asshur founded Babel. " Behold the land of the Chaldeans ; This people was not, Till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: They set up the towers thereof, They raised up the palaces thereof; And he brought it to ruin." The fair conclusions to be deduced from Scripture concern- ing Nimrod and Asshur are, that the former founded a small, but a short-lived kingdom, and that the latter founded Nine- veh, which, in after ages, became the capital of the Assyrian empire. The chronology, and the actions of the ancient Assyrian kings, as recorded by Ctesias, and, after him, Diodorus Sicu- lus, and many modern authors, abound with glaring impro- babilities and exaggerations, such as have never been sur- passed in the most notorious forgeries, or in the most extra- vagant romances of oriental writers. To have performed such actions as they ascribe to Ninus, who is represented by them as the founder of the empire, he must have possessed an empire wider in extent than any that has yet existed, and this empire must have been started into being at once, like the goodly globe on which we live. Years must pass away before the infant becomes a man ; and ages must have rolled onward, before an empire could have stood forth so promi- nently, as that of the Assyrians is said to have done in the days of its founder, Ninus. It is wonderful how such mon- strous fictions could pass for history with men of understand- ing as the Greeks were ; it is still more Avonderful, that they should have been seriously believed by some of the greatest men in the world of literature, whether of ancient or modern times. But such is the nature of man, that, wandering from the source of truth, he is easily led astray, easily seduced into errors. Learning and talent, then, avails him but little ] for mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 99 our judgment, like all our other faculties, is warped by our forefather's transgression — by our departure from original righteousness. Upon the particulars of such statements it is unnecessary to dwell minutely. The only safe guide for us to follow in this matter is the book of revelation. The sacred page does not, indeed, give us a definite history of other nations, but introduces them only so far as some historical facts are con- nected with the history of the Hebrew race, or with the Jews considered as a nation. In this way the following facts are discovered, which will throw a light upon the pretended an- tiquity of the Assyrian empire, and prove that it was neither so ancient, nor so extensive, as Ctesias and his followers would have us believe. In the book of Genesis, chap, xiv., we read concerning the nations dwelling on the east of the Euphrates, that, short- ly after Abram migrated to the land of Canaan, Chedorlao- mer, king of Elam, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of Gojim, or nations, made a suc- cessful incursion into the territory called Pentapolis, or the five cities of the plain, which were involved in the overthrow of Sodom, and where now is the Dead Sea. We read fur- ther, that the kings of these cities served Chedorlaomer, and his confederates, who carried their conquests this time to the shores of the Red Sea, and the frontiers of Egypt, and re- turned, carrying Lot and his family captive. The sacred narrative goes on to say, that Abram discovering the situation of his nephew, armed his servants, 318 in number, pursued Chedorlaomer, and his allies, and defeated them, rescuing Lot, and recovering the spoils. From this may be gathered, that Elam was an independ- ent monarchy, and that Amraphel, king of Shinar, if not his vassal, was his ally. Now, the name Shinar, in Scrip- ture, is usually applied to Babylonia ; it was, therefore, in those early ages, a distinct kingdom from, and dependent, not on Assyria, but Elam. But if Nimrod, Ninus, and Semira- mis, had founded, and reigned over so extensive an empire as some have asserted, this could not have been the case ; for Elam itself, and the other nations mentioned in connexion with it, must have been provinces of that empire. In the days of Abraham, and for ages after, the Canaanites were an independent race, and from the expulsion of that people, down to the time of the " sweet singer of Israel," no mention is made of an Assyrian empire. There is a pro- 100 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. found silence, indeed, throughout the whole of the sacred narrative, and in the writings of the prophets, concerning the empire of Assyria, till after the days of Amos, about b. c. 793. It is true, the writings of this prophet state that " the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir," Amos i. 5 ; and that as God had brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, so had he brought the Sy- rians from Kir, Amos ix. 7 : but all that can be discovered from this is, that Kir was the ancient abode of the Assyrians, before they began to figure in the historic page. After the days of Amos, all the prophets make mention of Assyria as a powerful empire, and we read first of a king of Assyria by name, 2 Kings xv. 19 ; and the parallel passage, 1 Chron. v. 26, where it is recorded : " And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath- pileser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day." From this is discerned, therefore, that Pul was the first Assyrian king of any great political power, and that the Assyrian empire was raised up by the Almighty, to punish the children of Israel for their iniquities. It follows, then, that the story told us of the re- mote antiquity of the Assyrian empire, and of there being two empires, is a fiction. There was only one, and that one had not its origin till about the days of Pul, 790 years b. c, who invaded and rendered tributary the kingdom of Israel in the days of Menahem. This is all the information which Scripture gives concerning the antiquity, etc., of the Assyrian empire ; and this is all that can be safely relied upon in this matter. And why should it be thought needful to carry in- quiries beyond the bounds where correct data are given, and to lose time in discussing what is confessedly fictitious ! PUL. It is recorded in the preceding section, that Pul is the first king of Assyria mentioned by name in Scripture. The Scripture dynasty of Assyrian kings, however, begins with that unnamed "king of Nineveh," who repented at the pro- phecy of Jonah, about b. c. 821. Dr. Hales thinks it proba- ble that Pul was the son of this monarch. Be that as it may, Pul was the first king of Assyria who began to interfere in the affairs of the western states. Hitherto the Assyrian HISTORY OP THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 101 power appears to have lain dormant in that direction. But " God stirred up the spirit of Pul," and he invaded Israel, B. c. 770, in the twentieth year of his reign. The act is thus recorded in Scripture : " And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land : and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him." [For Menahem had usurped the crown of Israel in the same year, and there- fore needed protection.] " And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land," 2 Kings xv. 19, 20 ; 1 Chron. v. 26. It is considered, by the best authorities, that Pul was the Assyrian Belus ; that he shared a joint worship with the ori- ginal Belus, or the sun ; and that the temple of Belus, at Babylon, was dedicated to both, Babylon being originally a province of the Assyrian empire. Dr. Hales conceives, that he was the second Belus of the Greeks, Nimrod, or Ninus, being the first, who built the temple of that name at Baby- lon ; and, like the first, was deified after his death. It is pro- bable, that he attracted their attention by his excursions into Syria and Palestine. He died b. c. 747. TIGLATH-PILESER. This conqueror seems to have been the son of Pul. Sir Isaac Newton conjectures, and Mr. Hales concurs in the con- jecture, that at Pul's death his dominions were divided be- tween his two sons ; when the sovereignty of Assyria was given to the elder, Tiglath-pileser ; and the prefecture of Ba- bylon to the younger, Nabonassar, from the date of whose government the celebrated era of that name took its rise, b. c. 747. The celebrated Semiramis, says the latter author, who built the walls of Babylon, according to Herodotus, might have been either the mother or the wife of Nabonassar. In the seventh year of his reign, b. c. 740, Tiglath-pileser found an opportunity of interfering in the disturbances that broke out in Syria and Palestine. The cause of this inter- ference is thus narrated by the sacred historian : " Then Re- zin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war : and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath : and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day. 9* 102 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son ; come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him : for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin," 2 Kings xvi. 5 — 9. This act fulfilled the prophecies of Amos : " And the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the Lord." — Amos i. 5. "Have not I brought up the Syrians from Kir 7" — Amos ix. 7. But the sacred historian says of Tiglath-pileser, that he distressed Ahaz, and strengthened him not, 2 Chron. xxviii. 21. At this time, indeed, he carried away the Transjordanite tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, captives to Media, where he planted them in Halah, Habor, and on the river Gozan, 1 Chron. v. 26 ; and also the other half of Manasseh in Galilee, 2 Kings xv. 29, which acts were also in accord- ance with the sure word of prophecy : " I hate, I despise your feast days, And I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept of them : Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ; For I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, And righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel 1 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch And Chiun your images, The star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus." Amos V. 21—27. Or, as It is in the Acts of the Apostles : " I will carry you away beyond Babylon." — Ads vii. 43. And again: " Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord : Thou sayest. Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith the Lord j HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 103 Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, And thy land shall be divided by line ; And thou shalt die in a polluted land : And Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land." Amos vii. 16, 17. Compare also 2 Kings xvi. 5 — 9, and Isa. viii. 1 — 11. SHALMANESER, OR, SHALMAN. This prince is simply called Shalman in Hos. x. 1 4. He was the successor of Tiglath-pileser, and, according to Dr. Hales, his reign extended from 726 to 714 b. c. In the fifth year of his reign, b. c. 722, the king of Israel having rebelled against him, Shalmaneser invaded Israel, and besieged Samaria, which he took, b. c. 719; and fulfilling the prophecies of Amos and the other prophets, referred to in a previous page, he transported the chief of the people of the seven western tribes beyond Assyria, and planted them in. Media, 2 Kings xvii. 5, 6, whither his father had transplanted the Transjordanite, or eastern tribes. Thus was completed the captivity of the ten revolted tribes, in the course of twenty- one years, that is, from 740 to 719 b. c. On the policy of the Assyrian monarchs in transplanting their captives thither, Dr. Hales remarks : " The geographi- cal position of Media was wisely chosen for the distribution of the great body of the captives ; for, first, it was so remote, and so impeded and interspersed with great mountains and numerous and deep rivers, that it would be extremly difficult for them to escape from this natural prison, and return to their own country. And, second, they would also be opposed in their passage through Kir, or Assyria Proper, not only by the native Assyrians, but also by their enemies, the Syrians, transplanted there before them. And, third, the superior civilization of the Israelites, and their skill in agriculture and in the arts, would tend to civihze and improve those wild and barbarous regions. And, fourth, they could safely be allowed more liberty, and have their minds more at ease than if they were subject to a more rigorous confinement nearer to their native country." The causes for the captivity of Israel are stated, 2 Kings xvii. 7 — 23, where the judgments, says the author of the Kings of Judah and Israel,* are fully vindicated, while the ♦ This work is published by the Religious Tract Society, and the reader is referred to it as containing the Jewish history of this period 104 HISTORY OP THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. sins of Israel, and the extent to which they carried their idolatry, are strikingly delineated. It may be mentioned, that the tribe of Naphtali is said to have been carried away by Tiglath-pileser, 2 Kings xv. 29. In the book of Tobit, however, the writer who was of that tribe, ascribes his captivity to Enemessar, or Shalmaneser. See Tobit i. 1,2. Besides the final subversion of the kmgdom of Israel by this prince, Josephus preserves a passage from the archives of Tyre, from which it appears that the Assyrian king over- run Phenicia also, and received the submission of the whole country except Tyre. The elder Tyre, (Palre-tyrus,) Sidon, Acre, and other towns, seem to have been glad of the opportu- nity of exchanging the yoke of their neighbour for that of a foreign power ; for they assisted the Assyrians with a fleet of sixty ships, which the Tyrians defeated with only twelve ships. Upon this, Shalmaneser advanced to Tyre, and kept it in a state of blockade for five years, when his death occa- sioned the undertaking to be discontinued. He was succeed ed in his kingdom by whose reign, according to Hales, extended from 714 to 710 B. c. As soon as this prince Avas settled on the throne, he renewed a demand which had been exacted by his father from Hezekiah, king of Judah, and upon his refusal to com- ply, he declared war against him, and invaded Judah with a mighty army. Hezekiah acknowledged his ofl^ence. and oflTered to submit to any tribute the king should impose upon him. Accordingly, he paid the stipulated sum of 300 talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, (in the whole amounting to 285,812/. sterling,) to raise which, he exhausted the royal and sacred treasuries, and stripped off the gold with which the doors and pillars of the temple were overlaid, which, to this pious king, must have been a grievious necessity indeed, 2 Kings xviii. 13—16. The Assyrian monarch, however, regarding neither the sanctity of oaths nor treaties, still pushed on his conquests. Nothing was able to withstand his power, and Jerusalem was reduced to the utmost extremity. While he himself was ravaging the whole country, and reducing the important frontier towns toward Egypt, (which he determined to invade, because So, king of Egypt, had encouraged Hoshea to revolt. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 105 with promises of assistance he did not perform, and now, perhaps, renewed to Hezekiuh, as may be gathered from 2 Kings xviii. 21,) he sent three of his generals, Tartan, Rab- saris, and Rabshakeh, with a great host, to besiege Jerusalem, and to summon Hezekiah to surrender. They came to the very walls, and there not only ridiculed his expectations from Egypt, but his faith in Jehovah. They also exhorted the people to desert their prince, and promised them plenty and security, under the rule of their master ; and threatened utter destruction unless they submitted to his yoke, 2 Kings xviii. 17—35. At this message from the Assyrian monarch, Hezekiah was deeply distressed. He saw that the situation of himself and people was a very critical one, and that nothing but a display of Divine power, manifested on behalf of Jerusalem, could save them. With outward tokens, therefore of humilia- tion, and deep emotions of godly sorrow, he repaired to the temple, accompanied by his nobles, to seek that aid. From hence he sent to solicit the intercession of the prophet Isaiah on their behalf and received an immediate reply, that Senna- cherib should be constrained to depart from them, and should die by the sword, 2 Kings xix. 1 — 7 ; Isa. xxxviii. 1 — 7. At this critical juncture, Hezekiah fell sick of the plague. He was brought to the brink of the grave, and a message from God bade him prepare to leave the world. In this dis- tress, Hezekiah again resorted to prayer, and received in an- swer, a declaration, that on the third day he should be per- fectly restored, and that fifteen years should be added to his life. For the confirmation of his faith, the shadow of the sun was carried back ten degrees ; that is, the light was protracted in a miraculous manner, in token of his recovery, 2 Kings XX. I — II : Isa. xxxviii. Shortly after this event, as we are told by Herodotus, the king of Assyria invaded Egypt, but without success. [See the History of the Egyptians, page 137.] His account, how- ever, is evidently a caricature of the miraculous deliverance promised to Hezekiah, for the blasphemies of the Assyrians. " Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land ; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land," 2 Kings xix. 7. See also Isa. xxxi. 8, 9. The rumour which Sennacherib heard, was, that Tirhakah, king of Cush, or Arabian Ethiopia, was come out to fight against him on his passage homewards, 2 Kings xix. 9. 106 mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. Sennacherib was resolved to meet Tirhakah, and, through the medium of Rabshakeh, he sent a boasting letter to Heze- kiah, defying the God of Israel, and threatening Jerusalem with eventual destruction, although he was now compelled to break up the siege. The conduct of Hezekiah, when he received this letter, is very pleasing ; and it would be well for Christians to follow his example in the hour of distress. He hastened to the throne of grace ; he spread its contents before the Lord, and ardently besought him to interpose, for his own name's sake. His prayer prevailed. The prophet was again commissioned to confirm the promise, and to assure him of speedy relief. On that night, the promise was fulfilled. As they lay slum- bering in their tents, and probably dreaming of victory and revenge, the angel of the Lord smote in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, 2 Kings xix. 35. Sennacherib now returned to Nineveh, where, being exas- perated by his defeat, he inflicted many cruelties upon his subjects, and especially upon the captive Israelites. The author of the book of To bit thus speaks of these cruelties : " And if the king Sennacherib had slain any, when he was come, and fled from Judea, I buried them privily ; for in his wrath he killed many; but the bodies were not found, when they were sought for of the king. And when one of the Ninevites went and complained of me to the king, that I buried them, and hid myself; understanding that I was sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear. Then all my goods were forcibly taken away, neither was there any thing left me, beside my wife Anna and my son Tobias," Tobit i. 18—20. The cruelties of Sennacherib were not, however, long con- tinued. As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, (signifying " king of flight," and corresponding to Jove, the " god of flight," among the Greeks.) he was assassinated by two of his sons; who, after committing the sanguinary deed, escaped into the land of Armenia ; while a third son, Esarhaddon, reigned in his stead. The death of Sennacherib is alluded to, Isa. xxxi. 8, where it is said, " Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man ; And the sword, not of a man, shall devour him." At this juncture, when the Assyrians were weakened by so HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CIIALBEANS. 107 great a blow, the Babylonians and the Medes revolted. Mero- dach-baladan reigned over Babylon ; and, soon after his ac- cession, he sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, to congrat- ulate him on his recovery. Hezekiah was flattered by this embassy ; and in the pride of his heart he made a vain dis- play of his grandeur, and exhibited to the wondering am- bassadors his palaces and treasures. For this vanity, Isaiah was commissioned to reprove him, and to denounce a woe upon him and his people. The very men to whom he had paid his court were to seize upon the treasures he had ex- hibited, and to reduce his descendants to the most abject bond- age, 2 Kings XX. 12 — 19. ESARHADDON. This king is the " great and noble Asnapper" of Ezra iv. 10; the Sargon of Isa. xx. 1 ; the Sarchedonus of Tobit i. 21; and the Asaradin of Ptolemy. His reign commenced, accord- ing to Dr. Hales, b. c. 710. Esarhaddon came to his throne at a season of general re- bellion and revok of the provinces of Assyria. The Medes led the way, and, after a severe battle, regained their liberty, and retained their independence. They were followed by the Babylonians, Armenians, and others. From this cause, Esarhaddon had full employment on his hands for many years. At length, however, in the thirtieth year of his reign, or B. c. 680, he recovered Babylon, and annexed it to his for- mer dominions.* As soon as he had re-established his dominion, and con- firmed his authority at home, Esarhaddon undertook an ex- pedition against the states of Phenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and Ethiopia, to avenge his father's defeat, and to recover the re- voked provinces on the western side of the Euphrates. For three years he ravaged those countries, and brought away many captives ; fulfiUing the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, *' Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot, * The government of Babylon seems to have fallen into great disorder and confusion after Merodach-baladan ; at least, if vfe may judge from the recurrence of five reigns and two interregnums often years, all in the course of twenty-nine years, preceding its reduction again under the As- syrian yoke. We are unacquainted with the story of these kings of Ba- bylon; for their names, and that of others, the reader is referred to the table given at the conclusion of this history, from the pen of Dr. Hales, who framed it from a careful comparison of Scripture with Ptolemy's Canon of the reigns of the contemporary kings of Babylon. 108 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CllALDKMiS. three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia ; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyp- tians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt," Isa. xx. 3, 4. That the country of Palestine might not become a desert, he sent colonies of idolatrous people, taken out of the coun- tries beyond the Euphrates, to dwell in the cities of Samaria ; thereby fulfilhng another prophecy : " And within three-score and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a peo- ple," Isa. vii. 8. This was the precise space of time which elapsed between the prediction and the event : and the people of Israel did then, B. c. 675, truly cease to be a visible nation ; the remnant being- mixed and confounded with other nations. About two years after, Esarhaddon invaded and ravaged Judea ; and the captains of his host took Manasseh the kino- alive, and bound him with fetters, and carried him away cap- tive, with many of the nobles and people, to Babylon. 2 Chron. x.Kxiii. II. Manasseh, however, having afterwards been brought to a sincere and lively repentance, obtained his liberty, and returned to Jerusalem. This is a lively instance of the grace of God, and true re- pentance. Reader, let it not pass by unimproved. We all need repentance, for "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ;" all have provoked his just wrath and indig- nation. How comforting, then, is the example before us. that God is merciful ! and still more comforting is the assurance of the apostle, that, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- righteousness," 1 John i. 9. Like Manasseh, then, return to the Lord, and that without delay ; for, " By nature's law, what may be, may be now; There's no prerogative in human hours : In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rise, Than man's presuinpUon on to-morrow's dawn 1 Where is to-morrow 1 in another world. For numbers, this is certain ; the reverse Is sure to noye ; and yet on this, perhaps, This peradventure, infamous for lies, As on a rock of adamant, we build Our mountain hopes ; s{)in out eternal schemes, And, big with life's futurities, expire." — Young. Our hopes should be fixed on Christ ; for " Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS, 109 to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins," Acts v. 31. In him alone our help is found ; and whoever neglects to flee to him, neglects his best interests for time and for eternity. Esarhaddon was a great and prosperous prince. He ap- pears not only to have recovered all the revolted provinces of Assyria, except Media, but to have added thereto Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, Phenicia, Judea, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, unto the borders of Ethiopia, or Abyssinia ; such at least, were possessed by his grandson Nabuchodonosor, as may be gathered from Judith i. 6 — 10. Esarhaddon is ranked by Ptolemy, in his Canon, among the Babylonian kings, probably because he made it his chief residence during the last thirteen years of his reign, which he did, by way of preventing another defection. By Diodo- rus and Justin he is called Sardanapalus ; and they confound him with the last king, Sarac, who perished in the overthrow of Nineveh, about b. c. 606 ; which, Dr. Hales says, is the grand error which has chiefly perplexed and embarrassed the Assyrian chronology, and given rise to the supposed double capture of Nineveh. This learned writer proves the position he here takes, thus : 1. " Athenceus relates, from Clitarchus, that Sardanapalus died of old age, after he had lost the Syrian or Assyrian em- pire." He lost the empire, as recorded, in his youth, but he recovered it in his age. 2. His statue was erected at Anchiale, in Cilicia, with this inscription : " Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxes [Sen- nacherib,] buik Anchiale, in Tarsus, in one day. Stranger, eat, drink, and play ; for all other human concerns are not worth this ;" which word this referred to a fillip, which the statue was in the attitude of giving with his fingers. To this inscription the apostle evidently alluded, when, writing to the Corinthians, he said, " Let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die :" and to which he replied, in the following iambic of Menander, " Evil communications corrupt good manners," 1 Cor. XV. 32, 33. Thus intimating, from a better heathen authority, that the conversation of such sensualists as scoff' at the hope of another life, is subversive not only of religion, but of sound morality. 3. Herodotus, also, so well skilled in Assyrian affairs, re- cords the following curious incident : " Some robbers, who were solicitous to get possession of the immense treasures of Sardanapalus, king of Nineveh, which were deposited in VOL. u. 10 110 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. ''^^ subterraneous apartments, began, from the place where they lived, to dig under ground, in a direction towards them. Having taken the most accurate measurement, they continued their mine to the palace of the king : as night approached, they regularly emptied the earth into the Tigris, which flows near Nineveh, and at length accomphshed their purpose." This would demonstrate, that the second Sardanapalus could not be meant ; for he perished with his treasures. NINUS. According to Syncellus, a prince of the name of Ninus succeeded Sardanapalus at Nineveh; and we learn from Ptolemy, that Saosduchin, who was either his son or his de- puty, succeeded him also at Babylon. According to Dr. Hales, they began their reign b. c. 667. Nothing is known conceaning this Ninus : he was succeeded in his empire by NABUCHODONOSOR, or Saosduchin, whose accession is dated b. c. 658. In the twelfth year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, he declared war against Arphaxad, or Phraortes, king of the Medes, and he summoned all the states of his mighty empire to his aid. The western and southern provinces of Cilicia, Phenicia, Judea, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt, refused to obey the summons, and to furnish him with troops, and they even insulted and ill-treated his ambassadors. This caused a delay of five years in his projected invasion of Media, at the end of which time, b. c. 641, he took the field, when he defeated the Median army near Ragau, or Rages, took Arphaxad pri- soner, and slew him the same day. After this, he stormed Ecbatana, his capital, demolished its towers, and ravaged its palaces, and then returned to Nineveh, where he feasted his troops for four months. Flushed with this victory, in the ensuing spring, b. c. 640, Nabuchodonosor sent Holofernes with an army of 120,000 foot, and 12,000 horse, to chastise the states that had refused their assistance in the Median war. The commands which Holofernes received were of the most rigorous nature ; and, acting upon them, he proved himself a cruel conqueror. He ravaged and reduced Cilicia and Syria, and part of Arabia, Ammon, and Edom ; destroying with a high hand the fair fruits of the earth, and smiting the inhabitants with the edge of the sword. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. Ill These severe measures awed the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, and of all the sea-coast unto Azotus and Askelon. In the spirit of fear, therefore, they sent ambassadors to Holo- fernes, to solicit peace, Holofernes granted it ; but he put garrisons into their towns, and obliged them to furnish recruits for his army. He also destroyed the barriers on their fron- tiers, and cut down their sacred groves ; and he destroyed " all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Na- buchodonosor only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god," Judith iii. 8. The little state of Judea, it would appear, still preserved its independence. Accordingly, after Holofernes had spent a full month in the plain of Esdraelon, on its confines, waiting to collect the carriages of his army, he encamped in the valley over against Bethulia, the key to the hill country of Judea, with an army increased to 170,000 foot, resolving to reduce it to the allegiance of Nabuchodonosor. The particulars of the seige of Bethuliah, and its final de- liverance by the heroine Judith, with the death of Holofernes, and defeat of his hosts, are recorded in the book that bears her name ; but as that book is of somewhat doubtful authority, the details are here passed over. Nabuchodonosor died about four years after, or b. c. 636 ; and he was succeeded by the last king of Nineveh, This prince ascended the throne at a time when revolt and rebellion raged throughout the empire. The Medes once more took up arms, and they soon regained Ecbatana, and the territory they had lost. Nor did they stop here. Revenge, that evil composition of pride and cruelty, inflamed the war- like Cyaxares their king, and he attacked and defeated the Assyrians, and beseiged Nineveh. His first attempts, however, proved abortive. He was himself attacked and defeated by a powerful Sc}i;hian army, who possessed themselves of Upper Asia, and ruled with great rigour for twenty-eight years. At the end of this time, B. c. 61 2, Cyaxares massacred their chieftains at a banquet, and shook ofT their yoke. The design which Cyaxares had formed, of reducing Nineveh, was now renewed. He formed an alliance with Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, Avho, taking advantage of the disaster of Holofernes, had also recovered his independence j 112 mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. * and a marriage having been concluded between Nebuchad- nezzar, son of Nabopolassar, and Amytis, the daughter of Cyaxares, the kings of Babylon and Media jointly beseiged Nineveh. According to Justin, Sardanapalus was a most effeminate prince, who betrayed great cowardice on the revolt of the Medes, and, instead of defending his crown, fled, after a fee- ble resistance, to his palace, and burned himself and his trea- sures in a pile erected for that purpose. Diodorus, however, gives a more probable account of the downfall of Nineveh. He states, that, relying upon an ancient prophecy, that Nine- should never be taken until the river became its enemy, Sar- danapalus omitted nothing that prudence and courage could suggest for his defence and security. He sent his children, and a great part of his treasures, to his intimate friend Cotta, governor of Paphlagonia, and provided ammunition and pro- visions for the defence and support of the inhabitants. At length, after the confederates had beseiged the city for two years without effect, an unusual overflow of the Tigris, occa- sioned by heavy rains in the mountains of Ararat and sources of the river, occurred, and the water rising up to the city, threw down twenty furlongs of its great wall. Sarac, struck with dismay and despair at the unexpected fulfillment of the prophecy, burned his concubines, his treasures, and himself, upon a great pile, in the court of the palace, to avoid falling into the hands of the confederate kings. The enemy entered by the breach, and sacked the city, and raised it to the ground, after it had stood for about 1,900 years. [See the section on Nineveh.] This event took place about b. c. 606 ; after which, Assyria was governed by the monarchs of Babylon ; for the power of Assyria was now passed away as a shadow. : CHAPTER V. THE KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA. PAUT n. BABYLONIAN ADMINISTRATION. NABOPOLASSAR. The capture of Nineveh rewarded the Medes with independ- ence, and the Babylonians with empire. The essential power of Assyria was, however, in the hands of the Babylonians before this transaction took place: it was only the crowning act, which placed Nabopolassar in the position of undisputed master of the empire. , , , • j . a isj- ^ The Babylonians and the Medes having destroyed IMne- veh, became so formidable, that they drew upon themselves the jealousy of their neighbours. Pharaoh-nechoh kmg ot Eo-vpt, was so alarmed at their power, that, to stop their pro- gress, he marched towards the Euphrates, at the head of a powerful army, and made several conquests. [See the His- tory of the Egyptians, page 146] In the fourth year after this expedition, Nabopolassar, ob- servino-, that since these conquests of Nekus, all Syria and Palestine had shaken off their allegiance to him, and that his years and infirmities would not permit him to march in per- son against the rebels, associated his son Nebuchadnezzar with him in the empire. •. , . r i, , i This young prince, b. c. 604, revenged his father s quarrel upon Nekus. He invaded Egypt, and stripped hrni of all his conquests, from the Euphrates to the Nile, so effectually, that the kino- of Egypt no more invaded his neighbours. 2 Kings xxiv.'' This event was foretold by the prophet Jere- miah. See chap. xlvi. The conquests of Nebuchadnezzar did not end here. He likewise entered Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and took it. At first, he caused Jehoiakim to be put in chains, with a design ' 10* 114 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. ' to have him carried to Babylon ; but being- touched with pity at his repentance and affliction, he restored him to the throne. Great numbers of the Jews, and, among the rest, some chil- dren of the royal family, were carried captive to Babylon, whither the treasures of the king's palace, and a part of the sacred vessels of the temple, were likewise transported. Among the captives may be mentioned the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, and Mordecai was carried thither some time afterwards. Thus was the judgment which God denounced, by the prophet Isaiah, to king Hezekiah, accomplished. See 2 Kings XX. 16 — 18. From this famous epoch, therefore, b. c. 605, which was the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, must be dated the captivity of the Jews at Babylon, so frequently and so emphatically foretold by Jeremiah. See Jer. xxii. 13—26; xxv. 11; xxvi. 20—23; xxix. 10; etc. etc. Towards the end of the year, b. c. 604, Nabopolassar king of Babylon died ; and he was succeeded in his empire by his son NEBUCHADNEZZAR. Berosus says, that Nebuchadnezzar having heard of his father's death while yet he was carrying on his conquests in. Judea, left his Syrian, Phenician, Egyptian, and Jewish cap- tives, with his heavy-armed troops and baggage, to the care of his friends or officers, to be conducted to Babylon, and went thither himself with a small party across the desert, to take possession of the kingdom, when he appointed the fit- test stations in Babylonia to be colonized by the captives. In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Jehoiakim re- belled against him, whereupon his generals, who still re- mained in Judea, marched against him, and avenged the " innocent blood," which he and his people, following the example of Manasseh, had shed, 2 Kings xxiv. 2 — 4. The prophet Jeremiah had foretold his destruction in these words : " Therefore thus saith the Lord Concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother ! or, Ah sister ! They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord ! or, Ah his glory ! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, Drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." Jer, xxu. 18, 19. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 115 His doom is referred to more explicitly, also, in another passage : " Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judahj He shall have none"to sit upon the throne of David : And his dead body shall be cast out In the day to the heat, And in the night to the frost," — Jer. xxxvi. 30, 31. Accordingly, as we learn from Ezekiel, in his figurative description of Jehoiakim, as another rapacious lion's whelp, succeeding Shallum, that " The nations set against him on every side from the provinces, And spread their net over him : He was taken in their pit. And they put him in ward in chains, And brought him to the king of Babylon."— £7^6^;. xix. 8, 9. That is, to Nebuchadnezzar, who "bound him," says the sacred historian, " in fetters," (foretold Hab. i. 6.) " to carry him to Babylon," 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6. It would appear, how- ever, that Jehoiakim died before the king of Babylon's inten- tions could be carried into effect ; and we may conclude that he was buried " with the burial of an ass," as a just reward for " his abominations," 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8. Jehoiakim was succeeded in his kingdom by Jehoiachin, who- had not reigned more than three months and ten days, before Nebuchadnezzar sent to his servants to besiege Jeru- salem ; and he surrendered himself into their hands, and was brought to Babylon, where he remained in captivity all his days, 2 Kings xxiv. 8—12; Jer. Hi. 31—34. This event was predicted by Jeremiah, chap. xxii. 24 — 27 ; who, also, foretold the failure of his succession. ^" O earth ! earth ! earth ! hear the word of the Lord. '' Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, A man that shall not prosper in his days; For no man of his seed shall prosper, Sitting upon the throne of David, And ruling any more in Judah," — Jer. xxii. 20, 30. When Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jehoiachin, he appointed his uncle Zedekiah to reign in his stead, and none of his fa- mily reigned any more in Judah. Zedekiah was neither more pious nor prosperous than his predecessors. Having made an alliance with the king of Egypt, he broke the oath of fidelity he had taken to the 116 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. king of Babylon. The latter however, soon chastised him for his breach of faith. He invaded Judea with a j^reat army, took most of the cities, and besieged Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxiv. 20 ; XXV. 1 ; Jer. xxxix. 1 ; EzeJ^. xxiv. 1, 2, This was in the latter end of the year b. c. 588. Early the next year however, the Egyptians having made a show of coming to Zedekiah's reUef the Chaldeans broke up the siege of Jerusalem, and advanced to give them battle. But the Egyptians retired, and left the Jews to their fate, as Jere- miah forewarned the messengers of Zedekiah, whom he sent to inquire of the Lord, Jer. xxxvii. 2 — 10. On the return of the Chaldeans to the siege, they pursued it vigorously, until after a siege of eighteen months from the beginning, they stormed the city about midnight, and put the inhabitants to the sword, 2 Kings xxv. 2 — 4; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17 — 19; Jer. xxxix. 1, 2. Zedekiah, his sons, and ofHcers, and the rem- nant of his army, were captured in the plains of Jericho, from Avhence they were conducted to the king of Babylon at Riblah, in Coelo-Syria. Nebuchadnezzar upbraided him for his ingratitude and breach of faith ; then caused his sons to be slain before his eyes, and his eyes to be put out ; after which, he commanded his officers to carry him in fetters of brass to Babylon, where he died, 2 Kings xxv. 6, 7 ; Jer. xxxix. 4 — 7 : fulfilling the prophecies of the prophets Jere- miah, chap, xxxii. 4, 5 ; xxxiv. 3 — 5 ; and Ezekiel, chap, xii. 13. After this, Nebuchadnezzar left Gedaliah governor of Judea, who was treacherously slain by Ishmael, and a party of ten men, who slew also the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpeh, his residence, and then escaped to the Ammonites, Jer. xli. 1 — 15. The year after the conquest of Judea, b. c. 585, Nebuchad- nezzar resolved to revenge himself upon all the surrounding nations, who had solicited the Jews to a confederacy against him, or encouraged them to rebel. Among these may be enumerated the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Arabians, Sidonians, Tyrians, Philistines, Egyptians, Abyssinians, etc., Jer. xxvii. 3; Ezek. xxv. 1 — 3; xxvi. 1, 2; Jer. xxxvii. 7; etc. The subjugation and desolation of these countries by this servant of the Lord, and rod of God's anger, as he is termed in Scripture, was foretold in general terms, Jer. xxv. 11; xxix. 10; xxvii. 7; Isa. xxiii. 15; and the punishments of each was particularly foretold by the prophets as follows: — The Ammonites, Amos i. 13 — 15: Ezek. xxv. I — 10; etc. HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 117 The Moabites, Ezek. xxv. 8 — 11 ; Jer. xxv. 21 ; xlviii. 40 — 47 ; etc. The Edomites, Amos i. 13— 15 ; Obadiah 10— 16; Jer. xlix. 17; etc. The Arabians, Jer. xxv. 24; etc. The Sidonians, Jer. xxv. 22 ; xlvii. 4 ; Ezek. xxviii. 21—23 ; etc. The Tyrians, Isa. xxiii. 1 — 15; Jer. xxv. 22 ; Ezek. xxvi. 7 — 14; xxvii. 2—36; etc. The Philistines, Jer. xxv. 20; Ezek. xxv. 16; Zeph. ii. 5. The Egyptians, Isa. xix. 4_23; Jer. xlvi. 13—26; Ezek. xxix. 2—12; xxx. 20— 26 ; xxxii. 2 — 16 ; Joel iii. 19. The Ethiopians or Abyssin- ians, Isa. xviii. ; Ezek. xxx. 4 — U. After having subdued the eastern and western states in the first campaign, Nebuchadnezzar commenced the siege of Old Tyre, in the second year after the destruction of Jerusa- lem, or B. c. 584. It was not till after an inleiTal of thirteen years, according to the Tyrian annals, recorded by Josephus, that the Baby- lonian monarch reduced this celebrated city. And during this time, his troops suffered incredible hardships. Accord- ing to the prophetic declaration, indeed, in achieving this mighty enterprise, " every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled," by the labours they had to undergo. Before the city was reduced to the last extremity, its inhabi- tants retired, with the greatest part of their effects, into a neighbouring isle, a mile from the shore, where they bulk a new city, the name and glory whereof extinguished the re- membrance of the ancient city, which became a mere village. At the present moment, it is "A rock, and waters, and a waste Of trackless sand." Nebuchadnezzar, during the siege of Tyre, sent Nabuzara- dan with an army into Judea, to revenge the death of Geda- liah. The country, however, was so thin of inhabitants, in consequence of a recent secession to Egypt, for fear of the Chaldeans, that he carried away captive only 745 persons. This may be dated b. c. 582. About the same time, the king of Babylon invaded Elam, or Elymais, and took Shushan, or Susa, its capital from the Medes, according to prophecy. See Jer. xxv. 25, 26 ; xlix. 34—38; and Ezek. xxxii. 11—24.* As a recompence for the service which Nebuchadnezzar and his army had served against Tyre, the prophet Ezekiel * For more extended remarks on this subject, the reader is referred to " The Captivity of the Jews," published by the Religious Tract Society. 120 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. ter than it was wont to be made, to appease the fury of the haughty monarch. When found in the path of duty, the Christian may expect, according to promise, the guidance and protection of his God. Thus it was with these Hebrew youths. In refusing to bow down in worship to the idol, and expecting the fulfilment of Nebuchadnezzar's threat, they expressed themselves thus piously : " O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king." Their expectations were not ill-founded. Although the fire slew the men Avho executed the monarch's evil command, they walked in the midst of the fire, unharmed. " Did not we," said the trembling and astonished monarch, "cast three men bound into the midst of the fire ? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt j and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." The haughty monarch, now humbled, called the youthful martyrs forth ; and he was again compelled to confess, that the God of the Jews was superior to any other, " because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort," Dan. iii. He showed his conviction to be, at the moment, sincere, by promoting those whose destruction he had sought, in the province of Babylon, as he had done before. Pride has a very strong foundation in the human mind. It springs from sell^love, which is the most deeply rooted part of our nature, and therefore most difficult to be eradicated, in the case of the king of Babylon, it showed itself proof against miracles. But, as Solomon was inspired to write, " Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall," Prov. xvi. 18. While Nebuchadnezzar exalted him- self against Heaven, he was visited by a most remarkable dream. He saw a tree in the midst of the earth, whose height was great. This tree grew, and was strong ; the height of it reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of the earth. The leaves were fair, and the fruit abundant : it was meat for all. The beasts of the field took refuge under it, and the foAvls of heaven nestled in its branches, and all flesh was fed of it. Then a watcher, and a holy one came down from heaven, and cried ; " Hew down the tree, and cut off his bran- ches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit : let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches : HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 121 nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field • and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portioi^ be with the beasts in the grass of the earth: let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him ♦ and let seven times pass over him. This matter is by the de- cree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones . to the mtent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom- soever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." This, says Dr. Hales, was a merciful warning to this ^reat prince, when at rest in his house, and flourishing in his palace, to break off his sins, especially his inordinate pride, and his iniquities ; especially his capricious cruelty, by showing mercy to the poor, that it might be a lengthening of his tranquillity, according to the sage and honest advice of his chief counsel- lor Daniel, after the king had told his dream, and the prophet had given the interpretation thereof from God. The tree denoted the monarch himself, and his extensive dominions : the holy watcher, who came down from heaven and commanded to hew the tree down, but to bind the stump of Its roots that was left in the ground with a band of iron and brass, that it might be wet Avith the dew of heaven, and have Its portion with the beasts of the field, until the expiration of seven times, or seven years, signified the decree of the Al- mighty, for depriving him of his reason, and banishing him from human society, to associate with the beasts of the field, until he should acknowledge the supremacy of God, who " ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will," Dan. iv. 4—27. It was thus that Daniel interpreted the dream, and thus that the dream was fulfilled. At the end of twelve months, as he was walking in his palace, and admiring the beauty and magnificence of Babylon, he exclaimed, " Is not this great Ba- bylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?'* While the word was in his mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, ^' O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken : The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be \vith the beasts of the field : they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever ■\Tr\r TT HI VOL n. 11 122 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. he will." In the same hour his understanding departed from him ; " he was driven from men, and ate grass like oxen, and his body vvas wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like the claws of a bird," Dan. iv. 23—33. The malady by which the Divine judgment punished the pride of Nebuchadnezzar, is a subject on which opinions are much divided. Without adopting any, the following is tran- scribed, as one of the most probable, from the "Medica Sacra" of the learned and pious Dr. Mead. He says: "All the cir- cumstances of Nebuchadnezzar's case agi'ee so well with an hypochondriacal madness, that to me it appears evident that Nebuchadnezzar was seized with this distemper, and under its influence ran wild into the fields ; and that, fancying him- self transformed into an ox, he fed on grass, after the manner of cattle. For every sort of madness is the disease of a dis- turbed imagination f which this unhappy man laboured under full seven years. And through neglect of taking proper care of himself, his hair and nails grew to an uncommon length ; whereby the latter growing thicker and crooked, resembled the claws of birds. Now the ancients called people affected with this kind of madness, 'wolf-men,' or 'dog-men,' because they went abroad in the night imitating wolves or dogs ; par- ticularly intent upon opening the sepulchres of the dead, and had their legs much ulcerated, either from frequent falls, or the bites of dogs. In like manner are the daughters of Prce- tus related to have been mad, who, as Virgil says, 'With mimic bowlings filled the fields,' Eel. vi. 48. For, as Servius observes, Juno possessed their minds with such a species of fury, that, fancying themselves cows, they ran into the fields, bellowed often, and dreaded the plough. Nor was this disorder unknown to the moderns: for Schenck- ius records a remarkable instance of it in a husbandman of Padua, who, imagining himself a wolf, attacked and even killed several people in the fields ; and when at length he was taken, he persevered in declaring himself a real wolf, arid that the only difllerence consisted in the inversion of his skin and hair. But it may be objected to our opinion, that this misfortune was foretold to the king, so that he might have prevented it by correcting his morals ; and therefore it is not probable that it befel him in the course of nature. But we know that those things which God executes, either through clemency or vengeance, are frequently performed by the as- HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS, 123 sistance of natural causes. Thus, having threatened Heze- kiah with death, and being afterwards moved by his prayers, he restored him to hfe, and made use of figs, laid on the tu- mour, as a medicine for his disease. He ordered king Herod, upon account of his pride, to be devoured by worms. And nobody doubts but that the plague, which is generally attri- buted to Divine wrath, most commonly owes its origin to cor- rupted air." It Avas thus that Nebuchadnezzar spent full seven long years ; an awful example of the madness of pride and ambi- tion. At the expiration of that time, his reason returned. In the language of Holy Writ, he lifted up his eyes unto heaven, and blessed the Most High ; he praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting domin- ion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation ; con- fessing, that all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing be- fore him, and that 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 ?" The courtiers of Nebuchadnezzar now sought to him again ; he was restored to his throne, and became greater and more powerful than before, inasmuch, as humbled and instructed by his sufferings, he gratefully acknowledged the signs and wonders which the most high God had wrought towards him, and praised and extolled " the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment," and who is able to abase those that walk in pride, Dan. iv. 34 — 37. Having thus humbled the pride of this mighty monarch, God was pleased to show that he did not need his services here ; for shortly after this, b. c. 561, Nebuchadnezzar died, and was succeeded by his son. EVIL or Ilvarodam, in Ptolemy's Canon, whose first act was the en- largement of the Jewish king Jehoiachim from his prison, whom he treated kindly all the days of his life, setting him above all the other kings that were at Babylon. See Jer. hi. 31—34; 2 kings XXV. 27—30. But the reign of Evil Me- rodach, or "foolish Merodach," was brief According to Xenophon, on his accession to the throne, he set himself to form a powerful confederacy of the neighbouring states, the Lydians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Carians, Paphlagonians, and Cilicians westwards, and the Indians eastwards, against 124 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AXD CHALDEANS. the Medes ; alleging, that by their union with the Persians by marriage and alliance, they were grown great and powerful, and unless they were opposed with the united force of the confederates, they would be finally subdued, separately. But the designs of Evil Merodach were frustrated. Cyrus, who was appointed general of the combined army of the Medes and Persians, by Cyaxares, his uncle and father-in-law, anti- cipated the threatened invasion, attacked the Babylonians, routed and pursued them to their camp, and slew Evil Mero- dach, B. c. 558. He was succeeded in his kingdom by BELSH.VZZAR, his son, the common accounts of whom appear to combine with what is said of the Neriglissar of profane historians. By the prophet Isaiah, who represents the Babylonian dy- nasty as the scourge of Palestine, Nebuchadnezzar is styled "a serpent," Evil Merodach ''a cockatrice," and Belshazzar, "a fiery flying serpent," which is the most evil and destruc- tive of all, Isa. xiv. 29. The character of Belshazzar, as described prophetically by Isaiah, and the accounts of Xenophon, are found to agree. According to that writer, his barbarity was such as is rarely- recorded in the annals of history. A wanton sporting with the lives and persons of his subjects, appears to have ever in- flamed his breast. Thus he slew the only scyi of Gobryas in a transport of rage, because, at a hunting match, he hit a bear with his spear, and afterwards a lion, when the king had failed in the attempt. The whole life of Belshazzar appears to have been one continued scene of riot and intemperance. His last, and most heinous ofTence, was the profanation of the sacred vessels be- longing to the temple of Jerusalem, which even his grand- father and father had respected. At a great festival he made a feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before them. AVhile at the board, surrounded by parasites and con- cubines, he had the audacity to send for these holy vessels, for the purpose of prostituting them to debauchery. And to aggravate sacrilege by ingratitude against the Author of all their enjoyments, he and his nobles, etc., " praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." But this desecration was marked by the eye of God, nor did their impiety escape punishment. As they were indulg- HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEANS. 125 ing in their mad revelry, the finger of God penned the mon- arch's doom upon the wall opposite his seat. His eye caught the part of the hand which wrote, and, alarmed at the appa- rition, and the mystical characters, he called aloud for the magicians, of whom he required an explanation, and an in- terpretation of the writing. But none could read, and none interpret, and confusion pre- vailed in the palace, and an awful uncertainty in the bosom of all its inmates. At length, however, the queen-mother re- minded her son of the eminent wisdom of Daniel, who had been long despised, and he was sent for into the royal presence. The prophet came, and the king offered him the highest rewards and honours if he would interpret the inscription. But Daniel knew too well the empty nature of sublunary hon- ours to be dazzled by such an offer. This his answer to the monarch proved : " Let thy gifts be to thyself," said he, " and give thy rewards to another ; yef I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation." Before the prophet did this, he boldly charged the monarch with the impious deed of profaning the holy vessels of God's sanctuary, and of committing a flagrant act of rebellion against the Majesty of heaven. He then read aloud, and interpreted to this terrified auditory the mystical writing, a view of which has thus been taken by Dr. Hales. THE INSCRIPTION. MENE MENE TEKEL [PERES] UPHARSIN " Number Number Weight [Division] And Divisions." THE INTERPRETATION. Mene — " God hath numbered thy reign," and Mene— " Hath finished it." The repetition emphatically signifying that the decree was certain, and should shortly come to pass. See Gen. xli. 32. Tekel — " Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting " See Job xxxi. 6 ; Rev. vi. 5 Peres — " Thy kingdom is divided." Upharsin — "And given to the Mede and the Persian" [Darius and Cyrus.] Belshazzar heard this dreadful sentence, and however un- welcome it was to him, he nevertheless bestowed upon Dan- iel the promised rewards : he caused him to be clothed in 11* 126 HISTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AND CHALDEAJTS. scarlet, with a chain of gold about his neck, and to be pro- claimed the third ruler in the kingdom. " In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain," Dan. v. 25 — 30. This is the brief statement of Holy- Writ. No circumstances are detailed. All inquiries, there- fore, into the particulars are only conjectures, or to be sup- ported by such evidence as may be found in common writers. If these contradict each other, we may adopt which we think best grounded, without in the least departing from, or impugn- ing the truth of Scripture. According to Xenophon, Belshazzar was slain by con- spirators ; for he states, that Gobryas and Godatas, who led the band that broke into his palace, were the first who adored the gods for having punished the impious king. Dr. Hales conceives it probable that Daniel's interpretation of the hand- writing upon the wall hastened his doom, since the conspira- tors, with iheir most injured leaders, would now consider him as devoted to immediate destruction by God himself for his " sacrilege." " The great feast," adds this excellent writer, " on the night of which he was slain, appears to have been a season of profound peace and tranquillity, when a thousand of his lords could freely come from all parts of his empire with- out molestation or interruption from a besieging enemy, and when the king would be most apt to forget God, after he had eaten, and was full." The death of Belshazzar occurred b. c. 653j and he was succeeded in his kingdom by L ABOROSO AR CHAD, A boy, who, according to Berosus, was slain in a conspiracy, nine months after, when, according to Dr. Hales, the Baby- lonian dynasty became extinct, and the kingdom descended peaceably to " Darius the Mede," or Cyaxares ; who, on the well-known policy of the Medes and Persians, appointed a Babylonian nobleman named NABONADIUS, Or Labynetus, to be king, or viceroy. According to Rollin, and other writers of ancient history, this person was the Belshazzar of Scripture ; but Dr. Hales, who is here followed, has satisfactorily shown, that the suc- cession of Darius the Mede to the Babylonian throne, was not attended with war. After recording the death of Labo- mSTORY OF THE ASSYRIANS AKD CHALDEANS. 127 rosoarchad, he says : " The family of Nebuchadnezzar being" now extinct, and the Babylonian dynasty ended, according to prophecy, who had so good a title to the crown as Cyaxares, or ' Darius the Mede ?' 1. He was pointed out as the next successor by the prophet Daniel, whose interpretation of the Divine inscription must naturedly have had the greatest weight with the grandees and the whole nation. 2. He was the queen-mother's brother, and the next of kin, by her side, to the crown. And, 3. He was by far the most powerful competitor for it, and also a prince of an easy and amiable disposition. Upon all these accounts, therefore, we cannot hesitate to admit, that the Babylonians made him, soon after, a voluntary tender of the sovereignty, and that ' Darius the Mede' took, or accepted the kingdom, with their free and full consent." According to this, it would appear that Belshazzar was not the king in whose time the city was taken by Cyrus j and consequently the events which took place on the night on. which Belshazzar was slain, were distinct from, and anterior to the siege and capture of the city by the Persian king. Nabonadius, it would appear, held his office for the space of seventeen years, at the end of which time, b. c. 536, he re- volted against Cyrus, who had this year succeeded to the united empire of the Medes and Persians. Cyrus could not attend immediately to him, but at length he marched to Baby- lon, and took the city, during the drunken festival of the Sakea, as predicted by the prophet Jeremiah, ch. li. 28 — 41. This event took place in the first year of the sovereignty of Cyrus, after which the proud city mouldered into dust. It is known only in the pages of history, and there it is exhibited as a monument of God's wrath, and as testifying to the frailty of all sublunary affairs.* " The glory of Babel the proud is no more, She hath perished, as lesser things perished before ; She is desolate now, and the dragon crawls O'er the muddy heaps of her ruined walls ; And the serpents creep, and the wild beasts stray Where her chambers of state and her proud halls lay ; And nothing is left, save a tale of her fame, The fame of her glory, and wreck of her name." — Anon. * The date of the taking of Babylon by Cyrus, as connected with the liberation of the Jews, is not affected by this correct view of history ; whereas, by the plan adopted by some, of placing the death of Belshazzar and the siege of Babylon together, the reign of the former is carried down too fer in the chronology of the Babylon monarchs. THE FOLLO^VING PYNASTIES OF ASSYRIA ARE TAKEN FROM DR. HALES. I.— ASSYRIAN DYNASTY. 317 YEARS. Y. M. B. C. 1. Nimrod, Ninus t. Belus, f.r Maha Bala 98 8 2554 2. Evechous, or Chasma Belus 7 6 .. .. 2455 3 Poms '35 .... 2448 4. Nerhubus 43 2413 5. Abiiis 48 .... 2370 6. Oniballus 40 2322 7. Ziiiziriid 45 ... 2282 Interregnum 985 .... 2237 End of the Interregnum 1252 11.— ASSYRIAN DYNASTY. 431 YEARS. 1. Mlthraeua, or Ninus n 37 .... 1252 2. T«u tunes, or Teu tamed 32 .... 1215 3. THiitaeiis 44 1183 4. Thinaeiis 30 ... 1139 5. Dercylus 40 ... 1109 6. Eupiilis, or Empiichmes 38 .... 1U69 7. I.fiosthenes 45 .... 1031 8. Pertiades 30 9'^6 9. Ophrataeus 21 9rS 10. Epecheres, or Ofrntanes 52 935 11. Acrafjanes, or Acriizai)e» 42 .... R33 12. Thouus Concolerus 20 841 End of the Dynasty 431 821 ni.— ASSYRIAN DYNASTY. BABYLONIAN KINGS. B C. T. B.C. 1. King of Nineveh ^% 1. Nabonassar 14 747 Jonah's Prophecy 8f»0 2Nairms 2 733 2. Pill, or Belns II 790 3. Chinzirus 5 731 First Invasion of Israel 770 4. .Ingaeiis 5 726 3. Tii,'lath-Pile.ser 747 5. Mardork Einpad, or Mero- Second Invasion of Israel 740 dach Baladan 12 721 4 Shalmanasar 726 revolls from Assyria. .. 710 Third Invasion of Israel 722 writes to Ilezekiah. . . . 710 Hamiiria taken 719 6. Arcianus 5 709 5. Sennacherib 711 i. Interregnum 2 701 First Invasion of Judah 711 7. Belibus 3 702 6. Et-arhaddon, A.saradin, or Sarda- 8 Apronadius 6 699 napalus 1 710 9Regibelns 1 693 Medes and Babylonians revolt.. 710 10. Messemordarh 4 692 Babylon regained 680 n. Interregnum 8 688 Second Invasion of Judah, and 11. Asaradin. or Esarhaddon. . . 13 680 Captivity of .Manasseh 674 12 rtaosdijohim 20 667 7. Ninus III 667 13. Chynelad.m 22 647 8. Nabuchodoiiosor 658 14. Nabopolassar, or Labyne- Defeat of .\rpha.xad, or Phra- tu.s i 21 625 ones, the Mede 641 Nineveh taken by the Baby- Third Invasion of Judah by Ho- lonians and Medes 606 lofernes 640 9. Sarac, or Sardanapalus II 636 Nineveh taken 606 BABYLONIAN DYNASTY. Y. B.C. Nineveh taken 2 606 1. Nahopolassar, L.abynetus i., Boktanser, or Nebuchadnezzar 43 604 subdues Elam, or Persia 596 9. llverodam. or Evil Merodach 3 561 3. Niracassolassar, Neriglissar, or Belshazzar 5 55S 4. Nabonadius, or Lahynetus II., appointed by Darius the Mede 17 553 Babylon taken by Cyrus 70 536 THE HISTORY OF THE MEDES. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MEDIA. Tffls country, once the seat of a potent empire, derived its name from Madai, the third son of Japhet ; as may be ga- thered from Scripture, in which the Medes are constantly thus denominated. See 2 Kings xvii. 6 ; Isa. xiii. 17 ; Dan. V. 28, etc. It is difficult to determine the boundaries of Media, as they appear to have varied in different ages. According to the best authorities, however. Media Proper was bounded by Ar- menia and Assyria Proper on the west ; by Persia on the east ; by the Caspian provinces on the north ; and by Susiana on the south. In ancient times, Media was divided into several provinces, namely, Tropatene, Charomithrane, Darites, Marciane, Ama- riace, and Syro-Media. According to Strabo, these were, by a later division, reduced to two provinces. Great Media, and Media Atropatene. Great Media, which is a high table land, is said by all writers to have possessed a good climate and fertile soil ; an account which is confirmed by modern travellers. It was separated on the west and south-west from the low country watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, by a range of mountains, known to the ancients by the namfes of Zagros and Parachoatris. On the east it was bounded by a desert and the Caspian mountains, (the modern Elburz mountains;) and on the north and north-west by the Cadussii, Atropatene, and the Matiene : thus, nearly corresponding to the modern 130 mSTORY OF THE MEDES. Irak Ajemi, which is the most western province of the Per- sian empire. Media Atropatene, now called Aderbijan, extended as far north as the Arates. This was a cold, barren, and inhospit- able country, on which account it is supposed that Tiglath- pileser and Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria, chose it for the abode of the captive tribes of Israel ; (see 2 Kings xvii. 6 ; 1 Chron. v. 26 ;) acting upon a similar course of policy, which actuated the Russian monarch, Peter the Great, in transferring the Swedish prisoners, taken at Pukowa, into the barren regions of Siberia. By some authors, this divi- sion of Media is supposed to have derived its name from Atropates, who successfully opposed the Macedonians, and established an independent monarchy, which continued till the time of Strabo, notwithstanding its proximity to the Ar- menian and Parthian dominions. It is more probable, how- ever, that the appellation of Atropatene is a corruption of Adzur-bagjan, or " The Place of Fire," from the number of pyrea, or fire temples, erected there, Thebarma, on the lake of Urmeeah, in Aderbijan, being the reputed place of Zoro- aster's birth ; or from the volcanic eruptions to which it is subjected. MOUNTAINS. According to Ptolemy and Strabo, the mountains of Media, demanding notice, are 1. Choatra, parting Media from Assyria, and branching out from the Gordyan or Carduchian mountains, on the con- fines of Assyria and Armenia. 2. Zagros^ a mountain range, which divides Media from Assyria on the east. And, 3. Parachoatra^ which is placed by Ptolemy on the bor- ders, towards Persia, and by Strabo on the confines of Media, Hyrcania, and Parthia. These are boundaries between Media and the adjacent re- gions ; and, therefore, may be said to belong to the latter as well as the former. But there are other mountains, those of the Orontes, the Jasonius, and the Coronus, which, as they stand in the very heart of the country, may, in the strictest sense, be termed mountains of Media. The principal of these is the Orontes^ or the modern Alwend, which bounds the plains of Hamadan to the north-west. This range stretches from HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 131 north-east to south-west, thirty miles in length, and is com- pletely separated from the more northern ranges of Giroos and Sahund. When viewed from the south and south-east, the Orontes presents the appearance of a vast range of sepa- rate mountains. It commences with a gradual ascent from the north-east, and covers with its ramifications upwards of sixty miles of ground. The summit of the mountain is co- vered with perpetual snow, and Sir R. Ker Porter, who as- cended it in the month of September, when the summer heat has attained its maximum, found the ravines below the peak deeply covered with snow. From this circumstance, and the high elevation of the plains of Hamadan, in which it is situ- ated, it is thought that it rivals Olympus in absolute elevation above the level of the sea, though not in respect of its altitude from the base of the plain. The elevation of the plams of Hamadan is alone 5,000 feet above the level of the sea.^ The ascent of the mountain of Orontes, or Alwend, occupied Sir R. Ker Porter four hours on horseback, and half an hour more was required to scale the summit. Eight hours are required to ascend the summit of Olympus from the plains of Broussa : five hours and a half on horseback, the rest on foot. This will give an idea of the difference of the eleva- tions of the plains on which these mountains stand. RIVERS. The rivers of note, according to Ptolemy, are the Straton, Amardus, Cyrus, and Cambyses. But these rivers, as they are represented to fall into the most southern part of the Cas- pian sea, must, by their positions, have belonged to the pro- vinces now denominated Ghilan and Mazandaran ; and con- sequently could not belong to Media Proper, as it is described by the ancients. CLIMATE, PRODUCTIONS, ETC. The northern parts of Media, lying between the Caspian mountains and the sea, are very cold and barren. Chardin says that the snow lies on the mountains nine months in the year The southern parts of Media, however, are productive of all kinds of grain, and necessaries for life ; and they are so pleasant that the country adjoining Tauris is called " The Garden of Persia." In this part of the country there are large plains, among which that of Nysa was famous in an- 132 HISTORY or TilE IvIEDES. cient times for the numerous stud of horses fed there for the use of the Persian monarch s. Where this plain of Nysa was situated, it is now difficult lo determine. The ancients place it in the most eastern part of Media, and beyond the limits of what is now supposed to have been properly this country. Sir J. Chardin conceives that he passed over this fertile tract of ground ; but if he is correct, it must be placed several degrees nearer us than the ancient geographers have defined its position. He says : " We continued our w'ay, from Tauris towards Persia, upon the most beautiful and fertile plains, covered with villages. These plains afford the most excellent pasture of all Media, and, I dare say, of the whole world, and the best horses of the country were there at grass. I asked a young noblemen, in company with us, if there were any other plains in Media so fine and so extensive. He told me he had seen some as fine about Derbent, but none more extensive. So that it is reasonable enough to believe that these plains are the Hippo- baton of the ancients, and where, they say, the kings of Media had a stud of fifty thousand horses ; and that here it is also we must look for the Nysean plain, so famous for the horses of that name. Stephanus, the geographer, says that Nysa was in the country of the Medes. 1 told this same nobleman some particulars which historians relate concerning those horses, particularly Phavoriniis, who says all the Nysean horses were light duns. He answered, that he had never read or heard any thing of the kind. I afterwards inquired of several gentlemen of learning, but could never understand that there was any place, either in Persia or Media, that pro- duced horses of that colour." Polybius, in describing Media, says. This country is the most powerful kingdom in all Asia, as well for its extent as for the number and strength of its inhabitants, and the great quantity of horses it produces. Media furnishes all Asia with those beasts, and its pastures are so rich, that the neighbouring monarchs send their studs there. The climate of Media is very unequal ; that part which lies between the mountains and the sea is exceedingly cold, and the earth swampy, and full of marshes, where innumerable swarms of venomous insects are bred, which, together with the vapours rising from the Caspian sea, render that part very inhospitable, ^lian tells us, that these parts of Media were infested by scorpions, and that while the king of Persia was on his progress into Media, the inhabitants were employed^ HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 133 for three days before his arrival on the confines, in destroying them. The provinces that are more remote from the sea enjoy a very wholesome air, though liable to heavy rains and violent storms, especially according to Chardin, in spring and autumn. This author states that, besides the cattle and game, which the inland provinces abound with, some of them have been, for many ages, remarkable on account of the various sorts of excellent wine they produce, especially the neighbour- hood of Tauris, where no fewer, than sixty different kinds of grapes, all of an exquisite flavour, are now gathered. In the plains of Hamadan, the climate is very pleasant. The thermometer never rises, in the height of summer, higher than 80*^. The heat, therefore, is never very oppressive, as in other parts of Persia, being constantly tempered by a cool breeze from the north-west during this season. It is no won- der, then, that the Persian kings made Ecbatana (which, as will be seen, was situated in these plains) their summer resi- dence. This province abounds in fine rivulets of the purest water, which is a blessing of inestimable value in the arid and parched regions of Persia. The habitations on these plains are profusely interspersed with trees, which give variety and beauty to the scenery. Beside the poplar, the narwend, a species of elm, is a very common tree, and grows into shapes so formal as to raise suspicions that they have ac- quired them by art. On the skirts of the Orontes, Morier was introduced into an extensive garden, in the centre of which was an alley of poplar, willow, and narwend trees, nearly a mile long, and in which many of the natives were singing and taking their pleasure. One large group was seated around a basin of the coolest and most transparent water. The extensive plain itself is varied at short distances with villages rising from amidst groves of the noblest trees, and seems one luxuriant carpet of the richest verdure, studded with hamlets, and watered with numberless rills. From all this, some idea may be formed of the fertility of Media in ancient times, when it was the seat of empire. VOL. n. 1*2 CHAPTER IL TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF MEDIA. H,AXAII, lUBOR, AND KARA. These three cities are mentioned 2 Kings xvii. 6, and 1 Chron. v. 26, as cities of the Medes, to which the captive tribes of Israel were transported by Shalmaneser and Tiglath- pileser, kings of Assyria, who, according to history, both sacred and profane, possessed the country of Media as part of their empire. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manas- seh, were sent thither by Tiglath-pileser, about b. c. 740, and the remaining seven tribes and a half, about b. c. 719, by his successor, Shalmaneser. It is interesting to observe, that the names of all these places have been satisfactorily traced by Major Rennel, and other travellers, in the remote northern district of Media, to- wards the Caspian sea and the province of Ghilan; or, more definitely, in the neighbourhood of the river Kizil-Ozan, the ancient Gozan, which now forms the southern limit of the two most northern provinces of Persia, those of Aderbijan and Ghilan. _ The river Gozon is spoken of in the text as watering the country w^here these cities stood ; and on a branch of it is found a city named Abhar, or Habar, which is reputed to be exceedingly ancient, and which evidently refers to Habor. The name of it is given variously by geographers, as Abhar : by Abulfeda ; Abher, Herbelot ; Abar, Han way ; Habar, Tavernier ; Abhor, Delia Valle ; Ebher, Chardin ; Ebbeher, Olearius ; and Abhar, in the tables of Nasereddin and Ulugh- Begh. A remarkable circumstance connected wnth this place, and which is supposed to confirm its identity with the ancient Habor, is, that it is the first place, in coming from the west, where Persian is spoken, and from thence eastward all the way to Hindostan. Morier, however, a later traveller, HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 135 who traversed Aderbijan in various directions, mentions a great and snowy mountain, called Ak-Dagh, or the white mountain, sixty-six English miles south-east of Ardebil, thirty- five of Iris, and thirty-five east of the Kizil-Ozan, and belong- ing to the range of Talish, which bounds the district of Chal- cal on the east. At the base of this snow-clad peak, is a city called Herah, as large as the town of Zengan, in Media, which, as it is in the very district of Chalcal, and on the north of the Kizil Ozan, and as it seems to be a mere transposition of the word Habor, is thought, by some, more likely to be the Habor, to which the ten tribes were carried, than Abher. Bordering on the Kizil-Ozan itself, is a district of some ex- tent, and of great beauty and fertility, named Chalcal, and having in it a remarkably strong position, of the same name, situated in one of the hills adjoining to the mountains, which separate it from the province of Ghilan. Allowing for the change of spelling and pronunciation in so many ages, this name is not far removed from Halah, or Chalach. This dis- trict is described by Olearius, Delia Valle, Rennel, and Morier ; the latter of whom, who traversed it in his journey from Ardebil to the Kizil-Ozan, says : " At Iris we had entered the large and fertile district of Chalcal, justly called the granary of Aderbijan, and esteemed the finest part of Albas Mirza's government. As we advanced from Iris into Chalcal, the country progressively improved in richness of soil and extent of cultivation. (Quitting the high country, we commenced a gradual descent to the Kizil-Ozan, and stopped at the village of Paras, where are some striking masses of rock, from the summit of one of w^hich we enjoyed an exten- sive view ; for the deep dell of the river was at our feet, and at a very great distance, just delineated in the horizon, were the snowy summits of the range of Sahund. The descent from Paras to the Kizil-Ozan was extremely grand, present- ing many fine outlines of deep chasms and impending rocks." There is also a district named Tarom, or Tarim, bordering- on the Ozan, and occupying the intermediate space between Abhar and Chalcal. This, also, is but a little removed from Hara. There is, however, a city mentioned by Morier, which has a much better claim to be the Hara of Scripture than the Tarom of Rennel. This is called Ahar, and is described as being the capital of the district of the Kara- Daghler, or black mountains, stretching north and north-east to the Araxes and the plain of Mogan, and placed by him forty English miles north-east of Tabriz. Ahar is exactly 136 mSTOE-Y OF THE MEDES. Hara by the transposition of the aspirate ; and a transposition of syllables or letters in words, having nearly the same sound, is usual in the east ; as, Lezgee for Legzee, Corbal for Col- bar, Tilgath for Tiglath. Major Rennel conceives, that both in the Assyrian and Babylonish captivity of the two remaining tribes, which com- posed the kingdom of Judah, by Nebuchadnezzar, the whole mass of the people was not carried away, but only the princi- pal inhabitants, as the nobles, soldiers, artizans, merchants, and men of letters, who would be useful in their new settle- ments, by bringing with them their superior knowledge and skill in arts and manufactures. That some of the captives rose to high rank and estimation, even at Nineveh, Babylon, Ecbatana, and Rages, the seats of government in the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Median empires, is evident from the books of Daniel and Tobit. In his travels through the western part of the Persian em- pire, Sir R. Ker Porter mentions a remarkable sculptured rock, calleh Be-Sitoon, in the range of mountains that skirt the plains of Kermanshah to the north-east. One of the groups transcribed thereon, is supposed by this traveller to refer to the captivity. In it there are fourteen figures, one of which is in the air. The first to the left carries a spear, and is in full Median habit. His hair is in a similar fashion, and bound with a fillet. The second holds a bent bow in his left hand : his dress is much the same, with the addition of a quiver slung at his back by a belt crossing his right shoulder, and his wrists are adorned with bracelets. The third figure is much larger than any in the group, which is a usual sym- bol of royalty in oriental description, and from its air and attitude undoubtedly denotes a monarch. The costume, ex- cepting that the beard is not quite so long, is precisely that which denotes royal dignity, and as exhibited in the has reliefs of Nakshi Roostam and Persepolis, that of the pontifi' and sovereign combined ; the robes being the ample vesture of the one, and the diadem the simple band of the other. This figure has also bracelets on his wrists, and is holding up his hand in a commanding or admonitory manner ; the two forefingers being extended, and the other two doubled down in the palm ; an action, also, common on the tombs at Persepolis, and on the monuments. In his left hand, a bow is grasped, and this bow, together with his left foot, rests on the body of a prostrate captive, who hes on his back, with outstretched arms, as if imploring mercy. This figure, and HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 137 also the first in the string of nine, which advance towards the king, are very much injured ; but enough remains to show that they are intended to signify captives. The hands of all are tied behind their backs, and the cord is very distinct which binds the neck of the one to the other, till the mark of bondage reaches to the last of the nine. If it were originally attached to the leader, the cord is now not to be seen there, but the position of his hands show that he was origmally in the same trammels as his followers. The second figure, ap- parently, has his head shaved, and a sort of caul covers it from the top of the forehead to the middle of the head. His dress is a short tunic, reaching down no farther than his knees, and which is fastened round his waist by a bek ; his legs are bare. The third figure appears much older, and it has rather a pointed beard and bushy hair, and a similar caul covers the top of his head. He has also a short tunic, with something like the trowsers or booted appearances seen on some of the figures at Persepolis. The preceding figure and this are fastened together by a rope round their necks, running onwards, and noozing all that follows in one string. This last figure has the peculiarity attached to him of the skirt of his garment being covered entirely with an arrow-headed in- scription. Next in the train is a figure in a long vestment, with full hair, without the caul. He is succeeded by one in a short plain tunic, wkh naked legs. A second long-robed personage succeeds him, and after him comes another in a short plain tunic, and a head apparently bald. A third long- robed personage follows next, and the ninth figure, who fol- lows him, is in a short tunic and trowsers, and has the singu- larity of wearing a prodigious and high pointed cap. His beard and hair are much more ample than any of his com- panions, and his face denotes greater age. This, as stated before, is considered by Sir R. Ker Porter to refer to the captivky. He conceives that the large figure represents Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and the prostrate captive, Hoshea, king of Israel. This prostrate person is not a private individual, for on none such would the foot of a haughty eastern monarch deign to tread ; he must, therefore, have been a captive prostrate monarch. The nine captives are doubly bound, in token of a double offence ; and the of- fence of Hoshea and his subjects was double. He had pro- fessed homage to the king of Assyria, who not only spared him, but confirmed him on the throne of Samaria. He, how- ever, ungratefully rebelled, being stirred up by So, the king 12* 138 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. of Egypt ; and, therefore, the double badge of bondage may- be supposed to represent the double offence of Hoshea. In- cluding the fallen monarch, the captives are just ten, repre- senting the ten tribes, the king being considered as the head of his own tribe. The last personage in the procession, wear- ing the high conical cap. Sir Robert conceives may represent the tribe of Levi, who, in compliance w^ith the wishes of the kings of Israel and Judah, had adopted the worship of the golden calves of Dan and Bethel. But this latter conjecture is entirely unfounded. Levi was not one of the ten captive tribes of Israel : it counted as a thirteenth tribe when Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh, as in the instance of the captivity) counts as two ; and the number ten is therefore made out w^ithout Levi. It is difficult to determine w^hether this sculpture refers to the captivity or not. The captives have that peculiar cast of physiognomy which distinguishes the Jews, and the supposi- tions of our author, except the last, render it probable. Those, however, who hesitate to accept it as an illustration of the cap- tivity, will, nevertheless, value it as a most authentic repre- sentation of the mode in which captives \vere wont to be treated by oriental conquerors, and to which there are fre- quent allusions in Scripture. ECBATANA. Ecbatana, which is generally thought to be the Achmetha of Ezra, chap. vi. 2, and the Hamadan of the present day, was the summer capital of the sovereigns of the Persian em- pire, from the time of Cyrus ; while the winter metropolis was Susa. The situation of Ecbatana was remarkable for the coolness of its temperature. Delia Valle observes, that the ink froze in the room in which he was writing ; a sure proof of the great elevation of the soil, in the latitude of only 35°, which is farther proved from the great mountain Alwend, the Orontes of the Greeks, only a league distant, being covered with snow. The periodical change of residence by the Per- sian kings, attracted the attention of many ancient writers, and one of them, ^lian, compares them to cranes for this reason. Ancient historians tell us. that Ecbatana was built by De joces. called, in the book of Judith, Arphaxad, the first king of Media, after the inhabitants had shaken off the yoke of the Assyrians. There is no reason, however, to think that De HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 139 joces built Ecbatana, or that the Medes were, in his days, an uncivilized and barbarous people. There can, indeed, be no doubt that Ecbatana was a city long before the days either of Dejoces or Phraortes. The natural amenity of the situation would soon point it out to the natives as a proper place for a city ; and when Media rose to a state of political independ- ence, from the beauty and strength of its situation, it would naturally be selected as the fittest place for the royal residence. The walls of Ecbatana are much celebrated by ancient writers, and minutely described by Herodotus. According to this historian, they were seven in number, all of a circular form, and gradually rising above each other, by the height of the battlements of each wall. The situation of the ground, rising by an easy ascent, was very favourable to the design of building them, and perhaps first suggested it. The royal palace and treasury were within the innermost circle of the seven. The first of these walls was equal in circumference to the city of Athens, that is, according to Thucydides, 178 furlongs, or about twenty-four miles. This wall had white battlements ; the second, black ; the third was of a purple colour ; the fourth, blue ; and the fifth, of a deep orange ; the two innermost, as serving more immediately for a fence to the person of the king, were embellished in a superior manner to the others, the one being covered with silver, and the other with gold. This description, as given by Herodotus, seems to partake of the fabulous ; nevertheless, that it was one of the most mag- nificent of oriental cities, other authorities declare. In the book of Judith, chap. i. 2 — 4, we read, that the walls of this metropolis were seventy cubits (about 130 feet) high, and fifty cubits (about 94 feet) broad : that the towers on the gates were an hundred cubits (about 180 feet) in height ; the breadth, in the foundation, sixty cubits (about 112 feet) ; and that the walls were built of hewn and polished stones, each stone being six cubits (about eleven feet) in length, and three in breadth. Polybius, speaking of Ecbatana, says : " The edifices of this city surpass, in richness and magnificence, all others in the world. The king's palace is 700 fathoms (nearly one English mile) round. Though all the wood-work was of cedar and cypress, not the least piece of timber was visible ; the joints, the beams, the ceilings, and columns, which sus- tained the porticos and piazzas, being covered with silver or gold plates. All the tiles were of silver. The greatest part 140 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. of these materials were carried off by the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, and the rest' plundered by Antigonus and Seleucus Nicator. When Antiochus, however, entered this kingdom, the temple of iEna was still surrounded with gilded columns, and the soldiers found in it a great number of silver tiles, a few golden bricks, and a great many of silver. All this was converted into specie, and stamped with the spoiler's image ; the whole amounting to about 600,000/. sterling. The present town of Hamadan stands at the base of the Alwend mountains, and at the extremity of a rich and cuhi- vated pkiin. It offers no intimations of its ancient dignity, though it is still an imporUmt town, and the capital of a con- siderable district, governed by a prince of the royal line. The town, though seated on a slope, where the mountain meets the plains below, does not appear to stand on precisely the same site as tlie ancient Ecbatana, which is described as being upon a circular hill. It contains about 9,000 houses, and 45,000 inhabitants, GOO families of which are Jews, and as many Ar- menians. Hamadan is a place of pilgrima.ge to the Jews, on account of its containing a tomb alleged to be that wherein Esther and Mordecai were interred ; and the site is very likely to have been that of the interment of one or both of those per- sonages. This tomb is mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela. It stands on o^round somewhat more elevated than any in the neighbourhood, and is in some degree fallen into decay. The entrance to the building is by a stone door of small di- mensions, the key of which is kept by the chief rabbi. This door conducts to the ante-chamber, which is small, and con- tains the graves of several rabbis. A second door, of inferior dimensions to the first, leads to the tomb-chamber, which is larger than the outer apartment. In the midst of this stand the two sarcophagi of Mordecai and Esther. They are com- posed of dark and hard wood, are richly carved, and have an Hebrew inscription along the upper ledge, taken from Esther ii. 5, and x. 3. The wood is in good preservation, though evidently very old. The present building is said to have been built by certain devout Jews, and to occupy the site of one more magnificent, which was destroyed by Timour Beg. The inscription thereon, as translated by Sir Gore Ousely, runs thus : '' Thursday, fifteenth of the month Adar, in the year 4474 from the creation of the world, was finished the building of this temple over the graves of Mordecai and Es- HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 141 ther, by the hands of the good-hearted brothers, Elias and Samuel, the sons of the deceased Ismael, of Kashan." This date is probably after the computation of the eastern Jews, which would make it answer to about 250 a. d. ; otherwise, it would not have been earlier than about 650 a. d. The following are the translations of the other inscriptions, which are rendered by Sir R. Ker Porter, and which are very interesting : From a marble slab in the sepulchre. — " Mordecai, beloved and honoured by a king, was great and good. His garments \vere those of a sovereign. Ahasuerus covered him with this rich dress, and also placed a golden chain around his neck. The city of Susa rejoiced at his honours, and his high fortune became the glory of the Jews. 07L the sarcophagus of Mordecai. — " It is said by David, Preserve me, O God ! I am now in thy presence. ' I have cried at the gates of heaven, that thou art my God ; and what goodness I have received came from thee, O Lord. — Those Avhose bodies are now beneath in this earth, when animated by thy mercy, were great ; and whatever happiness was be- stowed upon them in this world came from thee, O God ! — Their grief and sufferings were many ; but they became happy, because they always called upon thy holy name in their afflictions. Thou liftedst me up, and I became power- ful. Thine enemies sought to destroy me in the early times of my life ; but the shadow of thy hand was upon me, and covered me, as a tent, from their wicked purposes." — Mor- decai. From the sarcophagus of Esther.—'' I praise thee, O God, that thou hast created me. I know that my sins merit punish- ment, yet I hope for mercy at thy hands : for whenever I call upon thee, thou art with me; thy holy presence secures me from all evil.— My heart is at ease, and my fear of thee in- creases. My life became at the last, through thy goodness, full of peace. — O God ! shut not my soul outYrom thy Divine presence. Those whom thou lovest never feel the torments of hell. Lead me, O merciful Father, to the life of life, that I may be filled with the heavenly fruits of paradise!"-— Esther. According to Morier, Hamadan presents more objects of research to an antiquarian than any other city in Persia. On the eastern summit of Alwend is a large square platform, called by the natives, " The tomb of the son of Solomon." A number of copper lamps lie scattered in its vicinity, which 142 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. were brought hither by crowds of devotees, who came on pil- grunages to this fancied tomb. In one of the valleys of Al- wend, about eight miles south-west of the town, at the source of a rapid rivulet that waters the plain, about fifty feet above the water, appears, projecting from the sloping side of the acclivity, the mysterious stone called the Gunj Nameh, or Tales of a Treasure. It is an immense block of red granite, of the closest and finest texture, and of many thousand tons' weight. At ten feet from the ground, two square excavations appear in the face of the stone, cut to the depth of a foot, five feet in breadth, and as many in length. Each of these tab- lets contains three columns of engraved arrow-headed writ- ing, in a state of excellent preservation. Above these two tablets, the commencement of others are traceable. Another monument of antiquity was discovered, by Morier and Sir R. Ker Porter, in the northern skirts of the city, consisting of the base of a column, w^ith its broken shaft, of the same order as the columns found at Persepolis. Near this fragment is a large regular terrace, evidently the work of art, and perhaps the ground w^ork of some great building. Some identify this with the palace of the Persian king, which, Polybius says, was below the citadel. The position of the ruins of the mo- dern castle, which was probably the site of the ancient citadel, is more elevated than the platform, and sufficiently near the latter to be said to be below the former. On the site of the castle is a small platform, called Takht. I. Ardeshir, which has an exterior of white square stones, backed by masonry of common stone and mortar. Besides these, Hamadan con- tains a great number of Mohammedan antiquities, as sepul- chral stones, towers, mosques, old bazars, and Cufic inscrip- tions. Arsacidan and Sassanian coins are also to be found here ; of which latter, nine Avere brought by Sir R. Ker Porter into England. Morier discovered a cylindrical stone, with Persepolitan figures and characters on it ; and he sup- poses, that if excavations were permitted to be made on what ne deems to be the site of the royal treasury, valuable dis- coveries would be made. RAGES, OR REY. This city is called, by Isidorus, the largest city in Media. It is mentioned in the books of Tobit and Judith as a place of consequence, after the revolt of the Parthians against the dynasty of Seleucus. It was captured by Arsaces, the first of the Parthian dynasty of sovereigns, and made the capital HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 143 of his empire. From him it was called by the new name of Arsacia. It became a great and flourishing city in the days of the Mohammedan khalifs of Bagdad ; and was at its acme of political splendour in the ninth century, when it contained, according to the romantic account of the Mussulman annal- ists, 16,600 baths, 15,000 mosques, 6,400 colleges, 12,000 mills, 1,700 caravansaries, and 13,000 inns. It was ruined in the thirteenth century, partly by the intestine discord of its inhabitants, who were divided into the opposite sects of the Shiites and Sunnites, and who contended with each other for sixty years ; and, finally, by the Mongols, under the succes- sors of Jenghis Khan. Nothing now remains of Rages but part of the ancient wall. Rages lay upwards of two hundred miles east of Ecbatana, or Hamadan. It is remarkable in history for the defeat and death of Arphaxad, or Phraortes, son of Dejoces, by Nabu- chodonosor, king of Assyria, b. c. 641, in the plain of Ragau, or Rages. Besides these cities of Media, there were several others, as Laodicea, of which appellation there were many towns ; and Apamea, which is sometimes adjudged by Strabo to Media, and sometimes to Parthia. At a later date there were the cities of Zombis, Patigrau, Gazaca, Margasis, etc. ; but these were all built, in after ages, by the Macedonians, and are therefore called by Strabo, Greek cities. These were suc- ceeded by more modern cities : thus showing the ebb and flow of the tide of sublunary affairs ; proclaiming that time sweeps away empires, nations, and cities from the face of the earth ; and admonishing the reader to seek a mansion in the skies. A poet has well tuned his harp to the following strains : " This world is all a fleeting show, For man's illusion given ; The smile of joy, the tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow, — There's nothing true but heaven. ** And false the light on glory's plume, As fading hues of even; And love, and hope, and beauty's bloom, Are blossoms gathcr'd from the tomb, — There's nothing bright but heaven. " Poor wanderers of a stormy day, From wave to wave we're driven ; And fancy's flash, and reasons ray, Serve but to light the troubled way. There's nothinc- caliu but heaven." CHAPTER III. THE HISTORY OF THE POLITY OF THE MEDES. Our knowledge of the government of the Medes, in the early ages of the world, is very limited. Originally, how- ever, it appears to have been monarchical, like that of other primitive nations ; and it is probable that they possessed kings of their own in the earliest ages. This state of things lasted till the date at which they were first brought under the yoke of the Assyrians. When under this yoke, they were go- verned by the absolute laws of the Assyrian monarchs ; and when they had shaken it off, which they did about b.c. 710, they appear to have modelled their form of government upon the despotic principles of their former masters. Their kings became absolute, submitting to no law, and claiming equal respect with the gods themselves. Their own word was law ; and, as they were thus the fountains of law, they were looked upon by their subjects as something more than mortal. There is a reference to the royal prerogative of infallibility in the Median monarchs, Dan. vi. 8, where the conspirators against the life of the prophet Daniel are represented as pray- ing thus to Darius : " Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." How tenacious the kings of Media and Persia were, in adhering to the principles of their decrees or laws, may be discerned in many transactions recorded in history, of which the chapter alluded to affords a notable instance. In the book: of Esther, also, we find a king unable to recall an order which he had made for the massacre of the Jews. The only remedy he had, when he discovered the depths of iniquity which had brought it to pass, was to issue a counter order, allowing the people he had doomed to die to stand upon their defence ; in HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 145 other words, they were permitted to contend with and kill those who were, by his previous unjust decree, bound to kill them ! Sometimes these monarchs themselves suffered from the infallibility which attended their laws, as did also their sub- jects. Sir J. Malcolm relates a memorable instance of Aga Mahommed Khan, the last but one of the Persian kings, which well illustrates this. After alluding to the instances in the books of Esther and Daniel, he says : " The character of the power of the king of Persia has undergone no change. The late king, Aga Mohammed Khan, when encamped near Shiraz, said he would not move till the snow was off the moun- tain in the vicinity of his camp. The season proved severe, and the snow remained longer than was expected ; the army began to suffer distress and sickness, but the king said, while the snow remained upon the mountain he would not move j and his word was law, and could not be broken. A multi- tude of laborers were collected, and sent to remove the snow: their efforts, and a few fine days, cleared the mountain, and Aga Mohammed Khan marched. This anecdote was related to me by one of his principal chiefs, and who told it to me with a desire of impressing my mind with a high opinion of Aga Mohammed Khan, who knew, he observed, the sacred nature of a word spoken by the king of Persia." The crown of Media was hereditary, and the Medes paid their monarchs the greatest possible respect. Herodotus says, that they deemed it a very great offence to spit or to laugh in their presence. They honoured them with the high sound- ing title of " Great king," or " King of kings," which was afterwards adopted by the Persian monarchs, and their proud successors, the Parthians. When they appeared in public, which was not often, they were attended by musicians and guards, consisting of the noblest in their kingdom. In the field of battle, their wives, children, and concubines formed part of their retinue, as is usual in an oriental camp. WAR, AE^TS, ETC, The Medes were, in very early ages, a warlike people. This will appear from their history, and there is an interest- ing allusion to their warlike disposition in the prophecies of Isaiah. The Almighty, threatening to destroy Babylon by the Medes, says by his prophet : VOL IL 13 146 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. " Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Which shall not regard silver ; And as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows shall also dash the young men to pieces ; And they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb : Their eye shall not spare children." — Isa. xiii. 17, 18. In war, the Medes poisoned their arrows with a bituminous liquor called naphtha, of which there was anciently an abun- dance in Media, Persia, and Assyria. The arrow being steeped in it, and set on fire, and shot from a slack bow, (for a swift and violent motion lessened its malignity,) burned the flesh with such violence, that water rather increased than ex- tinguished the flame : dust alone could put out the flame, and alleviate the pain it occasioned. Their bows, which formed their principal weapon, were only exceeded in size and strength by those of the Ethiopians, and were well fitted to be used also as clubs. They measured about five feet six inches in length. Herodotus attributes to the Medes the custom of confirming alliances with the blood of the contracting parties, which was practised among all the eastern nations, even in the Roman times. This is confirmed by Tacitus, who says, that when they were to form alliances, they used to tie together the thumbs of their right hands till the blood, starting to the ex- tremities, was, by a slight incision, drawn forth. Of this they mutually partook ; and a league thus confirmed, was esteemed most awful, as being mysteriously solemnized with the blood of the parties. This offers a sad picture of humanity ; but prophecy points to the day when the blood of our fellow creatures need not be even thus figuratively drawn to insure friendship and amity — when all nations shall look upon each other as the workmanship of one common Creator ; as brethren, with whom they should sojourn on earth in peace. Glorious will that day be, when " Love shall, in one delightful stream, Through every bosom flow ; And union sweet, and fond esteem, In every action glow." With reference to the arts, learning, and trade of the Medes very little is known. Whether they ever applied themselves to either is not, indeed, anywhere recorded. They seemed HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 147 rather to have delighted, and to have aimed at excellino- in the merciless art of war. In the arts of managing the war- like steed, and handling the bow, they surpassed all other nations; as, in after ages, did their successors, the Per- sians. CHAPTER IV. THE KINGDOM OF MEDIA. The kingdom of Media appears to have teen erected about 704 years, b. c. Hitherto it had been a province of the kings of Assyria ; for we collect from Holy Writ, that in b. c. 719, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, transplanted the captive Israelites into various districts of Media, 2 Kings xvii. 6. He must therefore, have been, at that time, in full and undisturbed possession of that province. It was, indeed, in the year b. c. 710, that the Medians became first disaffected toward the As- syrian rule. In that year, they revolted from Sennacherib, and during the next six years they lived without a king. During this time, the liberty the Medes had acquired by their valour degenerated into licentiousness, and their govern- ment not being well established, they fell into a kind of anarchy worse than their former subjection ; injustice, vio- lence and rapine, prevailed everywhere, because there was no one possessed of power sufficient to restrain them, or authority sufficient to punish the offenders. These disorders at length induced the people to settle a form of government, which rendered the state more flourishing than before. Herodotus gives the following account of the change : " There was a man among the Medes of the name of Dejoces, son of Phraortes, of great reputation for his wisdom, whose ambitious views were thus disguised and exercised. The Medes were divided into different districts,* and Dejoces was distinguished in his own, by his vigilant and impartial distri- bution of justice. This he practised in opposition to the general depravity and weakness of the government of his country, and while conscious that the profligate and the just * At the time of their revolt from the Assyrians, the Medes consisted of the Busians, Paratacenians, Struchates, Arazantines, Budians, and Mages. These states were independent of each other, and governed by their own magistrates. HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 149 must ever be at war with each other. The Medes, who lived nearest him, to signify their approbation of his integrity, made him their judge. In this situation, having one more elevated in view, he conducted himself with the most rigid equity. His behaviour obtained the highest applause of his country- men ; and his fame extending to the neighbouring districts, the people contrasted his just and equitable decisions with the irregularity of their own corrupt rulers, and unanimously re- sorted to his tribunal, not suffering any one else to determine their litigations. " The increasing fame of his integrity and wisdom con- stantly augmented the number of those who came to consult him. But when Dejoces saw the pre-eminence which he was so universally allowed, he appeared no more on his accus- tomed tribunal, and declared that he should sit as a judge no longer ; intimating, that it was inconsistent for him to regu- late the affairs of others, to the neglect and injury of his own. After this, as violence and rapine prevailed more than ever in the different districts of the Mede5, they called a public as- sembly to deliberate on national affairs. As far as I have been able to collect, they who were attached to Dejoces de- livered sentiments to this effect: — 'Our present situation is intolerable, let us therefore elect a king, that we may have the advantage of a regular government, and continue our usual occupations, without any fear of danger or molestation.' In conformity to these sentiments, the Medes determined to elect a king ; and, after some consultation about what person they should choose, Dejoces was proposed and elected with universal consent." To such mean and discreditable shifts will the ambitious spirit resort, that it may obtain a crown. But, " Not kings alone : Each villager has his ambition too : No sultan prouder than his fettered slave. Slaves build their little Babylons of straw — Echo the proud Assyrian in their hearts, And cry, 'Behold the wonders of my might I' And why 1 because immortal as their lord : And souls immortal must for ever heave At something great; the glitter, or the gold; The praise of mortals, or the praise of Heaven." Young. Reader, make thou thy choice of the praise and the favour of Heaven ; for all else will fail thee in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment. 160 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. DEJOCES. Dejoces was no sooner invested with the supreme power, than he acted as a tyrant, though the rigour he practised might to a certain extent, have been necessary to bring the nation into any order or discipline. The first act of his government was the requisition of a life-guard, to secure his person, and maintain his dignity. He next required them to build him a strong and magnificent palace ; and afterwards to build the royal city of Ecbatana, which is placed by Major Rennell on or near the site of Ha- madan, in AlJebal. (See p. 1 38.) After the city was finished, he drew the main body of the people, who had hitherto lived in villages, to reside in its vicinity. Being persuaded, how- ever, that the majesty of kings is most respected afar off, he withdrew himself from public view, in order to increase the public respect and veneration for his person and government. He was almost inaccessible, and invisible to his subjects, not suffering them to speak or communicate their affairs to him but through his official servants, by whom he regularly re- turned his own decisions.* " This," says Herodotus, '^was the form which he observed in judiciary matters. His pro- ceeding," he adds, "with regard to penal offences, was thus: Whenever he heard of any injury being perpetrated, (and for this purpose he appointed spies and informers in different parts of his dominions,) the offender was first brought to his presence, and then punished according to his offence."! Ahhough Dejoces appears to have acted tyrannically during his rule, he was nevertheless a great and wise prince, and a blessing to his country. During his reign, his country en- joyed the profoundest peace and tranquillity ; and he never carried war into the territories of his neighbours. Accord- ing to Dr. Hales, he died b. c. 663, after a reign of forty ♦A similar policy was adopted by our Norman kings. Henry n., in- stead of the immediate application for justice to the king himself in the Aula regis, or " great court," that constantly attended his person, insti- tuted two other courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, to be station- ary at Westminster, where all judicial proceedings were henceforth to be conducted by pleading before the judges. By this regulation, justice was more orderly and more skilfully administered. t This, also, resembles the institution of itinerant judges of assize, who were sent on circuits, at stated periods, to take " cognizance of offences and misdemeanors ;" corresponding to the " spying out, or obtaining infor- mation of such ;" while Achmetha, or Ecbatana, the capital, became the established place of public records in after ages, Ezra vi. 2, HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 151 years. He was succeeded in his kingdom, which had now become powerful, by PHRAORTES, who is the Arphaxad of Scripture. Phraortes was a martial prince. Not being satisfied with the kingdom ef Media, left him by Dejoces, he attacked the Persians, and, defeating them in a decisive battle, brought them under subjection to his empire. After this, strengthened by the accession of the Persian forces, he attacked other na- tions, and reduced them, one after another, till he made him- self master of almost all Upper Asia. Elated with this success, he invaded the Assyrians of Nine- veh, who, though at this period weakened by the defection of their allies, were still very powerful in themselves. Nebu- chodonosor raised a great army in his own country, and sent ambassadors to a great many nations in the east, to require their assistance. They refused to comply with his demand, and treated his ambassadors with ignominy ; thus plainly de- claring, that they no longer regarded the power of his once mighty empire, Judith i. 5 — 11. Nabuchodonosor, enraged at such insolent treatment, swore by his " throne and kingdom," that he would be revenged of all these nations, and put them to the sword. He then pre- pared for battle with his own forces, in the plain of Ragau.* I'his soon ensued, and it proved fatal to Phraortes. He was defeated, his cavalry fled, his chariots were overturned, and put into disorder, and Nabuchodonosor gained a complete vic- tory. Then taking advantage of the confusion of the Medes, he entered their country, took their cities, pushed on his con- quest even to Ecbatana, forced the towers and the walls by storm, and gave it over to the rapine of his army. The un- fortunate Phraortes himself, who had escaped into the moun- tains of Ragau, fell at length into the hands of Nabuchodono- * Ragau is a large and extensive plain to the south of Teheran, the present capital of Persia. It extends east and west to a great distance, and is bounded on the north by the mountains of Mazanderan, supposed to be those mentioned in the text as the " mountains of Ragau ;" and south by an inferior range that separates it from the western limits of the Great Salt desert. The mountains of Manzanderan are very difficult of a,ccess to cavalry, and therefore the fittest place to which Phraortes could have fled for refuge from his enraged pursuer. The city itself is men- tioned in the books of Tobit and Judith, and the reader will find it de- scribed page 142 in this history. 152 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. sor, who caused him to be put to a cruel death. After that, he returned to Nineveh, and for four months feasted and di- verted himself with those that had accompanied him in his expedition. The death of Phraortes took place about b. c, 641, and he was succeeded in his kingdom by his son, CYAXAUES Lj OE. KAI KOBAD, who was the most celebrated of the Median kings, and, ac- cording to Dr. Hales, the Ahasuerus of Scripture, The poet jEschylus, and the Persian historian Mirkhond, etc., agree in representing him as the founder of the second, or Kaianian dynasty. The former, who had fought against the Persians, in the battle of Marathon, and therefore had opportunities of information, introduces the ghost of Darius Hystapes, in his tragedy of Persae, thus describing the several kings of Per- sia, from the Median founder to his own son, Xerxes : — " Asia's brave hosts A Mede* first led. The virtues of his sont Fixt firm the empire j for his temperate zeal Breathed prudence. Cyrixs third; by fortune graced, Adorned the throne, and blessed his grateful friends With peace. He to his mighty monarchy Joined Lydia and the Phrygians ; to his power Ionia bent reluctant, but the gods "With victory his gentle virtues crowned. His son§ then wore the regal diadem. Next to disgrace his country, and to stain The splendid glories of the ancient throne, Rose Mardus.ll Him with righteous vengeance fired^ Artaphranes, and his confederate chiefs Crushed in his palace. Maraphis^ assumed The sceptre. After him Artaphrcnes** Meif next, to the exalted eminence, Crowning my great ambition fortune raised. In many a glorious field, my glittering spear Flamed in the van of Persia's numerous hostsj But never wrought such ruin in the state As XerxesU my son. He, in all the pride of youth. Listens to youthful counsels, my commands No more remembered : hence, my hoary friends, Not the whole line of Persia's sceptred lords, (You know it welO so wasted her brave sons." Potter's Msckyujs, * Cyaxares. t Astyages. t Cyrus. § Cambyses. II Sjuerdis Magus. IT Blaraphis. '■* Artaphernes. tt Darius Hystaspcs, i| Xerves. HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 153 It is supposed that in the first year of the reign of Cyax- ares, or b. c. 640, that the army of Nebuchodonosor was de- feated in the plains of Bethulia. Cyaxares, who had well established himself on the throne of Media, and was master of Upper Asia, knew how to turn this event to his account. Before they had recovered from the consternation into which they were thrown, eager to revenge his father's defeat and death, he marched upon and laid siege to Nineveh, defeating the Assyrian army who came out to oppose him. The city was on the point of falling into his hands, when he was obliged to raise the siege, by reason of a Scythian in- vasion and victory as here related by Herodotus : " When Cyaxares was engaged in the siege of Nineveh, he was sur- prised by an army of Scythians, commanded by Madyas, son of Protothyas. Having expelled the Cimmerians* from Europe, the Scythians had found their way into Asia, and, continuing to pursue the fugitives, had arrived at the terri- tories of the Medes. " From the lake Mcstis an expeditious traveller may pass to the river Phasis, among the Colchians, in the space of thirty days, [Major Rennell, says twenty :] it requires less time to pass into Media from Colchis, which are only separated by the nation of the Saspirians. The Scythians, however, did not come by this route, but leaving Mount Caucasus on the right, passed through the high country by a much longer one. Here they met with the Medes, who, in a fixed battle, lost not only the Victory, but the empire of Asia." The Scythians retained the dominion of Asia for twenty- eight years, when they lost it by their licentiousness and neg- lect. At a feast, to which they were invited by Cyaxares and the Medes, the greatest part of them were cut ofi' when in a state of intoxication, and the Medes thus recovered their pos- sessions and ancient importance. The Scythians who were not at the feast, having heard of the massacre of their countrymen, fled into Lydia to king Alyattes, who received them with humanity. This gave rise to a war between the Median and Lydian monarchs, which raged more or less fiercely for five years. * Larcher says : " The history of the Scythians is remarkably obscure. Justin, speaking of the incursions of this people into Asia, sometimes co- incides with Herodotus ; at others materially contradicts him. Strabo makes a slight mention of this expedition of Madyas; but I am ignorant by what authority he makes him king of the Cimmerians; 1 should rather think a mistake has been made by some copyist." 154 HISTORY OF THE MEDES. The Lydian war commenced, b. c. 608, about which time, probably, Cyaxares, and his ally, Nabopolassar, king of Ba- bylon, renewed the siege of Nineveh, and took it, b. c. 60G, as related in the history of the Assyrians, page 112. During the Lydian war many battles were fought with equal success on both sides. In the sixth year, however, b. c. 603, it was brought to a crisis. During an obstinate battle, says Herodotus, the day suddenly became night. Thales, the Milesian, had foretold this alteration, or eclipse, to the lo- nians. The Lydians and Medes, seeing darkness take the place of hght, desisted from the sanguinary strife, and showed an inclination on both sides to come to terms of peace. Syen- nesis, king of Cilicia, and Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, seeing this, acted as mediators ; and they expedited the trea- ty, and confirmed it by a marriage, persuaded, that treaties cannot be lasting, without a powerful bond of union. They engaged Alyattes to give Aryenis, his daughter, in marriage to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares. Two years after, b. c. 601, Cyaxares died, and he was suc- ceeded in his kingdom by ASTYAGES, OR KAI KAUS, who, according to iEschjdus, Herodotus, and several oriental historians, was the son of Cyaxares, though others say the grandson. The reign of Astyages was very extended, continuing for thirty-five years, or till b. c. 566. But though his reign was thus long, there are no particulars handed down to us, worthy of credit, respecting it, except his repulsing the Babylonians, who, under the conduct of Evil Merodach, the son of Nebu- chadnezzar, had made an inroad into his territories. Astyages had two children, whose names are famous in history : these were, Cyaxares, by his wife Aryenis, and Man- dane, by a former marriage. Mandane was married, during her father's lifetime, to Cambyses, the son of Achemenes, king of Persia, from which union sprang the celebrated Cyrus. Herodotus represents Astyages, during the course of his reign, as foolish, mad, and infatuated. His accounts of his ac- tions, however, are a tissue of the strangest absurdities and con- trarieties, refuting themselves. They are, moreover, in opposi- tion to iEschylus, Xenophon, Josephus, the Persian historians, HISTORY OF THE MEDES. 155 and, above all, to Scripture ; and therefore they are omitted in these pages. Astyages was succeeded in his kingdom by CYAXAlRES II., FRAIBORZ, OR DARIUS THE MEDE, who came to the throne at the age of forty-nine years. Of this prince. Dr. Hales says, " Being naturally of an easy, in- dolent disposition, and fond of his amusements, he left the bur- den of military affairs, and the care of the government, to Cy- rus, his nephew and son-in-law, who married his only daugh- ter, and was therefore doubly entitled to succeed him." In his latter days, indeed, he seems to have been governed by his nephew and heir, Cyrus, " by that ascendancy which great souls have always over little ones." In the thirteenth year of his reign, or b. c. 553, Belshazzar having been slain, Darius succeeded him on the throne of Babylon. The first act of his sovereignty, according to Be- rosus, was the appointment of Nabonadius, a Babylonian no- bleman, not allied to the royal family, to be king, or viceroy, under him, according to the established policy of the Modes and Persians, to conciliate the good- will of his new subjects, in leaving them to be governed by a native prince. Home, remarking on the truth with which the characters of kings are delineated in the book of Daniel, observes, that Xenophon " represents Cyaxares as weak and pliable, but of a cruel temper, easily managed for the most part, yet ferocious in his anger. Is not this Darius ? the same Darius who al- lowed his nobles to make laws for him, and then repented ?— suffered Daniel to be cast into the lion's den, and then spent a night in lamentation for him ; and at last, in strict confor- mity with Xenophon's description, condemned to death not only his false counsellors, but also their wives and children ?" This is one of the remarkable coincidences in which the writings of profane and sacred historians harmonize. Daniel, who contributed so materially to the accession of Darius, was naturally in high favour with him. According- ly, on his next appointment of the presidents of the provinces, he set Daniel at their head, and designed, on account of his consummate wisdom, to set him over the whole united realm, Dan. vi. 1—3. But worldly distinctions are not a bower of roses, under which the possessor, though pious and upright, may rest with- out fear of being disturbed. And so Daniel found. His ele- vation and integrity aroused the jealousy of those beneath iB$ ItlSTORY OF THE MEDES'. him, (for it is a strong desire to be above, which, makes peo- ple uneasy beneath.) and they confederated against him. At first, they sought for some occasion in his public conduct, that they might accuse him ;' but they sought in vain : his probity, diligence, and faithfulness to the duties of his function, were perfect. Having thus no fault against him, they determined to make his piety the matter of accusation, and for (his pur- pose they plotted a very artful scheme. It Avas the practice of Daniel, amidst all the worldly cares that pressed upon him^ to retire to his chamber, which looked towards Jerusalem, to pray, three times a day. This his enemies knew ; and they were well assured, also, that he would not forego his practice, though death should stare him in the face. They therefore proposed a decree to Darius, to this effect— That whosoever should ask any petition of God or man for thirty days, save of the monarch himself, should be cast into a den of lions. To this proposal, so flattering to the vanity of an ambitious spirit, without suspecting their intentions, Darius consented. He signed the decree, and by that act it was made " Irrevocable as the steilfast law Of Mede and Persian, Which can never change.'' Human prudence would have dictated the expediency of refraining prayer till thirty days had passed away. But Dan- iel was not left to the guidance of so pitiful a taper as human prudence. On his soul the light of religion shed its refulgent rays : he well knew that God could protect him from danger, or, if he saw proper to permit him to sufTer, would take him to himself. When he heard of the decree, he neither discon- tinued his practice, nor made a secret of his devotions. This his adversaries soon discovered, and the report was laid before Darius. The misguided monarch now saw the error into which he had fallen, and he endeavoured to save his faithful minister : but it was too late ; the edict could not be reversed, and his accusers were clamorous for his execution. The monarch, therefore, gave the order, expressing this assurance to Daniel, when he was thrown into the den of lions, " Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will dehver thee," Dan. vi. 10—17. The next morning, after a night of mourning and flisting, the king arose very early, and went in haste to the den of lions : and when he came to if, he cried to Daniel ; " O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest HISTORY OF THE MEDES, 157 coniltiiially, able to dcli\'er thee from the lions ?" The prophet answered triumphantly in the affirmative: "My GJod hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' months, that they have not hurt me : forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me ; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." The king was exceeding glad ; and he retaliated the same punishment upon his accusers, their wives, and their children ; whom the lions instantly devoured, breaking their bones to pieces before they reached the bottom of the den, ver. 18 — 24. Darius now made a decree in honour of the religion of Dan- iel, in which he acknowledged the God of Daniel, to be the only living God in heaven and on earth, ver. 25 — 28. Soon after this, b. c. 551, Cyaxares died, and the kingdom of Media, etc., became united to that of Persia, under the rule of '-Cyrus the Persian," Thus kingdoms pass away, and kingdoms rise, Casting their shadowy forms before our eyes : So let them pass : for in the skies there's one, That has no need of moon or of the sun, And that will last for aye ! To this fair seat Turn, pilgrim wand'rer on this earth, thy feet. Hark ! from on high a gentle voice says, ' Conae !' It is thy Saviour's — make it then thy home. VOL. II. 14 THE HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF LYDIA. Whence this country obtained the name of Lydia is not determined. According to a tradition of the people who in- habited it, as quoted by Josephus, it was from Lud, the fourth son of Shem. Ancient writers, however, tell us, that Lydia was first called Msconia, or Meonia, from Meon, king of Phrygia and Lydia, and that it was known by that name till the reign of Atys, when it was called Lydia, from his son Lydus. Bochart, finding in his collection of Phenician words, the verb Luz, which signifies " to wind," and observ- mg that the country is watered by the Meander, so famous for its windings, concludes that it was thence named Lydia, or Ludia. To support this hypothesis, he contends, that the Phenicians, and after them Moses, who in the descriptions of countries made use of their terms, gave the name of Lud, not only to Lydia on the banks of the Meander, but likewise to Ethiopia, where the Nile, according to Herodotus, has as many windings as the Meander itself As these two coun- tries, therefore, lying on the two most winding rivers known to the ancients, were named Lud, which signifies " to wind," who can doubt, says he, that they derived their common de- nomination from the rivers which watered them ? With re- ference to the ancient name Meonia, he conceives it is a Greek translation of the Phenician word Lud, which is partly borne out by Stephanus, who derives the name of Meonia from Meon, the ancient name of the Meander. Some imagine the HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 159 word Meonia, to be a translation of a Hebrew word signify- ing " metal," because that country was, in ancient times, cele- brated for its mines. The country of Lydia was situated in Asia Minor. Its boundaries cannot be distinctly defined, they having diifered at various times. Under the Roman empire, it was bounded on the south by Caria, from which it was separated by the river Meander ; on the north, by a range of mountains known under the name of Sardene, which divided it from Mysia ; on the east, by Phrygia ; and on the west, by the iEgean ; though the tract of country along the coast was more com- monly known by the name of Ionia. What the ancients de- nominate the kingdom of Lydia was not, however, confined between these narrow boundaries, but extended from the river Halys to the ^gean sea. Pliny's description includes ^lia, lying between the Hermus and Caicus, a river of Mysia ; but this does not appear to be correct. Lydia was intersected by mountain ranges, running from east to west ; of which the principal, called Messogis by Strabo, is a branch of Taurus, and forms the northern boun- dary of the valley of Meander. Another chain of mountains, known to the ancients under the name of Tmolus, runs paral- lel to the Messogis, through the centre of the country, and terminates on the western coast, opposite the island of Chios. A branch of Tmolus, called Sipylus, stretches more to the north-west, towards the towns of Cuma and Phocsea. The chain of mountains separating Lydia from Mysia appears to be a continuation of the northern range, knoAvn in Bithynia by the name of Olympus, and in Mysia iDy Ida and Temnoa. Lydia was thus divided into two valleys ; the southern be- tween Messogis and Tmolus, through which the Caystrus flows ; and the northern, between Tmolus and Sardene, watered by the Hermus and its tributaries, the Hyllus, Pac- tolus, and Coganus. The former of these valleys is of mode- rate extent ; but the latter forms a plain of great magnitude. MOUNTAINS. The principal mountains of Lydia are the Tmolus, now called by the Turks, Bouz Dagh, or the Cold Mountain, and the Sipylus. The former is chiefly noted for its producing the herb safTron ; the latter is celebrated in heathen mytho- logy. It is said, that the goddess Sipylene, worshipped an- ciently by the pagan inhabitants, derived her name from it ; 160 HISTORY OF THE LYDlANS. or rather, it was Cybele herself who was so called, because here worshipped in a particular manner. Hence, on the re- verse of almost all the medals of ancient Magnesia, Cybele is represented sometimes on the frontispiece of a temple with four pillars, and sometimes in a chariot. Plutarch says, that Mount Sipylus was also called Ceraunius, or, the "' Thun- dering Mountain," because it thundered more frequently there than on any other mountain of Asia. Hence, also, on the reverse of some of the Magnesian medals, is found Jupiter armed with thunderbolts. l^ausanius declares that Jupiter was buried on this mountain, and that he saw his monument ! He also climbed the mountain, in hopes of discovering the rock into which Niobe had been turned I So much were the ancient writers given to the fabulous. RIVERS. Some of the rivers of Lydia demand a notice ; though it must be said of them, that they are more celebrated in the pages of ancient writers than many other rivers more worthy of notice. Meander. — This river had its rise near Celcenas, in Phry- gia, and flowed through Caria and Ionia, into the ^gean Sea, receiving in its course the waters of the Marsyas, Lycus, Eudon, Lethccus, etc. It is celebrated by the ancient poets for its windings, from whence it derived its name, and which amount to six hundred. Lucan, describing the nations that took part with Pompey, says : — *' Then Stryraon* was forsook, whose wintry flood, Commits to warmer Nile his feathered brood ; Then bands from Cone, and from Peucet came, Where Ister loses his divided stream: * Prom Idalis where cold Caicus flows,t And where Arisbe,§ thin, her sandy surface strews; From Pytane and sad Celaenag'sll walls. Where now in streams the vanquish'd Marsyas falls ; * Strymon was a river of Thrace, whose banks abounded with cranes, it is now called Ischar in the European Turkey. t These were two islands amongst the mouths of the Ister, or Danube. : Commentators explain the Tdlns llalis in this place, to be the terri- tory about Mount Ida, which must be a mistake : for Caicus is a river in Musia, Major, a great way distant from Ida. § A town in Troas. II Pytane was a town near the river Caicus, and Celaenae was a city near the head of the river Marsyos : the fabulous story of which is, that Marsyas, a celebrated piper of Celaense, found the pipes Pallas had thrown away in disdain, and pragmatically set up for as good a musician HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 161 Still his lamenting progeny deplore Minerva's tuneful gift and Phoebus' power : While through steep banks, his torrent swift he leads, And with Meander winds among the meads." — Book ill. According to some authors, Dcedalus owes the first idea of his famous labyrinth to the river Meander, to which we find a reference in Ovid's Metamorphoses. " As soft Meander's wanton current plays, When through the Phrygian fields he loosely strays : Backward and forward rolls the dimpled tide. Seeming, at once, two differeut ways to glide ; While circling streams their former banks survey, And waters past succeeding waters see : Now floating to the sea with downward course, Now pointing upward to its ancient source. Such was the work, so intricate the place, That scarce the workman all its turns could trace : And Daedalus was puzzled how to find The secret ways, of what himself designed." — Book viii. Caystrus. — This is a rapid river of Asia, rising in Lydia, which, after a meandering course, falls into the ^Egean sea, near Ephesus. Like the Meander, it is celebrated in the pages of the ancient poets, who say, that its banks and neigh- bourhood were the resort of the "stately saihng swan." Thus, in the story of Phaeton, Ovid says : — " The swans, that on Cayster often tried Their tuneful songs, now sung their last, and died." — Book i. Hermus. — This river is thought to originate in the western extremity of the central plateaus of Asia Minor. It flows near Sardes, and receives the waters of the Pactolus and Hyllus ; after which it falls into the ^gean sea. According to the poets, its sands were covered with gold. Thus, Virgil, celebrating the fertility of Italy, says : — " But neither Median woods, (a pleasant land,) Fair Ganges, Hermus rolling golden sand, Nor Bactria, nor the richer Indian fields, Nor all the gummy stores Arabia yields, Nor any foreign earth of greater name, Can with sweet Italy contend in fame."--GEORG. ii. JJalys. — The Halys, now the Kizil-Ermak, is described as taking its rise by two branches in the liigher ranges of the as Apollo, by whom he was first vanquished and then flayed. Some compassionate nymphs, however, who loved his music better than that of Apollo, turned him into a river, which falls into the Meander. 14* 162 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. Taurus, in Cappadocia. It received the name of Halys from the saltness of its waters before it enters the sea. It is now called the Kizil-Ermak, or Red River ; but its true name is said to be Aitn-Su. Where Kinnier crossed it, between Woiwode and Vizir Kapri, it was about three hundred feet broad, and this, it must be remembered, was at a place where the stream was contracted, near the ruins of a fine old bridge. Tournefort describes it to be, at its mouth, about the width of the Seine at Paris. Its whole course was probably four hun- dred miles. According to a French authority, it falls into the Black Sea by one mouth, at the boundary of Pontus and Paphlagonia. The Halys is the largest river of Asia Minor, and in the days of Croesus it formed the western limit of the Median, and the eastern Umit of the Lydian empires. It is celebrated for the defeat of Croesus, who was deceived by this quibbling oracle : " If Croesus passes over the Halys, he shall destroy a great empire." That empire was his own ! Pactolus. — The Pactolus is a tributary to the Hermus. Taking its rise in Mount Tmolus, it falls into that river after it has watered the city of Sardes. By Pliny it is called Ti- molus. The poets say that Midas washed himself in this river, when he turned into gold whatever he touched ; and from that circumstance it ever after rolled golden sand, and re- ceived the name of Chrysorrhoas. "The king, instructed, to the fount retires. But with the golden charm the stream inspires : For while this quality the man forsakes, An equal power the limpid water takes ; Informs with veins of gold the neighbouring land, And glides along a bed of golden sand." Ovid Met. xi. It would appear, from history, that gold was anciently found both among the sands of the Pactolus and Hermus ; and Lucan, in his Pharsalia, says truly : " Proud Lydia's plains send forth her wealthy sons, Pactolus there, and golden Hermus, runs : From earth's dark womb hid treasures they convey, And, rich in yellow waters, rise to day." Strabo observes, however, that the Pactolus had no golden sands in his age. HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 163 The fertility of Lydia, and the salubrity of its climate, are frequently mentioned by ancient writers. The air, especially near Mount Tmolus, is much celebrated in their pages. It is said that it was so wholesome, that the inhabitants gene- rally lived to the age of 150 years ; and that the neighbour- ing country was very prolific, and produced an abundance of odoriferous flowers. Mount Tmolus itself was celebrated for the herb saffron, to which we find an illusion in the Georgics of Virgil : " Thus Tmolus is with yellow saffron crown'd." The account of ancient writers, concerning the fertility of the ground, and the salubrity of the air of Lydia, is confirmed by the reports of modern travellers. Chishall speaks of the country between Tmolus and Messogis, as a " region inex- pressibly delicious." It would appear, indeed, that the soil of Lydia, by reason of its many rivers, was very fertile, and that the country abounded in all kinds of grain, and was ce- lebrated for its excellent wines. Some authors state, that Lydia was enriched with many mines, whence Croesus obtamed his immense wealth; but there is no proof that the Lydians ever carried on the opera- tion of mining. It is most probable that they obtained their gold chiefly from the river Pactolus, which, according to He- rodotus, washed it down from Mount Tmolus. CHAPTER 11. TOPOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF LYDIA. The most important towns of Lydia were. Sardis, Phila- delphia, Thyatira, and Magnesia. SAUDIS. Sardis was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, in the days of Croesus, who, when defeated in the plain before this city, by Cyrus, was master of all the nations within the river Halys. The dominion of this territory then passed into the hands of the Persians, and Sardis became the residence of the Satraps, to whom the government was committed ; it was also the chosen resort of the Persian monarchs, when in this part of their empire. It surrendered to Alexander, after he had defeated the Persians in the battle of the Granicus ; and it continued a great city under the Romans, until the terrible earthquake, which happened in the days of Tiberius. By that emperor's orders, however, it was rebuilt; but subse- quent calamities of the same description, with the ravages and spoliations of the Goths, Saracens, and Turks, have re- duced it to a heap of ruins, in Avhich, notwithstanding, some remains of its ancient splendour may be traced. Sardis, which is now a miserable village, called Sart, is situated on the northern side of Mount Tmolus, having a pleasant and spacious plain before it, well watered with seve- ral streams, flowing from a neighbouring hill to the south- east. These streams fall into the Pactolus, rising to the east from the same hill, and w^hich, with its collected waters, in- creases the stream of the Hermus, or Sarabat, into which it falls. Sardis is celebrated in Christian history, as one of the " Seven Apocalyptic Churches," against which the evan- geHst John lifted up his warning voice : " And unto the an- fflSTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 165 gel of the church in Sardis write ; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars ; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which re- main, that are ready to die : for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore hovi^ thou hast re- ceived and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white : for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment ; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Rev. iii. 1 — 6. How literally this threatening has been accomplished, his- tory and the testimony of travellers declare. This once opu- lent city is now dwindled into an insignificant village, the houses of which are few and mean. The present inhabit- ants are mostly shepherds, who tend their flocks and herds as they feed in the spacious plains. " If I were asked," says Arundel, in his ' Discoveries in Asia Minor,' " what impresses the mind most strongly in beholding Sardis, I should say, its indescribable solitude^ like the darkness of Egypt, darkness that could be felt. So the deep solitude of the spot, once the ' lady of the kingdoms,' produces a corresponding feeling of desolate abandonment in the mind, which can never be for- gotten;" The Rev. J. Hartley also remarks : " The ruins are, with one exception, more entirely gone to decay than those of most of the ancient cities which we have visited. No Christians reside on the spot ; two Greeks, only, work in a mill here, and a few wretched Turkish huts are scattered among the ruins. We saw the churches of St. John and the Virgin, the theatre, and the building styled the palace of Croe- sus ; but the most striking object at Sardis is the temple of Cybele. I was filled with wonder and awe at beholding the two stupendous columns of this edifice, which are still re- maining: they are silent but impressive witnesses of the power and splendour of antiquity." Southward of the vil- lage of Sart, at the bottom of a small hill, considerable ruins are discovered. Six pillars are standing there, twenty-one feet in circumference, and thirty in height ; and there are several vast stones belonging to pillars now prostrate. In 166 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. the Standing pillars, the stones are so exactly enclosed, that they seem as if they were all composed, each of one stone. Eastward to these ruins, a castle in ruins speaks to the be- holder of desolation. The ascent to this pile is so steep, that the approach must be made by a circuitous path. In ancient times, it was doubtless considered as inaccessible and impreg- nable. There is a Greek inscription within the castle, upon the chapiter of a pillar, to the honour of the emperor Tibe- rius, who is considered its second founder, its breaches hav- ing been repaired by his directions. Eastward to the castle are the ruins of a great church, and northward of these are other vast ruins ; the walls still remaining having several divisions and apartments, all of which take up a large com- pass of ground. This is thought to have been either the palace of the governor, the seat of justice, or a public hall, as a place of meeting for the citizens ; but it is impossible now to decide which. Other ruins are met with in this direc- tion, from which circumstance, some conclude that the great- est part of the city lay in this quarter. The Turks have a mosque at Sart, which was formerly a Christian church, at the entrance of which are several curious pillars of polished marble. A few Christians live amongst them in the capacity of gardeners and labourers ; but they have no church, nor any one capacitated either to preach the glad tidings of salvation through a crucified Redeemer, or to administer the ordinances of the gospel. So awfully, so lite- rally has the threat been verified, that, because she had a name to live, while in reality she was dead, and because she attended not to the voice of warning mercy, the candlestick should be removed out of its place. A missionary, named Lindsay, who recently visited Sardis, states, that the very few Chris- tians w^ho lived in its vicinity wished to settle in the plain, and erect a church on the site of Sardis ; but being prevented from this by Kara Osman Oglou, the Turkish governor of the place, they erected one on the plain, within sight of ancient Sardis. At this place, he says, w^hich has gradually risen into a little village, named Tatar-Keny, they maintain a priest; and thither the few Christians, forming together a congrega- tion of forty persons, resort for public worship. Another mis- sionary, however, who visited Sart more recently, states, that there is not now in that place even one Christian family. All have defiled their garments by apostasy. Let us take warn- ing by their example. HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 167 PHILADELPHIA. Philadelphia was situated about twenty-five miles east by- south of Sardis, upon a branch of Mount Tmolus ; at which spot there are still to be seen the relics of a noble city, called, by the Turks, Allah Shehr, " the beautiful city," or " the city of God.'' It was built by Attalus Philadelphus, king- of Per- gamus. The voice of the evangelist was also directed to Philadel- phia, but no thunders were heard in the sound. " And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write ; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and no man openeth ; I know thy works : behold, 1 have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it : for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the syna- gogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie ; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quick- ly : hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out : and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God : and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Rev. iii. 7—13. The infidel Gibbon unwittingly bears his testimony to the fulfilment of this prophecy. He says, " Among the [inland] Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect ; a column in a scene of ruins ! At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and their freedoin above fourscore years ; and at length capitu- lated with the proudest of the Ottomans." The American missionaries, Fisk and Parsons, when they visited the place in 1820, were informed by the Greek Arch- bishop Gabriel, that there were five churches in the town, be- sides twenty which were either old or small, and had fallen into disuse. The number of houses is estimated at SjOOOj of 168 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. which 250 are inhabited by Greeks, the rest by Turks. One of the present mosques was pointed out to the missionaries, as the church in which the primitive Christians of Philadel- phia assembled, to whom St. John wrote. Philadelphia, as it now exists, covers a considerable extent of ground, running up the slope of several hills. Travellers concur in describing the streets as filthy, and the houses mean ; but the scenery around is represented as beautiful in the ex- treme. Before it lies one of the most extensive and richest plains in Asia. One of the most remarkable ruins of anti- quity now seen there is a single column, which evidently be- longed to another structure than the present church. " Which," says an elegant writer, " taken with the present name of the town, forcibly brings to mind that part of the message to the church of Philadelphia which we find in the 12th verse." THYATIRA. Thyatira was situated on the banks of a stream that runs south-west to the Hermus, or Sarabat, twenty-five British miles north-west of Sardis, and forty miles south-east of Per- gamus. According to Strabo, it was a Macedonian colony, and it was the Pelopeia and Euhippia of Pliny. By Ptolemy it is denominated, in his list of Lydian cities, Thyatira Metro- polis. It is now called Ak-hissar, or " The White Castle ;" perhaps denoting the city of the Ak-Su-Leucos, or " White River," on which it stands. It contains a population of 5,000 souls. Thyatira was another of the Seven Churches addressed by the evangelist John, whose warning voice foretold its desola- tion in these emphatic words : " And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write ; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass ; I know thy works, and charity, and ser- vice, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works ; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jeze- bel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornica- tion ; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribu- lation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death j and all the churches shall know that 1 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 160 am he which searcheth the reins and hearts : and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak ; I will put upon you none other bur- den. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter shall Ihey be broken to shivers : even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Rev, ii. 18—29. At the present day, there is not one Christian among the inhabitants of Ak-hissar, all being Mohammedans ; and the Christian churches which remained have long since been converted into mosques, and the columns of marble which once adorned the public buildings are now used for inns and bazars. Its ancient Pagan inhabitants were worshippers of the goddess Diana, as appears by several classic monuments, with Greek inscriptions, erected by Roman governors. The ancient remains of Thyatira are more meagre than any of the seven churches. The American missionary Fisk thus de- scribes the place : " Thyatira is situated near a small river, a branch of the Caicus, in the centre of an extensive plain. At the distance of three or four miles, it is almost completely sur- rounded by mountains. The houses are low ; many of them of mud or earth. Excepting the Motsellim's palace, there is scarcely a decent house in the place. The streets are nar- row and dirty, and every thing indicates poverty and degra- dation. The Turks have destroyed all remains of the ancient church ; and even the place where it stood is now unknown. At present there are in the town, 1,000 houses for which taxes axe paid to the government." Gibbon has attempted to deny the existence of the church at Thyatira, and consequently the authenticity of the Apo- calypse, on the authority of the Alogians and of Epiphanius. But the existence of such a church is proved by the learned Dr. Stosch, whom Gibbon never attempted to refute. ^ Lydia. moreover, who was converted at Philippi, is denominated a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira ; evidently meaning, that that city was the place of her ordinary residence, and that the purple manufactured there was carried by her to the market of Philippi for sale, where she had a house during VOL. u. 15 ' 170 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. her abode there, till the article was disposed of at the annual fair, which continued many days. On this subject the Rev. J. Hartley observes : " The sacred writer of the Acts of the Apostles informs us, that Lydia was a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira ; and the 'discovery of an inscription here which makes mention of the dyers, has been considered im- portant in connexion with this passage. I Imow not if other travellers have remarked, that even at the present time, Thy- atira is famous for dyeing. In answer to inquiries on the subject, I was informed that the cloths which are dyed scarlet here, are considered superior to any others furnished by Asia Minor ; and that large quantities are sent weekly to Smyrna, for the purpose of commerce." Now, there can be no doubt, that Lydia returned to Thyatira, after she and her household had been baptized, and that, by the church in her house, others would be brought to the knowledge of that Saviour whom she had found so precious to her soul. Nor can there be any doubt that the zealous and great apostle of the Gentiles, jn his travels through Mysia and Lydia, would visit Thyatira. As all Asia, indeed, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of God from his lips, when he was two years professedly re- siding at Ephesus, it can hardly be imagined that those of Thyatira, which was only seventy EngUsh miles distant, would be excepted. The locality of Thyatira, also, with reference to Pergamus, Sardis, Philadelphia, and other places, where churches had been planted by the apostles Paul and John, renders it probable that one was planted there. Finally, Ter- tullian, who wrote before the Alogians, admits its early ex- istence ; and it is also mentioned by Origen in his homilies. There is no ground, therefore, to call in question the existence of the Church of Thyatira. MAGNESIA. Magnesia and Sipylum, now Magnissa, is thirty-five miles due west from Sardis, and eighteen north-east of Smyrna. It is situated at the foot of a lofty and rugged mountain, (the ancient Mons Sipylus, now called the SipuH Dagh,) that rises behind it, and abruptly terminates the vast plain, which runs from the north of Ak-hissar, the ancient Thyatira, to this place. It contains, at the least, twenty-seven mosques, and most of the houses are placed at the foot, and some on the sides of the mountain. It has been for eighty years, with all the territory HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 171 from the Meander to the Propontis, under the equitable go- vernment of the family of Cara Osman Oglou. On the slope of Mount Sipylus, and overlooking the city, are the ruins of an ancient castle, with its outworks. The bazar is well stored with fruits and vegetables, which shows the fer- tility of the country around. The site of the city itself, how- ever, from the excessive heats and frequent floods of the Sara- bat, generates malaria, whence fever and ague affect the in- habitants to an alarming extent. Sir William Ousely represents the inn, or Turkish khan, at which he lodged in this place, as he journeyed from Con- stantinople to Smyrna, as the best he had met with in the east. It was a spacious building, forming a regular square, with an open court, where a richly ornamented fountain in the centre furnished a supply of water. The chambers were numerous, and the one in which he slept was on the upper floor, Avhere the door of each chamber opened from a railed gallery, pro- jecting into the square, and supported on pillars and arches. Between these arches, and over the colonnade, were receptacles, cut with divisions and small holes, for the accommodation of sparrows, with which, he states, every compartment was fully tenanted ; they being daily fed by the Turks, and never mo- lested. It may be mentioned, that there was another city of the same name seated on the Meander, and which was formerly a city of great note, as the ruins of many buildings demon- strate. At this place, the great Themistocles died, it being one of the three towns allotted to him by Artaxerxes for his subsistence, during his exile. CHAPTER IIL HISTORY OF THE POLITY OF LYDIA. THE GOVERNMENT, ETC. s The Lydians were ruled by kings in the earliest ages of the world. Their proper history, however, only commen- ces, as will be hereafter explained, about b. c. 718. The government of Lydia, so far as can be gathered from the conduct of their monarchs, seems to have been despotic in the highest degree, and the crown hereditary. This their brief history exhibits, and the reader is therefore referred to that section for further information on this point. The character of the Lydians varied at different periods, under Croesus, and some of his predecessors, they were evi- dently a warlike people ; for they reduced all the neighbour- ing countries, and spread the terror of their arms far and wide. Afterwards, being subdued by the Persians, and en- joined by Cyrus, according to the advice given him by CrcE- sus, to wear long vests, and apply themselves to such arts and callings only as had a natural tendency to corrupt their man- ners and enervate their courage, they became a voluptuous and effeminate race of people. Herodotus gives the following account of the origin of this change of character. The Lydians, not long after they were subdued by Cyrus, at the instigation of one Pactyas, a Lydian, whom Cyrus had trusted with the gold which he had found in the treasury of Croesus, at Sardis, rebelled. News of this re- volt being brought to Cyrus, as he was leading his army against the Babylonians, Bactrians, and Egyptians, he re- solved to march back into Lydia, sell all the Lydians for slaves, and put an end to the existence of the nation. He in- parted his resolution to Crcssus, at that time his prisoner, who, deploring the utter ruin of his country, entreated him to for- give the Lydians, and to revenge himself on Pactyas alone, mSTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 173 by whom they had been misled. At the same time, Croesus advised Cyrus, in order to prevent any future rebellion, to for- bid the Lydians the use of arms, to encourage luxury and debauchery among- them, to which they were naturally in- clined, and to cause their children to be brought up to such callings only as would ensure their enervation.* This evil advice, more ruinous in its results than that which Cyrus him- self meditated, was followed, and in a short time the Ly- dians became the most corrupt and feeble nation under the sun. " So coin grows smooth, in traffic current pass'd. Till Cesar's image is effaced at last." — Cowper. Some have concluded from Jeremiah xlvi. 9, that the arms of the ancient Lydians were bows and arrows ; but in this they err. The original from whence the word " Lydians " is translated in this verse, is Ludim, and the people denoted must not be confounded with the Lydians of Asia Minor, with whom the Egyptians and other African nations usually asso- ciated with them could have no connexion. There were two Luds, one the son of Shem, from whom these Lydians are descended ; and the other, the son of Misraim, the settler of Egypt, whose descendants are supposed to have settled in Africa, and near Egypt. It is to these latter people that the prophet alludes, when he speaks of " the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow." Like the bulk of mankind, in those ancient days, the Ly- dians were gross idolaters. It would appear that they wor- shipped the goddess Diana, as they did also Jupiter and Cy- bele at Magnesia, under the name of Sypilene. This is evi- dent from the fact, that in the alliance concluded between the cities of Smyrna and Magnesia on the Meander in favour of Seleucus Callinicius, both parties swore, according to the Arundelian marbles, by the goddess Sypilene. In the same city there was a temple of Diana Leucophryna, which, it is said, equalled in magnificence the celebrated temple of Diana at Ephesus. The Lydian mode of expiation nearly resembled that in use among the Greeks. ApoUonius Rhodius has thus de- scribed the custom in his poem of the Argonautics : — * Xerxes, it is said, compelled the Babylonians to adopt a similar con- duct. He forbade their carrying arms, and obliged them to learn the practice of music, to have in their cities places of debauch, and to wear long tunics. Such are among the evil effects of tyranny. if 4 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. " On splendid seats th' enchantress bade them rest ; But doubts and anxious thoughts her soul possess'd. Their steps unsounding through the palace pass'd, The vestal hearth they sought with silent haste ; Then, motionless, with downcast eyes they sate, As suits the humble suppliant's piteous state. Stung with reproaches of the conscious mind, Between her hands the maid her face inclin'd ; While leaning on the hilt, with grief profound, The youth infixed his falchion in the ground ; Nor lifts to vengeful Heaven his drooping eyes, While gloomy thoughts for slain Absyrtus rise. Fair Circe marked the deep desponding mood ; She recognised the fugitives from blood ; Revered the suppliant^ right with pious awe ; And bow'd submiss to Jove's imperial law. Who makes the suppliant his peculiar care. And e'en in punishment inclines to spare. Th' atoning sacrifices she began. That stains of blood remove from wretched man ; For refuge when he flics to Vesta's shrine. And seeks remission from the powers divine. High o'er their heads, the little swine she held, New from the dam, and paps vdth nurture swell'd. She pierced his throat, and cleansing blood with blood, Her suppliants tinctured in the purple flood. Then ceremonies fill'd the solemn hour, To calm the wrath of every vengeful power ; And lustral Jove was call'd, at whose command Oblations pure absolve the slayer's hand. This done, her train, full many a Naiad maid The ablutions from the splendid dome convey'd. Within to sober vows, and whisper'd prayer That bid the furies drop the scourge, and spare, The flame with salted cakes the enchantress fed ; And sweet libations o'er the offering shed Of mighty power, to sooth the gliding dead ; Where a stranger's death their hands embrued, Or the dire stain from kindred blood accrued. The solemn expiations were complete. She called each suppliant to the polish'd seat Full in her view and near. — Preston's Translation. This is one of the many instances to be met with in profane history of men acknowledging their guiltiness before their heathen gods, and seeking to divert Divine displeasure by the offer of a representative victim. And the question has been asked, Whence did the ancient heathen derive this in- stitution? The question is natural, for the slaughter and burning of an inoffensive animal does not seem a very obvious process, to the first exercise of natural reason, for diverting the Divine vengeance. It is, however, easily answered. As mankind descended from one common parent, and as the HISTORY OP THE LYDIANS. 175 patriarchs, from Abel downward, by Divine command, offered up such sacrifices, the practice was doubtless derived tra- ditionally from them. But, unhappily, the design of the in- stitution was unknown to the heathen world. Originally, it was intended to shadow forth the atonement which, at the ap- pointed time, should be made for the sins of the world by Jesus Christ. This was hidden from their sight, and hence they conceived that a poor dumb animal was able to stand between them and offended Deity. A notion of vicarious punishment — that sin might be acknowledged, and the Divine indignation against the sinner be appeased by sacrifice — was prevalent among all nations of mankind ; but one na- tion only possessed the true knowledge of the purport of the institution, namely, the Jews, who were taught in the Mosai- cal dispensation to look through types and shadows to the bleeding sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Hence it was, that good old Simeon, w^ho devoutly waited for this " consolation of Israel" in the temple of his God, exclaimed in the spirit of prophecy, as he held the infant Jesus in his arms, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel," Luke iL 29 — 32. This Light is now shining around us in all its glory. The sacrifice has been made; and we are daily directed to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Have we, or have we not, accepted his sacrifice? Reader, let conscience reply. One law among the ancient Lydians deserves to be men- tioned, and to be cherished in the memory. This was the punishment of idleness as a crime, and their inuring their children, from their very infancy, to hardships. In the for- mer clause of this law, they deserve to be imitated, even by a Christian people. If the youth of our country were generally brought up to habits of industry, how much vice and misery would be avoided. Suffered to be idle, as they are in too many instances, they become the prey of the designing, a curse to their parents, and a pest to society. This is a crying evil in our day, and demands correction. Restraint over our off spring is required at our hands, and the parent who neglects it inflicts a moral injury upon his child and his country, \vhile he exposes himself to the wrath of his Maker. If hea- then parents appreciated the results of industrious habits, surely Christian parents ought not to undervalue them. 176 HISTORY OF THE LTDIANS. They should keep their offspring employed in their learn- ing- and other occupations, suited to their tender age, that they may he preserved from temptation and ruin. All nature teaches the lesson of industry. The sun, moon, and stars, are constant in the performance of their Creator's will. The earth, also, on which w^e live, unweariedly travels onward in its course, and the very insects teach us a lesson of industry. Shall man disregard the lesson ? It may be mentioned, that the Lydians are said by the Greeks to have been the first people who put a stamp upon gold and silver, and that they claimed to be the inventors of the games which were prevalent in Greece in the days of Hero- dotus, and which were called Ludi by the Romans. COMMERCE. The Lydians appear to have enjoyed great commercial prosperity, and to have possessed an abundance of the pre- cious metals. Their gold, as before intimated, is said to have been obtained from the rivers Hermus and Pactolus, which washed it down from the mountains, whence they derived their sources. The splendour of the monarchy of Lydia, and the commodious situation of the country, would indicate that commerce once flourished in Lydia to an eminent de- gree. So, also, would the riches of their princes, and of pri- vate individuals, the accounts of which seem to border on the fabulous. Herodotus says, that one Pythius not only enter- tained Xerxes and his army, while he was marching with his great army to invade Greece, but made him a proffer of two thousand talents of silver, about 700,000/. sterhng, and 3,993,000 pieces of gold, bearing the stamp of Darius, to defray the charges of that war. The same Pythius, he says, had presented Darius, father of Xerxes, a plane-tree and a vine, or imitations thereof, of massive gold ; and he was reckoned, next to the kings of Persia, one of the richest men in the world. CHAPTER IV. THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF LYDIA. The early history of Lydia is related by Herodotus, who informs us that three dynasties ruled in that country — the AtyadsB, or descendants from Atys, from the earliest times to B. c. 1223 ; the Heraclidce, or the descendants of Hercules, from B. c. 1223 to 718; and Mermnadse, from b. c. 718 to 548, at which date the country was conquered by Cyrus. The proper history of Lydia, can only be said to begin with the last of these dynasties, since the first two are almost en- tirely fabulous. The first monarch in the dynasty of the Mermnadae, was GYGES. Herodotus relates a tale concerning- the rise of Gyges to the throne of Lydia, which is too romantic to be here related. Divesting his account, however, of all fable, it may be stated that he appears to have waded to it through blood. With the knowledge of the wife of Candaules, the last of the race of the Heraclidae, he killed that monarch, and grasped his sceptre. In this particular, Plato's story of Gyges is confirmatory of that of Herodotus. The murder of Candaules raised a sedition among the Ly dians. The two parties, however, instead of coming to blows, agreed to refer the matter to the decision of the Delphic oracle, which declared in favour of Gyges. As soon as he was established in his authority, Gyges sent various presents to Delphi, a considerable quantity of which were of silver. Among other offerings of value, Herodotus mentions six golden goblets, weighing thu'ty talents, the value of which was about 48,000/. sterling. As soon as he was in peaceable possession of the throne, Gyges carried his arms against Miletus, Smyrna, and Colo- 178 HISTORY OP THE LYDIANS. phon, three powerful cities belonging to the neighbouring states, the latter of which he appears to have conquered. These are all the actions recorded of Gyges. He died after a reign of thirty-eight years, or b. c, 680, and was succeeded in his kingdom by his son Ardyes. ARDYES. Herodotus says, this prince vanquished the Prienians, and attacked Miletus. During his reign, the same historian tells us, that the Cimmerians being expelled their country by the Nomades of Sci^nhia, passed over into Asia, and possessed themselves of ail Sardis, except the citadel. Ardyes reigned forty-nine years, and was succeeded by his son who declared war, immediately after, against the Milesians, and laid siege to their city. In ancient times, sieges, which were little more than blockades, were carried on very slowly, and some times lasted many years. Sadyattes died before he had finished that of Miletus. His death occurred b. c. 619, after a reign of twelve years, and he was succeeded in his kingdom by his son, who reigned fifty-seven years. Alyattes, as before recorded, made war against Cyaxares, king of Media. He likewise drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, and attacked and took the cities of Smyrna, and invaded Clazomanre, in his designs upon which he was greatly dis- appointed. Herodotus relates, that Alyattes resumed the war against the Milesians, which his father had commenced, and which he conducted in this manner: "When the time of harvest approached, he marched an army into the country to the sound of the pastoral pipe, harp, and flutes masculine and feminine," (or, perhaps, to the Lydian and Phrygian flutes, the sound of one of which was grave, the other acute.) " On his arrival in their territories, he neither pulled down nor burn€>d, nor in any respect injured their edifices which stood in the fields ; but he totally destroyed their trees, and the produce of their lands, and then returned. As the Milesians were masters of the sea, the siege of their city would probably HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 179 have proved ineffectual. His motive for not destroying their buildings was, that they might be induced again to cultivate their lands, and that on every repetition of his incursions he might be secure of plunder. In this manner, the war was protracted during a period of eleven years, in which time the Milesians received two remarkable defeats ; one in a pitched battle at Limeneium, within their own territories ; another on the plains of Meander." This war was ended at length in the following manner. Alyattes, upon an answer he had received from the Delphic oracle, had sent an ambassador into the city, to propose a truce for some months. Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, having notice of his approach, ordered all the corn and other provisions, collected by him and his subjects for their support, to be brought into the public market ; and commanded the citizens, at the sight of a signal which was agreed upon, to enjoy a general feast, and to exhibit convivial mirth.* The deed was executed according to his orders. The Lydian ambassador, at his arrival, was surprised to see such an abun- dance in the market, and such joy in the city ; and Alyattes, to whom he gave an account of what he had seen, concluding that his project of reducing the place by famine would never succeed, immediately raised the siege. Alyattes had two sons, CrcEsus and Pantaleon. The for- mer, who was the younger, and the offspring of his second wife, who was a Carian, succeeded him on his throne, b. c. 562. It may be mentioned, that near the Lake Gyggsa, which is a few miles north of Sardis, now Sart, the immense mound of earth, which his subjects raised to his memory, is still to bo seen. Herodotus, who first makes mention of it, says, that the circuit round the base was 8,800 Greek feet, and the width 2,600 feet. The lower part of it was composed of stone, which is now covered by the earth that has fallen down ; but the mound still retains its conical form, and rises up like a natural hill. Its dimensions are much larger than those of any similar monuments in Great Britain. The cir- cuit of Silburry hill, which forms so striking an object on * Beloe, in his translation of Herodotus, says, " A similar artifice is re- corded of one of the Roman generals, who, though reduced to the ex- tremest want, ordered all the bread remaining, after a long siege, to be thrown over the walls amongst the enemy. The besiegers, fatigued and exhausted, imagined that their opponents were prepared to hold out much longer, and hastily retired." 180 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. the road between Malborough and Calne, is inconsiderable, when compared with this mound. Dr. Chandler conceives, that a considerable treasure might be discovered if the bar- rows were opened. Other mounds, of various sizes, are found near this, which are conceived to have been raised in memory of the ancient kings of Lydia. CRCESUS. This prince, whose name imports riches, and which is be- come a proverb, is celebrated in history for the immense wealth which he possessed. Some idea may be formed how great it was, from what Herodotus tells us of his magnificent offering to the temple of Delphi. He collected, says he, a great number of couches, decorated with gold and silver, many goblets of gold, and vests of purple. All these he con- sumed together upon one immense pile, thinking by these means to render the deity more auspicious to his hopes ; and as, at the conclusion of this ceremony, a considerable quantity of gold had run together, he formed of it a number of tiles. The larger of these were eighteen inches long, the smaller nine ; but none of them were less than three inches in thick- ness, and they were 117 in number: four were of the purest gold, weighing each one talent and a half; the rest were of inferior quality, but of the weight of two talents. He con- structed also a lion of pure gold, which weighed ten talents.* It was originally placed in the Delphian temple, on the above gold tiles ; but when this edifice was burned, it fell from its place, and now stands (about b. c. 450) in the Corinthian treasury : it lost, however, by the fire, three talents and a half of its former weight. Crojsus, moreover, sent to Delphi two large cisterns, one of gold, and one of silver : that of gold was placed on the right hand, in the vestibule of the temple ; that of silver was placed on the left. These also were removed v/hen the tem- ple was consumed by fire. The golden goblet weighed nearly nine talents, and the silver was of similar dimensions. The Corinthian treasury also possessed four silver casks, w^hich were presented by Croesus to Delphi. He presented, also, two basons, one of gold, another of silver ; and many other minor presents, among which were some silver dishes, * These tiles, the lion, and the statue of the breadmaker of Croesus, were, at a subsequent period, seized by the Phocians, to defray the ex- penses of their holy war. HISTORY OP THE LYDIAN8. 181 and the figure of a woman in gold, three cubits high, who. according to the Delphians, was the person who made bread for the family of Croesus.* Many other offerings are said to have been made by Crcssus, to the temples of Thebes, Ephesus, Miletus, etc., all tending to show how vast his riches were. The sources of his wealth, according to Strabo, were certain mines, situated between Pergamus and Atarus, as also from the river Pacto- lus, whose sands, as they rolled onward, were mingled with gold. But Solomon has well observed, " Riches certainly make themselves wings : They fly away as an eagle toward heaven." Prov. xxiii. 5. So Croesus found. In one day he was stripped of all his treasures. His history, indeed, strikingly exemphfies an- other truth which issued from the golden mouth of the wise man : " For riches are not for ever : And doth the crown endure to every generation ?" Prov. xxvii. 24. How vain, then, is the pursuit of the riches of this world ; and how happy is it for those who can adopt the language of the poet, and say, in Christian sincerity, " I am not conccrn'd to know What, to-niorrovv, fate will do : 'Tis enough that I can say, I've possess'd myself to-day ; Then, if haply midnight death Seize my flesh, and stop my breath, Yet to-morrow I shall be Heir to the best part of me. " Ghitering stones, and golden things, Wealth and honours, that have wings, I could never call my own : Riches that the world bestows, She can take, and I can lose ; * Plutarch says, that Croesus honoured this person, from an honest emotion of gratitude. Alyattes, the father of Croesus, married a second wife, by whom he had other children. His first wife wished to remove Croesus out of the way, and gave the female baker a dose of poison, charging her to put it into the bread which she made for Croesus. The woman informed him of ihis, and gave the poisoned broad to the queen's children, by which means he succeeded his father; and thus acknow- ledged the fidelity of the woman. VOL. n. 16 18^ HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. But the treasures that are mine Lie afar beyond her line. When I view my spacious soul, And survey myself a whole, And enjoy myself alone, I'm a kingdom of my own." — Watts. Crossiis was thirty-five years old when he beg-an to reign. He shared the throne at first with his elder brother, till a Lydian related the following apologue : " The sun procures mankind all the fruits of the earth, and without his heat it would produce nothing ; but if there were two suns, there would be reason to fear that every thing would be burned and destroyed." After this, he deposed his brother, and put to death his principal adherent, which was probably the mother of Pantaleon, who had sought his life. During the first nine years of his reign, Croesus seems to have progressively subdued almost all the nations which were situated on this side the river Halys. Among these. Hero- dotus enumerates the Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandinians, Chalybians, Paphlagonians, Thracians, Thynians, Bithy- nians, Carians, lonians, Dorians, Cohans, and Pamphylians. The Cilicians and the Lycians escaped his yoke. The first act of hostilities in which Crcesus was engaged, was with the Ephesians, whose capital he besieged. While engaged beneath its walls, the inhabitants of Ephesus com- mitted an act which shows the debasing nature of ancient idolatry. They made a solemn dedication of their city to Minerva, connecting their walls with a rope to the temple of their goddess ! The object of the ancients, by thus conse- crating their towns, was to detain their deities by force, and prevent their departure. It was believed, that when a city was on the point of being taken, the deities abandoned it. This belief seems to have been very general. Thus ^schy- lus makes Eteocles say, "The gods, they say, prepare To quit their seats, and leave a vanquish'd town." The poet Virgil, also, makes MnesiS leave the city of Troy, and settle his household gods in another country : " He said, and brought me, from their blest abodes, The venerable statues of the gods, With ancient Vesta, from the sacred choir, The wreaths and relics of the immortal fire," Happy are our eyes, that they are not left in such darkness HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 183 as this ! Thrice happy are Ave, inasmuch as we know that our God is not confined to temples made with hands — that, as Milton expresses it, " his omnipresence fills Land, sea, and air, and every kind that lives, Fomented by his virtual power, and warmed," and that he is ever present to those that seek him in sincerity and truth, to deliver them out of all their troubles. About the tenth year of his reign, b. c. 552, and in the height of his grandeur and prosperity, Croesus was visited by several sages. Among the rest, Solon, the celebrated Athe- nian legislator, presented himself at his court. He was re- ceived on his arrival with hospitality, and entertained in his palace. In a few days, the king directed his servants to at- tend Solon to the different repositories of his wealth, and to show him their contents. When he had examined them all, Croesus thus addressed him : " My Athenian guest, the voice of fame speaks loudly of your wisdom. 1 have heard much of your travels, that you have been led by a philosophic spirit to visit a considerable portion of the globe. I am hence induced to inquire of you, what man, of all whom you have beheld, seemed to you most happy ?" This inquiry of Cra3sus was prompted by vanity. He ex- pected that Solon, having observed his wealth, and seeing so much grandeur around him, would have pronounced him to have been the happiest man. But Solon, though a heathen, knew the human heart better than this, and, scorning flattery, he replied : " I think that Tellus, the Athenian, best deserved the appellation of happy P Crossus was astonished, and asked on what the claims of Tellus to this distinction were founded ? " Because," the sage rephed, " under the protection of a most excellent form of government, Tellus had many virtuous and amiable children ; he saw their offspring, and they all survived him : at the close of a prosperous life, we celebrated his funeral with every circumstance of honour. In a contest with some of their neighbours at Eleusis, he flew to the as- sistance of his country ; he contributed to the defeat of the enemy, and met death in the field of glory. The Athenians publicly buried him in the place where he fell ; and his fune- ral pomp was magnificently attended." At this point, Croesus interrupted the sage, and desired to 184 HISTORY OF THE LYLIANS. know, whom next to Tellus he esteemed most happy, expect- ing that the answer would now be favourable to himself. Solon replied thus : " Cleobis and Bito. They were Ar- gives by birth, fortunate in their circumstances, and so re- markable for their bodily prowess, that they had both of them been crowned as conquerors in their public games. It is far- ther related of them, that on a certain festival of Juno, their mother was to have been carried to the temple in a chariot drawn by oxen. The beasts were not ready* for the pur- pose, but the young men instantly took the yokes upon them- selves, and drew their mother in the carriage to the temple, through a space of forty-five furlongs. Having performed this in the presence of innumerable spectators, they died, and thus their lives in a manner may be accounted singularly happy. In this event, the deity made it appear that death is a greater blessing to mankind than life. The surrounding mukitude proclaimed their praise ; the men commended their prowess ; the women envied their mother, who was delighted with the deed itself and the glory which attended it. Stand- ing before the shrine, she implored the divinity, in whose honour her sons' exertions had been made, to grant them the greatest blessing man could receive. After her prayers, and when the succeeding sacrifice and festival were ended, the young men retired to rest within the temple ; but they rose no more. The Argives have preserved at Delphi, the fig- ures of Cleobis and Bito, as of men deserving superior dis- tinction." Croesus w^as mortified at this reply, and impatiently de- manded whether he might not be reckoned among the num- ber of the happy ? " Croesus," the sage rephed, " you inquire of me my senti- ments of human nature ; of me who consider the divine beings, as viewing men with invidious and mahgnant aspects." (Pause for a moment. Christian reader, and contrast this re- sponse of the ancient sage with what is taught in the Bible : there we learn that '• God is love.") Solon proceeded : "In the space of a protracted life, how many things occur, which we see with reluctance, and support with anguish. I will suppose the term of human life to extend to seventy years ; which period, if we except the intercalatory months, will amount to 25,200 days ; or, if we add this month to each al- * Servius, in his commentaries on the works of Virgil, says, that the want, of oxen on this occasion was on account of a pestilential malady, wliich had destroyed all the cattle belonging to Argos. mSTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 185 ternate year, we shall then have thirty-five additional months, or 1,250 days. The whole seventy years will, therefore, con- sist of 26,450 days ; yet of this number, every day will he productive of some new incident. Thus, CrcBsus, our nature appears a continued series of calamity. I see you as the sove- reign of many nations, and possessed of extraordinary afflu- ence and power. But I shall not he able to give you a satis- factory answer to the question you propose, till I know that your scene of life shall have closed with tranquillity. The man of affluence is not more happy than the man of poverty, unless, in addition to his wealth, his end of life be fortunate. We often discern misery in the midst of splendid plenty, whilst real happiness is found in humble stations. The rich man who knows not happiness, surpasses but in two things the humble, but more fortunate character with whom we may compare him. Yet there are a variety of incidents in which the latter excels the former. The rich man can gratify his passions, and has little to apprehend from accidental injuries. The poor man's condition, exempts him entirely from these sources of affliction. He, moreover, possesses strength and health, is a stranger to misfortune, is blessed with children, and is amiable in himself If, at the end of such a life, his death be fortunate, this, O Croesus, is the truly happy man, the object of your inquiry. Call no man happy till you know the nature of his death ;* he is at best but fortunate. All these requisites for happiness it is in no man's power to ob- tain ; for no one region can supply them : it affords, perhaps, the enjoyment of some, but it is remarkable for the absence of others. That which yields the more numerous sources of gratification, is so far the best : such, also, is the imperfec- tion of man, excellent in some respects, weak and defective in others. He who possesses the rfiost advantages, and after- wards leaves the world with composure, he alone, O Crossus, is entitled to our admiration. It is the part of wisdom to look ♦ This idea seems to have been a favourite one with ancient heathen "writers. Thus Sophocles, in his CEdipus Tyrannus, says : " Let mortals hence be taught to look beyond The present time, nor dare to say, a man Is happy till the last decisive hour Shall close his life without the taste of woe," In the Andromache of Euripides, the idea is also met with : " We never ou^ht to call Frail mortals happy, at their latest hour, Till we behold them to the shades descend." 16* 186 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. to the event of things ; for the deity often overwhelms with misery those who have formerly been placed at the summit of felicity." Croesus was mortified at this speech, and afterwards dis- missed the philosopher with indifference. Many of the sentiments which the sage uttered are worthy to be treasured up in our memories ; but fall very short, in- deed, of the lessons taught in the Divine system of Christian philosophy. By this we are taught that, *' He is the happy man, whose life e'en now Shows somewhat of that happier life to come; Who, doom'd to an obscure, but tranquil state, Is pleas'd with it, and, were he free to choose, Would make his fate his choice ; whom peace, the fruit Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith, Prepare tbr happiness : bespeak him one, Content indeed to sojourn while he must Below the skies, but having there his home."— Cowper. At this period, the celebrated ^Esop was also at the court of CrcEsus, where he was much respected. He was grieved at the discharge of Solon ; and, conversing with him as a friend, " You see, Solon," said he, "that we must not come nigh kings, or w^e must entertam them with things agreeable tolhem."" "That is not the point," rejoined Solon;" you should either say nothing to them, or tell them what is use- ful ;" on which Bayle remarks : " I confess, that this caution of ^sop argues a man well acquainted with the court and great men ;"but Solon's answer is the true lesson of divines, who direct the consciences of princes." After Solon's departure, Croesus, about the eleventh year of his reign, w^as, according to Herodotus, visited by a judg- ment from God, in the untimely death of his second and fa- vourite son Atys. This historian concludes, that he was visited with this judgment, because he thought himself of all men the most happy. The after-life of Croesus was, indeed disastrous, and ended in his own captivity. Having spent two years in mourning for the loss of his son, his grief Avas at length suspended by the increasing greatness of the Persian empire, as well as by that of Cyrus, son of Cambyses, who had succeeded to the rule of the Persian dominions. To restrain the power of Persia, therefore, before it became too great, w^as the object of his soUcitude. Before he entered, however, upon his ex- pedition, he determined to make trial of the most celebrated HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 187 oracles of antiquity ; at Delphi, Phocis, Dodona, and those of Amphiarus, Proplionius, the Milesian Branchidse, in Greece; and of Ammon in Libya ; in order to form a judgment of the best, before he consulted them as to the fitness, or unfitness, of an expedition against the Persians. The trial was as follows. He sent different messengers from Sardis, to these different oracles, to inquire what Croe- sus, the son of Alyattes, was doing on the day they were ac- tually consulted ; which he appointed to be the hundredth day after their departure. On this day he cut into pieces a tortoise and a lamb, and boiled them together himself, in a brazen pan with a brazen cover, an employment equally un- accountable and difficult to divine. The responses of the other oracles are not recorded ; but Apollo's, of Delphi, were very appropriate. The Pythian priestess replied in heroic verse : "I know the number of the Libyan sand, The ocean's measure ; 1 can penetrate The secret of the silent, or the dumb, I smell the ascending odour of a lamb, And tortoise, in a brazen caldron boiled ; Brass lies beneath, and brass above the flesh." LiTTLEBURY. A similar answer was given by the oracle of the hero Am- phiaraus and Croesus approving of them as the most saga- cious, sent them abundance of the richest and most magnifi- cent offerings, some of which are mentioned on page 1 80. The various oracles mentioned by Herodotus in the course of his history, and their numerous responses, form the most curious and valuable portion of it, in a religious light. Many of them were doubtless ambiguous and delusive, originating in the frauds and impostures of the priests. Such was that which induced Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to invade Italy which was given thus ; " Either you may conquer the Romans, or the Romans may conquer you." On the other hand, several of the responses were so determinate, explicit, and wonderfully fulfilled, that, if the facts be well ascertained, they cannot be ascribed solely to priestcraft. Such was the response con- cerning the dumb son of Croesus : " that in an evil day, he first should speak." This exactly came to pass. In the ex- perimental test of the boiled lamb and tortoise in a brazen vessel, the failure of other oracles to answer seems to affirm the account of the two that succeeded. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi, in the territory of Phocis, and of Amphiaraus in that 188 HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. of Boetia, could not possibly have had any intercourse on the same day and hour. Lucian, indeed, ridicules the tricks played to make trial of Apollo's sagacity ; but ridicule is no argument, and the oblations of Croesus seems to leave no room for doubting either the fact or the secrecy of Croesus ; who, in so important a case, would not be likely to entrust his scheme of trial to any one, before the day the experiment was to be made. PuUen and Dr. Hales, therefore, consider that there was some supernatural agency in such cases. Rollin ascribes the responses to demons ; God, says he, permitting them sometimes to tell truth, in order to punish the blindness of their votaries. From their supposed know- ledge of futurity, indeed the demons chiefly derived their name Daimones^ from Daio. Dr, Hales says, the Pythian Apollo seems to have been the old serpent himself, Acts xvi. 16 ; deceiving the whole heathen world by his lying oracles, especially before the coming of Christ. He was called Baalzebub at Ekron, in Palestine, where he delivered oracles, as may be seen from 2 Kings i. 1 — 4 ; and he was called in our Lord's time, "Beelzebub;" or, "the Prince of Demons," Matt. ix. 34. It is remarkable that our Lord did not undeceive the Jews, nor correct their error, if it were such : rather he assumed the fact, and refuted their malignity upon their own prin- ciples. The established credit of oracles among the heathen, could only have been formed on experimental knowledge of their veracity in particular cases. This argument is urged by Cicero, in favour of the Pythian Oracle ; and the Libyan oracle of Ammon derived its name from Amoun, " Truth." The total cessation of oracles about the birth of Christ (a fact confessed by their greatest advocates, Cicero, Plutarch, etc.) forms the opinion that all the preceding responses could not have been the result of mere priestcraft, or human impos- ture. Why these lying oracles, however, which generally sheltered themselves under ambiguities and obscurities of ex- pression, should sometimes tell remarkable truths, as in the case of the Scripture demoniacs, who confessed the Divinity of Christ, of the damsel at Philippi, of the responses to Croe- sus, etc., may be ascribed to the control of Almighty God, on particular occasions of consequence, compelling them to utter truth. The prophecies of Balaam show that bad men were sometimes commissioned to deliver true prophecies, as we learn from his words to Balak : " Behold, I have received HISTORY OF THE LYDIANS. 180 commandment to bless : and he hath blessed ; and I cannot reverse it," Numb. xxii. 20. After Croesus had presented his offerings to the oracles of Delphi, and the hero Amphiaraus, he consulted them again, whether he should invade the Persians ? and whether he should procure an army of auxiliaries? Both agreed in the purport of their answer, that " if he invaded the Persians, he should destroy a great empire ;" and they advised him to make friends of the most powerful of the Greeks. The reply of the Delphic oracle was as follows : "By crossing the Halys, Croesus will destroy a great empire." This reply was atbest but ambiguous, and Croesus does not appear to have been satisfied with it ; and therefore, after making the inhabitants of Delphi a present of two staters of gold each,* he consuhed the oracle again, " whether his monarchy should last long." The Pythian gave this re- sponse : " When o'er the Medes, a mule shall rule as king, Learn thou the name of coward to despise ; Then on thy soft feet, Lydian thou must fly, The pebbly Hermus, and no longer stay." — Littlebury. Although this oracle was as ambiguous as the former, Croe- sus now prepared for war. He seems, indeed, to have been satisfied that this was a definite declaration in his favour. He was confident, says Herodotus, that a mule would never be sovereign of the Medes, and that consequently he could have nothing to fear for himself or his posterity. In prosecuting the war, the first object of Croesus was to enter into an alliance with the Athenians, who at that time had Pisastratus at their head ; and with the Lacedemonians ; who were the two most powerful states of Greece. Thus, deluded by these ambiguous and fallacious oracles, Croesus prepared to lead his forces into Cappadocia, in full expectation of conquering Cyrus, and of becoming master of Persia. While he was employed in preparing for this expedition a certain Lydian, says Herodotus, held in high repute among his countrymen for wisdom and prudence, thus addressed Croesus: "You meditate, O prince, an attack upon men who are clothed with the skins of animals ; who, inhabiting a * The gold Attic stater was equal to twenty drahms, or fifteen shil- lings and five pence. J;95S the other in acts of cruelty. But such is ever the effect of paganism ; Christianity alone can teach mankind true hu- manity. Hamilcar, being then at a distance, it was long before the news of his colleague's misfortune reached him, and the road lying between the two camps being impassable, it was impos- sible for him to advance to his assistance. At Carthage, the disaster caused great consternation ; and it was thought ad- visable to make one bold effort. Accordingly, all the youth capable of bearing arms were pressed into the service. Hfinno was sent to join Hamilcar, and thirty senators were deputed to conjure those generals in the name of the republic to for- get past quarrels, and sacrifice their resentment to their coun- try's welfare. This request w^as complied with ; they em- braced, and were reconciled. • The Carthaginians were successful in all their undertak- ings from this time ; and Matho, who in every attempt after this came off with disadvantage, at length was obliged to hazard a battle, an act which the Carthaginians desired. The leaders on both sides animated their troops, as though they were going to fight a battle which would for ever decide their fate. An engagement ensued, and victory declared itself in favour of Carthage. The rebels were almost all slain, and those who escaped the sword were taken prisoners. Matho was taken alive and carried to Carthage, where with the rest of the prisoners he was executed. All Africa returned im- mediately to its allegiance, except the two cities Utica and Hippacra, which had lately revolted, and they were soon forced to surrender at discretion. Such was the conclusion of the war (b. c. 238,) against the mercenaries, after having continued three years and four months. " It furnished," says Polybius, " an ever memora- ble lesson to the natives, not to employ in their service a AFFAIRS IN SARDINIA. 257 greater number of mercenaries than citizens, nor to rely for the defence of their state on a body of men who are united to it neither by interest nor affection." A more important lesson than this is, however, conveyed to nations in this history. It teaches them, not to hire the sword to destroy, lest, by a right- eous retribution, it be afterwards ordained that it should de- stroy themselves. The Psalmist said, " Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth," Psa. Iviii. 11. And David's Lord declared, that " all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," Matt. xxvi. 52. THE AFFAIRS OF THE CARTHAGINIANS IN SARDINIA. The Carthaginians suffered other disasters from the revolt of the mercenaries. Transactions occurred in Sardinia at the same time which were in a great measure dependent on, and resulting from the war in Africa. They exhibit, also, the same violent methods to promote rebellion, and the same ex- cess of cruelty ; as though the winds of heaven had carried the spirit of discord and fury from the one country to the other. When the news arrived there of what Matho and Spendius were doing in Africa, the mercenaries in that island revoked. They began their rebellion by the murder of Bostar, their general, and of the Carthaginians under him. A successor was sent, but all the forces which he carried with him went over to the rebels, and hung their general on a cross. Throughout the whole island, the Carthaginians were now- put to the sword, after having been made to endure much cruel suffering. The rebels then besieged all the cities, one after another, and obtained possession of the whole country. Discord, however, arising between the natives and the merce- naries, the latter were driven out of the island, and took refuge in Italy. Thus the Carthaginians lost Sardinia, which, on account of its extent and fertility, was of great importance to them. Ever since the treaty, the Romans had behaved towards the Carthaginians with great justice and moderation. A slight breach had been made on account of some Roman merchants who were seized by the Carthaginians for having supplied their enemies with provisions ; but these merchants being restored on the first complaint of wrong, the Romans, who prided themselves upon their justice and generosity, were reconciled to the Carthaginians. They served them, 22* 258 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. indeed, to the utmost of their power ; they forbade their mer- chants to furnish any other nation with provisions ; and even refused to listen to the proposals made by the rebels in Sar- dinia, who invited them to take possession of the island. But this conduct degenerated by degrees, and Cesar's testi- mony to their honesty and plain dealing could not, with pro- priety, be applied here. "Although," said he, "in all the Punic wars, the Carthaginians, both in peace and during truces, had committed a number of detestable actions, the Ro- mans could never — how inviting soever the opportunity might be — be prevailed upon to retaliate such usage, being more at- tentive to their own glory than to the revenge they might have justly taken on such perfidious enemies." The merce- naries, who, as we have seen, retired into Italy, brought the Romans to the resolution of sailing into Sardinia to take pos- session of the island. The Carthaginians were deeply afflicted at this news, pretending that they had a better title to Sardinia than the Romans : and they therefore prepared to take re- venge on those who had excited the people of that island to take up arms against them. The Romans pretended that these preparations w^ere made, not against Sardinia, but Rome ; and they therefore declared war against the Cartha- ginians. But the latter, exhausted in every respect, were in no condition to sustain war, and they were forced to yield to their powerful rival. By a treaty, to which necessity com- pelled them to agree, they gave up Sardinia to the Romans, and obliged themselves to a new payment of 1200 talents. This injustice of the Romans, however, was the cause of the second Punic war, as related in the next portion of our narrative. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. The second Punic war which commenced 218 years b. c, is one of the most memorable recorded in the page of history ; if we consider the boldness of the enterprises ; the skill dis- played in their execution ; the obstinate efforts of two rival nations, and the. ready resources they found in their greatest misfortunes ; the variety of uncommon events ; and the in- structive lessons that occur in its narrative, concerning war, policy, government, and, above all, the human heart. Never had two more powerful, or at least more warlike states, been opposed to each other ; and scarcely ever had these attained to a more exalted pitch of power and glory ; Rome and Car- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 259 thag-e at that time were, doubtless, the two first states in the world. Having already tried their strength in the first Punic Avar, and thereby made an essay of each other's power, they knew each other's strength ; but great as the forces of these two nations were, their mutual hatred exceeded it. The Ro- mans, on one side, could not without indignation see the van- quished presuming to attack them ; and the Carthaginians, on the other, were exasperated at the rapacious and harsh treatment which they imagined they had received from the victor. Their ancient enmity, moreover, excited them to the fearful conflict. Before we speak of the declaration of war betwixt these two powers, it is necessary to explain whence it arose, and to point out by what steps the rupture was so long preparing before it was made manifest. That man, says Polybius, would be mistaken, who should look upon the taking of Saguntum by Hannibal as the cause of the second Punic war. The regret of the Carthaginians for having so tamely given up Sicily by the treaty which terminated the first Punic war ; the injustice and violence of the Romans in dispossess- ing the Carthaginians of Sardinia, and of imposing on them a new tribute when they were in difficulties ; and the success and conquests of the latter in Spain ; — these were the true causes of the violation of the treaty. Hamilcar, indeed, was highly exasperated on account of this last treaty, to which the necessity of the times had compelled the Carthaginians to submit ; and he meditated the design of breaking it on the first favourable opportunity. When the troubles of Africa were appeased, he was sent upon an expedition against the Numidians, in which giving fresh proofs of his courage and abilities, his merit raised him to the command of the army which was to act in Spain, 237 b. c. Hannibal, his son, at that time but nine years of age, importuned to attend him on this occasion, for which purpose he employed all those infan- tine arts which have so much power over a tender parent. Hamilcar could not refuse him, and having made him swear upon the altar that he would declare himself an enemy to the Romans, as soon as age would allow him to do it, he took him with him. This act, to a Christian reader, may appear strange, but it was a common practice among the ancient heathen, and seems to have been considered by them as a virtue. Its fatal effects, however, as exhibited to us in the narrative, show that it was one of their darkest deeds. Besides, to the humane, there is 260 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. something" fearful in the thought of instilling revenge into the breast of an infant. There is something also unjust towards that infant. Why should a parent, who loves his child as his own soul, seek to implant that principle in his breast, which has been his own torment, and probably will be his own ruin? The fearful consequences of such a practice are discovered in many transactions recorded in ancient history. Powerful families, by this means, have been divided from age to age, and the son has made the sword of his sire bright, to revenge his quarrels, till destruction has fallen upon his own head. But this evil is not confined to the ancients ; for notwith- standing we are taught by the ever blessed Jesus, who "spake as never man spake," to love our enemies, there are those now who not only hate their enemies themselves, but teach their children to hate them and their descendants also, and thus aim to perpetuate their quarrels through many genera- tions. It is true, that evils to the same extent do not follow the moderns as they did the ancients; but this is, in many in- stances, rather the effects of the Avholesome restraints put upon us by the laws of our country : take these away, and the deadly strife in which ancient families were involved, will be renewed among ourselves. Human nature is the same in all countries, and in all ages of the world : great need have we, therefore to pray for the saving influences of God's Holy Spirit, that we may sojourn below as good citizens of the world, loving and beloved. We proceed with our narrative. Hamilcar possessed all the qualities which constitute the great general, according to the estimation of the world. To an invincible courage, and the most consummate prudence, he added an engaging and insinuating behaviour. In a very short time, he subdued the greatest part of the nations of Spain, either by the terror of his arms, or his engaging conduct, and after enjoying the command there nine years, he died in arms, serving the cause of his country. The Carthaginians appointed Asdrubal, his son-in-law, to succeed him. This general, to strengthen himself in the country, built a city, which became very considerable. It was called New Carthage, and is at this day known by the name of Carthagena. From the several steps of these two generals, it was easy to perceive that they were meditating some great design. The Romans were sensible of this, and reproached themselves for their indolence, at a time that the enemy were rapidly pursu- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 261 ing their victories in Spain, which might one day be turned against them. They would have been very glad to have stopped their career; but the fear of another enemy, the Gauls, whom they expected to see very shortly at their very gates, prevented their taking any such measures. They, therefore, had recourse to negociations, and concluded a treaty with Asdrubal, in which, without taking any notice of the rest of Spain, they contented themselves with introducing an article by which the Carthaginians were not permitted to ex- tend their conquests beyond the Iberus. Asdrubal, in the mean time, still pushed on his conquests ; taking care, however, not to pass beyond the stipulated limits : but by a courteous and engaging behaviour, he won over the chiefs of the several nations, and furthered the interests of Carthage more than he could have done by the force of arms. But Asdrubal, after having governed Spain eight years, was treacherously murdered by a Gaul, who took this revenge upon him, because his master had fallen by the hand of that general. Three years before his death, he had written to Carthage to desire that Hannibal, then twenty-two years of age, might be sent to him. To this request (after much opposition from Hanno, one of the senators, who represented that Hannibal, being so ambitious and so young a man, should still be kept under the eye of the magistrates, that he might learn obedience and modesty) the Carthaginians acceded. Hannibal, accord- ingly, set sail for Spain, and immediately on his arrival there, he drew upon himself the attention of the whole army, who flmcied they saw Hamilcar his father revive in him. He seemed to dart the same fire from his eyes ; the same martial figure displayed itself in his form ; and he possessed the same features and engaging carriage. But his personal qualities endeared him still more. He possessed almost every talent that constitutes the great man. His patience in labour was invincible, his temperance surprising, his courage in the greatest dangers undaunted, and his presence of mind in the heat of t>attle wonderful: and a still more wonderful circum- stance, his disposition was so flexible, that nature had formed him equally for commanding or obeying ; so that it was doubt- ful whether he was dearer to the soldiers or the generaJs. Hannibal served three campaigns under Asdrubal ; and upon the death of that general, the suffrages of both the army and the people concurred in raising him to the supreme com- mand. The moment he was created general, true to his un 262 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. hallowed vow, he turned secretly his whole mind upon war with Rome, and the means of obtaining possession of Italy. In Spain, he captured several towns, and conquered many nations. But he still forbore laying siege to Saguntum, care- fully avoiding giving offence to the Romans, till he should have taken every step which he judged necessary for so im- portant an enterprise. He applied himself particularly to en- gage the affections of the citizens and allies, and to gain their confidence, by allotting them a large share of the plunder taken from the enemy, and by scrupulously paying them all their arrears. The Saguntines, on their side, sensible of the danger with which they were threatened, informed the Romans of the progress of Hannibal's conquests. Upon this, deputies were nominated by the latter, and ordered to go and acquaint them- selves with the state of affairs upon the spot ; they commanded them, also, to lay their complaints before Hannibal, if it should be thought proper ; and in case he should refuse to do justice, that they should go directly to Carthage, and make the same complaints. In the mean time, Hannibal, foreseeing the great advan- tages which would accrue from the taking of Saguntum, laid siege to that city. He was persuaded that this would deprive the Romans of all hopes of carrying on the war in Spain ; that this new conquest would secure those already made ; that as no enemy would be left behind him, his march would be unmolested ; that he should find money enough in the city for the execution of his designs ; that the plunder of the city would inspire his soldiers Avith greater cheerfulness ; and that the spoils which he should send to Carthage would gain him the favour of the citizens. Animated by these motives, he carried on the siege with vigour ; he set an example to his troops, was present at all the works, and exposed himself to the greatest dangers. It was soon told at Rome that Saguntum was besieged ; but the Romans, instead of hastening to its relief, lost their time in fruitless debates and deputations. Hannibal sent word to the Roman deputies, that he was not at leisure to hear them ; they therefore repaired to Carthage, but met with no better reception : the complaints of the Romans, and the remon- strances of Hanno, who advocated peace, were alike un- heeded. During all the voyages and negociations, the siege was pursued with vigour ; and the Saguntines were now reduced THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 263 to the last extremity. An accommodation was at length pro- posed ; but the conditions on which it was offered appeared so harsh, that the besieged could not accept them. Before they gave their final answer, the principal senators, bringing their gold and silver, and that of the public treasury, into the market-place, threw both into the fire lighted for that purpose, and afterwards rushed headlong into it themselves. At the same time, a tower, which had been long assaulted by the battering-ram, falling with a dreadful noise, the Carthaginians entered the city by the breach, made themselves masters of it, and slew all the inhabitants who were of age to bear arms. The Carthaginians obtained a very great booty. Hannibal, however, did not reserve to himself any part of the spoils, but applied them solely to the carrying on his enterprises. Poly- bius observes, that the capture of Saguntum was of service to Hannibal, as it awakened the ardour of his soldiers, and reconciled all Carthage to him, by the large presents he made to the state out of the spoils. Saguntum was taken 219 years b. c. When the news reached Rome, the greatest grief and con- sternation prevailed among its inhabitants. Compassion for its fate ; shame for having failed to succour such faithful al- lies ; indignation against the Carthaginians, the authors of these calamities ; a strong alarm, raised by the successes of Hannibal, whom the Romans fancied as already at their gates; — all these sentiments caused so violent an emotion, that, dur- ing the fii-st moments of their agitation, the Romans were unable to come to any resolution. They gave way to the torrent of their passion, and shed tears for the fate of a city which fell a victim to its inviolable fidelity to them, and had been betrayed by their own indolence. But when they were a little recovered, an assembly of the people was called, and war was decreed unanimously against the Carthaginians. That no ceremony might be wanting, deputies were sent to Carthage, to inquire whether Saguntum had been besieged by the order of the republic, and if so, to declare war ; or, in case the siege had been undertaken solely by the authority of Hannibal, to require that he should be delivered up to the power of the Romans. The deputies, perceiving that the senate gave no direct answer to their interrogatories, one of them, taking up the folded lappet of his robe, "I bring here," said he, in a haughty tone, " either peace or war ; the choice is left to yourselves." The senate answered, that they left the choice to him : " I give you war, then," said he, unfolding 264 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. his robe. " And we," replied the Carthaginians, with the same haughtiness, " as heartily accept it, and are resolved to prosecute it with the same cheerfulness." Thus lightly could the ancient heathen speak of an event which would bring the utmost misery upon thousands, and cause all of both nations to suffer ; for all suffer, even in a successful war; the victor and the vanquished taste alike of its bitter fruits. Would that many, calling themselves Chris- tians, did not speak as lightly of warfare, with all its calami- ties ! But there are those, even in Christendom, who speak lightly of war, who only think of the glitter and the pomp that attend it, but who forget the innumerable evils, public and private, which it inflicts on families and nations, whether successful or unsuccessful. But there will come a day, when all these false disguises shall be laid aside, when man will respect the rights and life of his fellow man, though he may meet with him in the wilds of Africa ; when all mankind shall look upon each other as brothers, as members of one family, whose Creator and Father is God. Thus it will be when Christ shall reign, as we know from prophecy he will, in and over the hearts of men ; when the knowledge of the Lord shall spread over the earth, as the waters cover the sands of the ocean. This war was proclaimed 218 years b. c, and it continued during the seventeen succeeding years. When it was re- solved upon, Flannibal, before he discovered his design, thought it incumbent upon him to provide for the security of Spain and Africa. With this view, he removed the forces out of the one into the other, so that the Africans served in Spain, and the Spaniards in Africa. He was prompted to this, from a persuasion, that each army being at a distance from their respective countries, would be fitter for service, and more firmly attached to him, as they would be hostages for each others' fidelity. The forces which he left in Africa amounted to about 40,000 men, and those in Spain to about 15,000. The command of the Spanish forces was given to his brother Asdrubal, wdth a fleet of about sixty ships to guard the coasts. Livy observes, that Hannibal, before he set forward on this expedition, went to Cadiz to discharge some vows which he had made to Hercules ; and that he engaged himself by new ones, in order to obtain success in the war upon which he was entering ; a practice very common among the ancient heathens. Polybius gives us a clear idea of the distance of THE SECOND PlTNIC WAR. 265 the several places through which Hannihal was to march on his way to Italy. From New Carthage, whence he set out, to the Iberus, 2600 furlongs. From the Iberus to Emporium, a small maritime town, which separated Spain from the Gauls, according to Strabo, were 1600 furlongs. From Emporium to the pass of the Rhone, the like space of 1600 furlongs. From the pass of the Rhone to the Alps, 1400. From the Alps to the plains of Italy, 1200 furlongs. Thus from New Carthage to the plains of Italy were 8400 furlongs ; or, al- lowing 625 feet to the furlong, 944 English miles, and almost one-third. This celebrated march of Hannibal's is one of the most important and interesting events recorded in the page of his- tory, if we consider the greatness of its design, its boldness, and its difficulty, the comprehension and mental energy dis- played in its plan and execution, and its final consequences. Accordingly, from the days of Polybius to the present hour, it has been the theme of praise, and the subject of wonder and admiration. The classical student is absorbed in his earliest career in its contemplation, and perhaps there is scarcely a reader who peruses the story, but notwithstanding it exhibits a thirst for revenge at which humanity shudders, feels much delight. In fancy he accompanies the warrior — attends his every step — shares and sighs over his dangers — climbs with him the Alpine steeps — gazes on their perpetual snov\^, and scales their rugged summits — views in the dis- tance the fertile plains of the Po, and the direction of Rome — and finally descends with him from the lofty summits, treads the verdant fields, and enjoys the balmy air of Italy. Hannibal commenced his march late in the spring. , His army then consisted (5f about 100,000 men, of which 12,000 were cavalry; he had also about forty elephants. Having crossed the Iberus, he soon subdued the several nations which opposed him in his march ; but he lost a considerable part of his army. He left Hanno to comipand all the country lying between the Iberus and the Pyrenean hills, with 11,000 men, who were appointed to guard the baggage of those that were to follow him. He dismissed a similar number, sending them back to their respective countries ; thus securing to himself their affection when he should want recruits ; and offering to the rest a hope that they should be allowed to return when- ever they should desire it. He passed the Pyrenean hills, and advanced as far as the banks of the Rhone, at the head of 50,000 foot and 9000 horse. VOL n, 23 266 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. Being arrived within about four days' march from the mouth of the Rhone, Hannibal attempted to cross it, because the river in this place took up only the breadth of its chan- nel. He bought up all the ships, boats, and small vessels he could meet with, of which the inhabitants, being commercial, had a great number ; he likewise built a number of boats, vessels, and rafts. On his arrival, he found the Gauls en- camped on the opposite bank, and prepared to dispute the passage. There was no possibility of attacking them in front, and, therefore, he ordered a considerable detachment of his forces, under the command of Hanno, the son of Bomilcar, to pass the river higher up ; and, in order to conceal his march and the design he had in view from the enemy, he obliged them to set out in the night. All things succeeded as he wished, and they passed the river the next day without opposition. They passed the rest of the day in refreshing themselves, and in the night advanced silently towards the enemy. In the morning, when the signals agreed upon had been given, Hannibal prepared to attempt the passage. Part of his horses, completely accoutred, were put into boats, that their riders might on landing, immediately charge the enemy. The rest of the horses swam over on both sides of the boats, from which one man held the bridles of three or four. The in- fantry crossed the river, either on rafts, or in small boats, and in a kind of gondolas, or trunks of trees made hollow. The great boats were drawn up in a line at the top of the channel, in order to break the force of the waves, and facilitate the passage of the rest of the small fleet. When the Gauls saw it advancing on the river, they, according to their custom, uttered dreadful cries and bowlings; and clashing their buck- lers over their heads, one against the other, let fly a shower of darts. But they were greatly astonished, when they heard a noise behind them, perceived their tents on fire, and saw themselves attacked both in front and rear. They had no means of escape but by flight, and they, accordingly, retreated to their respective villages. After this, the rest of' the troops crossed the river without molestation. The elephants occasioned much trouble. They were sent over the next day in the following manner : — From the bank of the river was thrown a raft, 200 feet in length, and fifty in breadth. This was fixed strongly to the banks by large ropes, and covered over with earth, so that the elephants, de- ceived by its appearance, thought themselves upon firm ground. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 267 From this raft they proceeded to a second, which was huilt in the same form, but only 100 feet long, and fastened to the for- mer by chains that were easily loosened. The female ele- phants were put upon the first raft, and the males folloAved after ; and when they were placed upon the second raft, it was loosened from the first, and by the help of small boats towed to the opposite shore. At what part of the Rhone this passage was made, has been a matter of dispute for many ages, among those inter- ested in the subject From recent researches, however, it is clearly shown, that it was at the modern town of Roque- maure. The arguments in support of this fact are briefly these: — From the point where Hannibal crossed the Rhone, to the commencement of the ascent of the Alps, is reckoned by Poly- bius to be 1400 stadia, or 175 Roman miles. Of this space 800 stadia are assigned as the distance, from the Neros or Peninsula to the ascent ; leaving 600 stadia from the passage of the river to the Insula Allobrogum, or Neros just men- tioned. Now, Roquemaure is exactly this distance from Port L'Isere where the Insula Allobrogum begins. Again, Poly- bius has assigned a distance of four marches up the river to where Hannibal crossed it, and if we estimate a day's march at fifteen miles, as was usual in ancient times, this would give sixty miles from the embouchure of the river, and Ro- quemaure is sixty-four miles distance from the sea. This difference is not much when we recollect, that the Rhone is the most rapid river in Europe, having a descent of 1200 Eng- lish feet from the Leman Lake, being six feet of average de- scent per mile, on a horizontal line of 200 English miles. From this cause, it must have brought down with its rapid current such a quantity of debris, as must have added, during the space of 2000 years which has intervened, considerably to the land at the mouth of the river. Another circumstance that favours the supposition that Hannibal crossed the river at Roquemaure, is, that the Rhone is thickly studded with islands ; the channel, therefore, is consequently broad, and the rapidity and force of the current diminished and broken ; whereas from Daderouse to Roquemaure, a distance of three miles, the river flows in one unbroken current, and is unford- able. This is more particularly the case at Roquemaure, and Hannibal, says Polybius, made a passage across the stream, where it flowed in one collected and unbroken current, and where it was unfordable from its depth. Again, the position 268 THE SECOND PTJNIC WAR. of Roquemaure was very favourable to Hannibal's plan of leaving the sea behind. To have attempted a passage below the confluence of the Durance with the Rhone, would have been dangerous at all times, and impracticable when the Du- rance was swollen by the melting snoAVs: besides, had he crossed below the junction of these two streams, he could not have been four days' march from the sea; and had he crossed above Roquemaure, he could scarcely have found one collected stream, and the distance to the Insula Allobrogum would not have been 600 stadia. A final proof that Hannibal crossed the Rhone at Roquemaure, is deduced from the coincidence of the distance from Emporium, or Ampurias, which Poly- bins states to be 1600 stadia, or 200 Roman miles. The dis- tance from Emporium to Nemauses at Nismes is 176 Roman miles, and from thence to Roquemaure is twenty-eight more, making a total of 204 miles. We return to our narrative. The two Roman consuls had, in the beginning of the spring, set out ibr their respective pro- vinces ; P, Scipio for Spain, with sixty ships, two Roman le- gions, 14,000 foot, and 1200 horse of the allies ; Tiberius Sem- pronius for Sicily with 160 ships, two legions, 16,000 foot, and 1800 horse of the allies. The Roman legion consisted at that time of 4000 foot, and 300 horse. Sempronius had made extraordinary preparations at Lilybeum, a seaport town in Sicily, with the design of crossing over directly into Africa, Scipio was equally confident that he should find Hannibal still in Spain, and make that country the seat of war ; he was greatly astonished, therefore, when, on his arrival at Marseilles, a sea-port and a city in France, advice was brought him that Hannibal was upon the banks of the Rhone, and prepar- ing to cross it. He then detached 300 horse to view the pos- ture of the enemy ; and Hannibal detached 510 Numidian horse for the same purpose, during which some of his sol- diers were employed in bringing over the elephants. At the same time, Hannibal gave audience, in the presence of his whole army, to one of the princes of that part of Gaul which is situated near the Po, who assured him, by an inter- preter, in the name of his subjects, that his arrival was looked for, and that the Gauls were ready to join him, and march against the Romans : he himself offered to conduct the army through places where they should meet with a plentiful supply of provisions. When this prince had retired, Hannibal, in a speech to his tooops, magnified this deputation from the Gauls, extolled the bravery which his forces had shown THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, 269 hitherto, and exhorted them to sustain their reputation and glory. The soldiers, inspired with fresh ardour and courage, declared their readiness to follow whithersoever he pleased to lead them. Accordingly, he appointed the next day for his march ; and, after offering up vows, and making suppli- cations to the gods for the safety of his troops, he dismissed them, desiring at the same time that they would take the ne- cessary refreshments. Whilst this occurred, the Numidians returned. They had met with, and charged the Roman detachment. The conflict was very obstinate, and the slaughter great, considering the small number of the combatants ; 160 of the Romans were slain, and more than 2u0 of their enemies. But the honour of the skirmish fell to the Romans ; the Numidians having retired and left them the field of battle. This action was in- terpreted as an omen of the fate of the whole war, as promis- ing final success, after a fearful struggle, to the Romans. It may, in fact, be said to have shown the genius and spirit of the two nations ; the Africans the most impetuous, the Ro- mans the most persevering ; both courageous, and rendered fierce by mutual hatred. On both sides, those who had sur- vived this engagement, returned to inform their respective generals of what they had discovered. Hannibal, as he had designed, decamped the nfjjct day, and crossed thrc^ugh the midst of Gaul, advancing northward ; not that this was the nearest way, but, as it led from the sea, it prevented a meeting with Scipio, and by that means favoured the design he had of marching all his forces into Italy, with- out having them weakened by a battle. Though Scipio marched with the utmost expedition, he did not reach the place where Hannibal had passed the Rhone till three days after his departure. Despairing, there- fore of overtaking him, he re-embarked his troops, resolving to wait for Hannibal at the foot of the Alps. But in order that he might not leave Spain defenceless, he sent his brother Cneius thither, with the greatest part of his army, to oppose Asdrubal ; and he set forward immediately for Genoa, intending to oppose the army which was in Gaul, near the Po, to that of Hannibal. In four days from the commencement of his march, Han- nibal, after crossing the Rhone at Roquemaure, reached the Neros, or Insula Allobrogum, at the Port LTsere. At this place, he found two brothers contending for the sovereignty. The arrival of Hannibal was a happy circumstance for the 23* 270 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. elder brother, for he reinstated him in his dominions. Hari- nibal also profited by this event ; for, grateful for such assis- tance, the barbarian supplied his army with every necessary, whether of clothing or provision, to enable them to cross the Alps : he even attended it in person, as an escort, and covered their rear from the attacks of the Allobroges, (who, however, kept at some distance,) till Hannibal had reached the foot of the Alps, whither in ten days he arrived, Hannibal encamped at Chelvelu, or Lavisca, the very en- trance of the pass over the Mont du Chat, ninety-eight miles distant from Port L'Isere. This pass is much lower than any other part of the mountain, and the very place through which alone an army could pass. From Chevelu to the summit is two miles of ascent, where there is an esplanade of 300 yards square. The ascent is easy, and over it the Austrian army passed, with all their bag- gage and artillery in 1815. Here Hannibal found the enemy posted, but discovering by his guides and scouts that they retired from thence in the night and returned at dawn of day, he occupied the pass during the night with his hght troops, which, when the Allobroges saw in the morning, they desisted at first from making any opposition, and the army commenced their way through the defile. But the road was rough and^tony, and the horses and beasts of burden could with difficulty keep their feet. This the Allobroges foresaw would be the case, and therefore they made a furious charge upon Hannibal from the adjacent heights. They were, how- ever, soon repulsed by Hannibal and the light troops down a sloping side of the eminence, which they had seized during the preceding night. Hannibal followed up his success, and stormed their chief town, Bourget, where he found a valuable supply of horses, cattle, provisions, and beasts of burden. After the capture of this town, the army halted a day, and then entered the fertile plain of Chambery. From this city, the road proceeds to Montmelian and the valley of the Isere, along which, till the fourth day, the army passed unmolested. At the end, however, of six days, on entering a difficult and precipitous defile, they were suddenly attacked by the very people who had professed great friendship to Hannibal, \vho had taken several of them as his guides during the two pre- ceding days. With some difficuky, and great loss, Hanni- bal repulsed these treacherous Gauls, and he passed the night on a strong white rock. The next morning, the seventh day THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 271 from the capture of Bourget, and the ninth from the passage of the Mont du Chat, he led his army to the summit of the highest ridge of the Alps. The place where Hannibal was attacked, is in the vicinity of the village and plain of Seez, a short distance to the west of the Petit or Little St. Bernard. This is proved by the fact that, from Seez, the passage of the Little St. Bernard appears so directly in front as not to be mistaken. On both sides of the road from Seez thither, the mountains are lofty, steep, and covered with snow, while the pass of the Little St. Bernard presents itself beneath ; the attack was consequently made from the lofty heights lining this defile. From the foot of the St. Bernard descends an Alpine torrent called the Reclus, which passes by the village of Seez. This torrent is very often dry, and on its left bank stands a white rock of gypsum, to which the name of La Roche Blanche, or. The White Rock, has been universally given. This is the identical rock on which Hannibal passed the night, to cover the passage of his army. This rock is admirably calculated for defensive operations. It commands the whole plain of Seez, and would have enabled Hannibal to act equally against the enemy on the heights above St. Germains, and on both sides of the line of the old Roman road. From hence it is clear that Hanni- bal crossed the Alps into Italy by the Little St. Bernard. It is proved also by the fact that large bones, which must be the bones of elephants, have been repeatedly discovered by the peasants, when the soil on the margin of the Reclus has been washed away by an Alpine flood. It was, as we have seen, on the ninth day that Hannibal gained the summit of the Little St. Bernard. On this summit there is a plain two miles and a half in length, on which he rested his army two days. As it was now autumn, a great quantity of snow had lately fallen,* and covered all the roads, which caused a consternation among the troops, and dis- heartened them very much, Hannibal perceived this, and halting on a hill from whence there was a prospect of all Italy, he showed them the fruitful plains watered by the Po,t * The snow begins to fall there generally in autumn, and winter begins at Michaelmas. t This circumstance has been started as an objection against the hypo- thesis of the Little St, Bernard being the pass by which Hannibal en- tered Italy ; but if the objection be valid, as regards the Little St. Ber- nard, it is equally so with reference to all the other passes of the Alps. But it is not necessary to suppose that either the army saw the plains of the Po from the pass itself, or that the entire army saw the plains at all, 272 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. telling them that they had but one effort more to make before they arrived thither. He represented to them that a battle or two would put a period to all their toils, and enrich them for ever, by giving- them possession of the capital of the Roman empire. This speech, filled with such pleasing hopes, and enforced by the sight of Italy, inspired the dejected soldiers with fresh vigour and alacrity ; they therefore pursued their march. But the road became more craggy than ever ; and as they were now on a descent, the difficulty and danger in- creased. The ways were narrow, steep, and slippery in most places, so that the soldiers could neither keep upon their feet as they marched, nor recover themselves when they made a false step, but stumbled, and beat down one another. They were now arrived at a more dangerous place than they had yet met with. This was a path naturally very rug- ged and craggy, but which having been made more so by a late falling in of the earth, terminated in a frightful precipice above 1000 feet deep. Here the cavalry suddenly halted. Hannibal, wondering at the cause, ran to the place, and per- ceiving the danger, was for making a circuitous rout ; but this also was found impracticable. As upon the old snow, which was grown hard by lying, there was some newly fall- en, of no great depth, the feet, at first, by their sinking into it, found a firm support ; but this snow being soon dissolved by the treading of the foremost troops and beasts of burden, the soldiers marched on nothing but ice, which was so slippery that they could find no firm footing ; consequently the great- est danger ensued. Besides this difficulty, the horses, strik- ing their feet forcibly into the ice to keep themselves from falling, could not draw them out again, but were caught as in a gin. The army was therefore forced to seek some other expedient. Hannibal resolved to pitch his camp, and to give his troops some days' rest on the summit of this hill, which was of con- siderable extent, after they should have cleared the ground, whether from the pass or the surrounding heights. There were, how- ever, several peaks from which such of the army as chose might enjoy the view of Italy as described by Polybius. The rarity of the atmosphere at great elevations is well known to enlarge the sphere of vision, and Bishop Berkeley says of the air of Italy, that when he first went there, its purity caused him to believe that many places were at hand, which were, nevertheless, many leagues distant. To have seen Rome itself from the loftiest summit of the Alps, would have been impossible, but for tncm to see the direction in which Rome lay, and that from the little St. Bernard itself, is within the hounds of belief from the causes noticed. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 273 and removed all the old as well as the new fallen snow, which was a work of great labour. He afterwards ordered a path to be cut into the rock itself, which work was carried on with much patience and ardour. To open and enlarge this path, all the trees thereabouts were cut down and piled round the rock, after which they were set on fire. By these, and va- rious other methods, Hannibal surmounted all difficuhies, and he at length gained the fruitful fields of Italy. Eighteen days, in the whole, were spent in crossing the range from Chevelu to Donas, where it terminates. We pause here for a moment, to reflect upon this mighty movement. The reader will, doubtless, admire the patience, the ardour, and the mental energy displayed at every step which the warrior took. But he must stop here. When we have thus admired Hannibal, we have given him his due meed of praise. The ends he had in view in this enterprise, and his recklessness of the lives of those under his command, must meet with censure, and we must look upon him as one of those scourges which the Almighty sometimes permits to visit the human race for their iniquities. We must look upon him, also, as becomes Christians, with pity. It is, indeed, la- mentable to see a man possessed of such a capacious mind, and capable of benefiting his fellow man to a vast extent, using those powers under the withering influences of pa- ganism, only to their destruction, and the wasting of God's fair earth. Such, we shall see, were the evils attendant upon his every step in the beautiful land of Italy. When Hannibal entered Italy, his army was by no means so numerous as when he left Spain. It had sustained great losses during the march, either in the battles it was forced to fight, or ill the passage of rivers. But at his departure from the Rhone, it still consisted of 38,000 foot, and above 8000 horse. The march over the Alps, however, destroyed nearly half this number, so that he had now remaining only 12,000 Africans, 8000 Spanish foot, and 6000 cavalry. This ac- count he himself caused to be engraved on a pillar near the promontory called Lacinium. It was five months and a half since his first setting out from New Carthage, including the eighteen days he employed in marching over the Alps, when he set up his standards in the plains of the Po, at the entrance of Piedmont. It was probably then about September. Hannibal's first care was to give his troops rest ; but as soon as he perceived that they were fit for action, he began his wild career of slaughter. The inhabitants of the territories of 274 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. Turin refusing to conclude an alliance with him, he marched and encamped before their city, carried it in three days, and put all his opposers to death with the sword. This expedi- tion struck the barbarians with so much dread, that they all came and surrendered at discretion. The rest of the Gauls would have done the same, had they not been awed by the terror of the Roman arms, which were now approaching. Hannibal concluded, therefore, that he had no time to lose ; that it was his interest to march up into the country, and at- tempt some great exploit, such as might inspire those who should have an inclination to join him with confidence. The rapid progress which Hannibal had made, alarmed Rome, and caused the greatest consternation throughout the city. Sempronius was ordered to leave Sicily, and hasten to the relief of his country, and P. Scipio, the other consul, ad- vanced by forced marches towards the enemy, crossed the Po, and pitched his camp near the Ticinus, a small river now called Pesino, near Lombardy. The armies being now in sight, the generals on each side made a speech to their soldiers preparatory to the engage- ment, in which speeches each endeavoured to inspire his fol- lowers with a desire of doing valiantly, or, in other words, to revenge their country's wrongs, either real or imaginary, upon the enemy. When these were concluded, both sides prepared to engage. Scipio posted in the first line the troops armed with missive weapons, and the Gaulish horse ; and forming his second line of the flower of the confederate cavalry, he advanced slowly. Hannibal advanced with the whole of his cavalry, in the cen- tre of which he posted the troopers who rode with bridles, and the Numidian horsemen, who rode without saddles or bridles, on the wings, in order to surround the enemy. The officers and cavalry being eager to engage, a charge and dreadful slaughter ensued. The battle continued a long time with equal- success. Many troopers on both sides dismounted, so that the battle was carried on between infantry as well as cav- alry. In the mean time, the Numidians surrounded the enemy, and charged the rear of the light armed troops, who at first had escaped the attack of the cavalry, and trod them under the horses' feet. The centre of the Roman forces had hitherto fought with great bravery. Many were killed on both sides, and even more on that of the Carthaginians. But the Roman troops were thrown into disorder by the Numi- dians, who attacked them in the rear ; and especially by a THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 275 wound the consul received, which disabled him from continu- ing the combat. This general, however, was rescued out of the enemy's hands by the bravery of his son, then but seven- teen years of age, and who afterwards was honoured with the surname of Africanus, for having put a period to this war. The consul, though dangerously wounded, retreated in good order, and was conveyed to his camp by a iDody of horse, who covered him with their arms and bodies ; the rest of the army followed him thither. He hastened to the Po, which he crossed with his army, and then broke down the bridge, by which means Hannibal was prevented from overtaking him. Immediately after the battle of the Ticinus, all the neigh- bouring Gauls seemed to contend who should submit them- selves first to Hannibal, furnish him with ammunition, and enlist in his army. This indeed, Polybius says, was what in- duced that general, notwithstanding the small number and weakness of his troops, to hazard a battle ; because nothing else would oblige the Gauls to declare in his favour, and he regarded their assistance as his only refuge. Sempronius, the consul, upon the orders he had received from the senate, had now returned from Sicily to Ariminum. From thence he marched towards the Trebia, a small river of Lombardy, which falls into the Po, a little above the Pla- centia, where he joined his forces to those of Scipio. Han- nibal advanced towards the camp of the Romans, between which only that small river intervened. The armies lying so near one another, gave occasion to frequent skirmishes, in one of which Sempronius, at the head of a body of horse, gained some advantage over a party of Carthaginians. This he construed into a complete victory. He boasted of his hav- ing vanquished the enemy in the same kind of fight in which his colleague had been defeated, and that he thereby had re- vived the courage of the dejected Romans. He was now, therefore, resolved to come to a decisive battle as soon as pos- sible, and he consulted Scipio, out of courtesy, upon the sub- ject. Scipio entertained a different opinion from hiniself He represented, that if time should be allowed for disciplin- ing the new troops during the winter, they would be much fitter for service during the campaign ; that the Gauls, who were fickle and inconstant, would disengage themselves from Hannibal ; that as soon as his wounds were healed, his pres- ence might be of some use in such a weighty affair ; in a word, he besought him earnestly to forego his design. <|7^ THE SECOi^D FTTOTC WAR, These reasons, though just, made no impression upon Bern- pronius. He saw himself at the head of 16,000 Romans, and 20,000 allies, exclusive of cavalry, when both consuls joined their forces. The troops of the enemy amounted to nearly the same number. He thought the juncture exceed- ingly favourable for him. He declared that all the officers and soldiers were desirous of a battle, except his colleague, whose mind, he observed, being more affected by his wound than his body, could not for that reason endure the thought of an engagement. But still, he continued, is it just to let the whole army languish with him 1 What could Scipio expect more ? Did he flatter himself with the hopes that a third consul and a new army would come to his assistance ? Such were the expressions he employed among the soldiers, and even about Scipio's tent. The time for the election of new- generals drew near, and Sempronius was afraid a successor would be sent before he had put an end to the war, and there- fore it was his opinion that he ought to take advantage of his colleague's illness to secure to himself the honour of the vic- tory. As he had no regard, says Polybius, to the time pro- per for action, and only to that which suited his own interest, he could not fail of taking wrong measures. He therefore ordered his army to prepare for battle. Hannibal hefd it as a maxim, that a general who has en- tered a foreign country, or one possessed by the enemy, and has formed some great design, has no other refuge left than continually to raise the expectation of his allies by some fresh exploits ; and therefore he was pleased with this movement. Besides, knowing that he should have to deal only with newly- levied and inexperienced troops, he was desirous of taking advantage of the ardour of the Gauls, who were eager to en- gage, and of Scipio's absence. Mago was therefore ordered to lie in ambush with 2000 men, consisting of horse and foot, on the steep banks of a small rivulet which ran between the two camps, and to conceal himself among the bushes grow- ing thickly on that spot. He afterwards caused a detachment of Numidian cavalry to cross the Trebia, with orders to ad- vance at break oi" uay as far as the very barriers of the enemy's camp, in order to provoke them to battle ; and then to retreat, and repass the river, in order to draw the Romans diter them. What he had foreseen came to pass, Sempronius immedi- ately detached his whole cavalry against the Numidians, and then 6' 00 light-armed troops, who were soon followed by all the rest of the army. The Numidians fled designedly ; upon THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 277 which, the Romans pursued them with great eagferness, and crossed the Trebia without resistance, hut not without great difficulty, being forced to wade up to their very arm-pits though the rivulet, which was swollen with the torrents that had fallen in the night from the neighbouring mountains. It was then about the winter solstice, that is, in December. It happened to snow that day, and the cold was excessively piercing. The Romans had left their camp fasting, and without having taken the least precaution : whereas, Hanni- bal's army had by his order refreshed themselves, got their horses in readiness, rubbed themselves with oil, and put on their armour by their fires. They were thus prepared to meet the Romans, who now drew near, half spent with hunger, fatigue, and cold. The Romans defended themselves valiantly for a considerable time ; but their cavalry was at length broken by that of the Cartha- ginians, which was superior in numbers : the infantry also w^ere soon in great disorder. The soldiers in ambuscade, sal- lying out at a proper time, rushed on a sudden upon their rear, and completed the overthrow. A body of above 10,000 men resolutely fought their way through the Gauls and Af- ricans, of whom, they made a dreadful slaughter ; but as they could neither assist their friends, nor return to the camp, the way to it being cut off by the Numidian horse and the river, they retreated in good order to Placentia. Most of the rest lost their lives on the banks of the river, being trampled to death by the horses and elephants. Those who escaped joined the body above mentioned, and the next night Scipio also retired to Placentia. The Carthaginians gained a com- plete victory, and their loss was inconsiderable, except that a great number of their horses and all their elephants but one were destroyed by the cold, rain, and snow. In Spain, the Romans had better success in this and the following campaign ; for Cn. Scipio extended his conquests as far as the river Ibcrus, defeated tfanno, and took him prisoner. Hannibal took the opportunity whilst he was in winter quarters, to refresh his troops, and gnin the affection and co- operation of the natives. For this purpose, after having de- clared to the prisoners whom he had taken from the allies of the Romans, that he was not come with a view of making war upon them, but of restoring the Italians to their liberty, and protecting them against the Romans, he sent them all VOL. II. 24 278 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. home to their own countries, without requiring a ransom, (b. c. 217.) As soon as the winter was over, Hannibal set out towards Tuscany, whither he resorted for two reasons : first, to avoid the ill effects which would arise from the ill-will of the Gauls, who were tired of the long stay of his army in their territo- ries, and were impatient of bearing the whole burden of a war, in which they had engaged with no other view than to carry it into the country of their common enemy ; secondly, that he might by some bold exploit increase the reputation of his arms in the sight of all Italy, by carrying the war to the very gates of Rome, and at the same time reanimate his troops and the Gauls, his allies, by the plunder of his enemy's lands. But in his march over the Apennines, he was over- taken by a dreadful storm, which destroyed great numbers of his men. The cold, the rain, and the winds of heaven ap- peared to conspire for his ruin ; so that the fatigues which his army had endured in crossing the towering Alps, seemed light in comparison to those they now suffered. He there- fore marched back to Placentia, where he again fought with Sempronius, who was returned from Rome ; in which con- test the loss on both sides was nearly equal. Whilst Hannibal was in these winter quarters, he adopted a true Carthaginian stratagem. He was surrounded with fickle and inconstant natives, and the friendship he had con- tracted with them was but of recent date ; he had reason, therefore, to apprehend a change in their disposition, and, consequently, that attempts would be made upon his life. To secure himself from these apprehended dangers, he ordered clothes to be made, and false hair, suited to every age. Of these he sometimes wore one, sometimes another, and so dis- guised himself, that even his most intimate acquaintance could scarcely recognise him. At Rome, Cn. Servilius and C. Flaminius had been ap- pointed consuls. Hannibal, having advice that the latter was advanced already as far as Arretium, a town of Tuscany, re- solved to meet him. Two ways being shown him, he chose the shortest, though almost impassable, by reason of a fen which he was compelled to pass over. Here his army suf- fered incredible hardships. During four days and three nights, they marched mid-leg in water, and consequently could obtain no rest. Hannibal himself, who rode upon the only elephant left, could hardly surmount the danger. His long want of sleep, and the thick vapours which exhaled THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 279 from that place, tog-ether with the unhealthiness of the season, cost him one of his eyes. Hannibal, having extricated himself from this dangerous situation, and refreshed his troops, marched onwards, and pitched his camp between Arretium and Fesuloe, in the rich- est and most fruitful part of Tuscany. His first endeavours were to discover the disposition of Flaminius, in order that he might take advantage of his weak side, which, Polybius says, should always be the chief study of a general. He was informed that Flaminius was conceited of his own merit, bold, enterprising, rash, and fond of glory. To plunge him the deeper in these excesses, to which he Avas by nature prone, Hannibal inflamed his impetuosity, by laying waste and burn- ing the whole country in his sight. Flaminius was not of a temper to continue inactive in his camp, even if Hannibal had not thus wantonly provoked him. But when he saw the territories of his allies laid waste, he thought it would reflect disgrace upon him should he suflfer the enemy to ransack Italy without control, and even advance to the very walls of Rome without meeting any resistance. He rejected with scorn the prudent counsels of those who ad- vised him to wait for his colleague, and to be satisfied for the present with checking the devastations of the enemy. In the mean time, Hannibal was still advancing towards Rome, having Cortona on the left, and the lake Thrasymenus on his right. When he saw that the consul followed close after him, with the design to give him battle, in order to pre- vent his march, having observed that the ground was conve- nient for an engagement, he thought only of making prepa- rations for it. The lake Thrasymenus and the mountains of Cortona form a very narrow defile, which leads into a large valley, lined on the side with hills of a considerable height, and closed at the outlet by a steep hill of difficult access. On this hill Hannibal, after having crossed the valley, came and encamped with the main body of his army, posting his light- armed infantry in ambuscade on the hills on the right, and part of his cavalry behind those on the left, as far almost as the entrance of the defile, through which Flaminius was obliged to pass. Hannibal, having permitted him to advance with his forces above half-way through the valley, and see- ing the Roman vanguard near him, gave the signal for battle, and commanded his troops to appear from their hiding-place, in order that he might attack them from all quarters. They were not yet drawn up in order of battle, nor had 280 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. they their arms in readiness, when they found themselves at- tacked on every hand. In a moment, all were thrown into disorder. Flaminius, alone undaunted in so general a con- sternation, animated his soldiers, and exhorted them to cut themselves a passage with their swords through the midst of the enemy. But the tumult which reigned every where, the dreadful shouts of the enemy, and a fog that was risen, pre- vented his being seen or heard. The Romans, however, when they saw themselves surrounded by the enemy at the lake, without hope of escape, commenced the struggle with ardour. So great was the fury of the combatants, that not a soldier in either army perceived the shocks of an earthquake, which happened in that country at the time, and buried whole cities in ruins. At length Flaminius being slain by one of the Insubrian Gauls, the Romans fled. Great numbers, en- deavouring to save themselves, leaped into the lake ; whilst others, directing their course to the mountains, fell into the enemy's hands. Six thousand only, by dint of courage, es- caped from the field, and the next day they also were taken prisoners. In this battle 15,000 Romans were slain. Han- nibal sent back the Latins, who were allies of the Romans, into their own country, without demanding a ransom. He commanded search to be made for the body of Flaminius, in order to give it burial ; but it could not be found. He after- wards put his troops into quarters of refreshments, and so- lemnized the funerals of thirty of his chief officers, who were killed in the battle. He lost in all but 1500 men, most of whom were Gauls. Immediately after, Hannibal despatched a courier to Car- thage, with the news of his success. This caused the great- est joy for the present, gave birth to the most promising hopes for the future, and revived the courage of all the citizens. They now prepared with great ardour, to send necessary succours into Italy and Spain. On the contrary, Rome was filled with universal grief and alarm, as soon as the pretor had pronounced from the Rostra the following words : " We have lost a great battle." The senate, studious of nothing but the public welfare, thought that recourse must now be had to extraordinary remedies. They therefore appointed Gluintus Fabius dictator, a person, as conspicuous for his wisdom as his birth. It was the cus- tom at Rome, that the moment a dictator was nominated, all other authority ceased, that of the tribunes of the people ex- cepted. M. Minucius was appointed general of his horse. THE SECOND PFNIC WAR. 281 After the battle of Thrasymenus, Hannibal, not thinking it prudent to march directly to Rome, contented himself with wasting the country. He crossed Umbria and Picenum, and after ten dayS' march, arrived in the territory of Adria. He obtained a considerable booty in this march. Inspired with implacable and unrighteous enmity to the Romans, he cruelly commanded that all who were able to bear arms should be put to the sword ; and meeting no obstacle, he advanced as far as Apulia, plundering the countries which lay in his way, and carrying desolation wherever he came, in order to com- pel the natives to disengage themselves from their alliance with the Romans ; and to show all Italy, that Rome itself yielded him the palm of victory. Fabius, followed by Minucius, and four legions, had marched from Rome in quest of the enemy, but with a firm resolution not to let him take the least advantage, nor to ad- vance one step till he had first reconnoitred every place, nor hazard a battle till success should be certain. As soon as both armies were in sight, Hannibal, to terrify the Roman forces, offered them battle, by advancing almost to their very intrenchments. Finding, however, every thing quiet, he retired ; blaming, in appearance, the cowardice of the enemy, whom he upbraided with having lost the valour which had so much distinguished their ancestors ; but«fretting inwardly to find he had to do with a general whose tempera- ment was so different to that of his predecessors ; and that the Romans, instructed by their defeat, had at last made choice of a commander capable of opposing Hannibal. Hannibal perceived that the dictator would not be formida- ble to him by the boldness of his attacks, but by the prudence and regularity of his conduct, which he foresaw w^ould em- barrass him much. The only circumstance he now wanted to know was, whether the new general had firmness enough to pursue steadily the plan he appeared to have adopted. He endeavoured, therefore, to shake his resolution by the dif- ferent movements which he made, by laying waste the lands, plundering the cities, and burning the towns and villages. At one time, he would raise his camp with precipitation, and at another, stop short in some valley out of the common route, to try whether he could not surprise him in the plain. Fa- bius, however, still kept his troops on the hills, but without losing sight of Hannibal ; never appearing near enough to come to an engagement ; nor yet keeping at such a distance as might give him an opportunity of escaping. He never 24* 282 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. suffered his soldiers to stir out of the camp, except tt» forage, nor even on those occasions without a numerous convoy. If ever he engaged, it was only in slight skirmishes, and so very cautiously, that his troops had always the advantage. By this conduct, he insensibly revived the courage of his soldiers, and enabled them to rely, as they had done formerly, on their valour and good fortune. Hannibal having obtained an immense booty in Campania, left that country, in order that he might not consume the pro- visions he had laid up, and which he reserved for the winter season. Besides, he could no longer continue in a country of gardens and vineyards, which were more agreeable to the eye than useful for the subsistence of an army ; a country where he would have been forced to take up his winter quar- ters among marshes, rocks, and sands ; while the Romans would have drawn plentiful supplies from Capua, and the richest parts of Italy. He therefore resolved to winter there. Fabius naturally supposed that Hannibal would be obliged to return the same way he came, and that he might easily annoy him during his march. He began by throwing a con- siderable body of troops into Casilinum, and thereby securing that small town, situated on the Vulturnus, which separated the territories of Falernum from those of Capua : he after- wards detached 4000 men to seize the only outlet through which Hannibal could pass ; and then, according to his usual custom, posted himself with the remainder of the army on the adjoining hills. The Carthaginians arrived and encamped in the plain at the foot of the mountains. And now the crafty Hannibal fell into the snare he had laid for Flaminius at the defile of Thrasy- menus ; and it seemed impossible for him to extricate himself from this difficulty, there being but one pass, of which the Romans were possessed. Fabius, fancying himself sure of his prey, was only contriving how to seize it. He flattered himself, and the probability was in his favour, with the hopes of putting an end to the war by a single battle. He thought fit, nevertheless, to defer the attack till the next day. Hannibal perceived that his own artifices were now em- ployed against him. In such junctures as these, a general has need of unusual presence of mind and fortitude, to view dan- ger in its utmost extent without being dismayed, and promptly to find out expedients. Hannibal showed himself equal to this : he immediately caused 2000 oxen to be collected, and ordered small bundles of vine branches to be tied to their THE SECOND PTJNIC WAR. 283 horns ; and towards the dead of night, these vine branches were set on fire, and the oxen driven with violence to the top of the hills where the Romans were encamped. As soon as the poor animals felt the flame, the pain ren- dered them furious, and they flew up and down on all sides, and set fire to the shrubs and bushes they met in their way. A number of light armed soldiers accompanied the oxen, who had orders to seize upon the summit of the mountain, and to charge the Romans, if they should meet them. Every thing happened as Hannibal had foreseen. The Romans who guarded the defile, seeing the fires spread over the hills which were above them, and imagining that it was Hannibal making his escape by torch light, quitted their post, and ran up to the mountains to oppose his passage. The main body of the army not knowing what to think of this tumult, and Fabius himself not daring to move while it was dark, for fear of a surprise, waited for the return of the day. Hannibal em- braced this opportunity, marched his troops and the spoils through the defile, which was now unguarded, and rescued his army out of a snare, in which, had Fabius been more vigorous, it would have been destroyed, or greatly weakened. The Carthaginian army returned to Apulia, still pursued and harassed by the Romans. The dictator being obliged to take a journey to Rome, on account of some religious cere- monies, earnestly entreated Minucius before his departure not to venture an engagement. This entreaty was disregarded : the very first opportunity that offered itself, whilst part of Hannibal's troops were foraging, Minucius charged the rest, and gained some advantage. He immediately sent advice of it to Rome, as if he had obtained a considerable victory. The news of this, with what had just before occurred at the pas- sage of the defile, raised complaints at the slow movements and timorous circumspection of Fabius. Matters, indeed, were carried so far, that the Roman people gave his general of horse an equal authority with him, a circumstance never known before. The dictator was upon the road when he re- ceived advice of this ; for he had left Rome in order that he might not witness what was contriving against him. His constancy, however, was not shaken. He was sensible that though his authority was divided, his skill in the art of war was superior. Minucius, grown arrogant at the advantage gained over his colleague, proposed that each should command a day akernately, or even a longer time. But Fabius rejected this 284 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. proposal, as it would have exposed the whole army to danger whilst under the command of Minucius. He therefore chose to divide the troops, in order that it might be in his power to preserve, at least, that part of the army which he commanded. Hannibal, informed of all that passed in the Roman camp, was rejoiced to hear of this dissension between the two com- manders. He therefore laid a snare for the rash Minucius, into which he fell. He engaged the enemy on an eminence, in which an ambuscade was concealed. His troops were soon thrown into disorder, and were upon the point of being destroyed, when Fabius, alarmed by the outcries of the wounded, called aloud to his soldiers, " Let us hasten to the assistance of Minucius: let us flee and snatch the victory from the enemy, and extort from our fellow-citizens a confes- sion of their fault." This succour was very seasonable ; for it compelled Hannibal to sound a retreat. The latter, as he was retiring, said, " That the cloud which had been long hovering on the summit of the mountains, had at last burst with a loud crack, and caused a mighty storm." This im- portant service rendered by the dictator, opened the eyes of Minucius ; he acknowledged his error, and returned imme- diately to his duty and obedience. THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SPAIN. In the beginning of this campaign, Cn. Scipio having sud- denly attacked the Carthaginian fleet commanded by Hamil- car, defeated it, and took twenty-five ships, with a quantity of rich spoils. This victory made the Romans sensible that they ought to be particularly attentive to the affairs of Spain, because Hannibal could draw from thence supplies both of men and money. Accordingly, they sent a fleet thither, the command whereof was given to P. Scipio, who, after, his arrival in Spain, having joined his brother, did the common- wealth very great service. Till that time, the Romans had never ventured beyond the Ebro ; but now they crossed it, and carried their arms much farther up into the country. The circumstance which contributed most to promote their progress in Spain, was the treachery of a Spaniard in Sagun- tum. Hannibal had left there the children of the most dis- tinguished families in Spain, whom he had taken as hostages. Abelox, for so this Spaniard was called, persuaded Bostar, the governor of the city, to send back these young men into their country, in order, by that means, to attach the inhabitants THE SECOND PUNIC WAH. 285 more firmly to the Carthaginian interest. Abelox prevailed, and was charged with the commission ; but instead of con- ducting them home, he delivered them to the Romans, who afterwards presented them to their parents, by which means they acquired their amity, THE AFFAIRS IN ITALY RESUMED. The next spring, (216 years b. c.,) C. Terrentius Varro and L. ^milius Paulus were chosen consuls at Rome. In this campaign, which was the third of the second Punic war, the Romans formed their army into eight legions, which they never did before, each consisting of 5000 men, exclusive of the allies. As for the troops of the allies, their infantry was equal to that of the legions, but they had three times as many horse. Each of the consuls had commonly half the troops of the allies, with two legions, in order for them to act separately, and it was very seldom that all these forces were used at the same time, and in the same expedition. Varro, at his setting out from Rome, had declared openly, that he would meet the enemy at the first opportunity, and put an end to the war ; adding, that it would never be ter- minated so long as such men as Fabius should head the Ro- man armies. An advantage which he gained over the Car- thaginians greatly increased his arrogance, and confirmed him in his determination. Hannibal, however, regardless still of human suffering, considered this loss a real advantage ; being persuaded that it would serve as a bait for the consul's rashness, and prompt him to a battle. It was afterwards dis- covered that Hannibal was reduced to such a scarcity of pro- visions, that he could not have subsisted ten days longer. The Spaniards moreover, were already meditating leaving him ; so that he must have retreated from Italy, had not Varro being thrown in his way. The two armies came in sight of each other near Cannae, a little town in Apulia, situated on the river Aufidus. As Hannibal was encamped in a level country, and his cavalry superior to that of the Romans, ^milius did not think proper to engage in such a place : he wished to draw the enemy into a spot, where the infantry might have the greatest share in the action ; but his colleague, who was inexperienced, was of a contrary opinion. Such is the inconvenience of a divided command ; jealousy, a disparity of tempers, or a diversity of views, seldom failing to create dissension. 286 THE SECOXD PUNIC WAR. In accordance with his resolve, without consulting his col- league, Varro, one day when he had the command, (for the . two consuls ruled absolute on alternate days,) prepared for battle. Hannibal had now his wish, and after observing to his soldiers, that being superior in cavalry, they could not possibly have met with a more favourable place to engage in, he, supposing that the powers above delighted in the conflicts of man below, exclaimed : " Return thanks to the gods for having brought the enemy hither, that you may triumph over them ; and thank me also, for having reduced the Romans to the necessity of coming to an engagement. After three great successive victories, is not the remembrance of your own ac- tions sufficient to inspire you with courage ? By the former battles you have become masters of the open country ; but this will put you in possession of all the cities, and (I presume to say it) of all the riches and power of the Romans. It is not words that we want, but action ; I trust in the gods, that you will soon see my promises verified." This speech, so flatter- ing, so full of hope, and so suited to the desires of his army, inspired it with ardour. The two armies were very unequal in number. That of the Romans, including the aUies, amounted to 80,000 foot, and about 6000 horse ; that of the Carthaginians to 40,000 foot and 10,000 horse. iEmilius commanded the right wing of the Romans, Varro the left, and Servilius, one of the con- suls of the last year, was posted in the centre. Hannibal, who possessed the art of turning every incident to advantage, had posted himself so that the wind Vulturnus, (a wind an- swering to the modern sirocco, or hot wind which blows from the quarter of Africa for many days together,) which rises at stated seasons, should blow directly in the faces of the Romans during the fight, and cover them with dust ; then keeping the river Aufidus on his left, and posting his cavalry in the wings, he formed the main body of the Spanish and Gaulish infantry, which he posted in the centre, with half the African heavy armed foot on their right, and half on their left, on the same line with their cavalry. His army being thus drawn up, he placed himself at the head of the Spanish and Gaulish infantry, and having drawn them out of the line, advanced to give bat-^ tie, rounding his front as he drew near the enemy, and ex- tending his flanks in the shape of a half moon, in order that he might leave no interval between his main body and the rest of the line, which consisted of the heavy armed infantry. The result of this battle was dreadful. The Romans were THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 287 conquered, and, according to Livy, 43,000 human beings perished. Hannibal himself, great as his thirst was for re- venge and slaughter, seems to have been at this time satisfied; for he cried out several times to his soldiers, " Spare the van- quished." Among the slain was ^miUus; Servilius; Minu- cius, the late general of horse to Fabius ; two qucestors ; one and twenty military tribunes : many who had been consuls ; and fourscore senators. Ten thousand men, who had been left to guard the camp, surrendered to the enemy. Varro, the consul, through whose rashness this disaster had oc- curred, escaped with the remnant of the army into the adja- cent cities. Thus Hannibal remained master of the field, he being chiefly indebted for this, as well as for his former vic- tories, to the superiority of his cavalry over that of the Ro- mans. Maharbal, one of the Carthaginian generals, advised Han- nibal to march without loss of time to Rome, promising him, that within five days they should sup in the Capitol. Hanni- bal answering, that it was a matter which required mature deliberation : " I see," replied Maharbal, " that the gods have not endowed the same man with all talents. You, Hannibal, know how to conquer, but not to make the best use of a vic- tory." it is asserted, that this delay saved Rome, and the empire. If it did, it must not be attributed to the error of Hannibal, as some have supposed. His will was to raze the very foun- dations of Rome to the ground ; but, restrained by a higher Power, who ruleth unseen, and sometimes unknown among men, he was fearful of prosecuting at this time the desire of his heart : hence we may safely affirm, that Rome was saved by the interposition of Divine Providence. Soon after the battle of Cannoe, Hannibal had despatched his brother Mago to Carthage, with the news of his victory, and at the same time to demand succours, in order that he might be enabled to put an end to the conflict. On his arrival, Mago, in full senate, made a lofty speech, in which he extolled his brother's exploits, and displayed the great advantages he had obtained over the Romans. And, to give a more lively idea of the greatness of the victory, he poured out in the middle of the senate a bushel of gold rings which had been taken from the fingers of such of the Roman nobility as had fallen in the battle of Cannre, with the inten- tion, no doubt, of inflaming their avarice, for which they were proverbial, that he might the more readily obtain his demands j 288 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. for he concluded his speech with demanding money, provi- sions, and reinforcements. Mago, by this deed, showed that he understood the weak point of the senate : most of them were struck with an extra- ordinary joy ; and Imilco, a great friend to Hannibal, fancy- in o- he had a fair opportunity to insuk Hanno, the chief of the contrary faction, who was opposed to that general, he asked him, whether they were still dissatisfied wkh the war they were carrying on against the Romans, and were still for having Hannibal dehvered up to them? Hanno replied, that his opinion was unakered ; and that the victories of which they so much boasted (supposing them real) could not give him joy, but only in proportion as they should be made sub- servient to an advantageous peace. He then undertook to prove that the mighty exploits of which they so much boasted were fallacious : " I have cut to pieces," says he, continuing Mago's speech, " the Roman armies ; send me some troops. What m.ore could you ask had you been conquered ? I have twice seized upon the enemy's camp, full, no doubt, of provi- sions of every kind. Send me provisions and money. Could you have talked otherwise, had you lost your camp?" He then asked Mago, whether any of the Latin nations had come over to Hannibal, and whether the Romans had made him any proposals of peace. To this Mago answered in the neg- ative. " I then perceive," replied Hanno, " that we are no farther advanced, than when Hannibal first landed in Italy." The inference he drew from hence was, that nekher men nor money ought to be supplied. But Hannibal's faction prevail- ing, no regard was paid to Hanno's remonstrances, which were treated as the effects of prejudice and jealousy, and orders were given for levying, without delay, the required supplies. Mago set out immediately for Spain, to raise 24,000 foot and 4000 horse in that country : but these levies were afterwards stopped, and sent to another quarter ; so eager was the con- trary faction to oppose the designs of a general whom they abhorred. While in Rome, a consul, who had fled, was thanked because he had not despaired of the common weahh ; at Carthage, people were almost angry with Hannibal for be- ing victorious. Thus, being more jealous for the honour of his own opinions, than for the good of his country, and a greater enemy to Hannibal than the Romans, Hanno did all in his power to prevent future success, and to render that which had been already gained of no avail. Thus weak and inconsistent is man by nature, and so va- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 289 rious are the ways in which he torments his fellow. Dislike, once conceived and cherished, there is no mean, unjust, and cruel expedient, to which he will not frequently resort, to make him feel his vengeance. But how different is it when men are born again by the Spirit of God ! Then, the fierce- ness of the fallen nature of man being restrained by his hal- lowed influences, it exhibits a dove-like and peaceable dispo- sition ; and men whose dispositions are of an opposite nature, associate together in harmony and love ; each striving to ad- minister to his brother's happiness, for the sake of their one common Lord. The battle of Cannce subjected the most powerful nations of Italy to Hannibal, drew over to his interest Groscia Magna, with the city of Tarentum, and thus wrested from the Romans their most ancient allies, among whom the Capuans held the first rank. This city, by the fertility of its soil, its advantage- ous situation, and the blessings of a long peace, had risen to great wealth and power. Luxury and a love of pleasure, the usual attendants on wealth, had corrupted the minds of its citizens, who, from their natural inclinations, were much in- clined to voluptuousness. Hannibal made choice of this city for his winter quarters ; and here it was, according to Livy, that those soldiers who had sustained the hardest toil, and braved the most formid- able dangers, were weakened and subdued by luxury. Their courage w^as so greatly enervated in this beM'itching retire- ment, that ail their after efforts were rather owing to the fame and splendour of their former victories, than to their present strength. When Hannibal marched his forces out of the city, one would have taken them for other men than those who had entered it under his command. Accustomed during the winter season to commodious lodgings, to ease and plenty, they were no longer able to bear hunger, thirst, long marches, watchings, and the varied toils of war; and obedience and discipline were entirely laid aside. It is doubtful if Livy is correct in imputing all these fatal consequences to the delights of Capua. It might have been one, and a great cause, (for luxury is the destroyer of man, both soul and body,) but the real cause of the decline of Han- nibal's affairs in Italy, was owing to his want of succours from Carthage. The design of Imilco's faction in sending these succours was thwarted by that of Hanno, and those recruits which Mago raised by order of the senate were sent to another quarter. It followed, therefore, that Hannibal was VOL. n. 25 2§^, THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. left to depend upon his own personal resources. His army was now reduced to 26,000 foot, and 9000 horse ; and it was hence impossible for him, in an enemy's country, to seize on all the advantageous posts ; to awe his new allies ; to preserve his old conquests, and form new ones ; and to keep the field with advantage against two armies of the Romans, which were recruited every year. The truth is, bounds were set to his unhallowed ambition and revenge by a superior Power, and he was to be sent home, not decked with the wreath of a victor, but " clothed with shame." TRANSACTIONS RELATING TO SPAIN AND SARDINIA. The two Scipios still continued in the command of Spain, (b. c. 214,) and their arms were making considerable pro- gress there, when Asdrubal, who alone seemed able to cope with them, received orders from Carthage to march into Italy to the relief of Hannibal his brother. Before that general set out, he wrote to the senate to convince them of the neces- sity of sending a general in his stead who was capable of opposing the Romans. Imilco was therefore sent thither with an army, and Asdrubal set out upon his march in order to join his brother. The news of his departure was no sooner known, than the greatest part of Spain was subjected by the Scipios. These two generals, animated by such signal suc- cess, resolved to prevent Asdrubal, if possible, from leaving Spain. They considered the danger to which the Romans would be exposed if, being scarcely able to resist Hannibal alone, they should be attacked by the two brothers with their united forces. They therefore pursued Asdrubal, and over- came him, so that he could neither continue his march for Italy, nor remain in Spain. The Carthaginians had no better success in Sardinia. De- signing to take advantage of some rebellion, which they had fomented in that country, they lost 12,000 men in a battle fought against the Romans, who took a still greater number of prisoners, among whom were Asdrubal, surnamed Calvus, Hanno, and Mago, (not Hannibal's brother,) who were dis- tinguished by their birth as well as military exploits. THE AFFAIRS IN ITALY RESUMED. ^ From the time of Hannibal's abode in Capua, the Cartha- ginian affairs in Italy no longer supported their former repu- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 291 tation. M. Marcellus, first as pretor, and afterwards as con- sul, had contributed very much to this revolution. He harassed Hannibal's army on every occasion, (b. c. 211 — 212,) seized upon his quarters, forced him to raise sieges, and even defeated him in several engagements ; so that he was called the Sword of Rome, as Fabius had before been termed its Buckler, But what most affected Hannibal was, to see Capua be- sieged by the Romans. In order, therefore, to sustain his reputation among his allies by a vigorous support of those who held the chief rank as such, he hastened to the relief of that city, brought forward his forces, attacked the Romans, and fought several battles to oblige them to raise the siege. At length, seeing all his measures defeated, he marched hasti- ly toward Rome, (b. c. 211,) in order to make a powerful diversion. Hannibal was not without hope of being able, in the first consternation, to storm some part of Rome, and thus drawing the Roman generals with all their forces from the siege of Capua to the relief of their capital ; at least he flattered him- self, that if, for the sake of continuing the siege, they should divide their forces, their weakness might then offer an occa- sion, either to the Capuans or himself, of engaging or defeat- ing them. Rome was surprised at this movement, but not confounded. A proposal being made by one of the senators, to recall all the armies to succour Rome, Fabius declared, that it would be shameful in them to be terrified, and forced to change their measures upon every movement of Hannibal. They there- fore only called a portion of the army and one of the gene- rals, Gl. Fulvius, the pro-consul, from the siege. Hannibal, after making some devastations, drew up his army in order of battle before the city, and the consul did the same. Both sides were preparing for the conflict, when a violent storm obliged them to separate. They were no sooner returned to their respective camps than the face of the heavens grew serene, as though pleased with having pre- vented the strife. But the circumstances which most confounded Hannibal were, that whilst he lay encamped at the gates of Rome, the Romans had sent out recruits for the army in Spain at an- other gate ; and that the ground whereon his camp was pitched had been sold, notwithstanding that circumstance, for its full value. So barefaced a contempt stung Hannibal to the quick j 292 THE SECOND PUNIC WAH. he therefore, by way of retaliation, put up to auction the shops of the goldsmiths round the Forum. After this bravado, he retired, and in his march plundered the rich temple of the goddess Ferona, who, according to heathen mythology, pre- sided over groves. Capua, thus left to itself, held out but very little longer. After such of its senators as had taken the chief share in its revolt, and who could not expect mercy from the Romans, had put themselves to a tragical death by drinking poison, the city surrendered at discretion. The success of this siege fully restored to the Romans their superiority over the Car- thaginians, and it showed at the same time how formidable the power of the Romans was when they undertook to punish their perfidious allies ; and the feeble protection which Han- nibal could afford his friends in the hour of danger. THE AFFAIRS IN SPAIN. The aspect of affairs was very much changed in Spain, B. c. 212. The Carthaginians had three armies in that coun- try ; one commanded by Asdrubal, the son of Gisgo ; the second by Asdrubal, son of Hamilcar ; and a third under Mago, who had joined the first Asdrubal. The two Scipios, Cneus and Publius, were for dividing their forces, and at- tacking the enemy separately, which was the cause of their ruin. They agreed that Cneus, with a small number of Ro- mans, and 30,000 Cehiberians, (a people of ancient Spain, supposed to have been descended from Celtar, who, in remote times, emigrated from Gaul, and afterwards became mixed with the native Iberians,) should march against Asdrubal, the son of Hamilcar ; whilst Publius, with the remainder of the forces, composed of Romans and the Italian allies, should ad- vance against the other two generals. Publius was vanquished first. To the two leaders he had to oppose, Masinissa, elate with the victories he had lately gained over Syphax, joined himself, and was soon to be fol- lowed by Indibilis, a powerful Spanish prince. The armies came to an engagement, and the Romans, so long as they had their general at their head, made a courageous resistance ; but he being slain, those who had escaped the carnage se- cured themselves by flight. The three victorious armies marched immediately in quest of Cneus, in order to put an end to the war by his defeat. Cneus was already more than half vanquished by the d^ser- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 293 lion of his allies, who all forsook him, and left to the Roman generals this important instruction — never to let their own forces be exceeded in numbers by those of foreigners. Cneus guessed that his brother was slain, and his army defeated, upon seeing such great bodies of the enemy arrive. He sur- vived him but a short time, being killed in the engagement. These two great men were equally lamented by their citizens and allies ; and Spain deeply felt their loss, because of the justice and moderation of their conduct. These extensive countries seemed now inevitably lost ; but the valour of L. Marcius, a private officer of the equestrian order, preserved them to the Romans. Soon after, the younger Scipio was sent thither, who severely revenged the death of his father and uncle, and restored the affairs of Rome in Spain to a flourishing condition. ^ THE AFFAIRS IN ITALY RESUMED. One unforeseen defeat, which occurred b. c. 207, ruined all the measures and blasted all the hopes of Hannibal with regard to Italy. The consuls of this year, which was the eleventh of the second Punic war, were C. Claudius Nero and M. Livius. The latter had for his province the Cisalpine Gaul, where he was to oppose Asdrubal, who it was reported was preparing to pass the Alps. The former commanded in the country of the Brutians and in Lucania, that is, in the op- posite extremity of Italy, and was there to oppose Hannibal. The passage of the Alps gave Asdrubal but little trouble, because Hannibal had made his path clear, and all the na- tions were disposed to receive him. Some time after this, he despatched couriers to Hannibal, but they were intercepted. Nero found by these letters that Asdrubal was hastening to join his brother in Umbria. In a conjuncture of so impor- tant a nature as this, when the safety of Rome was at stake, he thought himself at liberty to dispense with the established rules of his duty ; namely, that no general should leave his own province to go into that of another. It was his opinion, that a bold and unexpected blow ought to be struck, a blow which would strike terror into the enemy. Drawing out, therefore, from his own forces 7000 men who were the flower of his troops, he marched to join his col- league, in order that they might charge Asdrubal unexpect- edly with their united forces. Nero set out without giving his soldiers notice of his de- 25* <294 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. sign. When he had advanced so far that it might be com- municated without danger, he told them that he was leading them to certain victory ; that in war, all things depended upon reputation ; that the bare rumour of their arrival would disconcert all the measures of the Carthaginians ; and that the whole honour of this battle would fall to their lot. They marched with extraordinary diligence, and joined the other consul in the night. The army of Porcius, the pretor, was encamped near that of the consul, and in the morning a council of war was held. Livius was of opinion that it would be better to allow the troops some days to re- fresh themselves ; but Nero besought him not to ruin by de- lay an enterprise to which despatch only could give success, and to take advantage of the error of the enemy, as well ab- sent as present. This advice was complied with, and accord- ingly the signal for battle was given. Asdrubal, advancing to his foremost ranks, discovered by several circumstances that fresh troops were arrived, and he did not doubt but they belonged to the other consul. This made him conjecture that his brother had sustained a con- siderable loss, and to fear that he was come too late to his as- sistance. Accordingly, he sounded a retreat, and his army began to march in great disorder. Night overtaking him, and his guides deserting him, he was uncertain which way to go. He marched at random along the banks of the river Metaurus, now called Metaro, and was preparing to cross it, when the three armies of the Romans overtook him. In this extremity, he saw it would be impossible for him to avoid an engagement, and he therefore did every thing which could be expected from the presence of mind and the valour of a great captain. The battle lasted a long time, and was obsti- nately disputed by both parties. Asdrubal, especially, sig- nalized himself in this engagement, and added reputation to that which he had already gained. He led on his soldiers, trembling and dispirited, against a superior enemy, animating them by his word, supporting them by his examples, and with entreaties and menaces endeavouring to bring back those who fled, till at last, seeing that victory declared for the Romans, and being unable to survive the loss of so many thousand men who had quitted their country to follow his fortune, he rushed into the midst of a Roman cohort, and was slain. Polybius states, that 10,000 Carthaginians and 2000 Romans fell in this conflict. Nero set out upon his march on the very night which fol- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 295 lowed the eng-agement. Through every place where he passed in his return, shouts of joy and loud acclamations wel- comed him, instead of those fears which his coming had oc- casioned. He arrived in the camp the sixth day. The head of Asdrubal, thrown into the camp of the Carthaginians, in- formed Hannibal of his brother's unhappy fate, and he thus perceived the falling condition of Carthage. Horace makes him speak thus, in the beautiful ode where this defeat is de- scribed : — " To lofty Carthage I no more shall send Vaunts of my deeds, and heralds of my fame j My boundless hopes almost are at an end, With all the flowing fortune of our name ; These boundless hopes, that flowing fortune, all Are dashed and buried in my brother's fall." — P. FrandS, These are fit words to put into the mouth of blighted am- bition ; they aptly show the extent of Hannibal's desires, and the depth of his grief at his frustrated designs. And when we consider that they are a faithful paraphrase of the very words which he did utter, they appear more strikingly pa- thetic, and better illustrate the character of Hannibal. Reader, observe what that character is. There is no la- menting for his brother's loss, but as it affected his own. honour. His own hopes and fortune are the only things which affected him in the catastrophe : thus betraying a heart void of humanity, and a soul ambitious alone of its own glory. He could adopt the words which Anarch uttered to Satan, — go and speed ; Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain ;" but, when his armies failed, or he himself was defeated in his designs, like that fiend who, in compassing the ruin of man, found his own, " Struck with dread and angmsh," he speaks of " Joyless triumphs of his hoped success, Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,"— (MiWon.) to his followers j mourning over the loss of glory, as for an only child. THE SECOND PUNIC WAB. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR CONCLUDED. The fate of arms was not more propitious to the Carthagi- nians in Spain. The prudent vigour of young Scipio had restored the Roman affairs in that country to their former prosperous condition, as the courageous slowness of Fabius had before done in Italy. The three Carthaginian generals in Spain, Asdrubal, son of Gisgo, Hanno, and Mago, having been defeated with their numerous armies by the Romans in several engagements, Scipio at last possessed himself of the country, and subjected it to the Roman power. About this time, Masinissa, a very powerful African prince, went over co the Romans, and Syphax, on the contrary, to the Carthagi- nians. Scipio, on his return to Rome, was declared consul, being then thirty years of age. He had P. Licinus Crassus for his colleague. Sicily was allotted to Scipio, with permission for him to cross into Africa, if he found it convenient. He set out with all imaginable expedition for his province ; whilst his colleague was to command in the country whither Han- nibal had retired. The taking of New Carthage, where Scipio had displayed all the prudence, courage, and capacity, which could have been expected from sage experience, and the conquest of all Spain, were more than sufficient to establish his fame ; but he considered these only as so many steps by which he was to climb to a nobler enterprise, namely, the conquest of Africa. Scipio repaired to Africa, b. c. 204, by which step he made it the seat of war. The devastation of the country, the siege of Utica, one of the strongest cities of Africa, the defeat of the armies under Syphax and Asdrubal, and afterwards the taking Syphax himself prisoner, who was one of the most powerful supporters the Carthaginians had left, — all these things combined, made them at last turn their thoughts to peace. For this purpose, they deputed thirty of their princi- pal senators, who were selected from that powerful body at Carthage, called the council of the Hundred. Being introduced into the Roman general's tent, they all threw themselves prostrate upon the earth, spoke to him in terms of submission, accused Hannibal as the author of all their calamities, and promised, in the name of the senate, im- plicit obedience to the Romans. Scipio replied, that though he was come into Africa for conquest, he would grant them peace upon these conditions : That they should deliver up all THE SECOND PtJNlC WAR. SOT tlie prisoners and deserters to the Romans ; that they should recall their armies out of Italy and Gaul ; should never set foot again in Spain ; should retire out of the islands between Italy and Africa ; should deliver up all their ships, twenty excepted ; should give to the Romans 500,000 bushels of wheat, 300,000 of barley, and pay 15,000 talents ; and that, in the event of their accepting these conditions, they then might send ambassadors to the senate. The Carthaginians feigned compliance, but it was only to gain time till Hanni- bal should return. A truce was then granted to the Cartha- ginians, who immediately sent deputies to Rome, and at the same time, an express to Hannibal to order his return into Africa, b. c. 203. Hannibal was then in the extremity of Italy. Here he re- ceived the orders from Carthage, which he could not listen to without groans, and shedding tears ; he w^s exasperated al- most to madness to see himself thus forced to quit his prey. Never did a banished man show such regret at leaving his native country, as Hannibal did in departing from that of an enemy. He often turned his eyes towards Italy, accusing gods and men of his misfortunes, and calling down impreca- tions, says Livy, upon himself, for not having marched his soldiers directly to Rome, after the battle of Cannae, whilst yet the swords of his soldiers were still reeking with the blood of its citizens. At Rome, the senate, dissatisfied with the excuses made by the Carthaginian deputies, in justification of their republic, and the ridiculous offer which they made in its name of ad- hering to the treaty of Lutatius, thought proper to refer the decision of the whole to Scipio, who, being on the spot, could best judge what conditions the welfare of the state required. About the same time, Octavius, the pretor, sailing from Sicily into Africa with 200 vessels of burden, was overtaken near Carthage by a furious storm, which dispersed all his fleet. The citizens could not endure the thought of so rich a prey escaping their hand, and therefore they demanded that the Carthaginian fleet might sail out and seize it. The senate, after a faint resistance, complied ; and Asdrubal sail- ing out of harbour, seized the greatest part of the Roman ships, and brought them to Carthage, although the truce was still subsisting. Scipio sent deputies to Carthage to complain of this out- rage ; but they were disregaded. The arrival of Hannibal had revived their courage, and again inspired them with hope. 298 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. The deputies were even in great danger of being ill-freated by the populace. They therefore demanded a convoy, which was granted them ; but the magistrates, who were determined on the renewal of the war, gave private orders to Asdrubal, who was with the fleet near Utica, to attack the Roman galley when it should arrive in the river Bragada, near the Homan camp, where the convoy was to leave them, Asd rubal obeyed the order, and sent out two galleys against the ambassadors ; but he did not succeed in his treacherous de- signs. This was a fresh subject for war between the two states. They were more exasperated against each other than ever, the Romans from a desire of avenging themselves for such perfidy, the Carthaginians from a persuasion that they could not now expect a peace. We may here mention, that this trait in the character of the Carthaginians was one of the most usual and evil results of ancient paganism. There was no bond in its varied sys terns to bind men together in honesty of purpose. Some of those systems, indeed, taught that treachery was a necessary evil, in order to obtain a certain good. Hence, actions, which man, taught only by the taper light of reason, would shudder to commit, were committed without compunction, and frequently with a belief that the deed was a virtue. The same bitter fruits result from modern paganism. But how differently are we taught by the Christian system of moral duties. In the Bible, " precept upon precept," " line upon line," teaches us to speak the truth, to avoid deceit, and to act at all times towards our fellow-man under this impression : " Thou God seest me ;" and it denounces woes upon those who, blessed with this light, act in opposition to it. How ought we, then, to prize the Bible, and to esteem it as the source of true knowledge, which points our way to heaven as with a sunbeam t At the same time, Laelius and Fulvius, who carried the full powers with which the senate and people of Rome had invested Scipio, arrived in the camp, accompanied by the deputies from Carthage. As the Carthaginians had not only infringed the truce, but violated the law of nations in the per- sons of the ambassadors, it might have been expectexi that their deputies would have been seized by way of reprisal : Scipio, however, attentive to the Roman honour, dismissed them without injury. This act in moderation, at such a junc- ture, shamed and terrified the Carthaginians, and made even THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. S99 Hapnibal himself entertain admiration of a general who, to the dishonourable practices of his enemies, opposed only a rectitude and greatness of soul that was more worthy of ad- miration than all his military virtues. Hannibal, in the mean time, importuned by his fellow-citi- zens, advanced into the country, and arrived at Zama, which is five days' march from Carthage, he there pitched his camp. From thence he sent out spies to observe the position of the Romans. Scipio having seized these, instead of punishing them, commanded them to be led about the Roman camp, in order that they might make close observation, and then they were sent back to Hannibal. The latter knew whence so bold an assurance flowed. After the many reverses he had met with, he no longer expected that fortune would again, smile upon him ; whilst every one, therefore, was exciting him to battle, the destroyer of nations himself meditated only peace. But it was his own glory still that he sought. He flattered himself that the conditions of it would be more honourable, as he was at the head of an army, and as the fate of arms might still appear uncertain. Guided by these motives, Hannibal sent to desire an interview with Scipio, which was complied with, and the time and place fixed. When these two generals met, they continued for some time in deep silence, as though astonished, and struck with a mutual admiration of each other. At length Hannibal spoke, and after having praised Scipio in the most artful and delicate manner, he gave a hvely description of the ravages of war, and the calamities in which it had involved both the victors and the vanquished. He conjured him not to be dazzled by the splendour of his victories. He represented to him, that though he might hitherto have been successful, he ought to be aware of the inconstancy of fortune ; that he hiniself was a proof of what he advanced ; that Scipio was at time what Hannibal had been at Thrasymenus and Cannse ; that he ought to make a better use of opportunity than he himself had done, by consenting to a peace, of which it was in his power to propose the conditions. Hannibal concluded with declar- ing, that the Carthaginians would willingly resign Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and all the islands between Africa and Italy, to the Romans ; that they must be forced, since such was the will of the gods, to confine themselves to Africa, whilst they should see the Romans extending their conquests to the most remote regions, and obliging all nations to pay obedience to their laws. 300 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, Scipio replied in a few words, but not with less dignity. He reproached the Carthaginians for their perfidy, in plun- dering the Roman galleys before the truce was expired. He imputed to them alone, and to their injustice, all the calami- ties with which the two wars had been attended. After thanking Hannibal for the admonition he had given him^ with regard to the uncertainty of human events, he concluded with desiring him to prepare for battle, unless he chose rather to accept of the conditions proposed, to which, he observed, some others would be added, in order to punish the Carthagi- nians for their violation of the truce. Hannibal could not prevail upon himself to accept these conditions, and the generals left one another with the resolu- tion of deciding the fate of Carthage by a general battle. Each commander exhorted his troops to fight valiantly, Hannibal dwelt upon the victories he had gained over the Romans, the generals he had slain, the armies he had annihi- lated. Scipio represented to his soldiers the conquests of toth the Spains, his successes in Africa, and the confession their enemies themselves had made, by the fact of coming to sue for peace. All this he spoke with the tone and air of a conqueror. Never were motives more powerful to prompt troops to behave gallantly. This day was to complete the glory of the one or the other of the generals, and to decide whether Rome or Carthage was to prescribe laws to all other nations. It would be needless to dwell upon the circumstances of the battle. The reader will naturally conclude that each strove ardently for the victory ; and that two such experienced generals did not forget any circumstance which would contri- bute to secure it to themselves. But it was vain on the part of Hannibal ; thousands of the Carthaginians Avere slain, and a great number of prisoners taken. Hannibal escaped in the tumult, and entering Carthage, owned that he was conquered, and declared that the citizens had no other choice left than to accept peace upon Scipio's conditions. Scipio bestowed high eulogiums on Hannibal, with regard to his ability in taking advantages, his manner of drawing out his army and giving out his orders; and he affirmed that Hannibal had this day surpassed himself in the art of war. With regard to himself, he well knew how to make a proper advantage of the victory, and the consternation which pre- vailed among the Carthaginians. He commanded one of his THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 801 lieutenants to march his land army to Carthage, whilst he prepared to conduct the fleet thither. He was not far from the city, when he met a vessel covered with streamers and olive branches, bringing ten of the most considerable persons of the state as ambassadors, to implore his clemency. These he dismissed, bidding them to come to him at Tunis, where he should halt. The duputies, thirty in number, came to him at the place appointed, and sued for peace in the most submissive terms. Scipio then called a council, the majority of which were for razing Carthage, and treating the inhabitants with the utmost severity. But the consideration of the time which it must necessarily take to capture a city so strongly fortified, and fearing a successor might be appointed whilst he should be employed in the siege, made Scipio incline to mercy, and he granted their petition. The conditions of the peace dictated by Scipio to the Car- thaginians were — That the Carthaginians should continue free, and preserve their laws, their territories, and the cities they possessed in Africa before the war — that they should de- liver up to the Romans all deserters, slaves and prisoners be- longing to them ; all their ships, except ten triremes ; all the elephants which they then had, and that they should not train up any more for war — that they should not make war out of Africa, nor even in that country, without fi^rst obtaining leave of the Romans — should restore to Masinissa every thing of which they had dispossessed either him or his ancestors — should furnish money and corn to the Roman auxiliaries, till their ambassadors should be returned from Rome — should pay to the Romans 10,000 Euboic talents of silver in fifty annual payments (that is, about 1,750,000/.) — and give 100 hostages, who should be nominated by Scipio. And in order that they might have time to send to Rome, he agreed to grant them a truce, upon condition that they should restore the ships taken during the former war, without which they were not to expect either a truce or a peace. When the deputies were returned to Carthage, they laid before the senate the conditions dictated by Scipio. But they appeared so intolerable to Gisgo, that, in a speech, he en- deavoured to dissuade the citizens from accepting a peace upon such humiliating terms. Hannibal, provoked at the calmness with which such an orator was heard, took Gisgo by the arm, and dragged him from his seat. A behaviour so outrageous, and so remote from the manners of a free city VOL. u. 26 302 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. like Carthage, raised a universal murmur. Haijnibal him- self was vexed when he reflected upon what he had done, and immediately made an apology. " As I left," says he, " your city at nine years of age, and did not return to it till after thirty-six years' absence, I had full leisure to leave the arts of war, and flatter myself that I have made some improve- ment in them. As for your laws and customs, it is no wonder I am ignorant of them, and I therefore desire you to instruct me in them." He then expatiated on the indispensable necessity of peace ; and he added, that they ought to thank the gods for having prompted the Romans to grant them a peace even upon these conditions. After he, further, had pointed out to them the necessity of a unity of opinion on this subject, the whole city came over to his views ; peace was ac- cepted ; satisfaction made to Scipio with regard to the ships reclaimed by him ; a truce obtained for three months ; and ambassadors were sent to Rome. When these ambassadors arrived at Rome, they were im- mediately admitted to an audience. Asdrubal, surnamed Hoedus, who was still an irreconcilable enemy to Hannibal and his faction, spoke first ; and after having excused, to the best of his power, the people of Carthage, by imputing the rupture to the ambition of some particular persons, he added, that, had the Carthaginians listened to his counsels and those of Hanno, they would have been able to grant to the Romans the peace which they now dictated to the Carthaginians. " But," continued he, " wisdom and prosperity are very rarely found together. The Romans are invincible, because they never suffer themselves to be blinded by good fortune. And it would be surprising should they act otherwise. Success dazzles those only to whom it is new and unusual ; whereas the Romans are so much accustomed to conquer, that they are almost insensible to the charms of victory; and it may be said, to their glory, that they have extended their empire, in some measure, more by the humanity they have shown to the conquered, than by the conquest itself." The other ambassa- dors spoke in a more plaintive tone, and represented the calamitous state to which Carthage was going to be reduced, and the grandeur and power from which it had fallen. The senate and people being equally inclined to peace, sent full power to Scipio to conclude it, left the conditions to that general, and permitted him to return to Rome. The ambassadors desired leave to enter the city, to redeem some of their prisoners, and they found about 200 whom they de- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 303 sired to ransom. These the senate sent to Scipio, with orders that they should be restored without any pecuniary considera- tion, should a peace be concluded. On the return of their ambassadors, the Carthaginians con- cluded a peace with Scipio ; after which, they delivered up to him more than 500 ships, which he burned in the sight of Carthage. The allies of the Latin name, and the Roman citizens who were delivered up to him as deserters, were put to death, after the manner of the ancients. When the time for the first payment of the tribute arrived, as the funds of the government were exhausted, the difficulty of levying the sum required was great. This threw the senate into deep affliction, and many could not refrain tears. Hannibal, on this occasion, is said to have laughed, and when he was reproached by Asdrubal Hoedus, for thus insulting his country, in the affliction which he had brought upon it : " Were it possible," he replied, " for my heart to be seen, and that as clearly as my countenance, you would then find, that this laughter, which offends so much, flows not from an in- temperate joy, but from a mind almost distracted with the public calamities. But is this laughter more unseasonable than your unbecoming tears ? Then, then ought you to have wept, when your arms were ingloriously taken from you, your ships burned, and you were forbidden to engage in foreign wars. This was the mortal blow which laid us prostrate. We are sensible of the public calamity, so far only as we have a per- sonal concern in it ; and the loss of our money gives us the most pungent sorrow. Hence it was, that when our city was made the spoil of the victor; when it was left disarmed and defenceless amidst so many powerful nations of Africa, who had at that time taken the field, not a groan, not a sigh, was heard. But now, when you are called on to contribute indivi- dually to the tax imposed upon the state, you bewail and lament as if all were lost. Alas ! I only wish, that the sub- ject of this day's grief may not soon appear to you the least of all your misfortunes." This is a remarkable instance of the power of covetousness. Here are men of reverend years, and renowned for their gravity and wisdom, sitting down in sorrow and weeping like infants for the loss of their wealth. They had suffered greater losses before ; their sons had been demanded of them their arms taken away, and their fleet destroyed, all of which calamities they bore with resignation. But now when their money is required at their hands, it calls forth the deepest 304 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. vexation of spirit. Truly has the apostle observed, that, " The love of money is the root of all evil," 1 Tim. vi. 10. When it has gained the ascendancy over the minds of men, it leads to crime and folly ; and it brings down ruin upon na- tions, families, and individuals. This we J earn not only from the pages of profane, but of sacred history, and indeed from our own personal observation. The pages of Holy Writ ex- hibit this vice to our view in its true light. They describe it, as having thrown the world generally into a state of infidel distrust of Divine Providence, and of dissatisfaction with the Divine allotments ; to the truth of which, the history of ancient heathen nations bears its testimony ; for they neither prayed to their gods nor laboured themselves for any other than temporal blessings, as their prayers and hymns abun- dantly show. Those hallowed pages, again, speak of cove- tousness, as actuating and debasing the character of an entire people, as the Israelites, Tyrians, and Chaldeans. They de- nounce it as leading to deceit, bribery, and injustice ; and to some of the foulest acts and most fearful results that have stained the history of man public and private life. They speak of it as subversive of the threefold law of Christian duty, personal, social, and Divine ; as being intimately con- nected with all vices ; as destroying the bodies and souls of individuals, as Ananias, Sapphira, and Demas. Finally, they identify covetousness with idolatry, and speak of it as one of the characteristics of the final apostacy of man from God. Its effects are seen daily in our own social circles. There we learn somewhat of its soul-withering influence ; for the cry of the world at large is, " Who will show us any good ?" to the utter neglect of the " one thing needful ;" thus showing, that the heart of man by nature is prone in modern as in ancient times to hew unto itself idols of gold and silver. Great need is there, therefore, for our Lord's caution : " Take heed, and beware of covetousness," Luke xii. 15. We conclude this section of our history. Scipio, after all his affairs were settled, embarked for Rome. He arrived there safely, (b. c. 201,) and the most magnificent triumph that Rome had ever seen was decreed him : and the surname of Africanus was bestowed upon him ; an honour till then unknown, no person before having assumed the name of a vanquished nation. Thus ended the second Punic war : a war in which all the bad passions of human nature are made manifest in all its stages. To the Christian reader, it affords a melancholy pic- THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. 805 ture of the human heart. It causes him to reflect on the once happy state of man, when there were no jarring elements in his nature ; no desire of strife, no ambition, no love of glory, no revenge ; when he held converse with angels and with God, and was at rest. But while he sighs over the fallen na- ture of man, and his descent from so happy a state, he may look forward to his recovery. The sure word of prophecy unfolds an era when swords shall be turned into plough- shares, and spears into pruning hooks; when "nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more," Isa. ii. 4 ; Mic. iv. 3. In that day, to adopt the figurative language of Scripture, which sets forth in glowing terms this changed nature of man, " The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down to- gether : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all" God's " holy moun- tain," Isa. xi. 6 — 9. This glorious era will be the result of the universal spread of the gospel of peace. Mankind, then, will own the gentle sway of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, the Man of sorrows who once trod this earth as a stranger acquainted with grief, and who ended his life by an ignominious death upon the cross, shall one day " see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied," — shall one day reign victorious in and over the hearts of all men. The blood that he shed was for the " heal- ing of the nationsf" He saw them from on high striving with their Maker and with each other in the deadly conflict, and, pitying them, left his Father's throne to reconcile them unto God and to themselves ; for he who loveth God, loveth his brother also, and a Christian looks upon all mankind as his brethren. This will be one of the most glorious results of the cross and passion of the Redeemer. Man thereby will be restored to peace with God and man — to that happy state which he enjoyed when first he came from the hands of his Creator. Well, therefore, may we take up the language of the poet, and say: " Come, then, and added to Thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy ! It was thine 26* 306 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth ; And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with thy blood." — Cowper. THE INTERVAX, BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD PXmiC WARS. This interval, including about fifty years, that is, from b. c. 201, to B. c. 149, is very little remarkable as to the events which relate to Carthage. They may be reduced to two sub- jects ; the one relating to the person of Hannibal, and the other to some particular differences between the Carthagi- nians and Masinissa. king of the Numidians. Concerning the former, whose history includes the space of twenty-five years, and of whom we shall speak in this di- vision, the following information has been handed down to us. After the conclusion of the peace, Hannibal at first was great- ly respected in Carthage, and he filled the first employments of the state with honour and applause. He headed, also, the Carthaginian forces in some wars against the Africans ; but the Romans, to whom his very name gave uneasiness, made complaints on that account, and he was recalled to Car- thage. On his return, he was appointed pretor, which seems to have been a very honourable dignity, and to have con- ferred great authority. Carthage, therefore, we shall see, with regard to him, w'as a new theatre on which he displayed qualities of a different nature to those he unfolded in the field of battle, and which Avill finish his portraiture, and in some measure redeem his character. Eagerly desirous of restoring the affairs of his afflicted country to their former prosperous condition, he was per- suaded that the two most powerful methods to make a state flourish, were, an exact and equal distribution of justice to its subjects in general, and scrupulous fidelity in the manage- ment of the public finances. The former, by observing an equality among the citizens, and making them enjoy such an undisturbed liberty, under the protection of the laws, as fully secures their honour, their lives, and properties, unites the in- dividuals of the commonwealth more closely together, and at- taches them more firmly to the state, to which they owe the preservation of all that is most dear and valuable to them. The latter, by a faithful administration of the public revenues, supplies punctually the several wants and necessities of the state ; keeps in reserve a never failing resource for sudden THE SECOND AND THIRD PUNIC WARS. 307 emergencies ; and prevents the people from being burdened by new taxes, which are rendered necessary by extrava- gant profusion, and which produce disaffection to the govern- ment. Hannibal saw, with great concern, the irregularities which had crept equally into the administration of justice, and the management of the finances. Upon his being nominated pretor, he had the courage to attempt the reformation of this double abuse, without dreading either the animosity of the old faction that opposed him, or the new enmity which his zeal for the republic must necessarily draw upon him. The judges exercised the most flagrant extortion with im- punity. They were so many petty tyrants, who disposed in an arbitrary manner of the lives and fortunes of the citizens, without the least possibility of a stop being put to their injus- tice, because they held their commissions for life, and mutual- ly supported one another. Hannibal, as pretor, summoned before his tribunal an officer belonging to the bench of judges who openly abused his power. This officer, who was of the opposite faction to Hannibal, and had assumed all the haugh- tiness of the judges, among whom he was to be admitted at the expiration of his present office, insolently refused to obey the summons. Hannibal was not of a disposition to suffer an affront of this nature to pass by unnoticed ; he caused him to be seized by a lictor, and brought before an assembly of the people, when he impeached the whole bench of judges, whose pride was not to be restrained either by fear of the laws, or a reverence for the magistrates. Hannibal, perceiving that he was heard with pleasure, proposed a law, by which it was en- acted, that new judges should be chosen annually ; with a clause that none should continue in office beyond that term. This law, at the same time that it obtained for him the friend- ship of the people at large, drew upon him the hatred of the greater part of the influential citizens. Hannibal attempted another reformation, which created him new enemies, but gained him great honour. The public re- venues were either squandered by the negligence of those who had the management of them, or were plundered by the chief men of the city and the magistrates ; so that money be- ing wanting to pay the annual tribute due to the Romans, the Carthaginians were going to levy it upon the people at large. Hannibal, entering into a long detail of the public revenues, ordered an exact estimate to be laid before him ; inquired in what manner they had been applied ; the employments, and 808 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN ordinary expenses of the state: and having discovered by this inquiry, that the public funds had been in a great measure embezzled by the fraud of the officers who had the management of them, he declared that, without laying any new taxes upon the people, the republic should hereafter be enabled to pay the tribute to the Romans. The farmers of the revenues, whose rapine he had detected, having accus- tomed themselves hitherto to fatten upon the spoils of their country, declaimed vehemently against these regulations, as if their own property had been taken from them, and not that belonging to the state. This double reformation of abuses raised great clamours against Hannibal, and was the cause of his ruin. His ene- mies were incessantly writing to the chief men, or their friends, at Rome, to inform them that he was carrying on a secret in- tercourse with Antiochus, king of Syria ; that he frequently received couriers from him ; and that this prince had privately despatched agents to Hannibal, to concert measures for pro- ceeding with the war he was meditating ; that as some ani- mals are so fierce that they cannot be tamed, in like manner Hannibal was of so turbulent and implacable a spirit, that he could ill brook ease, and sooner or later would breathe war again. These reports were listened to at Rome ; and as the transactions of the preceding war had been begun and carried on almost solely by Hannibal, they appeared the more probable. Scipio, however, strenuously opposed the measures which the senate meditated taking against Hannibal, on re- ceiving this intelligence. He represented that it was deroga- tory to the dignity of the Roman people, to countenance the hatred and accusations of Hannibal's enemies ; to support, with their authority, their unjust passions ; and obstinately to persecute him even in the very heart of his country ; as though the Romans had not humbled him sufficiently, in driving him out of the field, and forcing him to lay down his arms. But, notwithstanding these prudent remonstrances, the sen- ate appointed three commissioners to go and make their com- plaints to Carthage, and to demand that Hannibal should be delivered up to them. On their arrival in that city, though other motives were pretended as the cause of their mission, Hannibal was sensible that he himself was required. Ac- cordingly, in the evening, he quitted Carthage, and retreated on board a ship which he had secretly provided for his own THE SECOND AND THIRD PUNIC WARS. 309 escape ; on which occasion, contrary to his usual wont, he bewailed the fate of his country more than his own. This was the eighth year after the conclusion of the peace, or B. c. 193. The first place Hannibal landed at was Tyre, where he was received with great honours. After staying some days here, he set out for Antioch, the capital of Syria, which the king had lately left ; and from thence he waited upon him at Ephesus, a city of Asia Minor, and one of the twelve of the Ionian confederation. The arrival of so re- nowned a general gave great pleasure to the king, and con- tributed to settle him in his resolution to engage in war against Rome. The Carthaginians, justly fearing that Hannibal's escape would draw upon them the arms of the Romans, informed them that he had fled to Antiochus. They also, according to Cornehus Nepos, sent two ships to pursue him, sold his goods, destroyed his house, and, by a public decree, declared him an exile. The Romans were much disturbed at the circumstance, and had Antiochus made a prompt use of their alarm, he might have turned it to his own advantage. The first advice that Hannibal gave that monarch, and which he frequently repeated afterwards, was to make Italy the seat of war. For this purpose, he required 100 ships, and 11,000 or 12,000 land forces, and he offered to take upon himself the command of the fleet, to cross into Africa, in order to engage the Car- thaginians in the war, and afterwards to make a descent upon Italy ; during which time the king himself should remain in Greece with his army, holding himself constantly in readiness to cross over into Italy, whenever it should be thought conve- nient. This was the only thing proper to be done, and the king at first approved of the plan. Hannibal, in order to engage his friends at Carthage in his views, despatched thither a trusty person, with ample in- structions how to proceed. This man w^as scarcely arrived in the city, but his business was suspected. He was for some time watched, and at last orders were issued for his being seized. He, however, prevented the vigilance of his ene- mies, and escaped in the night ; after having fixed in several public places papers which unfolded the object of his visit. The senate immediately sent advice of this to Rome. Villius, one of the deputies who had been sent into Asia, to inquire into the state of affairs there, and, if possible, to discover the real designs of Antiochus, found Hannibal in 310 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN Ephesus. He had many conferences with him, paid him several visits, and affected esteem for him on all occasions, But his chief aim by this designing behaviour was, to cause him to be suspected, and to lessen his credit with the king, in which artifice he succeeded. Hannibal, sensible^of the coldness with w^hich Antiochus received him, since his conferences with Villius, took no no- tice of it for some time ; but at last he deemed it advisable to come to an explanation with him, and to open his mind freely to him. " The hatred," says he, " w^hich I bear to the Ro- mans, is known to the whole world. I bound myself to it by an oath, from my most tender infancy. It is this hatred that made me draw the sword against Rome during thirty-six years. It is this, which, even in times of peace, has caused me to be driven from my native country, and forced me to seek an asylum in your dominions. For ever guided and fixed by the same passion, should my hopes be frustrated here, I will fly to every part of the globe, and rouse up all nations against the Romans. I hate them, and will hate them eternally; and know that they bear me no less animosity. So long as you continue in the resolution to take up arms against them, you may rank Hannibal in the number of your best friends. But if other counsels incline you to peace, I declare to you, once for all, address yourself to others for ad- vice, and not to me." This speech, so frank and sincere in the avowal of his sinful hatred towards the Romans, removed all the king's suspicions, and he was resolved to give Hanni- bal the command of part of his fleet. But the flattery of his courtiers soon after changed his mind on this subject. He was told that it was imprudent in him to put so much confi- dence in Hannibal, whose fortune or genius might suggest to him, in one day, a thousand projects ; that this very fame which Hannibal had acquired in war, and which he consi- dered as his peculiar inheritance, was too great for a man who fought only under the ensigns of another ; that none but the king ought to be the general and conductor of the war ; and that it was incumbent on him to draw upon himself alone the eyes and attention of all men ; whereas, should Hannibal be employed, he would have all the glory of the successes ascribed to him. Livy, in commenting upon this circumstance, makes this remark : " No minds," says he, " are more susceptible of envy than those whose merit is beneath their birth and dignity ; such persons always abhorring virtue and worth in others THE SECOND AND THIRD PUNIC WARS. 311 for this reason alone, because they are strange and foreign to themselves." This remark was fully verified on this occa- sion. A low and sordid jealousy, which is the defect and characteristic of little minds, extinguished every generous sentiment in the breast of Antiochus, and Hannibal was now slighted. In a council held some time after, to which Hannibal, for form's sake, was admitted, he, when it came to his turn to speak, endeavoured chiefly to prove that Philip of Macedon ought, on any terms, to be engaged to form an alliance with Antiochus. "With regard," said he, "to the operations of the war, I adhere immovably to my first opinion ; and had my counsels been hstened to before, Tuscany and Liguria would now be all in a flame ; and Hannibal— a name"^ that strikes terror into the Romans— in Italy. Though I should not be very well skilled as to other matters, yet the good and ill success I have met with, must necessarily have taught me sufficiently how to carry on a war against the Romans. I have nothing now in my power, but to give you my counsel, and offer you my service. May the gods give success to all your undertakings!" Hannibal's speech was received with applause, but not one of his counsels was acted upon. Antiochus, deceived by his flatterers, remained at Ephesus after the Romans had driven him out of Greece; not once imagining that they would ever invade his dominions. Han- nibal, who was now restored to favour, was constantly assur- ing him that the war would soon be removed into Asia ; that he would soon see the enemy at his gates ; and that he must resolve either to abdicate his throne, or oppose vigorously a people who grasped at the empire of the world. The king was prompted by this representation to make some weak efforts; but, as his conduct was unsteady, after sustaining losses, he was forced to terminate the war by an ignominious peace. One of the articles of this treaty was, that Antiochus should deliver up Hannibal to the Romans ; but that general escaped to Crete, now called Candia, an island facing the ^o-ean sea. ° The Cretians seem to have been notorious for dishonesty and falsehood; hence Cretizare cvm crelpnsibus, to '^ deceive the deceiver," was a common proverb, with reference to that people. Polybius never mentions them without some severe expression ; and their character is also alluded to by the apos- tle Paul. In the instruction he gave to Titus how\o proceed 312 THE INTERVAL BETWEEN in establishing the Cretians in the faith, he says : " For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a pro- phet" (or poet, for the terms poet and prophet were often used indifferently both by the Greeks and Romans) " of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies," Tit. i. 10 — 12 ; or, as the two latter phrases have been inter- preted, " brutes " and " lazy gluttons." But Hannibal showed himself able to cope with the Cre- tians, with reference to their avarice and deceit. The riches he had brought with him excited their avarice, and he was in some danger of being ruined by them. By a stratagem, however, he eluded their power. He filled several vessels with molten lead, the tops of which were thinly covered over with gold and silver. These he deposited in the temple of Diana, (primarily the moon,) in the presence of several Cre- tians, to whose honesty, he said, he confided all his treasure. A strong guard was then posted round the temple, and Han- nibal left at full liberty, from a supposition that his riches were secured. But he had concealed them in hollow statues of brass, which he carried about with him. After this, em- bracing a favourable opportunity, he made his escape, and fled to the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia. Hannibal made some stay in the court of Prusias, who soon engaged in war with Eumenes, king of Pergamus, a professed friend to the Romans. By means of Hannibal, the troops of Prusias gained several victories, both by land and sea. In one of the latter engagements, ever fruitful in inven- tion to obtain the conquests over his opposers, he employed a stratagem of an extraordinary kind. As the enemy's fleet consisted of more ships than his, he put into earthen vessels, all kinds of serpents, and ordered these vessels to be thrown into the enemy's ships. His chief aim was to destroy Eume- nes, and for that purpose it was necessary to discover in which ship he was. This end he obtained by pretending to send a letter to him ; and having gained this point, he ordered the commanders of the respective vessels to direct their attack principally against his ship. They obeyed, and would have taken it, had he not outsailed his pursuers. The rest of the ships of Pergamus sustained the fight with great vigour, till the earthen vessels had been thrown into them, and then, when they saw themselves surrounded with the serpents, THE SECOND AND THIRD PUNIC WARS. 313 which darted out of these vessels when they hroke to pieces, they were seized with dread, retired in disorder, and yielded the victory to the enemy, , But the career of Hannibal was now drawing* to a close. The Romans would not suffer him to rest at the court of Pru- sias ; but deputed Q,. Flaminius to that monarch to complain of the protection he afforded him. Hannibal was aware of the motives of this embassy, and therefore did not wait till his enemies had an opportunity of delivering him up to the power of the Romans. He attempted to secure himself by flight ; but perceiving that the seven secret outlets which he had contrived in his palace were all seized by the soldiers of Prusias, who, by perfidiously betraying his guest, was desir- ous of gaining the favour of Rome, he ordered the poison which he had long kept for this melancholy occasion. This being brought him, taking it in his hand, he exclaimed, " Let us free the Romans from the disquiet with which they have so long been tortured, since they have not patience to wait for an old man's death. The victory which Flaminius gains over a man disarmed and betrayed, will not do him much honour. This single day will be a lasting testimony to the great degeneracy of the Romans. Their fathers sent notice to Pyrrhus, to desire he would beware of a traitor who in- tended to poison him, and that at a time when this prince was at war with them in the very centre of Italy ; but their sons have deputed a person of consular dignity to spirit up Prusias impiously to murder one who is not only his friend, but his guest." After this, calling down curses upon Prusias, and having invoked the gods, the protectors of the sacred rights of hospitality, he drank the poison, and died at seventy years of age.* * The place where Hannibal died, was an obscure village, anciently- called Libyssa. This has been generally supposed to be the modern Ghebse, or Ghebsa, which is a small, dirty town chiefly inhabited by Turks, at some distance from the northern shore of the Gulf of Nicome- dis, and remarkable for a tumulus, or mound, supposed to be the monu- ment of that celebrated commander. A learned antiquary and classical geographer, however, (Colonel Leake,) has shown this to be a mistake. He states, that Ghebsa, which is pronounced Ghivizah by both Turks and Greeks, is more probably the successor of Dacibyza, the word when written in Greek Kibyza, being probably the ancient Daciifyza, with the omission of the first syllable. He remarks, also, that the thirty-six or thirty-nine Roman miles, placed in the itinerary between Chalcedonia (Scutari) and Libyssa, does not agree so well with^the distance from Scutari to Ghebsa, as from Scutari to Malsum, which village he takes to be the ancient Libyssa. What would appear to confirm this supposition, VOL U. 27 814 DISSENSIONS WITH MASINISSA. His name has been handed down to posterity by secular historians as one of the greatest in the annals of fame. But those who are accustomed to revere the rights of humanity, and to look upon human life as a sacred deposit on earth from God, not to he violated in man's own person, or in that of another, must drop the tear of pity over his memory, and pray that the sun in the heavens may not again shine. upon such a character, and that the earth may no more be visited by such a scourge. But his deeds were the effects of that spirit of evil which especially characterizes paganism, though its effects are too often exhibited by nominal Christians. Had " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God," as it is discerned " in the face of Jesus Christ," shone with its healmg influ- ences into his heart, he would, perhaps, have been as great a blessing as he was a scourge to mankind. Thrice glorious, then, will that day be, when " the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," Isa. xi. 9 ; for the sword shall then rust in its scabbard, and every man shall sit " under his vine and under his fig-tree ; and none shall make them afraid," Mic. iv. 4. Peace, through the blood of the cross, shall then flow like a river, and spread its hal- lowed influence over the face of the whole earth, making it as the garden of Eden, in which man will delight to dwell, and to enjoy communion Avith his God. We now proceed to notice the dissensions between the Car- thaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia. Among the con- ditions of the peace granted to the Carthaginians, there was one which enacted, that they should restore to Masinissa all the territories and cities he possessed before the war ; and far- ther, Scipio, to reward the zeal and fidelity which that mon- is the circumstance of there being a long tongue of land at this village, projecting from the opposite shore, and a ferry called the ferry of the Dil, or Tongue, which Plutarch seems to refer to in his description of a sandy place at ancient Libyssa; his description and the promontory exactly cor- responding. If Gheviza, therefore, be supposed a corruption not of Li- byssa, but of Dacibyza, and if the distance of Malsum corresponds to that stated in the itinerary, and Plutarch's description of a san^