[218]Mr. Birch has found more than one notice of Babylon on Egyptian monuments of the time of Thothmes III.
[219]Ezekiel, xvii. 4.
[220]Daniel, v. 30, 31. This event took placeB. C.538. Whether the Darius of the book of Daniel be Cyrus himself, or a Median who commanded the armies of that monarch, and was afterwards appointed viceroy of Babylon, is one of the many disputed points of ancient history.
[221]Arrian, Exp. Alex. 1. vii. c. 17. See Jeremy’s Epistle in the Apocryphal hook of Baruch, vi. 10, 11, and 28, for instances of the cupidity of the Babylonian priests. They had even stripped the idols of their robes and ornaments to adorn their wives and children. This epistle contains a very curious account of the idol worship of the Babylonians.
[222]Isaiah, xiv. 23. Jeremiah, li. 42.
[223]See an interesting Memoir on Babylon, by M. de St. Croix, in the 48th vol. of the Transactions of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, in which all the authorities on the subject of the gradual decay of the city are collected.
[224]Isaiah, xliii. 14.
[225]Ezekiel, xxvii. 15.
[226]Of the early reputation of the looms of Babylon we may form an idea from the fact of “a goodly Babylonish garment” (i. e.garment of Shinar) being mentioned in the book of Joshua (vii. 21) amongst the objects buried by Achan in his tent. In a curious decree of the time of Diocletian, regulating the maximum value of articles of clothing and food throughout the Roman empire, several objects from Babylon are specified. Babylonian skins of the first quality are rated at 500 denarii; of the second quality at 40; Babylonian shoes, called mullai, at 120 denarii per pair; and a Babylonian girdle at 100. Plain Babylonian socks are also mentioned, but the amount at which they were valued is wanting. This decree was discovered at Eski Hissar, the ancient Stratoniceia, in Asia Minor. (See Leake’s Asia Minor.)
[227]“And the men of Cuth made Nergal,” in Samaria, where they had been transplanted after the first captivity. (2 Kings, xvii. 30.) The country of the Cuthites was probably in the neighbourhood of Babylon, though the commentators have not agreed upon its exact site. Josephus says that it was in Persia (Antiq. ix. 14.)
[228]xviii 2.
[229]The common notion amongst ignorant Mohammedans is, that an eclipse is caused by some evil spirit catching hold of the sun or moon. On such occasions, in Eastern towns, the whole population assembles with pots, pans, and other equally rude instruments of music, and, with the aid of their lungs, make a din and turmoil which might suffice to drive away a whole army of evil spirits, even at so great a distance.
[230]Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 139, note.
[231]Isaiah, xxi. 1.
[232]I have lately learnt, to my great grief, that poor Suttum has been killed in some affray with the Aneyza.
[233]Of the same size and form as that containing the records of Essarhaddon, given by me to the British Museum. It has been only partly restored, and the inscription, which appears to be historical, has not yet been deciphered.
[234]SeeChapter 20.
[235]Isaiah, xxxvii. 18, 19.
[236]1 Kings, vii. 23-25. The brazen sea of Solomon stood upon twelve oxen, three facing each cardinal point. It must be borne in mind that the Assyrian sculptor frequently represented only one figure to signify many, and that more than one ox probably supported the vessel portrayed in this bas-relief.
[237]These measurements merely include that part of the palace actually excavated.
[238]Since my departure a fine entire bas-relief has, I understand, been found near the ruined tomb in the centre of the mound.
[239]The distance from centre to centre of the pedestals facing each other was 9 feet three inches; their diameter, 11½ inches in the broadest part. The second pair found were about 84 feet distant from the first. There were the remains of a wall of sundried bricks, 6 feet 3 inches from the centre of one of the pedestals.
[240]Tacit. Ann. lib. xii. c. 13., and Ammianus Marcell. 1. xxiii. c. 20. The latter author especially mentions that the town had belonged to the Persians.
[241]In the same shape as the Egyptian. (See Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 112.)
[242]See Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. Introduction, p. xiv. Benjamin of Tudela places the tomb of Nahum at Ain Japhata, to the south of Babylon.
[243]According to Col. Rawlinson (Outlines of Assyrian History, p. xx.), to Neptune or Noah!
[244]The actual weight of the large ducks in the British Museum being 480 oz. troy, the mana would be equal to 16 oz., with a small fraction over. The Attic mana has been computed to be 14 oz., with a small fraction. It would consequently be to the Babylonian talent as 7 to 8. According to Herodotus (lib. iii. c. 89.) the Eubœan talent was to the Babylonian as 6 to 7. If this statement be correct, the Eubœan would be to the Attic as 48 to 49. (Dr. Hincks.)
[245]One cylinder bears his name.
[246]Lib. i. c. 195. As a written signature is of no value, except in particular cases, in the East, and as all documents to be valid must be sealed with seals bearing the names of the parties to them, the engraved signet is of great importance, and the trade of an engraver one of considerable responsibility. The punishment for forging seals is very severe, and there are many regulations enforced for securing their authenticity.
[247]Compare Job, xxxviii. 14. “It is turned as clay to the seal.”
[248]Compare 1 Kings, xix. 16. and 2 Kings, ix. 2.
[249]Sargon is called on the monuments of Khorsabad, “the conqueror of Samaria and of the circuit of Beth Khumri.” (Dr. Hincks, Trans, of the R. Irish Acad. vol. xx.)
[250]1 Kings, xix. 15.
[251]Colonel Rawlinson suggests about 930B. C.
[252]Especially if, as Egyptian scholars still maintain, the name is found on Egyptian monuments of the 18th dynasty.
[253]See my Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 155, where this genealogy was first pointed out.
[254]Discovered during the first expedition. (Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 83.)
[255]This interesting discovery was first announced in the Athenæum of Jan. 3, 1852.
[256]These three kings came against Israel (2 Kings, xv. 19, and 29, and 1 Chron. v. 26); but Pul is particularly mentioned as receiving tribute from Menahem, and Tiglath Pileser, as carrying away Israelites into captivity in the time of Pekah, between whose reign and that of Menahem only two years elapsed. (2 Kings, xv. 23.)
[257]See an interesting note on this subject in Rich’s Narrative, vol. ii. p. 123.
[258]2 Chron. xxxiii.
[259]We have a curious illustration of the magnificent suicide of Sardanapalus in the history of Zimri, king of Israel. “And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king’s house, and burnt the king’s house over him with fire and died.” 1 Kings xvii. 18. There is nothing, therefore, improbable in the romantic history of the Assyrian king.
[260]The reading according to Col. Rawlinson is marked R—that according to Dr. Hincks, H.
[261]Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 185.
[262]It was not necessary to the effect of his preaching that Jonah should be of the religion of the people of Nineveh. I have known a Christian priest frighten a whole Mussulman town to tents and repentance by publicly proclaiming that he had received a divine mission to announce a coming earthquake or plague.
[263]2 Kings, xx. 19.
[264]2 Kings, xxv. 19.
[265]Driving away the cattle and sheep of a conquered people, and accounting them amongst the principal spoil, has ever been the custom of Eastern nations who have not altogether renounced a nomadic life, and whose chief wealth consequently consisted in these animals. When Asa defeated the Ethiopians, “he carried away sheep and camels in abundance; and returned to Jerusalem.” (2 Chron. xiv. 15.)
[266]The same thing may, indeed, be inferred from several passages in Chronicles and Kings. See particularly 2 Kings, xvi. 7, xvii. 4.
[267]1 Kings, iv. 21, and 24. “He reigned over all the kingsfrom the river even unto the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt;” and the kings “brought him every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness, and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year.” (2 Chron. ix. 24, 26.) Such were probably the very articles brought yearly to the Assyrian king, and enumerated in his records.
[268]2 Chron. v. 62.
[269]1 Chron. v. 6 and 26.
[270]2 Kings, xvii. 6, xviii. 11.
[271]2 Kings, xvii. 29.
[272]See woodcuts, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 340.
[273]Ch. iii. 12-14.
[274]From this propylæum came the two colossal bulls in the British Museum; it was part of the royal palace.
[275]Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. ch. 2. A recent trigonometrical survey of the country by Captain Jones proves, I am informed, that the great ruins of Kouyunjik, Nimroud, Karamless, and Khorsabad, form very nearly a perfect parallelogram, corresponding with the conjecture I ventured to make in my former work. A recent writer (Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 94), adopting the theory of the greater extent of Nineveh, has endeavored to prove that the Gebel Makloub is the remains of its eastern walls, stating that he “has the testimony of arecent observanttraveller, Mr. Barker, who has no doubt that the so-called ‘mountain’ is entirely the work of man.” Unfortunately it happens that the Gebel Makloub is somewhat higher, and far more precipitous and rocky than the Malvern hills. It would, indeed, have required Titans to raise such a heaven-reaching wall! Scarcely less extravagant are the conjectures that the mound is called Kouyumjik, not Kouyunjik, because silver ornaments may have been found there, and that Yaroumjeh, a mere Turkish name meaning “half-way village,” is “roum,” “signifying the territory and inhabitants of the Roman empire,” and, consequently, a part of Nineveh, “Roman and ancient being synonymous terms!” The line, too, indicated in Mr. Bonomi’s diagram for the former bed of the Tigris, in order to complete the parallelogram, would take the river over a range of steep limestone hills. I may here observe that the name of “Niniouah” is not known in the country as applied either to the mound of Nebbi Yunus, or any other ruin in the country. Before founding theories upon such grounds, it would be as well to have some little acquaintance with the localities and with the languages spoken by the people of the country.
[276]1 Kings, v. 15.
[277]The Jewish cubit appears to have been about eighteen inches.
[278]The height, according to 2 Chron. iii. 4, was 120 cubits, which would appear to be an error slipt into the text, although Josephus gives the same dimensions, adding an upper story or structure.
[279]Mr. Fergusson has pointed out, from the account of Josephus, the probability of the temple having had two stories. (The Palaces of Nineveh restored, p. 222.)
[280]See Calmet’s Dictionary of the Bible.
[281]See frontispiece to Fergusson’s Palaces of Nineveh restored.
[282]Josephus, b. viii. c. 2. Fergusson’s Palaces of Nineveh, p. 229.
[283]It will be remembered that the annals on the bulls of Kouyunjik include six years of his reign, and must consequently have been inscribed on them in the seventh year.
[284]1 Kings, v. 8.
[285]SeeFrontispiece to this volume.
[286]Such also appears to have been the case at Nimroud.
[287]1 Kings, vii. 2. It is only by supposing it to have been one great hall that we can at all understand the proportions and form of the building as subsequently given. The Hebrew word, as its Arabic equivalent still does, will bear both meanings. Pharaoh’s daughter’s house, which was “like unto the porch,” was probably the harem or private apartment.
[288]Palaces of Nineveh restored, p. 181. That the Assyrians were, however, acquainted with slanting roofs may be inferred from a bas-relief discovered at Khorsabad. (Botta, Plate 141.)
[289]Jerem. xix. 13.
[290]Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. part ii. ch. 2.
[291]Daniel, v. 5.
[292]1 Kings, vi. 28. I cannot, however, but express my conviction that much of the metal called gold both in the sacred writings and in the profane authors of antiquity, was really copper, alloyed with other metals, the aurichalcum, or orichalcum, of the Greeks, such as was used in the bowls and plates discovered at Nimroud.
[293]Rich estimates the entire length of the inclosure at about four miles, and its greatest breadth at nearly two. This appears to me rather above the actual extent of the ruins. It must also be remembered that they narrow off from the northern side to a few hundred yards at the southern. I have not hitherto had time to lay down my survey of Nimroud. The general plan of the mound in my first work must be considered as a mere rough sketch.
[294]Rich’s Narrative, vol. ii. p. 60.
[295]It will be borne in mind that the Tigris has now changed its course.
[296]According to Mr. Rich, the distance from the inside of the inner wall to the inside of the outer was 2007 feet. Allowing 200 feet for the outer the breadth of the whole fortifications would be about 2200 feet, or not far from half a mile.
[297]If the city, or this part of it, were ever taken by the river having been turned upon the walls, as some ancient authors have declared, the breach must have been made at the north-western corner. There are no traces of it.
[298]Sir Anthony Shirley’s Travels in Persia. Purchas, vol. ii. p. 1387.
[299]Narrative of a Residence in Kurdistan, vol. i. pp. 40, 51.