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THE object of this chapter is to sketch out all that can be gathered of the history of Nineveh and its empire from the "classical" writers, not, however, despising the aid of those historians of antiquity whose testimony is trustworthy, even though they may not usually be honoured with that distinctive epithet. A brief glance at the subsequent fate of the country will appropriately bring us to the examination of existing ruins.

The story of Assyria, as collected from uninspired testimony, has been often told, and generally with success, so long as one or two authorities only have been consulted; it is when we come to compare and attempt to harmonise the scattered and often incidental notices of many ancient writers, that the difficulty commences. The causes of the vagueness and discrepancy which mark the statements that have come down to us are obvious. The ruins of Nineveh were virtually unknown to the ancient classical writers, though we gather from all of them that it was one of the oldest, most powerful, and most splendid cities in the world: that it perished utterly many hundred years before the Christian Era; and that after its fall Babylon became the capital of the Assyrian empire. On examining their details, we find names confounded, incidents

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transposed, and chronology by turns confused, extended, or inverted. Difficulties of another and more peculiar kind beset this path of inquiry, of which it will suffice to instance one illustration-proper names, those fixed points in history around which the achievements or sufferings of its heroes cluster, are constantly shifting in the Assyrian nomenclature; both men and gods being designated, not by a word composed of certain fixed sounds or signs, but by all the various expressions equivalent to it in meaning, whether consisting of a synonyme or a phrase. Hence we find that the names furnished by classic authors generally have little or no analogy with the Assyrian, as the Greeks usually construed the proper names of other countries according to the genius of their own language, and not unfrequently translated the original name into it. Herodotus, however, though he mentions but one Assyrian king, gives him his true name, Sennacherib.

Ancient Assyria, or Athur,' from Asshur, Shem's son, was originally of but small extent, its limits being partly determined by the sites of the cities founded by Asshur. It is stated to have been "bounded on the north by Mount Niphates and part of Armenia; on the east, by that part of Media which lies towards Mounts Chaboras and Zagros; on the south, by Susiana as well as part of Babylonia; and, finally, on the west by the river Tigris."

Strabo and Pliny inform us that Mesopotamia, or Naharaim, is bounded by the Tigris on the east, the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates on the west, and Mount Taurus on the north; the length being 800 miles, and the breadth 360 miles.

Babylonia was situated in lower Mesopotamia, between the estuary of the Shatt-el-Arab, the Euphrates, and the western extremity of the river Khábur, and adjoining this lay the monarchy of Assyria,"

"Near the commencement of the Dujeil, or little Tigris, is one extremity of the Median wall, which proceeds from thence S.S.W. W. towards the Euphrates, a few miles westward of the Saklawiyah canal. It is from 35 to 40 feet high, with towers at intervals of 55 paces from each other along its western side, and there is a ditch towards the exterior 27 paces broad. It is called Chalu, or Sid Nimrûd, and is built of the small 2 Chesney, vol. i. 5 Chesney.

1 Dion. Cassius, lib. lxviii. 4 Lib. vi. c. 27.

3 Book xvi. 746.

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pebbles of the country, embedded in lime of great tenacity." The natives say that the Median wall was built by Nimrod to keep off the people of Nineveh, with whom he had an implacable feud. The bed of the Dujeil is cut from 50 to 60 feet deep, through ground apparently as hard as iron, in many parts exposing sections of ancient brick walls."

According to Scripture, Nineveh was founded by Asshur about 2230 B.C., but according to Diodorus Siculus, quoting Ctesias, it was founded by Ninus, 2183 B.C. Herodotus is silent upon this point, but Africanus, quoted by Syncellus, states that the foundation of the Assyrian monarchy took place 2284 B.C. The Armenian historian Eusebius places it 1300 years before the fortieth year before the first Olympiad, or 2116 B.C. Emilius Sura, quoted by V. Paterculus, says, it was 2145 B.C. By far the most distinct evidence is contained in the extract from Polyhistor, found in the Armenian Chronicle, which is, with good reason, believed to be an extract from the work of Berosus, the ancient native historian. This Chronicle contains a table from the dynasties of the old Assyrian empire, assigning the date of each, and the addition of the figures gives the epoch 2317 B.C. as that of the foundation of the first monarchy. He thus attains a date fixed within certain limits, and differing so immaterially from that of the Biblical Chronology, that it would not be unreasonable to suppose Ninus to have been the great grandson, or, at all events, no very remote descendant of Asshur. Abydenus, in the Armenian edition of Eusebius's Chronicle, places him sixth in descent from the first king of the Assyrians, whom he calls Belus; and the editor, in a note, produces some passages from Moses Choronensis and others, to show that such was the general opinion among the Armenians. This account, which makes Ninus contemporary with Abraham,* the tenth generation from Shem, perfectly accords with the duration of the Assyrian empire, which all agree did not exceed 1300 years, from its rise to the fall of Sardanapalus. Sardanapalus died 743 B.C., and if we reckon backwards 1300 years, we shall find that the reign of Ninus commenced 200 years after Nim

1 Chesney's Survey of the Euphrates.

2 A disciple of Aristotle, and a copyist of Berosus.

3 Cory's "Fragments," p. 69.

3

Idem., p. 36. Petavius says Abraham was born in the twenty-fourth year of Semiramis's reign, lib. i. c. 2.

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CLASSICAL ASSYRIA AND MESOPOTAMIA.

rod began to be mighty on earth, so that considering the great age that men attained to, he may have been Nimrod himself, or the son of Nimrod, as some have inferred from the statement of Berosus. In our view the evidence is very satisfactory; for while it is highly corroborative of the hypothesis that Babylonia and Assyria were originally two distinct kingdoms, it is, likewise, perfectly consistent with the authorities who ascribe the foundation of the Assyrian empire to Ninus. Asshur was the founder of the monarchy only of Assyria, but the beginning of the empire,' we consider, may be justly computed from the time of his descendant Ninus, who was king of both Assyria and Babylonia, which were for the first time united in his reign.

His

Justin, the Roman historian, who abridged the history of Trogus Pompeius in the second century, gives a little account of him in the commencement of his work. He says, that "Ninus, king of the Assyrians, first brought wars against his neighbours, and conquered the people, as yet unused to resistance, to the very boundaries of Libya"-the name anciently applied to all Africa. "There were, indeed (adds he), more ancient than he, Sesostris in Egypt, and Tanaus, king of Scythia; of whom one brought war into Pontus, the other even to Egypt. But they brought distant wars, not neighbouring ones; they sought not empire for themselves, but glory for their people; and, content with victory, abstained from government: Ninus confirmed the magnitude of his domination by continual possession. neighbours, therefore, being subdued; when, by accession of strength, he was stronger, he passed to others; and, every new victory being the instrument of the next one, he subdued the whole of the East." His last war was with Oxyartes, or Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians.2 Here he met with a more powerful resistance than he had yet experienced; but after several fruitless attempts upon the chief city, he at last conquered it by the contrivance and conduct of Semiramis, wife to Menon, president of the King's council, and chief governor of Assyria. Semiramis was born at Ascalon, and said to be the daughter of Dercetis, the Assyrian Venus; but the story of her birth, as related by Diodorus,3 is so well known, that it 1 Ezekiel, xxiii. 23.-Jer. 1. 17, 18. 2 Justin, lib. i. c. 1.

3 Diod. Sic. lib. ii. c. 1.

1

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The ability, courage,

is unnecessary to recapitulate it here. and beauty of Semiramis so captivated Ninus, that he used .every imaginable persuasion and threat, to induce her husband to bestow his wife upon him. Menon, however, would not consent, but in a fit of distraction he destroyed himself, and Semiramis was advanced to the regal state and dignity. Ninus had a son by Semiramis, named Ninyas, and died after the reign of fifty-two years, leaving her the government of his kingdom. In honour of his memory she erected in the royal palace a monument, which remained till long after the ruin of Nineveh. Diodorus describes it as a mound of earth, one mile and two hundred yards high, by one mile and a quarter in breadth. Semiramis had had so large a share in the administration of affairs during the reign of Ninus, that she was the fittest person to succeed him, especially as her son was a minor; she accordingly continued the policy that had prevailed in the latter part of the reign of her predecessor, and set herself earnestly to settle and establish the empire. Shortly after her accession, she removed her court from Nineveh to Babylon, which she enlarged, embellished with magnificent buildings, and surrounded with walls; so that, if not the actual founder of the city, she rendered it the "mighty Babylon" so renowned in history. After this, she settled all the neighbouring kingdoms under her authority; and wherever she went, left useful and magnificent monuments of her progress: many of her aqueducts, and highways cut through mountains, or formed by the filling up of valleys, still existed when Diodorus wrote. She is said to have conquered great part of Ethiopia, and to have consulted the oracle at Jupiter Ammon; but her greatest and last expedition was against India. Justin tells us that she was the only monarch who ever penetrated to India before the time of Alexander. Diodorus records, that, having resolved to conquer India, she ordered her troops to rendezvous in Bactria (the ancient name of part of Persia); was ultimately defeated by the Indian king, and had to return with scarcely a third of her army. Nevertheless, in the course of a reign of forty-two years, this queen, the first on record, helped to consolidate the oldest empire named in history.

1 Africanus and Eusebius. See Cory's "Fragments."

2 Diod. Sic. lib. ii. c. i. Herod. Clio, c. 178, 180, 184. Q. Curt. lib. v. 3 Africanus and Eusebius. See Cory's "Fragments."

c. 1.

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