6

with the assailing foe. Cyrus became mon- [them in the erection of grand palaces and arch of Media, as well as of Persia: and the fortifications for his capital, and also in the Medes and Persians were so nearly akin construction of irrigating canals, which that the revolution hardly bore the charac- widened the cultivable area of Babylonia. ter of a conquest,-it was accepted as read- Greatest among these latter works was the ily as if it were simply a change of dynasty. royal river,' a broad and deep canal conMedes and Persians alike were employed in necting the Euphrates with the Tigris. He the service of the State by the new king; built the great wall of Babylon, and the no difference was made between the con- Hanging Gardens-two of the seven wonquerors and the conquered; the Median ders of the ancient world. He dug a vast chiefs shared in the favours of the Crown, reservoir for irrigation near Sipparah, 140 and the people continued their pursuits as miles in circumference and 180 feet deep. usual, paying no more taxes than before. He built quays and breakwaters along the Armenia and the other vassal States of the shores of the Persian Gulf, and founded a Median crown continued in their allegiance city on its shores. Although stricken by a and paid their tribute to the new king just strange disease, a madness during which he as they had done to his predecessors on the fancied himself a beast in the field, yet throne. And so the short-lived kingdom of health and prosperity returned to him, and the Medes came to an end, and the monar- the closing years of his reign were as glorchy of the Persians began. The only dif- ious as the first. ference made by the successful revolution of Cyrus was to weld together the Median and Persian peoples-to make them one united and henceforth indissoluble nation, and also to place at the head of affairs a prince who throne when he was deposed by Nabonawas at once a statesman and a soldier, and who was inspired by a spirit of conquest which quickly made great changes in the political condition of south-western Asia.

The heir to his throne, the son of the Median Princess for whom he built the celebrated Hanging Gardens, was a weak prince, and hardly had he mounted the

dius, a man not of the blood-royal. The new king, aware that his usurpation had broken the alliance previously subsisting between Media and Babylonia, seems to The revived Babylonian empire-whose have fully appreciated the position of affairs, knell was rung when Cyrus mounted the and began to surround his capital by new Medo-Persian throne-was almost as short- and formidable works of defence. Doubtlived as the Median Empire had been. But less he beheld with satisfaction the revolt in the latter half of its brief duration, its of Cyrus, and the overthrow of the Median career was as brilliant as that of Media dynasty which had been so closely related under Astyages had been inglorious. Nabo-to the Babylonian line which he himself polasar, the founder of the new or second had supplanted. But he quickly found that empire of Babylonia, had, as an active ally, the change only increased the peril of his shared in the glories of the Medes under own position. Cyrus, burning to extend Cyaxares; and when he was gathered to his alike his empire and his religion, naturally fathers, Babylon found in his son, the great first directed his ambition against Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar, the most illustrious mon- The Babylonian army was scattered to the arch that had ever occupied her throne. He winds by the onset of the Persians; Naboeven surpassed in achievements and magni- nadius retired into one of his fortified cities, ficence the mightiest monarchs of the illus- leaving Babylon to be defended by his son, trious Sargonid dynasty of Assyria. His the luxurious Belshazzar. Probably King genius shone forth alike at home and abroad. Nabonadius regarded his capital as inexAgain and again he marched his armies up pugnable, and thought it good strategy to the right bank of the Euphrates (which lie as it were on the flank of the invaders, river was the frontier of the Median king- and harass their operations. Cyrus, howdom), subduing all the upper part of the ever, at once directed his forces against him, valley which lay to the west of that river, and captured Borsippa, where he had taken and advancing victoriously into Syria, sub- shelter, showing remarkable generosity in jugating Judea and Damascus as well as the his treatment of his royal captive. Babmore important coast-region of Phoenicia, ylon, on the other hand, set all his efforts at overthrowing the armies of Egypt, and ex- defiance. That great city-by far the tending his suzerainty even to the distant strongest of its day, and apparently the banks of the Nile. At the same time he most strongly fortified city in the whole added greatly to the magnificence of Baby- ancient world-laughed to scorn the attacks lon and to the prosperity of his people. of the Persians, and, amply supplied with Bringing back with him from his military food, beheld with contemptuous indifference expeditions droves of captives, he employed the prolonged leaguer to which it was sub

town. Should such an alarm be given, all their labours would be lost. . . . But as they watched, no sounds of alarm reached them -only a confused noise of revel and riot, which showed that the unhappy townsmen were quite unconscious of the approach of danger.

At last shadowy forms began to emerge from the obscurity of the deep river-bed, and on the landing-places opposite the river gates scattered clusters of men grew into solemn columns, the undefended gateways were seized, taken and spread, and swift runners started -a war-shout was raised,--the alarm was off to "show the King of Babylon that his city was taken at one end." In the darkness and confusion of the night a terrible massacre ensued. The drunken revellers could make no resistance. The king, paralysed with fear at the awful handwriting on the wall, which nothing even to check the progress of the too late had warned him of his peril, could do assailants, who carried all before them everywhere. Bursting into the palace, a band of Persians made their way to the presence of the monarch, and slew him on the scene of his impious revelry. Other bands carried fire and sword through the town. When morning came, Cyrus found himself undisputed master of the city.'*

jected. Despairing of capturing the city | circumstances and sound an alarm through the either by assault or by blockade, Cyrus resolved to have recourse to a novel but perilous stratagem. Unknown to the besieged, and by tedious labour, he cut a deep and broad canal at a point several miles above the city, into which the Euphrates was to be diverted from its course, so that his troops might enter Babylon by the channel of the river, which flowed through the city. This engineering feat-and it was no small oue was successfully accomplished. The canal was completed, and the means of obstructing the great river and diverting it into the new channel were ready. But this, after all, was nothing. Unless he could take the Babylonians by surprise, the attempt to enter the city by the bed of the river could only result in a bloody repulse, or in the destruction of his army. The Euphrates, as it flowed through the city, was shut in on either side by a lofty embankment or quays, and the only access from the river to the city was at certain points, by flights of steps, each guarded by a strong gate. If those gates were shut, success was hopeless; and the attacking force, in the bed of the river, would be easily overwhelmed by the missiles show that the two grand sister-kingdoms of the It was mainly by the effects of disunion ered down upon them by the Babylonian Valley fell. They were the greatest militroops from the quays on either side. But fortune was propitious; and the terrible tary powers of their time. The martial doom so long denounced against Babylon temperament and belligerent spirit were by the seers of Israel at length overtook her :

more strongly developed in them than in any of the contemporary civilized States of the world. Their armies were well organized, constantly practised in wars, and were "When all was prepared, Cyrus determined to wait for the arrival of a certain festival, dur- Well furnished with all the appliances of ing which the whole population were wont to military skill and power, alike for operaengage in drinking and revelling, and then tions in the field and for the siege of fortified silently in the dead of night to turn the water cities. Their forces consisted of war-charof the river and make his attack. All fell out iots, of cavalry, and of infantry both light as he hoped and wished. The festival was and heavy armed. Their cavalry used both even held with greater pomp and splendour the than usual; for Belshazzar, with the natural latter; their heavy infantry were armed sword and the lance, especially the insolence of youth, to mark his contempt for with the spear, while their light infantry the besieging army, abandoned himself wholly to the delights of the season, and himself en consisted of archers and also of slingers. tertained a thousand lords in his palace. Else- In siege operations, they employed the batwhere the rest of the population was occupied tering-ram, mining, and scaling-ladders; in feasting and dancing. Drunken riot and and they knew how to protect their workmad excitement held possession of the town; ing-parties from the slingers and bowmen the siege was forgotten; ordinary precautions on the walls by means of a covering appawere neglected. Following the example of their king, the Babylonians gave themselves ap for the night to orgies in which religious frenzy and drunken excitement formed a strange and revolting medley.

Meanwhile, outside the city, in silence and darkness, the Persians watched at the two points where the Euphrates entered and left the walls. Anxiously they noted the gradual sinking of the water in the river-bed; still more anxiously they watched to see if those within the walls would observe the suspicious

ratus similiar in kind, though not equal in efficiency, to the testudo of the Romans. The Assyrians especially were a remarkably martial people, brawny and muscular, as well as proud and daring. And although we hear a great deal of the luxurious habits alike of the Assyrians and Babylonians, it would be a mistake to suppose that such

Rawlinson, vol. iii. pp. 516-18.

luxury ever directly affected the mass of in addition to this means of supporting popthe people. It was necessarily confined to ulation, the trade and export-manufactures the court and the wealthy classes, which of Babylonia had the same effect in increasconstituted a very small part of the popu- ing the material resources of the Valley as lation. Nor do we find, as a matter of fact, if its area of cultivation had been larger that this luxury had any appreciable effect, than it was. Moreover, the kingdoms of in enervating either the monarchs or the the Valley possessed at least two great chiefs. In Assyria, the usual relaxation of cities powerfully fortified, and which proved the kings, in times of peace, was in the more than a match for all the military hardy and perilous pursuits of the chase. power which was brought against them. It The Babylonians were a less physically was disunion which laid the Valley prospowerful race than the Assyrians-sparer trate at the feet of its Arian invaders. Unin form, and in the main of a less lordly questionably this disunion proved peculiarly type. They were also more given to the fatal owing to the fact that weak kings ruled pacific pursuits of trade and manufacture. in the valley contemporaneously with MeThey were towns-people' in a much great- dian and Persian monarchs of remarkable er degree than the Assyrians, and did not energy and ability. Had any one of his show in an equal degree the passion for for- Sargonid predecessors been on the throne eign conquest which inspired their neigh of Nineveh instead of Saracus when Cyaxbours of Nineveh. But they had all the ares invaded the valley, the issue might 'pluck' which so generally characterizes have been different. And the same may be towns-people, and which often proves an said of Babylon if Nebuchadnezzar had been equivalent for the stronger physique of a the contemporary of Cyrus. But even as rural population. They were constantly it was, disunion, we repeat, was the great getting up revolts and émeutes,-rebelling cause of the downfall of the kingdoms of the and fighting to the last. Even after the Valley. When Cyaxares made his last atconquest of Babylon by Cyrus, their love tack upon Assyria, he had the whole forces of revolt did not forsake-them, and was the of Babylonia on his side; nay more, owing' main cause which at length brought total to the treachery of Nabopolasar, even a ruin and devastation upon their city. In considerable part of the Assyrian army cotruth, in reading the history of the Babylo-operated in the downfall of Nineveh. Yet, nians, we have been struck with the points in spite of this rebellion of Babylonia, and of resemblance between them and the Pari- this defection of a portion of the army, the sians of modern times. The same mental Assyrian king, feeble though he was comactivity, the same quickness, restlessness, pared to his great predecessors, for two fickleness, and the same pluck and aptitude years bade defiance to the allied force which for fighting. For the sake of illustration, besieged his capital. And but for the exwe might parallel the points of difference ceptionally great overflow of the Tigris, between the Babylonians and Assyrians by which tore down the defences of the city, it those at present existing between the French is not improbable that the Assyrians in and the British. In solid power and physi- Nineveh might have kept their assailants at cal strength, and in the graver spirit which bay until dissensions broke out among the pervaded alike their religion and their soci. allied princes of the beleaguering army. ety, the Assyrians may be likened to the The fall of Babylon was produced by nearly British; while in their indomitable vivacity similar circumstances. Nineveh had been and pugnacity, their mental quickness and destroyed; the Assyrian army, the mainfickleness, the gayer spirit of their religious stay of the Valley, had been broken up; festivals, and the more lax and licentious the upper half of the Valley was now part form of their society, the Babylonians may of the Persian kingdom, and levies from be likened (we do not say to the French Assyria, and from the old provinces of nation, but) to the Parisians. Assyria, doubtless formed part of the army In material resources, and doubtless also of Cyrus. Babylonia had to maintain the in population, the kingdoms of the Valley fight alone. Yet, even under these adverse were superior to the sister states of Media circumstances, the strength of her capital and Persia which overthrew them. Even was sufficient to have foiled the assaults of under the Persian monarchy, when the re- the Persians. Babylon was still more sources of Media and Persia had been fully strongly fortified, and more capable of developed, Mesopotamia paid more tribute standing a blockade than Nineveh was. than Media and Persia together. The Her walls, of immense height and solidity, Valley, under its old system of irrigation, enclosed a district of about twelve miles was as remarkable for fertility as the region square, containing a large cultivated area, st of the Zagros was the reverse. And, the produce of which was of itself, it is said,

sufficient to provide food for the inhabit-western half of which angular district ants; and, moreover, the city had been (namely, that abutting on the Tigris), is amply provisioned by the foresight of the further protected by several lesser streams king. It was the extraordinary over-confi- which flow between the Zab and the Tigris, dence of its defenders which alone allowed whose channels offered subsidiary lines of Cyrus at length to capture the city. Baby- defence, and whose waters could be emlon, like Nineveh, fell by the treachery (if ployed to fill moats and canals. Here, in we may so speak) of the great river on the western portion of the interfluvial triwhich it stood. In both cases the waters angle, they founded a series of royal cities. of the valley turned against the kingdoms First, Calah, now called Nimrud, was the thereof, and were the immediate cause of new capital, situated at the southern apex of their fall. The Tigris surged up from its the district, on the banks of the Tigris, and bed in unusual overflow and sapped the almost at the point of confluence of that walls of Nineveh; the Euphrates was turned river and the Zab. Next, Ninua (Nineveh), from its channel, and opened a path for the becomes the chief city, likewise situated on Persians into Babylon. Nineveh and Baby- the Tigris, about eighteen miles above Calah. lon each helped to produce the downfall of Keremles, though never the capital, becomes the other; their disunion proved fatal to a third great city of this royal district, sitboth, and to the independence of the Valley. uated about twelve miles from Calah, and In like manner to state the fact fancifully nearly as much from Ninua. And lastly, -the rivers whose defection or rebellion Khorsabad, the royal city of Sargon, is played so important part in the downfall of built, about ten miles north-by-east of Ninua, the two capitals, and of the ancient mon- and about seventeen north-by-west of Kerarchies established on their banks, soon emles. All of these four cities were adorned shared in the disasters which they had in- with palaces, where the kings resided; two of flicted. Their courses became untended; them, Calah and Ninua, were recognised as the irrigating canals were allowed to choke capitals, and Khorsabad was doubtless, de up; unhealthy morasses began to cover the facto, the capital during the reign of its once fertile districts at their mouth; and royal founder. instead of continuing to be, like the Nile, Thus far we have been travelling on sure the parents of the grandeur of the valley, ground. But now a question arises which they beheld the famous region which they has given birth to a keen controversy. Of had so long fertilized sink into barrenness, the great ruins of cities existing within this and their subject streams became a means of transport for the armies of a succession of foreign conquerors.

narrow district, which are those of Nineveh? Since the recent explorations commenced, some authorities have said that the true position of ancient Nineveh was at Nimrud (Calah); M. Botta declares it was at Khorsabad; Professor Rawlinson denies that it was anywhere but at Ninua, opposite Mosul; while Mr. Layard and others hold that ancient Nineveh included all of those cities, and also Keremles.

Let us now see something of the extent and appearance of the ruined cities of the valley. And let us begin with those of Assyria, which were the last to arise and the first to perish. The earliest capital of Assyria was Asshur, on the west bank of the Tigris, where extensive ruins still exist. Long lines of low mounds mark the posi- Local tradition and ancient writers unite tion of the old walls, forming a quadrangle; in placing Nineveh on the tract opposite and within their circuit the chief object is Mosul. Nearly all of them state that it a square mound or platform, two and a was built on the banks of the Tigris, but half miles in circumference, and rising to Strabo says merely that it was situated in the height of a hundred feet above the level the middle of Aturia, the angular district of the plain. The summit of the platform enclosed by the Zab and the Tigris. Imis covered with crumbling walls and heaps mediately opposite Mosul, on the east bank of rubbish, the remains of the palaces which of the Tigris, are some huge mounds of had stood there; and at one end of the plat- ruins, one of which is still called by the form the ruins rise in the form of a high Arabs, Nebbi Yunus, or the 'Tomb of cone or pyramid, perhaps marking the site Jonah;' here also are the remains of great of a temple. But as the Assyrians grew in palaces, including that of Sennacherib; and, power, they transferred their capital some if we understand Mr. Rawlinson aright, the fifty miles farther up the valley, and to the name 'Ninua' is found stamped on the other side of the Tigris. They chose as the bricks. Here then, despite the claims of head-quarters of their power the angle of Nimrud and Khorsabad, we should unhesicountry formed by the confluent streams of tatingly place the site of ancient Nineveh, the Tigris and the Greater Zab; and the were it not for the disparity between the