and the ruin was delayed. On finding this, the prophet acted in a very
unworthy manner. To have failed as a prophet gave him great concern;
insomuch, that he desired death. “Take, I beseech thee, O Lord, my life
from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” “Shall I not
spare Nineveh,” answered the Lord, “that great city, wherein are more
than six-score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
Sardanapalus was, beyond all other sovereigns recorded in history, the
most effeminate and voluptuous; the most perfect specimen of sloth,
luxury, cowardice, crime, and elaborate folly, that was, perhaps, ever
before exhibited to the detestation of mankind. He clothed himself in
women’s attire, and spun fine wool and purple amongst throngs of
concubines. He painted likewise his face, and decked his whole body with
other allurements. He imitated, also, a woman’s voice; and in a thousand
respects disgraced his nature by the most unbounded licentiousness and
depravity. He even wished to immortalise his impurities; selecting for
his epitaph the following lines:—
Hæc habeo quæ edi, quæque exsaturata libido
Hausit; at illa jacent multa et præclara relicta.
“This epitaph,” says Aristotle, “is only fit for a hog.”[23]
Through all the city sounds the voice of joy,
And tipsy merriment. On the spacious walls,
That, like huge sea-cliffs, gird the city in,
Myriads of wanton feet go to and fro;
Gay garments rustle in the scented breeze;
Crimson and azure, purple, green, and gold;
Laugh, jest, and passing whisper are heard there;
Timbrel and lute, and dulcimer and song;
And many feet that tread the dance are seen,
And arms unflung, and swaying head-plumes crown’d:
So is that city steep’d in revelry[24].
In this dishonourable state Sardanapalus lived several years. At length
the governor of Media, having gained admittance into his palace, and
seen with his own eyes a king guilty of such criminal excesses; enraged
at the spectacle, and not able to endure that so many brave men should
be subject to a prince more soft and effeminate than the women
themselves, immediately resolved to put an end to his dominion. He
therefore formed a conspiracy against him; and in this he was joined by
Belesis, governor of Babylon, and several others. Supporting each other
for the same end, the one stirred up the Medes and Persians; the other
inflamed the inhabitants of Babylon. They gained over, also, the king
of Arabia. Several battles, however, were fought, in all of which the
rebels were repulsed and defeated. They became, therefore, so greatly
disheartened, that at length the commanders resolved every one to return
to their respective countries; and they had done so, had not Belesis
entertained great faith in an astrological prediction. He was
continually consulting the stars; and at length solemnly assured the
confederated troops, that in five days they would be aided by a support,
they were at present unable to imagine or anticipate;—the gods having
given to him a decided intimation of so desirable an interference. Just
as he had predicted, so it happened; for before the time he mentioned
had expired, news came that the Bactrians, breaking the fetters of
servitude, had sprung into the field, and were hastening to their
assistance.
Sardanapalus, not knowing any thing of the revolt of the Bactrians, and
puffed up by former successes, was still indulging in sloth and
idleness, and preparing beasts for sacrifice, plenty of wine, and other
things necessary wherewith to feast and entertain his soldiers. While
the army was thus indulging itself, Arbaces, receiving intelligence, by
some deserters, of the security and intemperance of the enemy, fell in
upon them in the night on a sudden; and being in due order and
discipline, and setting upon such as were in confusion, he being before
prepared, and the other altogether unprovided, they easily broke into
their camp, and made a great slaughter of some, forcing the rest into
the city. Upon this, Sardanapalus committed the charge of his whole army
to his wife’s brother, (Salamenes,) and took upon himself the defence of
the city. But the rebels twice defeated the king’s forces; once in the
open field, and the second time before the walls of the city; in which
last engagement Salamenes was killed, and almost all his army lost;
some being cut off in the pursuit, and the rest (save a very few) being
interrupted, and prevented from entering into the city, were driven
headlong into the Euphrates; and so great was the number destroyed, that
the river became dyed with the blood, and retained that colour for a
great distance and a long course together.
Sardanapalus, now perceiving that his kingdom was like to be lost, sent
away his three sons and his three daughters, with a great deal of
treasure, into Paphlagonia, to Cotta, the governor there, his most
entire friend; and sent posts into all the provinces of the kingdom, in
order to raise soldiers, and to make all other preparations necessary to
endure a siege; being greatly encouraged to do this from an acquaintance
with an ancient prophecy; viz.—that Nineveh could never be taken by
force, till the river should become a foe to the city.
The enemy, on the other hand, grown more courageous by their successes,
eagerly urged on the siege. They made, nevertheless, but little
impression on the besieged, by reason of the strength of the walls; for
balistæ to cast stones, testudos to cast up mounts, and battering-rams,
were not known in those ages. The city was also well supplied with every
thing needful. The siege, therefore, lasted two years: during which time
nothing to any purpose was done, save that the walls were sometimes
assaulted, and the besieged penned up in the city. At length, in the
third year, an unfortunate circumstance took place. This was no other
than the overflowing of the Euphrates, and from continual rains, coming
up into a part of the city, and tearing down thirty furlongs of the
walls in length.
When the king found this—conceiving it to be no other than a fulfilment
of the prophecy, on the improbability of which he had so strongly
relied—he gave himself up to despair; caused a large pile of wood to be
made in one of the courts of his palace; heaped together all his gold,
silver, and wearing apparel; and inclosing his eunuchs and concubines in
an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire; when all
perished in the flames in common with himself.
When the revolters heard of this, they entered through several breaches
made in the walls, and took the city. They clothed Arbaces with a royal
robe, proclaimed him king, and invested him with despotic authority: in
gratitude for which Arbaces rewarded every one according to his deserts.
He showed great clemency, also, to the inhabitants of Nineveh; for
though he dispersed them into several villages, he restored every one to
his estate. He, nevertheless, razed the city to the ground. The sum,
found in the palace and elsewhere, appears to be incredible: for it is
stated to have been no less than equivalent to 25,000,000,000 of pounds
sterling. The fire lasted more than fifteen days. Thus, after a
continuance of thirty generations, the Assyrian empire was overturned,
in the year of the world, 3080; and before Christ 868. Thus far
Diodorus; but Usher, and many other historians, amongst whom may be
mentioned Herodotus, state, that the Assyrian empire, from Ninus, lasted
only 520 years.
Several kings reigned after this, under what is called the second
Assyrian empire. For on the fall of the former, three considerable
kingdoms were generated, viz:—that of the Medes, which Arbaces, on the
fall of Nineveh, restored to its liberty; that of the Assyrians of
Babylon, which was given to Belesis, governor of that city; and that of
the Assyrians of Nineveh.
The first king that reigned in Nineveh, after the death of
Sardanapalus, is called in Scripture Tiglath-Pileser[25]; the second
Salmanaser, in whose reign, Tobit, with Anna his wife, and his son
Tobias, was carried captive into Assyria, where he became one of
Salmanaser’s principal officers. That king having died after a reign of
fourteen years, he was succeeded by his son Sennacherib; he, whose army
was cut off in one night before the walls of Jerusalem. He had laid
siege to that city some time before, but had marched against Egypt,
which country having subdued, he once more sat down before the sacred
city: “And it came to pass, that the angel of the Lord went out, and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five
thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were
all dead corpses[26].” After so terrible a blow, the pretended king of
kings, as he presumed to call himself, “this triumpher over nations, and
conqueror of gods,” returned to his own country, where “it came to pass,
as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that he was
struck by his two sons[27], who smote him with the sword: and
Esarhaddon, his youngest son, reigned in his stead[28].” The destruction
that fell upon his army, has been thus described by a celebrated poet of
modern times.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.
I.
“The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
II.
“Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
III.
“For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.
IV.
“And there lay the steed, with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
V.
“And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
VI.
“And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail;
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”
Esarhaddon was succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar the First, in whose reign
Tobit died[29]. Perceiving his end approaching, that good old man called
his children to him, and advised them to lose no time, after they had
buried him and their mother, but to quit the city, before its ruin came
on. “The ruin of Nineveh,” said he, “is at hand; the wickedness of the
city will occasion its ruin.”
Nahum represents the wickedness of this city, too, in terms exceedingly
vivid[30]: “Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery.”
“It shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee
from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her?” “The
gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire
shall devour thy bars.” “The sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee
up like the canker-worm.” “Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy
people be scattered upon the mountains, and no man shall gather them.”
Zephaniah, also, issued similar denunciations[31]. “The Lord will make
Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness: and flocks shall lie
down in the midst of her; both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge
in it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the
thresholds.” “This is the rejoicing city, that dwelt carelessly, that
said in her heart, ‘_I am_, and there is none beside me.’ How shall she
become a desolation; a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that
passes by shall hiss and wag his hand.”
The ruin, predicted, came in the reign of Saracus. Cyaxares, king of the
Medes, entering into an alliance with the king of Babylon, they joined
their forces together, laid siege to the city, took it, slew their king,
and utterly destroyed it.
“God,” says the historian, “had foretold by his prophets, that he would
bring vengeance upon that impious city, for the blood of his servants,
wherewith the kings thereof had gorged themselves, like ravenous lions;
that he himself would march at the head of the troops that should come
to besiege it; that he would cause consternation and terror to go before
him; that he would deliver the old men, the mothers, and their children,
into the merciless hands of the soldiers; and that all the treasures of
the city should fall into the hands of rapacious and insatiable
plunderers; and that the city itself should be so totally destroyed,
that not so much as a footstep of it should be left; and that the people
should ask hereafter, Where did the proud city of Nineveh stand?”[32]
This prophecy has been fulfilled only in part; the absolute completion
of it remains still to be fulfilled. In the time of Hadrian, the ruins
of it still existed; and at a subsequent period a great battle was
fought on the space left among the ruins, between Heraclius, Emperor of
Constantinople, and Rhazates, general to Chosroes, king of Persia. On
that memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed the
bravest of his warriors; his hip was wounded with a spear; the steed was
wounded in the thigh; but he carried his master safe and victorious
through the triple phalanx of the enemy. In the heat of the action,
three valiant chiefs were successively slain by the sword and lance of
the emperor; amongst whom was Rhazates himself. He fell like a soldier:
but the sight of his head scattered grief and despair through the
fainting ranks of the Persians. In this battle, which was fiercely
fought from day-break to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight standards,
besides those which might be torn or broken, were taken from the
Persians; the greatest part of their army was cut to pieces, and the
victors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. They
acknowledged that on this occasion it was less difficult to kill than to
discomfit the soldiers of Chosroes. The conquerors recovered three
hundred Roman standards, as well as a great number of captives, of
Edessa and Alexandria. Soon after this battle, Chosroes felt compelled
to fly: he was afterwards deposed, thrown into a dungeon, where he was
insulted, famished, tortured, and at length murdered by one of his own
sons.
We have given an account of its ancient size and splendour: we must now
give some account of the ruins which still remain: for though some
writers insist, that even the dust of this vast city has disappeared, it
is certain that some of its walls still subsist, beside the city of
Mosul.
Mosul was visited by Captain Kinneir, in the years 1813-14. “About a
mile before we entered Mosul,” says he, “we passed two artificial
tumuli, and extensive ramparts, supposed to be the ruins of the ancient
Nineveh. The first tumulus is about three quarters of a mile in
circumference. It has the same appearance, and is of about the same
height, as those we saw at Susa. The circumference of the other is not
so considerable; but its elevation is greater, and on the top stands the
tomb of Jonah, the prophet, round which has been erected a village,
called Nunia.”
Captain Kinneir proceeds to state, that the Jews go in pilgrimage to
this tomb; which is a small and insignificant building, crowned with a
cupola. The rampart is esteemed, by some, to have been thrown up by
Nadir Shah, when he besieged Mosul. Captain Kinneir, however, had no
doubt that this opinion is founded in error, since they in no way
resembled the field-works which an army, such as that of Nadir Shah, was
likely to erect. “I cannot doubt, therefore,” says he, “that they are
the vestiges of some ancient city, probably Nineveh; or that Larissa,
described by Xenophon.” In regard to Mosul, he describes it as a
sombre-looking town, fast dwindling into insignificance.
These ruins were subsequently visited by Mr. Rich, the East India
Company’s resident at Bagdat. They lie on the eastern banks of the
Tigris[33]. To the north are the Gara mountains, on the chain of which
snow is said to lie in clefts and sheltered situations from one year to
another. The Tigris is here about four hundred feet broad, its depth,
for the most part, about two fathoms; and near the bridge was fought the
celebrated battle between Chosroes’ troops and those of Heraclius, to
which we have just now alluded. On the eastern side of this bridge many
remains of antiquity have been found, consisting, for the most part, of
bricks, some of which are whole and some in fragments, and pieces of
gypsum, some of which are covered with inscriptions, in cruciform
character[34]. There are also narrow ancient passages, with apertures or
doors, opening one into the other, dark, narrow, and vaulted, appearing
as if designed as vaults for the reception of dead bodies.
Mr. Rich afterwards rode through the area of Nineveh to the first wall
of the inclosure. He found it a line of earth and gravel, out of which
large hewn stones are frequently dug, as out of all the walls of the
area. Beyond was a ditch still very regular; beyond which was a wall,
and beyond that another wall larger than any. “The area of Nineveh,”
says Mr. Rich, “is, on a rough guess, about one and a half to two miles
broad, and four miles long. On the river on the west side there are only
remains of one wall; and I observed the same at the north and south
extremities; but on the east side there are the remains of three walls.
The west one appears to have run a little in front of Nebbi Yunus.
Between it and the river the ground is subject to frequent inundations
and changes; but it has not interfered with the area.”
Mr. Rich did not observe at the angles of the walls any traces of
towers, bastions, or any works of that kind. These walls are not more
than from ten to fifteen feet high. Large masses of hewn stone are
frequently dug up, and bricks are ploughed up perpetually. There is also
a piece of grey stone, shaped like the capital of a column, such as at
this day surmounts the wooden pillars or posts of Turkish, or rather
Persian, verandahs; but there was no carving on it. Pottery, too, is
often found, and other Babylonian fragments; also bits of brick adhering
to them. These are found near a mound, called the Mount of Koyunjuk, the
height of which is about forty-three feet, and its circumference 7691
feet. Its sides are very steep, and its top nearly flat.
Some years ago, a very large bas-relief was dug up among the ruins,
representing men and animals, covering a grey stone about ten or eleven
feet in height. All the town of Mosul left their houses to go and see
this remarkable specimen of antiquity; but not one had the taste to
endeavour to preserve it. It was in a few days, therefore, cut up or
broken to pieces.
One day, as Mr. Rich was riding along on the outside of the walls, his
attention was directed to an object of great antiquity. “Some people had
been digging for stones,” says he, “and had dug a hole in the ground,
from which they had turned up many large hewn stones with bitumen
adhering to them. I examined the excavation, which was about ten feet
deep, and found it consisted of huge stones, laid in layers of bitumen
and lime-mortar. I brought away some specimens of them sticking
together. I also saw some layers of red clay, which were very thick, and
had become as indurated as burnt brick; but there was not the least
appearance of reeds or straw having been used. This mass appeared to
have been a foundation or superstructure. We found among the rubbish
some pieces of coarse unglazed pottery. It would not have been possible
to tell, from the appearance of the surface of the ground, that there
had been building beneath—a watercourse full of pebbles had even passed
over it. It is, therefore, very difficult to say to what extent vestiges
of building may exist outside the inclosures, the area of which may have
been the royal quarter; but certainly was never sufficient for the city
of Nineveh.”
“Except the ruins of some large and lofty turrets,” says Mr. Morier,
“like that of Babel or Belus, the cities of Babylon and Nineveh are so
completely crumbled into dust, as to be wholly undistinguishable, but by
a few inequalities of the surface on which they once stood. The humble
tent of the Arab now occupies the spot formerly adorned with the palaces
of kings; and his flocks procure but a scanty pittance of food, amidst
fallen fragments of ancient magnificence. The banks of the Euphrates and
Tigris, once so prolific, are now, for the most part, covered with
impenetrable brush-wood; and the interior of the province, which was
traversed and fertilised with innumerable canals, is destitute of either
inhabitants or vegetation.”
Among the ruins is a wall, and on the borders of that the peasants of
the neighbourhood assemble every year, and sacrifice a sheep, with music
and other festivities; a superstition far anterior to the religion they
now possess. “One thing is sufficiently obvious,” says Mr. Rich, “to the
most careless observer, and that is, the equality of age of all the
vestiges discovered here. Whether they belonged to Nineveh or some other
city, is another question; but that they are all of the same age and
character does not admit of a doubt.”
Mr. Rich took measurements of the mounds, that still exist among these
ruins, and did not neglect to cut her name on the wall of what is called
Thisbe’s Well. “Some traveller in after times,” says he, with an
agreeable enthusiasm, “when her remembrance has long been swept away by
the torrent of time, may wonder, on reading the name of Mary Rich[35],
who the adventurous female was, who had visited the ruins of Nineveh. He
will not be aware, that had her name been inscribed at every spot she
had visited in the course of her weary pilgrimage, it would be found in
places, compared with which, Mousul is the centre of civilisation.”
From the circumstance that from all the mounds large stones, sometimes
with bitumen adhering to them, are frequently dug out, Mr. Rich was
inclined to believe, that but few bricks were used in the building of
this once vast city. There is, however, not much certainty as to this,
or in regard to what kind of architecture it was, for the most, or,
indeed, any part constructed; for though its walls may be traced in a
multitude of directions, nothing now remains beside a few mounds, some
bricks, and large stones, hewn into a shape which evidently prove, that
they once formed the houses or the temples of a city[36].
NO. VII.—NUMANTIA.
This city stood near the river Douro; out of the ruins of which has
arisen the town of Soria. According to Strabo, it was the capital of
Celtiberia.