“What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?”—COWLEY.
THE name of Semiramis is associated with the story of Nineveh’s glory,
and the building of the mighty city of Babylon. And though historians
differ widely regarding the time of her famous reign, and some even
express doubts whether she ever really existed, holding that her story
was a mythological legend, her name is too illustrious to be passed
over in silence, and her deeds too remarkable to be ignored, if she did
in truth live; and if the story is a mere legend, it is, moreover, so
interwoven with historical records as to deserve mention.
The date we have chosen from among many, covering more than a thousand
years, is the date of the founding of Nineveh by Ninus, who was said to
be the son of the mighty Nimrod, whom some say founded this great city;
his son only embellishing it. Rollin states that Nimrod was probably
the famous Belus of the Babylonians, afterwards deified by the people
and worshipped under the name of Baal.
The birth of Semiramis, the celebrated queen of Assyria, is shrouded in
mystery. Legends say that she was born at Ascalon, a city of Syria,
and that she was the daughter of the goddess Derceto, and that her
father was an Assyrian youth of striking beauty. Being deserted by her
mother, she was fed by doves in the desert; and when she was about a
year old, a shepherd named Simmas found the infant in a rocky place,
and he adopted the foundling as his child, calling her Semiramis.
When she had grown to maidenhood, she was remarkable for her great
beauty, and was also possessed of an unusual intelligence. Menones,
the governor of Nineveh, having on one occasion been sent by King
Ninus to inspect his Syrian flocks, beheld this beautiful maiden at
the shepherd’s dwelling, and being intensely pleased by her marvellous
beauty, made her his wife. So great a power did Semiramis obtain over
her husband Menones, that he was soon completely subject to her wishes,
and so much did he respect her judgment that he sought her advice upon
every project. King Ninus previously to this time had subjugated in
seventeen years all the nations of Asia, with the exception of the
Indians and the Bactrians. He had conquered Babylonia, Armenia, Media,
Egypt, Phœnicia, Cœle Syria, Cilicia, Lycia, Lydia, Mysia, Phrygia,
Bithynia, Cappadocia, and reduced the nations on the Pontus as far as
the Tanais. Then he made himself master of the land of the Cadusians
and Tapyrians, of the Hyrcanians, Drangians, Derbiccians, Carmanians,
Chorasmians, Barcians, and Parthians. He also conquered Persia,
Susiana, and Caspiana. Ninus then determined to build a mighty city,
and so he founded Nineveh, or finished the work which his father had
begun.
This city was built on the bank of the river Tigris. The circumference
of the city was sixty miles, and it was surrounded by walls one hundred
feet high, and so broad that three chariots might ride abreast upon
the top. The walls were fortified with fifteen hundred towers, each
two hundred feet high. When this great city was completed, King Ninus
determined to march against the Bactrians, who yet withstood his power.
According to the accounts of Ctesias and Diodorus, his army numbered
1,700,000 foot-soldiers, 210,000 cavalry, and about 10,600 chariots of
war. The narrowness of the passes which protect the entrance to Bactria
forced Ninus to divide his forces. The king of the Bactrians met him
with 400,000 men. The Assyrians were successful in forcing their way
into the country, but they suffered great loss. At length all of the
cities were captured except Bactria, the chief city, where was the
palace of the king. Ninus now besieged this city, and Menones, who was
one of the chief counsellors of the king, sent for his wife Semiramis
to come to the camp. Semiramis seized this favorable opportunity to
display her power. She clothed herself in peculiar garments, so that
it could not be ascertained whether she was a man or a woman; and
this style of robe at a later day became the costume of the Medes and
Persians. When she arrived in the camp, she perceived that the attack
was directed chiefly against that part of the city lying in the plain,
and not against the citadel; and she also perceived that this caused
the Bactrians to guard their fortifications with less vigilance. She
thereupon made selection of a body of troops who were accustomed to
climbing, and led them in person to the attack of the citadel. This
she captured, and then signalled to the army below in the plains.
The Bactrians, perceiving that their citadel was taken, made weak
resistance, and the city was conquered. King Ninus so admired the
daring courage of this beautiful woman who had gained for him such a
victory, that he determined to make her his wife, and offered his own
daughter to Menones, in exchange for his wife Semiramis. But Menones
was too much attached to his wife to relinquish her to another, and
then Ninus threatened to put out the eyes of Menones unless he would
consent to this arrangement. The unhappy Menones, overcome with jealous
love and fear, hung himself in despair, and King Ninus then married
Semiramis. Accounts differ regarding the death of Ninus, which placed
Semiramis upon this powerful throne. According to some, Ninus died
after reigning fifty-two years, and bequeathed to her the sovereign
power, their young son, Ninyas, being too young to reign. Others state
that Ninus, at the request of Semiramis, granted to his young and
beautiful wife the absolute sovereignty of his empire for five days.
The young queen of twenty was seated upon the royal throne, the signet
ring was placed upon her finger, and all the provinces of the realm
were commanded to do her reverence, and obey implicitly her decrees.
Semiramis, having thus secured supreme authority, made most ungrateful
and wicked use of her power. She thereupon commanded her husband to be
imprisoned, and afterwards put to death; and then declared herself his
successor, and reigned alone during the remainder of her life. Whether
she killed her husband or not, she is said to have erected for him a
magnificent tomb adjoining the famous Tower of Belus, and adorned it
with statues of massive gold.
She now resolved to immortalize her name by the erection of marvellous
monuments, and undertaking mighty and difficult enterprises. She
determined to surpass the fame of Ninus; and accordingly undertook the
founding, or embellishment, of the great city of Babylon, in which
work she is said to have employed two millions of men.
The foundation of Babylon had already been commenced by the builders
of the famous Tower of Babel. Among the works in Babylon attributed
to Semiramis, are the walls and towers and citadels; the bridge over
the Euphrates, the temple of Belus, and the excavation of the lake to
draw off the waters of the Euphrates. She is said to have founded other
cities on the Euphrates and Tigris. She built huge aqueducts, connected
various cities by roads and highways, in the construction of which she
was forced to level mountains and fill up valleys. She is said to have
marched with a large army to Media, and planted the garden near Mount
Bagistanon. This mountain is more than ten thousand feet high, and she
caused its steep face to be smoothed, and on it her picture was cut,
surrounded by one hundred guards. She afterwards made another large
garden near the city of Chauon, in Media, and in the midst of it, upon
a high rock, she erected a splendid palace, in which she remained for
a long time. In Ecbatana she also built a magnificent palace; and in
order to provide the city with water, she caused a tunnel to be cut
through the base of the lofty mountain Orontes, to a lake lying upon
its further side. The following is one of the many inscriptions she
caused to be carved upon the monuments of her power and surprising
greatness.
“Nature bestowed on me the form of a woman; my actions have surpassed
those of the most valiant of men. I ruled the empire of Ninus, which
stretched eastward as far as the river Hyhanam, southward to the land
of incense and of myrrh, and northward to the country of the Scythians
and Sogdians. Before me, no Assyrian had seen the great sea. I beheld
with my own eyes four seas, and their shores acknowledged my power.
I constrained the mighty rivers to flow according to my will, and I
led their waters to fertilize lands that had been before barren and
without inhabitants. I raised impregnable towers; I constructed paved
roads in ways hitherto untrodden but by the beast of the forests; and
in the midst of these mighty works I found time for pleasure and for
friendship.”
Semiramis was very vigilant and daring in the administration of her
government. It is related that one morning, when she was making her
toilet, it was reported to her that a revolt had broken out among a
portion of the citizens. She immediately rushed forth, half-attired,
with hair floating in disorder, and bravely faced the tumultuous crowd
of rioters. Her presence and eloquence quickly appeased their fury, and
then she returned and calmly finished her toilet.
At length she determined to subjugate India. For two years she made
preparations for this expedition. Her army consisted of 3,000,000
foot-soldiers, 500,000 horsemen, and 100,000 chariots. As the Indians
were famous for their vast numbers of elephants which they used in
battle, which were considered almost invincible, Semiramis determined
to endeavor to overcome this obstacle by stratagem. She accordingly
ordered 100,000 camels to be covered with the sewn skins of black oxen,
in imitation of elephants; and each animal was mounted by a warrior.
For crossing the Indus, 2,000 ships were built, and then taken to
pieces and strapped on the backs of camels, while travelling on land.
Stabrobates, the king of the Indians, had raised a mighty force to meet
her. As Semiramis approached his realm, he sent messengers to her to
inquire why she was making war upon him, and demanding to know who she
was who thus dared to invade his kingdom. The haughty Assyrian queen
replied, “Go to your king, and tell him I will myself inform him who I
am and why I am come hither.”
In the first contest Semiramis was victorious, and she took 100,000
prisoners; a thousand ships of the Indians were sunk in the Indus. But
the Indian king, pretending flight, led the army of Semiramis after
him. Having caused a large bridge to be built over the Indus, Semiramis
landed her entire army on the other side, and with her mock elephants
in front of her forces, she pursued the retreating Indians. At first
the Indians were alarmed by these false elephants; but finding out
the stratagem, the king of India turned, and attacking Semiramis with
his real elephants, her troops were put to flight, and she herself
was wounded by an arrow and javelin thrown by the Indian king, who
was mounted on his largest elephant. Semiramis and the remnant of her
army hastened across the Indus; and as Stabrobates had been warned
by seers not to cross the river, they came to terms of capitulation,
and exchanged prisoners. Then Semiramis returned to Assyria with only
one-third of her army left.
When she arrived again within the borders of her own kingdom, she was
informed that her son Ninyas had conspired against her. As the oracle
in the temple of Jupiter Ammon had previously declared that when her
son should conspire against her, she would disappear from the sight of
mortals and be received among the immortals, this news occasioned no
resentment against Ninyas; but she immediately abdicated the throne
and transferred the kingdom to him, and is said to have put herself to
death, as though according to the oracle she had raised herself to the
gods. Others relate that she was reported to have been changed into
a dove, and thereupon flew out of the palace with a flock of doves.
Wherefore, the Assyrians regard Semiramis as an immortal, and the dove
as sacred to divinity. She was sixty-two years of age, having reigned
forty-two years.
The following is one of the inscriptions in which she gives her own
genealogy, claiming celestial origin. She is said to have inscribed her
name and praises of her own greatness upon many of the monuments she
erected to immortalize herself.
“MY FATHER WAS JUPITER BELUS;
MY GRANDFATHER, BABYLONIAN SATURN;
MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER, ETHIOPIAN SATURN;
MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER’S FATHER, EGYPTIAN SATURN;
AND MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER’S GRANDFATHER, PHŒNIX
CŒLUS OGYGES.”
This amusing catalogue of high-sounding ancestors may not seem so
very ridiculous in view of the supposition that she never did exist
as a mortal, but that her name and exploits have come down through
the legends of poetry. For it is stated by some authorities that the
story of Semiramis, as related by Ctesias, from which source Diodorus
takes his account, was founded upon Medo-Persian poems sung by the
minstrels of Media and Persia, and that these poems represent the
Assyrians as worshipping a female deity, who was called Istar-Bilit,
the war-goddess, and also goddess of love. Istar of Arbela was the
goddess of battle, and Istar of Nineveh was the goddess of love. Doves
were sacred to her, and in the temples of Syria there were statues of
this goddess with a golden dove on her head. She was invoked there
under the name of Semiramis, a word meaning “high name.” Thus the
Medo-Persian minstrels have changed the legend of an Assyrian goddess
into a heroine, and made her the founder of the Assyrian empire, just
as Greek poets represent their heroes as children of the Immortals of
Olympus.
Whether the story of Semiramis is a fabulous legend, or whether she is
really a historical character, is rather difficult to determine; but
her supposed exploits are so interwoven with Assyrian and Babylonian
history that most authorities give her a prominent historical place;
and if half of her marvellous deeds are true, she must without doubt
hold an illustrious place amongst the famous queens of ancient history.