THE NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE AND THE PERSIAN CONQUEST
Freed from her Assyrian oppressors, Babylon now renewed her youth, and
the city attained a material splendour and magnificence such as she had
not achieved during the long course of her earlier history. But it took
her more than a generation to realize to the full her newly awakened
ambitions. After his declaration of independence, Nabopolassar's
influence did not extend far beyond the walls of Babylon and Borsippa.
The other great cities, both in the north and south, continued for a
time to acknowledge Assyrian supremacy. But the sons of Ashur-bani-pal,
who succeeded him upon the throne, had inherited a reduced empire,
whose sole support, the Assyrian army, was now largely composed of
disheartened mercenaries. In Ashur-bani-pal's reign there had been
signs of coming change and of the appearance of new races before whom
the Assyrians were doomed to disappear. The destruction of Urartu had
removed a vital barrier against the incursion of the nomad tribes,
and with its disappearance we find new racial elements pressing into
Western Asia, of the same Indo-European family as that of the Medes and
their Iranian kinsfolk. These were the Scythians, who in the middle of
the seventh century had driven the Cimmerians before them into Asia
Minor, and it was they who a generation later struck the death-blow of
the Assyrian empire, pouring across it in resistless hordes. Assyria
had no force in reserve with which to oppose their progress or repair
their ravages.
For centuries this great military power had struck terror throughout
Western Asia; but insatiable lust for dominion now met with its due
reward. Since Sennacherib's day the ranks of the army had been filled
with levies drawn from her subject peoples or with mercenary troops,
and these were a poor substitute for the race of hardy fighters who
had been sacrificed in their country's countless wars. So when the
Medes invested Nineveh, with the possible assistance of the Scythians,
and the passive encouragement of Babylon, the capital could look for
no assistance from her provinces. According to Herodotus[1] the Medes
had already twice invaded Assyria before the final investment; and it
was natural that Nabopolassar should have regarded them as his allies,
and have concluded a definite alliance with them by marrying his
son Nebuchadnezzar to the daughter of Cyaxares, the Median king.[2]
Sennacherib's mighty walls kept the enemy at bay for three years, but
in 606 B.C. the city was taken by storm, and later ages preserved the
tradition that Sin-shar-ishkun, the Sarakos of the Greeks, perished in
the flames of his palace, rather than fall alive into the besiegers'
hands.
Though he does not appear to have taken any active part in the long
siege of Nineveh, Nabopolassar was not slow in securing his share of
the dismembered empire. The northern territory of Assyria, including
Northern Mesopotamia,[3] fell to the Medes, while the southern
districts became parts of Nabopolassar's empire under a possible Median
suzerainty.[4] But Babylon was soon to put her newly organized army
to the test. Two years before the fall of Nineveh Egypt had seized
the opportunity, afforded her by Assyria's impotence, of occupying
Palestine and Syria.[5] She had crushed Josiah and his Hebrew army at
Megiddo, and, though it is not certain whether Judah had the support
of other allies, it is clear that Necho encountered no effective
opposition on his advance to the Euphrates. But Nabopolassar did not
intend to allow this portion of the Assyrian empire to fall to Egypt
unchallenged, and he despatched a Babylonian force north-westwards
along the Euphrates under the command of the crown-prince,
Nebuchadnezzar. The two armies met at Carchemish in 604 B.C., where the
Egyptians were utterly routed and driven back through Palestine.[6]
But Nebuchadnezzar did not press his pursuit beyond the borders of
Egypt, for news reached him at Pelusium of Nabopolassar's death, and he
was obliged to return at once to Babylon in order to carry out at the
capital the necessary ceremonies attending his accession to the throne.
In spite of his withdrawal from the country, the greater part of Syria
and Palestine lost no time in transferring their allegiance to Babylon.
The little state of Judah was an exception, for, though she paid her
tribute at first, she soon put the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah at
defiance, and her short-sighted revolt led to the capture of Jerusalem
by Nebuchadnezzar in 596 B.C., and to the carrying away of a large
portion of her population into captivity. A few years later Egypt made
her last attempt to reoccupy Palestine and Syria, and Judah joined the
Phoenician cities of Sidon and Tyre in rallying to her support. In
587 Nebuchadnezzar advanced into Northern Syria and took up a strong
strategic position at Riblah on the Orontes, whence he despatched
a part of his army to besiege Jerusalem. An attempt by Apries, the
Egyptian king, to relieve the city was unsuccessful, and in 586
Jerusalem was once more taken and the greater part of the remnant of
the Jews followed their fellow-countrymen into exile.[7] The Babylonian
army then occupied Phoenicia, though the city of Tyre offered an
obstinate resistance and only acknowledged its allegiance to Babylon
after a long siege, which is said to have lasted for thirteen years.[8]
Thus Nebuchadnezzar completed the work begun by his father,
Nabopolassar, and, by the skilful and vigorous prosecution of his
campaigns, established the Neo-Babylonian empire on a firm basis,
so that its authority was unquestioned from the Persian Gulf to
the Egyptian frontier. Of his later campaigns nothing has yet been
published, beyond a fragmentary reference to a conflict with Amasis of
Egypt in the thirty-seventh year of his reign.[9] Though we do not know
the circumstances under which it took place, we may assume that the
Babylonian army was again victorious against the Egyptian troops and
the Greek mercenaries who fought in their ranks. A tradition is indeed
preserved by Josephus that Nebuchadnezzar made Egypt a Babylonian
province, and although this is certainly an exaggeration, the evidence
suggests that he may well have conducted at least one successful
campaign on Egyptian territory. The troubles of Apries in consequence
of his ill-advised expedition against Cyrene, followed by the revolt of
Amasis and his own deposition and death, may well have furnished the
occasion for a successful invasion of the country by Nebuchadnezzar.
A very large number of inscriptions have been recovered of the
Neo-Babylonian kings, but, unlike the foundation-records of Assyria,
they contain no accounts of military expeditions, but confine
themselves to commemorating the restoration or erection of temples and
palaces in Babylon and the other great cities in the land. Considering
his military successes, this is surprising in Nebuchadnezzar's case,
and the suggestion has been made that he may have told us so little of
his expeditions and battles because they were perhaps undertaken at the
bidding of Media as his suzerain.[10] Cyaxares was his kinsman, and the
part played by Babylon in the conflict of Media with Lydia may well be
explained on that hypothesis.
[Illustration: BRONZE DOOR-STEP FROM E-ZIDA, INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME
AND TITLES OF NEBUCHADNEZAR ii. Brit. Mus., No. 90851.]
With the passing of Assyrian power the political importance of
Lydia had risen considerably, and under Sadyattes and Alyattes,
the successors of Ardys upon the Lydian throne, the ravages of the
Cimmerian invasion were repaired. These monarchs had conducted a long
series of attacks upon the cities and states of Ionia, and, though they
were in the main successful, they used up the resources of the nation
without obtaining material advantages in return. Handicapped to this
extent, Lydia entered upon a five years' struggle with the growing
power of Cyaxares, who pushed back her eastern frontier. Matters came
to a head in 585 B.C., when the great battle was fought on the Halys
between Cyaxares and Alyattes on May 28th. The battle is famous for the
total eclipse of the sun, which took place on that day, and is said to
have been foretold by the Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus.[11] By
the subsequent treaty the Halys was fixed as the frontier between Lydia
and the Median empire, and, according to Herodotus, it was arranged
in part through the mediation of Nebuchadnezzar.[12] The intervention
of Babylon must have been undertaken in the Median interest, and it
is possible that Cyaxares could count on Nebuchadnezzar for more than
benevolent neutrality in case of need.
Nebuchadnezzar appears in his inscriptions as a mighty builder, and we
have already seen how he transformed the city of Babylon. He entirely
rebuilt and enlarged his father's royal palace,[13] and in the course
of his reconstructions raised its terraced platform to so great a
height above the surrounding city and plain, that its Hanging Garden
became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.[14] He rebuilt
the great temples of E-zida at Borsippa and of E-sagila at Babylon, and
the Sacred Procession-street within the city he sumptuously paved,
spanning it between the temple of Ninmakh and his own palace with
the famous Ishtar Gate, adorned with bulls and dragons in enamelled
relief.[15] The fortifications of the city he also greatly strengthened
by the extension of its double line of walls and the erection of new
citadels.[16] During his long reign of forty-two years he devoted his
energies and the new wealth of his kingdom to this work of rebuilding,
both in the capital and in the other ancient religious centres of
Babylonia.[17] The decoration of the façade of Nebuchadnezzar's own
palace reflects the influence of the West upon Babylonian art; and we
may picture her markets and quays as thronged with foreign caravans
and merchandise. Evidence of her extended horizon at this period may
also be traced in the interest which Nebuchadnezzar showed in the
sea-traffic on the Persian Gulf, which doubtless led him to construct
a harbour in the swamps, and to protect it against Arab raids by the
erection of the town of Teredon to the west of the Euphrates, as an
outpost on the desert frontier.[18]
Nebuchadnezzar's son, Amêl-Marduk, was an unworthy successor to his
father. During his short reign he was restrained neither by law nor
decency,[19] and it is not surprising that in less than three years
the priestly party should have secured his assassination and have
set Neriglissar, his brother-in-law, in his place, a man of far
stronger character and a soldier.[20] The son of a private Babylonian,
Bêl-shum-ishkun, Neriglissar had married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar,
and we may certainly identify him with Nergal-sharezer, the Rab-mag
or Babylonian general who was present at the siege of Jerusalem.[21]
A striking proof that Neriglissar enjoyed high military rank in
Nebuchadnezzar's reign has recently been obtained in a letter from
Erech, which was written by a captain in charge of a body of troops
stationed in the neighbourhood of that city.[22] The date of the
letter is certain, since the captain refers to soldiers on the roll
of Nebuchadnezzar and Neriglissar; and incidentally it gives us a
glimpse of the unsatisfactory condition of the Babylonian army during
Nebuchadnezzar's closing years. The captain is anxious that the
depleted state of his company, and the measures he contemplates in
order to fill its ranks, should not be known to Gubaru, who exercised
a high command in Nebuchadnezzar's army. It is possible that we may
identify this general with the governor of Gutium, who played so
prominent a part in the Persian conquest. Knowing, as he doubtless
did, the unsatisfactory condition of his country's forces, he may
perhaps have regarded the task of opposing the invaders as quite beyond
their powers.[23] Neriglissar's death, less than four years after
his accession, must certainly have been the death-blow to any hopes
his generals may have entertained of placing the country's military
organization and defence upon a sound footing. For his son was little
more than a child, and after nine months' reign the priestly party
at the capital succeeded in deposing him in favour of one of their
own number, Nabonidus, a man of priestly descent[24] and thoroughly
imbued with the traditions of the hierarchy. The new king carried on
Nebuchadnezzar's tradition of temple-reconstruction with enthusiasm,
but he had none of his great predecessor's military aptitude. To
his own priestly detachment he added the unpractical character of
the archæologist, loving to occupy himself in investigating the
past history of the temples he rebuilt, in place of controlling his
country's administration. The bent of his mind is well reflected
in the account he has left us of the dedication of his daughter,
Bêl-shalti-Nannar, as head of the college of votaries attached to the
Moon-temple at Ur.[25] It is clear that this act and the accompanying
ceremonial interested him far more than the education of his son; and
any military aptitude Belshazzar may have developed was certainly not
fostered by his father or his father's friends. It was only when the
enemy was at the frontier that the king must have realized his own
fatuity.
Thus with the accession of Nabonidus the close of Babylon's last period
of greatness is in sight. But the empire did not crumble of its own
accord, for in one of his foundation-records the king boasts that the
whole of Mesopotamia and the West, as far as Gaza on the Egyptian
border, continued to acknowledge his authority.[26] It required
pressure from without to shatter the decaying empire, which from the
first must have owed its success in no small measure to the friendly
and protective attitude of Media. When that essential support was no
longer forthcoming, it lay at the mercy of the new power before which
Media herself had already gone down.
The Persian kingdom of Cyrus, rising on a new wave of the Indo-European
migration, had had little difficulty in absorbing that of the
Medes.[27] Five years after the accession of Nabonidus, Cyrus had
deposed Astyages, and, uniting his own followers from the south of
Iran with their Median kinsfolk, he proceeded to deal with Croesus of
Lydia. Under her last king, the successor of Alyattes, the power of
Lydia had risen to its greatest height, and the fame of Croesus' wealth
had attracted many of the more cultured Greeks to his court at Sardis.
But when Cyrus made himself master of the Median empire, Croesus began
to fear his growing power. In 547 B.C. he fought an indecisive battle
with the Persians at Pteria in Cappadocia, near the site of the old
Hittite capital, and he then retreated on Sardis. Here he sent for
assistance to Sparta, Egypt and Babylon. But Cyrus did not delay before
renewing his attack, and he appeared unexpectedly before the capital.
The Lydian army was now signally defeated; Sardis, in which Croesus had
taken refuge, was captured after a siege, and the Lydian empire brought
to an end. Cyrus was then free to turn his attention to Babylon.
[Illustration: I. BAKED CLAY FOUNDATION CYLINDER OF NABONIDUS,
REFERRING TO THE DEFEAT OF ASTYAGES BY CYRUS (Brit. Mus., No. 91109.)
II. BAKED CLAY FOUNDATION CYLINDER OF CYRUS RECORDING HIS ENTRY INTO
BABYLON WITHOUT BATTLE AND WITHOUT FIGHTING. (Brit. Mus., No 90920.)]
If we should be right in identifying Gobryas or Gubaru, the governor
of Gutium, with the Babylonian general of that name, who had held high
position under Nebuchadnezzar,[28] we may trace the speed and ease of
the Persian conquest of Babylonia directly to his action in espousing
the cause of the invader. Foreseeing that the only hope for his country
lay in its speedy submission, he may have considered that he would be
acting in its best interests if he did not oppose its incorporation
within the Persian empire, but rendered the revolution so far as
possible a peaceful one. That would explain the action of Cyrus in
entrusting the invasion largely to his hands; and the subsequent revolt
of Sippar is the more easily accounted for if a Babylonian general with
Gubaru's reputation had appeared as the envoy of the Persian king. In
any case we must assume that a large section of the Akkadian population
was of that way of thinking, quite apart from the opposition to himself
that Nabonidus had aroused in the priestly party of the capital.
The defence of the country was entrusted by Nabonidus to his son
Belshazzar, who met the advancing Persians at Opis, where he was
defeated; and, as often as he attempted to rally his forces, they were
again dispersed.[29] Sippar then opened its gates without fighting,
Nabonidus fled, and Gubaru advancing on the capital secured its
peaceful surrender. The native chronicler of these events records
that, during the early days of the Persian occupation of the city, the
shields of Gutium surrounded the doors of E-sagila, so that no man's
spear entered the sacred shrines and no military standard was brought
in.[30] The record gains fresh meaning if we may assume that the
governor of Gutium was himself of native origin and a former general
of the Babylonian army. On the third day of the following month Cyrus
made his state entry into the capital, being received by all classes,
and especially by the priesthood and the nobles, as a liberator. He
appointed Gubaru his governor of Babylon, and the latter appears to
have stamped out further resistance by pursuing Belshazzar and putting
him to death.[31] Nabonidus had already been taken, when the capital
surrendered.
It is perhaps remarkable that the native priesthood, from whose ranks
Nabonidus himself had sprung, should have welcomed the Persian king
as their country's deliverer, whose victory had been brought about by
Marduk, the national god. But, after securing the secular control,
Nabonidus had given free rein to his priestly ambition, and, as a
consequence, had estranged his own party. His imagination may have
been fired by some ill-advised scheme of centralizing worship; but,
whatever his motive, the king had collected many of the cult-images
throughout the country into the capital, little recking that he thereby
tore the gods from their ancient habitations. By restoring the gods to
their local shrines, Cyrus gained in popularity, and completely won
over the priesthood, by far the most powerful political section of the
community.[32] Thus it happened that Babylon made no further struggle
to retain her freedom, and the whole of the territory she had enjoyed
was incorporated without resistance in the Persian empire.
With the permanent loss of Babylon's independence, the period covered
by this history draws to an end. The epoch forms a convenient
stopping-place; but, unlike the fall of the Assyrian empire, her
conquest made but little difference to the life and activities of the
population as a whole. It may therefore be permissible to glance ahead
a little, and note her subsequent fortunes as a subject province, under
the foreign domination of the powers which succeeded one another in the
rule of that region of Western Asia. The tranquillity of the country
under Cyrus formed a striking contrast to the unrest and intrigue which
characterized its attitude under Assyrian rule; and this was due to the
fact that the policy he inaugurated in the provinces of his empire was
a complete reversal of Assyrian methods. For the nationality of each
conquered race was respected, and it was encouraged to retain its own
religion and its laws and customs. Hence Babylon's commercial life and
prosperity suffered no interruption in consequence of the change in her
political status. Taxation was not materially increased, and little was
altered beyond the name and title of the reigning king in the dates
upon commercial and legal documents.[33]
This state of things would doubtless have continued, had not the
authority of the Persian empire itself been rudely shaken during the
reign of Cambyses, Cyrus' son and successor. The conquest of Egypt and
its incorporation as an integral part of the Achæmenian empire, to
which he directed his main energies, were achieved after the battle of
Pelusium and the fall of Memphis. But when attempting to extend his
sway over Nubia in the south, he received news of revolt in Persia.
Before his departure for Egypt he had murdered his brother Bardiya,
known to the Greeks as Smerdis. The murder had been kept a secret,
and the revolt against the absent king was now headed by a Magian,
named Gaumata, who gave himself out as the missing Smerdis and the
true heir to the throne.[34] Cambyses made preparations to repress
the revolt, but died on his return journey in Syria in 522. The death
of the king gave a fresh impetus to the forces of rebellion, which
now began to spread through the provinces of the Persian empire. But
Gaumata, the Persian rebel, soon met his fate. For after Cambyses'
death, the Persian army was led back by Darius, a prince of the same
house as Cyrus and his son; Gaumata was surprised and murdered, and
Darius firmly established on the throne. Darius continued to act with
extraordinary energy, and in the course of a single year succeeded in
quelling the rebellions in Babylon and in the various provinces.[35]
On the rock-face of Behistun in Persia, on the road from Babylon to
Ecbatana, he has left us sculptured portraits of himself and the rebel
leaders he subdued. The latter include Nidintu-Bêl and Arakha, the two
pretenders to the Babylonian throne.[36]
The sieges of Babylon by Darius mark the beginning of the city's decay.
Her defences had not been seriously impaired by Cyrus, but they now
suffered considerably. The city was again restless during Darius'
closing years,[37] and further damage was done to it in the reign of
Xerxes, when the Babylonians made their last bids for independence.[38]
For Xerxes is said not only to have dismantled the walls, but to have
plundered and destroyed the great temple of Marduk itself. Large areas
in the city, which had been a wonder of the nations, now began to lie
permanently in ruins. Babylon entered on a new phase in 331 B.C.,
when the long struggle between Greece and Persia was ended by the
defeat of Darius III. at Gaugamela. For Susa and Babylon submitted to
Alexander, who on proclaiming himself King of Asia, took Babylon as
his capital. We may picture him gazing on the city's great buildings,
many of which now lay ruined and deserted. Like Cyrus before him, he
sacrificed to Babylon's gods; and he is said to have wished to restore
E-sagila, Marduk's great temple, but to have given up the idea, as it
would have taken ten thousand men more than two months to remove the
rubbish from the ruins. But he seems to have made some attempt in that
direction, since a tablet has been found, dated in his sixth year,
which records a payment of ten manehs of silver for "clearing away the
dust of E-sagila."[39]
[Illustration: IMPRESSIONS OF NEO-BABYLONIAN AND PERSIAN CYLINDER
SEALS. Brit. Mus., Nos. 18249, 89146, 89352.]
While the old buildings decayed, some new ones arose in their place,
including a Greek theatre for the use of the large Greek colony.[40]
Many of the Babylonians themselves adopted Greek names and fashions,
but the more conservative elements, particularly among the priesthood,
continued to retain their own separate life and customs. In the year
270 B.C. we have a record that Antiochus Soter restored the temples of
Nairn and Marduk at Babylon and Borsippa,[41] and the recent diggings
at Erech have shown that the old temple in that city retained its
ancient cult under a new name.[42] In the second century we know that,
in a corner of the great temple at Babylon, Marduk and the God of
Heaven were worshipped as a two-fold deity under the name of Anna-Bêl;
and we hear of priests attached to one of Babylon's old shrines as
late as the year 29 B.C. Services in honour of the later forms of the
Babylonian gods were probably continued into the Christian era.
The life of the ancient city naturally flickered longest around
the ruined temples and seats of worship. On the secular side, as a
commercial centre, she was then but a ghost of her former self. Her
real decay had set in when Seleucus, after securing the satrapy of
Babylon on Alexander's death, had recognized the greater advantages
offered by the Tigris for maritime communication. On the foundation of
Seleucia, Babylon as a city began rapidly to decay. Deserted at first
by the official classes, followed later by the merchants, she decreased
in importance as her rival grew. Thus it was by a gradual and purely
economic process, and through no sudden blow, that Babylon slowly bled
to death.
[Footnote 1: I., 102 f.]
[Footnote 2: According to Abydenus in Eusebius, "Chron., lib. I.," ed.
Schoene, col. 37; the account is preserved in the Armenian version.]
[Footnote 3: This would seem to follow from Nabonidus' references
to E-khulkhul, the temple of Sin in Harran, and its destruction by
the Umman-manda after the fall of Nineveh (cf. Langdon, "Neubab.
Königsinschriften," pp. 220 f., 272 ff.); see Hogarth, "The Ancient
East," p. 123. The term Manda is loosely employed in the inscriptions.]
[Footnote 4: See below, pp. 278 f., 282.]
[Footnote 5: After throwing off the Assyrian yoke Egypt, under the
XXVIth Dynasty, entered on a last period of independence, and it was
natural that she should dream once more of Asiatic empire.]
[Footnote 6: The Egyptian army at this time must have been a very mixed
host, drawn in great part from the African provinces of Egypt, and its
stiffening of Greek and Carian mercenaries was probably untrustworthy;
cf. Maspero, "Histoire ancienne," III., p. 530 f., and Hall, "Ancient
History of the Near East," p. 543 f.]
[Footnote 7: Zedekiah, the last of the kings of Judah, paid dearly
for his rebellion. He was captured on his flight from Jerusalem, and
carried to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar slew his sous before his eyes,
blinded him, and then sent him in chains to Babylon (II. Kings, xxv., I
ff.).]
[Footnote 8: From 585 to 573 b.c.]
[Footnote 9: For the text of the tablet, see Strassmaier,
"Nabuchodonosor," p. 194, No. 329, and for a full discussion of its
contents, cf. Winckler, "Altorient. Forsch.," I., pp. 511 ff.; in Rev.,
1. I, it mentions "[Am]ûsu, king of Egypt."]
[Footnote 10: Cf. Hogarth, "The Ancient East," p. 124 f.]
[Footnote 11: Herodotus (I., 74) relates that the Medes and Lydians,
when they perceived the day suddenly changed into night, ceased
fighting (evidently taking it as a portent from the gods) and were
anxious for terms of pence.]
[Footnote 12: The Babylonian king must have been Nebuchadnezzar, though
the name given by Herodotus as "Labynetus" is best explained as a
corruption of Nabonidus (_Nabû-na'id_).]
[Footnote 13: See above, pp. 38 ff.]
[Footnote 14: For a suggested identification of the Hanging Gardens
with a building in the north-east corner of the palace on the Southern
Citadel, see above, pp. 40 ff.]
[Footnote 15: See above, pp. 51 ff.]
[Footnote 16: See above, pp. 24 ff., 58.]
[Footnote 17: For a discussion of the temples in Babylon,
which Nebuchadnezzar in great part rebuilt, see above, pp. 61
ff. His building activity in other cities is attested by his
foundation-records; cf. Langdon, "Neubab. Königsinschriften," pp. 70
ff.]
[Footnote 18: Cf. Abydenus, in Eusebius, "Chron. lib. I.," ed. Schoene,
Col. 39 f., or Müller, "Fragm. Hist. Graec.," IV., p. 284, which
may perhaps reproduce a statement of Berossus; see Bevan, "House of
Seleucus," I., p. 247.]
[Footnote 19: According to Berossus he reigned ἀνόμως καὶ ἀσελγῶς (cf.
Josephus c. Apion. I., 20, in Müller, _op. cit.,_ p. 507).]
[Footnote 20: Evidence that he owed his election to the priestly party
may be seen in the approval accorded him by Nabonidus; cf. Nab. Stele,
Col. IV., 11. 24 ff. (Langdon, "Neubab. Königsinschriften," p. 276 f.).]
[Footnote 21: 7 Jer. xxxix., 3, 13.]
[Footnote 22: Cf. Scheil, "Rev. d'Assyr.," XI., No. iv. (1914), pp. 105
ff.]
[Footnote 23: See below, p. 283.]
[Footnote 24: Cf. Dhorme, "Revue Biblique," 1903, pp. 131 ff.]
[Footnote 25: Cf. Dhorme, "Rev. d'Assyr.," XI., No. iii. (1914), pp.
105 ff. A duplicate account of the dedication will appear in Prof.
Clay's forthcoming "Miscellaneous Inscriptions in the Vale Babylonian
Collection," No. 45.]
[Footnote 26: See his cylinder in the British Museum, 82-7-4, 1025
recording his restoration of the temples in Harran and Sippar, Col. I.,
11. 38 ff.; cf. Langdon, "Neuhab. Königsinschriften," p. 220 f.]
[Footnote 27: Though Cyrus was at first merely king of Anshan in
Elam, with Susa as his capital, he was undoubtedly of Aryan descent.
The rise of the southern or Persian group of the Iranians coincided
with the westward expansion of the Median empire, and the fusion of
the two branches may well have been fostered by disaffection in the
north, due to the favour shown by the Median kings to their Scythian
subjects. This would in great measure account for the ease with which
Cyrus possessed himself of the Median empire; cf. Hogarth, "The Ancient
East," pp. 150 ff.]
[Footnote 28: See above, p. 281.]
[Footnote 29: See the "Nabonidus-Cyrus Chronicle," Rev., Col. 111., 11.
12 ff.; and cp. Hagen, "Beitr. zur Assyr.," II., p. 222 f.]
[Footnote 30: Cf. "Nab.-Cyr. Chron.," Col. III., 11. 16 ff.]
[Footnote 31: The passage in the Chronicle, which appears to record
this act on Gubaru's part (Col. III., 1. 22 f.), is broken and its
reading is not certain; but the fact that the next entry relates to a
period of national mourning in Akkad is in favour of the interpretation
suggested.]
[Footnote 32: Cf. "Nab.-Cyr. Chron.," Col. III., 1l. 18 ff.]
[Footnote 33: The enormous number of these that have been recovered
attest the continued prosperity of the country.]
[Footnote 34: Cf. King and Thompson, "Sculptures and Inscription of
Darius," pp. 6 ff.]
[Footnote 35: Cf. Weissbach, "Zeits. für Deutsch. Morgenland.
Gesellschaft," Bd. LXII. (1908), pp. 631 ff. The majority of the
national revolts were probably suppressed during the accession-year
of Darius and the early part of his first year. The later revolts of
Susiania and Scythia also gave little difficulty; Weissbach (_ib.,_
p. 641) suggests a restoration of the Persian text of the Behistun
Inscription which would place them in the fourth and fifth year of
Darius' reign.]
[Footnote 36: See King and Thompson, _op. cit.,_ Plates iii., xv. and
xvi.]
[Footnote 37: It was only towards the end of Darius' reign, after
the Egyptian revolt, that we have evidence pointing to a renewal of
Babylonian unrest (see below, n. 4). The fear inspired by Darius on his
accession was evidently felt throughout his Asiatic provinces, and it
was the revolt of Egypt, not Asia, that checked his activities against
the Greeks.]
[Footnote 38: For a list of documents dated in the brief reigns of
Bel-simanni, Shamash-erba, and two other Babylonian usurpers of this
period, see Weissbach, _op. cit.,_ p. 044. The extraordinary variants
in writing the Babylonian form of Xerxes' name show the difficulty
the Babylonians had in pronouncing it; but Akshimakshu can hardly be
regarded as such a variant, and may well be that of a rebel who secured
a brief period of power (cf. also Boissier, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.,"
1013, p. 300). On the evidence of the proper names occurring in the
contracts, he and the others are all to be placed in the reign of
Xerxes or in the last years of Darius.]
[Footnote 39: Cf. Oppert, "Comptes rendus," 1898, pp. 414 ff.]
[Footnote 40: See above, p. 83, Fig. 31, «I. The theatre was built
of mud-brick; for the pillars and their bases a sort of concrete was
employed, made of burnt-brick rubble and gypsum mortar, washed over
with white plaster.]
[Footnote 41: Cf. Rawlinson, "Cun. Inscr. West. Asia," V., pl. 66.]
[Footnote 42: In contract-tablets from the site, dating from the third
and second centuries B.C., the old temple E-anna is always referred
to under the name Bît-rêsh, "Chief Temple," or "Chief Building" (cf.
Clay, "Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan," Pt.
II., 1913). Prof. Clay has recently sent me a transcript of a very
interesting building-inscription from the same site, drawn up in
the year 244 b.c., which will appear as No. 52 in his forthcoming
"Miscellaneous Inscriptions." It records the rebuilding of Bît-rêsh by
a certain Anu-uballit, the second prefect (_shanû_) of Erech, who also
bore the Greek name Νίαρκος _Nikiḳarḳusu, Nikarḳusu_; it was clearly
a privilege to bear a Greek name, as he tells us he was given his by
"Antiochus, king of the lands." The text furnishes additional evidence
of the survival of the literary language of Babylon for official
records, and of the conservatism of the religious cult.]