Produced by David Widger
THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES
OF THE
ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD;
OR,
THE HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHALDAEA, ASSYRIA
BABYLON, MEDIA, PERSIA, PARTHIA, AND SASSANIAN,
OR NEW PERSIAN EMPIRE.
BY
GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A.,
CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOLUME I.
With Maps and Illustrations
THE SECOND MONARCHY.
ASSYRIA.
[Illustration: Map1]
CHAPTER I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.
“Greek phrase[--]”--HEROD. i. 192.
The site of the second--or great Assyrian-monarchy was the upper
portion of the Mesopotamian valley. The cities which successively formed
its capitals lay, all of them, upon the middle Tigris; and the heart of
the country was a district on either side that river, enclosed within
the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh parallels. By degrees these limits
were enlarged; and the term Assyria came to be used, in a loose and
vague way, of a vast and ill-defined tract extending on all sides from
this central region. Herodotus considered the whole of Babylonia to be a
mere district of Assyria. Pliny reckoned to it all Mesopotamia. Strabo
gave it, besides these regions, a great portion of Mount Zagros (the
modern Kurdistan), and all Syria as far as Cilicia, Judaea, and
Phoenicia.
If, leaving the conventional, which is thus vague and unsatisfactory, we
seek to find certain natural limits which we may regard as the proper
boundaries of the country, in two directions we seem to perceive an
almost unmistakable line of demarcation. On the east the high
mountain-chain of Zagros. penetrable only in one or two places, forms a
barrier of the most marked character, and is beyond a doubt the natural
limit for which we are looking. On the south a less striking, but not
less clearly defined, line--formed by the abutment of the upper and
slightly elevated plain on the alluvium of the lower valley--separates
Assyria from Babylonia, which is best regarded as a distinct country. In
the two remaining directions, there is more doubt as to the most proper
limit. Northwards,we may either view Mount Masius as the natural
boundary, or the course of the Tigris from Diarbekr to Til, or even
perhaps the Armenian mountain-chain north of this portion of the
Tigris, from whence that river receives its early tributaries. Westward,
we might confine Assyria to the country watered by the affluents of the
Tigris, or extend it so as to in elude the Khabour and its tributaries,
or finally venture to carry it across the whole of Mesopotamia, and make
it be bounded by the Euphrates. On the whole it is thought that in both
the doubted cases the wider limits are historically the truer ones.
Assyrian remains cover the entire country between the Tigris and the
Khabour, and are frequent on both banks of the latter stream, giving
unmistakable indications of a long occupation of that region by the
great Mesopotamian people. The inscriptions show that even a wider tract
was in process of time absorbed by the conquerors; and if we are to draw
a line between the country actually taken into Assyria, and that which
was merely conquered and held in subjection, we can select no better
boundary than the Euphrates westward, and northward the snowy
mountain-chain known to the ancients as Mons Niphates.
If Assyria be allowed the extent which is here assigned to her, she will
be a country, not only very much larger than Chaldaea or Babylonia, but
positively of considerable dimensions. Reaching on the north to the
thirty-eighth and on the south to the thirty-fourth parallel, she had
a length diagonally from Diarbekr to the alluvium of 350 miles, and a
breadth between the Euphrates and Mount Zagros varying from about 300 to
170 miles. Her area was probably not less than 75,000 square miles,
which is more than double that of Portugal, and not much below that of
Great Britain. She would thus from her mere size be calculated to play
an important (part) in history; and the more so, as during the period of
her greatness scarcely any nation with which she came in contact
possessed nearly so extensive a territory.
Within the limits here assigned to Assyria, the face of the country is
tolerably varied. Possessing, on the whole, perhaps, a predominant
character of flatness, the territory still includes some important
ranges of hills, while on the two sides it abuts upon lofty
mountain-chains. Towards the north and east it is provided by nature
with an ample supply of water, rills everywhere flowing from the
Armenian and Kurdish ranges, which soon collect into rapid and abundant
rivers. The central, southern, and western regions are, however, less
bountifully supplied; for though the Euphrates washes the whole western
and south-western frontier, it spreads fertility only along its banks;
and though Mount Masius sends down upon the Mesopotamian plain a
considerable number of streams, they form in the space of 200 miles
between Balls and Mosul but two rivers, leaving thus large tracts to
languish for want of the precious fluid. The vicinity of the Arabian and
Syrian deserts is likewise felt in these regions, which, left to
themselves, tend to acquire the desert character, and have occasionally
been regarded as actual parts of Arabia.
The chief natural division of the country is that made by the Tigris,
which, having a course nearly from north to south, between Til and
Samarah, separates Assyria into a western and an eastern district. Of
these two, the eastern or that upon the left bank of the Tigris,
although considerably the smaller, has always been the more important
region. Comparatively narrow at first, it broadens as the course of the
river is descended, till it attains about the thirty-fifth parallel a
width of 130 or 140 miles. It consists chiefly of a series of rich and
productive plains, lying along the courses of the various tributaries
which flow from Mount Zagros into the Tigris, and often of a
semi-alluvial character. These plains are not, however, continuous.
Detached ranges of hills, with a general direction parallel to the
Zagros chain, intersect the flat rich country, separating the plains
from one another, and supplying small streams and brooks in addition to
the various rivers, which, rising within or beyond the great mountain
barriers, traverse the plains on their way to the Tigris. The hills
themselves--known now as the Jebel Maklub, the Ain-es-sufra, the
Karachok, etc.--are for the most part bare and sterile. In form they
are hogbacked, and viewed from a distance have a smooth and even outline
but on a nearer approach they are found to be rocky and rugged. Their
limestone sides are furrowed by innumerable ravines, and have a dry and
parched appearance, being even in spring generally naked and without
vegetation. The sterility is most marked on the western flank, which
faces the hot rays of the afternoon sun; the eastern slope is
occasionally robed with a scanty covering of dwarf oak or stunted
brushwood. In the fat soil of the plains the rivers commonly run deep
and concealed from view, unless in the spring and the early summer, when
through the rains and the melting of the snows in the mountains they are
greatly swollen, and run bank full, or even overflow the level country.
The most important of these rivers are the following:--the Kurnib or
Eastern Khabour, which joins the Tigris in lat. 37° 12’; the Greater Zab
(Zab Ala), which washes the ruins of Nimrud, and enters the main stream
almost exactly in lat. 30°; the Lesser Zab (Zab Asfal), which effects
its junction about lat. 35° 15’; the Adhem, which is received a little
below Samarah, about lat. 34°; and the Diyaleh, which now joins below
Baghdad, but from which branches have sometimes entered the Tigris a
very little below the mouth of the Adhem. Of these streams the most
northern, the Khabour, runs chiefly in an untraversed country--the
district between Julamerik and the Tigris. It rises a little west of
Julamerik in one of the highest mountain districts of Kurdistan, and
runs with a general south-westerly course to its junction with another
large branch, which reaches it from the district immediately west of
Amadiyeh; it then flows due west, or a little north of west, to Zakko,
and, bending to the north after passing that place, flows once more in a
south-westerly direction until it reaches the Tigris. The direct
distance from its source to its embouchure is about 80 miles; but that
distance is more than doubled by its windings. It is a stream of
considerable size, broad and rapid; at many seasons not fordable at all,
and always forded with difficulty.
The Greater Zab is the most important of all the tributaries of the
Tigris. It rises near Konia, in the district of Karasu, about lat. 32°
20’, long. 44° 30’, a little west of the watershed which divides the
basins of Lakes Van and Urymiyeh. Its general course for the first 150
miles is S.S.W., after which for 25 or 30 miles it runs almost due south
through the country of the Tiyari. Near Amadiyeh it makes a sudden turn,
and flows S.E. or S.S.E. to its junction with the Rowandiz branch
whence, finally, it resumes its old direction, and runs south-west past
the Nimrud ruins into the Tigris. Its entire course, exclusive of small
windings, is above 350 miles, and of these nearly 100 are across the
plain country, which it enters soon after receiving the Rowandiz stream.
Like the Khabour, it is fordable at certain places and during the summer
season; but even then the water reaches above the bellies of horses. It
is 20 yards wide a little above its junction with the main steam. On
account of its strength and rapidity the Arabs sometimes call it the
“Mad River.”
The Lesser Zab has its principal source near Legwin, about twenty miles
south of Lake Urumiyeh, in lat. 36° 40’, long. 46° 25’. The source is to
the east of the great Zagros chain; and it might have been supposed that
the waters would necessarily flow northward or eastward, towards Lake
Urumiyeh, or towards the Caspian. But the Legwin river, called even at
its source the Zei or Zab, flows from the first westward, as if
determined to pierce the mountain barrier. Failing, however, to find an
opening where it meets the range, the Little Zab turns south and even
south-east along its base, till about 25 or 30 miles from its source it
suddenly resumes its original direction, enters the mountains in lat.
36° 20’, and forces its way through the numerous parallel ranges,
flowing generally to the S.S.W., till it debouches upon the plain near
Arbela, after which it runs S.W. and S.W. by S. to the Tigris. Its
course among the mountains is from 80 to 90 miles, exclusive of small
windings; and it runs more than 100 miles through the plain. Its
ordinary width, just above its confluence with the Tigris, is 25 feet.
The Diyaleh, which lies mostly within the limits that have been here
assigned to Assyria, is formed by the confluence of two principal
streams, known respectively as the Holwan, and the Shirwan, river. Of
these, the Shirwan seems to be the main branch. This stream rises from
the most eastern and highest of the Zagros ranges, in lat. 34° 45’,
long. 47° 40’ nearly. It flows at first west, and then north-west,
parallel to the chain, but on entering the plain of Shahrizur, where
tributaries join it from the north-east and the north-west, the
Shirwan changes its course and begins to run south of west, a direction,
which, it pursues till it enters the low country, about lat. 35° 5’,
near Semiram. Thence to the Tigris it has a course which in direct
distance is 150 miles, and 200 if we include only main windings. The
whole course cannot be less than 380 miles, which is about the length of
the Great Zab river. The width attained before the confluence with the
Tigris is 60 yards, or three times the width of the Greater, and seven
times that of the Lesser Zab.
On the opposite side of the Tigris, the traveller comes upon a region
far less favored by nature than that of which we have been lately
speaking. Western Assyria has but a scanty supply of water; and unless
the labor of man is skilfully applied to compensate this natural
deficiency, the greater part of the region tends to be, for ten months
out of the twelve, a desert. The general character of the country is
level, but not alluvial. A line of mountains, rocky and precipitous, but
of no great elevation, stretches across the northern part of the region,
running nearly due east and west, and extending from the Euphrates at
Rum-kaleh to Til and Chelek upon the Tigris. Below this, a vast
slightly undulating plain extends from the northern mountains to the
Babylonian alluvium, only interrupted about midway by a range of low
limestone hills called the Sinjar, which leaving the Tigris near Mosul
runs nearly from east to west across central Mesopotamia, and strikes
the Euphrates half-way between Rakkeh and Kerkesiyeh, nearly in long.
40°.
The northern mountain region, called by Strabo “Mons Masius,” and by the
Arabs the Karajah Dagh towards the west, and towards the east the Jebel
Tur, is on the whole a tolerably fertile country. It contains a good
deal of rocky land; but has abundant springs, and in many parts is well
wooded. Towards the west it is rather hilly than mountainous; but
towards the east it rises considerably, and the cone above Mardin is
both lofty and striking. The waters flowing from the range consist, on
the north, of a small number of brooks, which after a short course fall
into the Tigris; on the south, of more numerous and more copious
streams, which gradually unite, and eventually form two rather important
rivers. These rivers are the Belik, known anciently as the Bileeha, and
the Western Khabour, called Habor in Scripture, and by the classical
writers Aborrhas or Chaboras. [PLATE XXII., Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: PLATE 22]
The Belik rises among the hills east of Orfa, about long. 39°, lat. 37°
10’. Its course is at first somewhat east of south; but it soon sweeps
round, and, passing by the city of Harran--the Haran of Scripture and
the classical Carrh--proceeds nearly due south to its junction, a few
miles below Rakkah, with the Euphrates. It is a small stream throughout
its whole course, which may be reckoned at 100 or 120 miles.
The Khabour is a much more considerable river. It collects the waters
which flow southward from at least two-thirds of the Mons Masius, and
has, besides, an important source, which the Arabs regard as the true
“head of the spring,” derived apparently from a spur of the Sinjar
range. This stream, which rises about lat. 36° 40’, long. 40°, flows a
little south of east to its junction near Koukab with the Jerujer or
river Nisi-his, which comes down from Mons Masius with a course not
much west of south. Both of these branches are formed by the union of a
number of streams. Neither of them is fordable for some distance above
their junction; and below it, they constitute a river of such magnitude
as to be navigable for a considerable distance by steamers. The course
of the Khabour below Koukab is tortuous; but its general direction is
S.S.W. The entire length of the stream is certainly not less than 200
miles.
The country between the “Mons Masius” and the Sinjar range is an
undulating plain, from 60 to 70 miles in width, almost as devoid of
geographical features as the alluvium of Babylonia. From a height the
whole appears to be a dead level: but the traveller finds, on
descending, that the surface, like that of the American prairies and the
Roman Campagna, really rises and falls in a manner which offers a
decided contrast to the alluvial flats nearer the sea. Great portions of
the tract are very deficient in water. Only small streams descend from
the Sinjar range, and these are soon absorbed by the thirsty soil; so
that except in the immediate vicinity of the hills north and south, and
along the courses of the Khabour, the Belik, and their affluents, there
is little natural fertility, and cultivation is difficult. The soil too
is often gypsiferous, and its salt and nitrous exudations destroy
vegetation; while at the same time the streams and springs are from the
same cause for the most part brackish and unpalatable. Volcanic action
probably did not cease in the region very much, if at all, before the
historical period. Fragments of basalt in many places strew the plain;
and near the confluence of the two chief branches of the Khabour, not
only are old craters of volcanoes distinctly visible, but a cone still
rises from the centre of one, precisely like the cones in the craters of
Etna and Vesuvius, composed entirely of loose lava, scorim, and ashes,
and rising to the height of 300 feet. The name of this remarkable hill,
which is Koukab, is even thought to imply that the volcano may have been
active within the time to which the traditions of the country extend.
[PLATE XXII., Fig. 2.]
Sheets of water are so rare in this region that the small lake of
Khatouniyeh seems to deserve especial description. This lake is situated
near the point where the Sinjar changes its character, and from a high
rocky range subsides into low broken hills. It is of oblong shape, with
its greater axis pointing nearly due east and west, in length about four
miles, and in its greatest breadth somewhat less than three. [PLATE
XXIII., Fig. 1] The banks are low and parts marshy, more especially on
the side towards the Khabour, which is not more than ten miles distant.
In the middle of the lake is a hilly peninsula, joined to the mainland
by a narrow causeway, and beyond it a small island covered with trees.
The lake abounds with fish and waterfowl; and its water, though
brackish, is regarded as remarkably wholesome both for man and beast.
[Illustration: PLATE 23]
The Sinjar range, which divides Western Assyria into two plains, a
northern and a southern, is a solitary limestone ridge, rising up
abruptly from the flat country, which it commands to a vast distance on
both sides. The limestone of which it is composed is white, soft, and
fossiliferous; it detaches itself in enormous flakes from the
mountain-sides, which are sometimes broken into a succession of
gigantic steps, while occasionally they present the columnar appearance
of basalt. The flanks of the Sinjar are seamed with innumerable ravines,
and from these small brooks issue, which are soon dispersed by
irrigation, or absorbed in the thirsty plains. The sides of the mountain
are capable of being cultivated by means of terraces, and produce fair
crops of corn and excellent fruit; the top is often wooded with fruit
trees or forest-trees. Geographically, the Sinjar may be regarded as
the continuation of that range of hills which shuts in the Tigris on the
west, from Tekrit nearly to Mosul, and then leaving the river strikes
across the plain in a direction almost from east to west as far as the
town of Sinjar. Here the mountains change their course and bend to the
south-west, till having passed the little lake described above, they
somewhat suddenly subside, sinking from a high ridge into low undulating
hills, which pass to the south of the lake, and then disappear in the
plain altogether. According to some, the Sinjar here terminates; but
perhaps it is best to regard it as rising again in the Abd-el-aziz
hills, which, intervening between the Khabour and the Euphrates, run in
the same south-west direction from Arban to Zelabi. If this be accepted
as the true course of the Sinjar, we must view it as throwing out two
important spurs. One of these is near its eastern extremity, and runs to
the south-east, dividing the plain of Zerga from the great central
level. Like the main chain, it is of limestone; and, though low, has
several remarkable peaks which serve as landmarks from a vast distance.
The Arabs call it Kebritiyeh, or “the Sulphur range,” from a sulphurous
spring which rises at its foot. The other spur is thrown out near the
western extremity, and runs towards the north-west, parallel to the
course of the upper Khabour, which rises from its flank at Ras-el-Ain.
The name of Abd-el-aziz is applied to this spur, as well as to the
continuation of the Sinjar between Arban and Halebi. It is broken into
innumerable valleys and ravines, abounding with wild animals, and is
scantily wooded with dwarf oak. Streams of water abound in it.
South of the Sinjar range, the country resumes the same level appearance
which characterizes it between the Sinjar and the Mons Masius. A low
limestone ridge skirts the Tigris valley from Mosul to Tekrit, and near
the Euphrates the country is sometimes slightly hilly; but generally the
eye travels over a vast slightly undulating level, unbroken by
eminences, and supporting but a scanty vegetation. The description of
Xenophon a little exaggerates the flatness, but is otherwise faithful
enough:--“In these parts the country was a plain throughout, as smooth
as the sea, and full of wormwood; if any other shrub or reed grew there,
it had a sweet aromatic smell; but there was not a tree in the whole
region.” Water is still more scarce than in the plains north of the
Sinjar. The brooks descending from that range are so weak that they
generally lose themselves in the plain before they have run many miles.
In one case only do they seem sufficiently strong to form a river. The
Tharthar, which flows by the ruins of El Hadhr, is at that place a
considerable stream, not indeed very wide but so deep that horses have
to swim across it. Its course above El Hadhr has not been traced; but
the most probable conjecture seems to be that it is a continuation of
the Sinjar river, which rises about the middle of the range, in long.
41° 50’, and flows south-east through the desert. The Tharthar appears
at one time to have reached the Tigris near Tekrit, but it now ends in a
marsh or lake to the south-west of that city.
The political geography of Assyria need not occupy much of our
attention. There is no native evidence that in the time of the great
monarchy the country was formally divided into districts, to which any
particular names were attached, or which were regarded as politically
separate from one another; nor do such divisions appear in the classical
writers until the time of the later geographers, Strabo, Dionysius, and
Ptolemy. If it were not that mention is made in the Old Testament of
certain districts within the region which has been here termed Assyria,
we should have no proof that in the early times any divisions at all had
been recognized. The names, however, of Padan-Aram, Aram-Naharaim,
Gozan, Halah, and (perhaps) Huzzab, designate in Scripture particular
portions of the Assyrian territory; and as these portions appear to
correspond in some degree with the divisions of the classical
geographers, we are led to suspect that these writers may in many, if
not in most cases, have followed ancient and native traditions or
authorities. The principal divisions of the classical geographers will
therefore be noticed briefly, so far at least as they are intelligible.
According to Strabo, the district within which Nineveh stood was called
Aturia, which seems to be the word Assyria slightly corrupted, as we
know that it habitually was by the Persians. The neighboring plain
country he divides into four regions--Dolomene, Calachene, Chazene,
and Adiabene. Of Dolomene, which Strabo mentions but in one place, and
which is wholly omitted by other authors, no account can be given.
Calachene, which is perhaps the Calacine of Ptolemy, must be the tract
about Calah (Nimrud), or the country immediately north of the Upper Zab
river. Chazene, like Dolomene, is a term which cannot be explained.
Adiabene, on the contrary, is a well-known geographical expression. It
is the country of the Zab or Diab rivers, and either includes the whole
of Eastern Assyria between the mountains and the Tigris, or more
strictly is applied to the region between the Upper and Lower Zab, which
consists of two large plains separated from each other by the Karachok
hills. In this way Arbelitis, the plain between the Karachok and Zagros,
would fall within Adiabene, but it is sometimes made a distinct region,
in which case Adiabene must be restricted to the flat between the two
Zabs, the Tigris, and the harachok. Chalonitis and Apolloniatis, which
Strabo seems to place between these northern plains and Susiana, must be
regarded as dividing between them the country south of the Lesser Zab,
Apolloniatis (so called from its Greek capital, Apollonia) lying along
the Tigris, and Chalonitis along the mountains from the pass of Derbend
to Gilan. Chalonitis seems to have taken its name from a capital city
called Chala, which lay on the great route connecting Babylon with the
southern Ecbatana, and in later times was known as Holwan. Below
Apolloniatis, and (like that district) skirting the Tigris, was
Sittacene, (so named from its capital, Sittace which is commonly
reckoned to Assyria, but seems more properly regarded as Susianian
territory.) Such are the chief divisions of Assyria east of the Tigris.
West of the Tigris, the name Mesopotamia is commonly used, like the
Aram-Naharaim of the Hebrews, for the whole country between the two
great rivers. Here are again several districts, of which little is
known, as Acabene, Tigene, and Ancobaritis. Towards the north, along the
flanks of Mons Masius from Nisibis to the Euphrates, Strabo seems to
place the Mygdonians, and to regard the country as Mygdonia. Below
Mygdonia, towards the west, he puts Anthemusia, which he extends as far
as the Khabour river. The region south of the Khabour and the Sinjar he
seems to regard as inhabited entirely by Arabs. Ptolemy has, in lieu of
the Mygdonia of Strabo, a district which he calls Gauzanitis; and this
name is on good grounds identified with the Gozan of Scripture, the true
original probably of the “Mygdonia” of the Greeks. Gozan appears to
represent the whole of the upper country from which the longer affluents
of the Khabour spring; while Halah, which is coupled with it in
Scripture, and which Ptolemy calls Chalcitis, and makes border on
Gauzanitis, may designate the tract upon the main stream, as it comes
down from Ras-el-Ain. The region about the upper sources of the Belik
has no special designation in Strabo, but in Scripture it seems to be
called Padan-Aram, a name which has been explained as “the flat Syria,”
or “the country stretching out from the foot of the hills.” In the later
Roman times it was known as Osrhoene; but this name was scarcely in use
before the time of the Antonines.
The true heart of Assyria was the country close along the Tigris, from
lat. 35° to 36° 30’. Within these limits were the four great cities,
marked by the mounds at Khorsabad, Mosul, Nimrud, and Kileh-Sherghat,
besides a multitude of places of inferior consequence. It has been
generally supposed that the left bank of the river was more properly
Assyria than the right; and the idea is so far correct, as that the left
bank was in truth of primary value and importance, whence it naturally
happened that three out of the four capitals were built on that side of
the stream. Still the very fact that one early capital was on the right
bank is enough to show that both shores of the stream were alike
occupied by the race from the first; and this conclusion is abundantly
confirmed by other indications throughout the region. Assyrian ruins,
the remains of considerable towns, strew the whole country between the
Tigris and Khabour, both north and south of the Sin jar range. On the
banks of the Lower Khabour are the remains of a royal palace, besides
many other traces of the tract through which it runs having been
permanently occupied by the Assyrian people. Mounds, probably Assyrian,
are known to exist along the course of the Khabour’s great western
affluent; and even near Seruj, in the country between Harlan and the
Euphrates some evidence has been found not only of conquest but of
occupation. Remains are perhaps more frequent on the opposite side of
the Tigris; at any rate they are more striking and more important.
Bavian, Khorsabad, Shereef-Khan, Neb-bi-Yunus, Koyunjik, and Nimrud,
which have furnished by far the most valuable and interesting of the
Assyrian monuments, all lie east of the Tigris; while on the west two
places only have yielded relics worthy to be compared with these, Arban
and Kileh-Sherghat.
It is curious that in Assyria, as in early Chaldaea, there is a special
pre-eminence of four cities. An indication of this might seem to be
contained in Genesis, where Asshur is said to have “builded Nineveh,” and
the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen; but on the whole it is more
probable that we have here a mistranslation (which is corrected for us
in the margin), and that three cities only are ascribed by Moses to the
great patriarch. In the flourishing period of the empire, however, we
actually find four capitals, of which the native names seem to have been
Ninua, Calah, Asshur, and Bit-Sargina, or Dur-Sargina (the city of
Sargon)--all places of first-rate consequence. Besides these principal
cities, which were the sole seats of government, Assyria contained a
vast number of large towns, few of which it is possible to name, but so
numerous that they cover the whole face of the country with their ruins.
Amomig; them were Tarbisa, Arbil, Arapkha, and Khazeh, in the tract
between the Tigris and Mount Zagros; Haran, Tel-Apni, Razappa (Rezeph),
and Amida, towards the north-west frontier; Nazibina (Nisibis), on the
eastern branch of the Khabour; Sirki (Circesium), at the confluence of
the Khabour with the Euphrates; Anat, on the Euphrates, some way below
this junction; Tabiti, Magarisi, Sidikan, Katni, Beth-Khalupi,etc., in
the district south of the Sinjar, between the lower course of the
Khabour and the Tigris. Here, again, as in the case of Chaldaea, it is
impossible at present to locate with accuracy all the cities. We must
once more confine ourselves to the most important, mind seek to
determine, either absolutely or with a certain vagueness, their several
positions.
It admits of no reasonable doubt that the ruins opposite Mosul are those
of Nineveh. The name of Nineveh is read on the bricks; and a uniform
tradition, reaching from the Arab conquest to comparatively recent
times, attaches to the mounds themselves the same title. They are the
most extensive ruins in Assyria; and their geographical position suits
perfectly all the notices of the geographers and historians with respect
to the great Assyrian capital. As a subsequent chapter will be devoted
to a description of this famous city, it is enough in this place to
observe that it was situated on the left or east bank of the Tigris, in
lat. 36° 21’, at the point where a considerable brook, the Khosr-su,
falls into the main stream. On its west flank flowed the broad and rapid
Tigris, the “arrow-stream,” as we may translate the word; while north,
east, and south, expanded the vast undulating plain which intervenes
between the river and the Zagros mountain-range. Mid-way in this
plain, at the distance of from 15 to 18 miles from the city, stood
boldly up the Jabel Maklub and Ain Sufra hills, calcareous ridges rising
nearly 2000 feet above the level of the Tigris, and forming by far the
most prominent objects in the natural landscape. Inside the Ain Sufra,
and parallel to it, ran the small stream of the Gomel, or Ghazir, like a
ditch skirting a wall, an additional defence in that quarter. On the
south-east and south, distant about fifteen miles, was the strong and
impetuous current of the Upper Zab, completing the natural defences of
the position which was excellently chosen to be the site of a great
capital.
[Illustration: PLATE 24]
South of Nineveh, at the distance of about twenty miles by the direct
route and thirty by the course of the Tigris, stood the second city of
the empire, Calah, the site of which is marked by the extensive ruins at
Nimrud. [PLATE XXIV., Fig. 1.] Broadly, this place may be said to have
been built at the confluence of the Tigris with the Upper Zab; but in
strictness it was on the Tigris only, the Zab flowing five or six miles
further to the south, and entering the Tigris at least nine miles below
the Nimrud ruins. These ruins at present occupy an area somewhat short
of a thousand English acres, which is little more than one-half of the
area of the ruins of Nineveh; but it is thought that the place was in
ancient times considerably larger, and that the united action of the
Tigris and some winter streams has swept away no small portion of the
ruins. They form at present an irregular quadrangle, the sides of which
face the four cardinal points. On the north and east the rampart may
still be distinctly traced. It was flanked with towers along its whole
course, and pierced at uncertain intervals by gates, but was nowhere of
very great strength or dimensions. On the south side it must have been
especially weak, for there it has disappeared altogether. Here, however,
it seems probable that the Tigris and the Shor Derreh stream, to which
the present obliteration of the wall may be ascribed, formed in ancient
times a sufficient protection. Towards the west, it seems to be certain
that the Tigris (which is now a mile off) anciently flowed close to the
city. On this side, directly facing the river, and extending along it a
distance of 600 yards, or more than a third of a mile, was the royal
quarter, or portion of the city occupied by the palaces of the kings. It
consisted of a raised platform, forty feet above the level of the plain,
composed in some parts of rubbish, in others of regular layers of
sun-dried bricks, and cased on every side with solid stone masonry,
containing an area of sixty English acres, and in shape almost a regular
rectangle, 560 yards long, and from 350 to 450 broad. The platform was
protected at its edges by a parapet, and is thought to have been
ascended in various places by wide staircases, or inclined ways, leading
up from the plain. The greater part of its area is occupied by the
remains of palaces constructed by various native kings, of which a more
particular account will be given in the chapter on the architecture and
other arts of the Assyrians. It contains also the ruins of two small
temples, and abuts at its north-western angle on the most singular
structure which has as yet been discovered among the remains of the
Assyrian cities. This is the famous tower or pyramid which looms so
conspicuously over the Assyrian plams, and which has always attracted
the special notice of the traveller. [PLATE XXIV., Fig. 2.] An exact
description of this remarkable edifice will be given hereafter.
It appears from the inscriptions on its bricks to have been commenced by
one of the early kings, and completed by another. Its internal structure
has led to the supposition that it was designed to be a place of burial
for one or other of these monarchs. Another conjecture is, that it was a
watch-tower; but this seems very unlikely, since no trace of any mode
by which it could be ascended has been discovered.
Forty miles below Calah, on the opposite bank of the Tigris, was a third
great city, the native name of which appears to have been Asshur. This
place is represented by the ruins at Kileh-Sherghat, which are scarcely
inferior in extent to those at Nimrud or Calah. It will not be necessary
to describe minutely this site, as in general character it closely
resembles the other ruins of Assyria. Long lines of low mounds mark the
position of the old walls, and show that the shape of the city was
quadrangular. The chief object is a large square mound or platform, two
miles and a half in circumference, and in places a hundred feet above
the level of the plain, composed in part of sun-dried bricks, in part
of natural eminences, and exhibiting occasionally remains of a casing of
hewn stone, which may once have encircled the whole structure. About
midway on the north side of the platform, and close upon its edge, is a
high cone or pyramid. The rest of the platform is covered with the
remains of walls and with heaps of rubbish, but does not show much trace
of important buildings. This city has been supposed to represent the
Biblical Resen; but the description of that place as lying “_between_
Nineveh and Calah” seems to render the identification worse than
uncertain.
The ruins at Kileh-Sherghat are the last of any extent towards the
south, possessing a decidedly Assyrian character. To complete our
survey, therefore of the chief Assyrian towns, we must return
northwards, and, passing Nineveh, direct our attention to the
magnificent ruins on the small stream of the Khosrsu, which have made
the Arab village of Khorsabad one of the best known names in Oriental
topography. About nine miles from the north-east angle of the wall of
Nineveh, in a direction a very little east of north, stands the ruin
known as Khorsabad, from a small village which formerly occupied its
summit--the scene of the labors of M. Botta, who was the first to
disentomb from among the mounds of Mesopotamia the relics of an Assyrian
palace. The enclosure at Khorsabad is nearly square in shape, each side
being about 2000 yards long. No part of it is very lofty, but the walls
are on every side well marked. Their angles point towards the cardinal
points, or nearly so; and the walls themselves consequently face the
north-east, the north-west, the south-west, and the south-east.
Towards the middle of the north-west wall, and projecting considerably
beyond it, was a raised platform of the usual character; and here stood
the great palace, which is thought to have been open to the plain, and
on that side quite undefended.
Four miles only from Khorsabad, in a direction a little west of north,
are the ruins of a smaller Assyrian city, whose native name appears to
have been Tarbisa, situated not far from the modern village of
Sherif-khan. Here was a palace, built by Esarhaddon for one of his
sons, as well as several temples and other edifices. In the opposite
direction at the distance of about twenty miles, is Keremles, an
Assyrian ruin, whose name cannot yet be rendered phonetically. West of
this site, and about half-way between the ruins of Nineveh and Nimrud
or Calah, is Selamiyah, a village of some size, the walls of which are
thought to be of Assyrian construction. We may conjecture that this
place was the Resen, or Dase, of Holy Scripture, which is said to have
been a large city, interposed between Nineveh and Calah. In the same
latitude, but considerably further to the east, was the famous city of
Arabil or Arbil, known to the Greeks as Arbela, and to this day
retaining its ancient appellation. These were the principal towns, whose
positions can be fixed, belonging to Assyria Proper, or the tract in the
immediate vicinity of Nineveh.
Besides these places, the inscriptions mention a large number of cities
which we cannot definitely connect with any particular site. Such are
Zaban and Zadu, beyond the Lower Zab, probably somewhere in the vicinity
of Kerkuk; Kurban, Tidu (?), Napulu, Kapa, in Adiabene; Arapkha and
Khaparkhu, the former of which names recalls the Arrapachitis of
Ptolemy, in the district about Arbela; Hurakha, Sallat (?), Dur-Tila,
Dariga, Lupdu, and many others, concerning whose situations it is not
even possible to make any reasonable conjecture. The whole country
between the Tigris and the mountains was evidently studded thickly with
towns, as it is at the present day with ruins; but until a minute and
searching examination of the entire region has taken place, it is idle
to attempt an assignment to particular localities of these comparatively
obscure names.
In Western Assyria, or the tract on the right bank of the Tigris, while
there is reason to believe that population was as dense, and that cities
were as numerous, as on the opposite side of the river, even fewer sites
can be determinately fixed, owing to the early decay of population in
those parts, which seem to have fallen into their present desert
condition shortly after the destruction of the Assyrian empire by the
conquering Medes. Besides Asshur, which is fixed to the ruins at
Kileh-Sherghat, we can only locate with certainty some half-dozen
places. These are Nazibina, which is the modern Nisibin, the Nisibis of
the Greeks; Amidi, which is Amida or Diarbekr; Haran, which retains its
name unchanged; Sirki, which is the Greek Circesium, now Kerkesiyeh;
Anat, now Anah, on an island in the Euphrates; and Sidikan, now Arban,
on the Lower Khabour. The other known towns of this region, whose exact
position is more or less uncertain, are the following:--Tavnusir, which
is perhaps Dunisir, near Mardin; Guzana, or Gozan, in the vicinity of
Nisibin; Razappa, or Rezeph, probably not far from Harran; Tel Apni,
about Orfah or Ras-el-Ain; Tabiti and Magarisi, on the Jerujer, or
river of Nisibin; Katni and Beth-Khalupi, on the Lower Khabour; Tsupri
and Nakarabani, on the Euphrates, between its junction with the Khabour
and Allah; and Khuzirina, in the mountains near the source of the
Tigris. Besides these, the inscriptions contain a mention of some scores
of towns wholly obscure, concerning which we cannot even determine
whether they lay west or east of the Tigris.
Such are the chief geographical features of Assyria. It remains to
notice briefly the countries by which it was bordered. To the east lay
the mountain region of Zagros, inhabited principally, during the earlier
times of the Empire, by the Zimri, and afterwards occupied by the Medes,
and known as a portion of Media. This region is one of great strength,
and at the same time of much productiveness and fertility. Composed of a
large number of parallel ridges. Zagros contains, besides rocky and
snow-clad summits, a multitude of fertile valleys, watered by the great
affluents of the Tigris or their tributaries, and capable of producing
rich crops with very little cultivation. The sides of the hills are in
most parts clothed with forests of walnut, oak, ash, plane, and
sycamore, while mulberries, olives, and other fruit-trees abound; in
many places the pasturage is excellent; and thus, notwithstanding its
mountainous character, the tract will bear a large population. Its
defensive strength is immense, equalling that of Switzerland before
military roads were constructed across the High Alps. The few passes by
which it can be traversed seem, according to the graphic phraseology of
the ancients, to be carried up ladders; they surmount six or seven
successive ridges, often reaching the elevation of 10,000 feet, and are
only open during seven months of the year. Nature appears to have
intended Zagros as a seven fold wall for the protection of the fertile
Mesopotamian lowland from the marauding tribes inhabiting the bare
plateau of Iran.
North of Assyria lays a country very similar to the Zagros region.
Armenia, like Kurdistan, consists, for the most part of a number of
parallel mountain ranges, with deep valleys between them, watered by
great rivers or their affluents. Its highest peaks, like those of
Zagros, ascend considerably above the snow-line. It has the same
abundance of wood, especially in the more northern parts; and though its
valleys are scarcely so fertile, or its products so abundant and varied,
it is still a country where a numerous population may find subsistence.
The most striking contrast which it offers to the Zagros region is in
the direction of its mountain ranges. The Zagros ridges run from
north-west to south-east, like the principal mountains of Italy,
Greece, Arabia, Hindustan, and Cochin China; those of Armenia have a
course from a little north of east to a little south of west, like the
Spanish Sierras, the Swiss and Tyrolese Alps, the Southern Carpathians,
the Greater Balkan, the Cilician Taurus, the Cyprian Olympus, and the
Thian Chan. Thus the axes of the two chains are nearly at right angles
to one another, the triangular basin of Van occurring at the point of
contact, and softening the abruptness of the transition. Again, whereas
the Zagros mountains present their gradual slope to the Mesopotamian
lowland, and rise in higher and higher ridges as they recede from the
mountains of Armenia ascend at once to their full heignt from the level
of the Tigris, and the ridges then gradually decline towards the Euxine.
It follows from this last contrast, that, while Zagros invites the
inhabitants of the Mesopotamian plain to penetrate its recesses, which
are at first readily accessible, and only grow wild and savage towards
the interior, the Armenian mountains repel by presenting their greatest
difficulties and most barren aspect at once, seeming, with their rocky
sides and snow-clad summits, to form an almost insurmountable obstacle
to an invading host. Assyrian history bears traces of this difference;
for while the mountain region to the east is gradually subdued and
occupied by the people of the plain, that on the north continues to the
last in a state of hostility and semi-independence.
West of Assyria (according to the extent which has here been given to
it), the border countries were, towards the south, Arabia, and towards
the north, Syria. A desert region, similar to that which bounds Chaldaea
in this direction, extends along the Euphrates as far north as the 36th
parallel, approaching commonly within a very short distance of the
river. This has been at all times the country of the wandering Arabs. It
is traversed in places by rocky ridges of a low elevation, and
intercepted by occasional _wadys_, but otherwise it is a continuous
gravelly or sandy plain, incapable of sustaining a settled population.
Between the desert and the river intervenes commonly a narrow strip of
fertile territory, which in Assyrian times was held by the Tsukhi or
Shuhites, and the Aramaeans or Syrians. North of the 36th parallel, the
general elevation of the country west of the Euphrates rises. There is
an alternation of bare undulating hills and dry plains, producing
wormwood and other aromatic plants. Permanent rivers are found, which
either terminate in salt lakes or run into the Euphrates. In places the
land is tolerably fertile, and produces good crops of grain, besides
mulberries, pears, figs, pomegranates, olives, vines, and
pistachio-nuts. Here dwelt, in the time of the Assyrian Empire, the
Khatti, or Hittites, whose chief city, Carchemish, appears to have
occupied the site of Hierapolis, now Bambuk. In a military point of
view, the tract is very much less strong than either Armenia or
Kurdistan, and presents but slight difficulties to invading armies.
The tract south of Assyria was Chaldaea, of which a description has been
given in an earlier portion of this volume. Naturally it was at once the
weakest of the border countries, and the one possessing the greatest
attractions to a conqueror. Nature had indeed left it wholly without
defence; and though art was probably soon called in to remedy this
defect, yet it could not but continue the most open to attack of the
various regions by which Assyria was surrounded. Syria was defended by
the Euphrates--at all times a strong barrier; Arabia, not only by this
great stream, but by her arid sands and burning climate; Armenia and
Kurdistan had the protection of their lofty mountain ranges. Chaldaea
was naturally without either land or water barrier; and the mounds and
dykes whereby she strove to supply her wants were at the best poor
substitutes for Nature’s bulwarks. Here again geographical features will
be found to have had an important bearing on the course of history, the
close connection of the two countries, in almost every age, resulting
from their physical conformation.