THE ART AND TRADE OF BABYLONIA.
Like the Pharaohs, the rulers of Babylon sought their fame in
magnificent buildings. But their works have not been able to withstand
the ravages of time with the same durability as the stone mountains and
porticoes on the Nile. The lower Euphrates does not lie, like the Nile,
between walls of rocks, from which the most beautiful and hardest stone
could be obtained. The plain of Babylonia afforded nothing but earth for
the bricks, which were sometimes burnt, sometimes dried in the sun; and
excellent mortar was to be obtained from the large asphalt pits on the
Euphrates, especially at Hit. Hence it was necessary to unite the walls
more strongly. In the palaces, and temples, the walls of brick were
covered with slabs of gypsum, or limestone, which must often have been
brought from a distance, and these slabs were then covered with
sculptures, like the stone walls of the Egyptian buildings. But more
commonly the ornaments on the inner walls, and occasionally even those
on the outer walls, consist of bricks coloured and glazed. Though the
material in Babylonia was more fragile than the granite of Egypt, the
extent, scale, and splendour of these buildings were so great, that
remains even of the oldest have come down to our time. The upper
portions of the brick walls have fallen down, and the ruins of the
Babylonian cities have thus for the most part become unsightly enough;
but not the less do they point out the positions of the old buildings,
and under the heaps are hidden the most valuable remains of those
ancient periods.
As has been already remarked, the cities in the south of Babylonia are
the first to emerge in the progress of the country. The oldest princes
call themselves kings of Ur and Nipur; they build at Ur, at Nipur, at
Erech, and at Senkereh, between Erech and Ur. Not till the time of
Hammurabi, and perhaps through his power, did Babylon become the centre
and metropolis of the kingdom. He and his successors built at Babylon,
Borsippa, Sippara, and Kutha, as well as in the southern cities. The
universal characteristic of these buildings, so far as the remains allow
us to pass any judgment, is the extraordinary strength of the walls and
the obvious effort to obtain, by placing one story of solid masonry upon
another, higher positions, better air, and a more extensive view in the
level plain. The temples seem almost universally to be built in this
tower-like style, either in order to be nearer the gods in the purer and
higher air, or because the gods, as spirits of the heaven, and as bright
luminaries of the sky, received the sacrifices here offered to them, and
the prayers hence addressed to them with greater favour. On the inside
their structures were built of square bricks three or four inches in
thickness, and on the outside these bricks are lined with burnt tiles.
The tiles almost invariably carry in the middle the impression of the
stamp of the king who used them.
The ruins of Ur (Mugheir), on the western bank of the Euphrates, occupy
a considerable space, shut in by the remains still traceable, of a
wall, running in an oval shape, and from three to four miles in
circumference. Amid these ruins rises, to the north-west, a heap of
bricks and broken tiles, which is even now about 70 feet above the
surface of the plain. On a plateau about 20 feet in height is a
rectangular building, with the four sides directed exactly to the four
quarters of the sky. The two longer sides are about 200 feet in length,
the shorter sides are about 130 feet. It was a solid mass of brick,
joined with bitumen, about 27 feet high; the outer walls, of burnt
tiles, are about 10 feet thick. Buttresses of eight feet in breadth
surround the whole story at short distances. The centre of the structure
is pierced by narrow air-passages extending from one side to the other.
On this story is a second, 120 feet in length by 75 feet in breadth, and
even now about 17 feet high. The ruins lying on this point to a third
story, which may have contained the actual temple. There are traces
still remaining of the entrance, which led up from the outside. The
tiles of the lower story bear the stamp, "Urukh, king of Ur, has erected
the temple of the god Sin;" on those of the upper story we find, "Ilgi,
king of Ur, king of Sumir, and Accad." This building was, therefore, the
temple of Sin, which Urukh commenced and his son Ilgi continued and
completed--a fact which is further proved by the inscriptions of
Nabonetus, the last king of Babylon, which were found in these ruins. To
the south-east of this structure lies a platform, faced with tiles, 400
feet in circuit, which probably supported another temple or a palace.
The foundation walls of various chambers can still be traced. Similar
structures are found in the ruins of Abu Shahrein, south of Mugheir on
the Euphrates. From a wide platform rises a square structure surrounded
by a wall, in which are the remains of decorated chambers. North of Ur,
on the east bank of the Euphrates, the remains of Senkereh form a
circular plateau, not quite five miles in circumference; the ruins rise
gradually towards the centre, which is marked by the remains of a
structure 320 feet long and 220 broad, the walls of which, on one side,
still rise 70 feet over the plain. In these and the other ruins of
Senkereh inscriptions are found in considerable numbers, which give us
the names of kings from Urukh to Cambyses.
In the ruins of Erech (Uruk, Warka), above Senkereh, on the eastern bank
of the Euphrates, are found the remains of an outer wall, broken by
semicircular towers open to the city. This wall forms an irregular
circle of more than five miles in circumference. Here and there the
ruins are still about 40 feet high. Within the wall are three heaps of
ruins. On the highest, which forms an exact square of more than 200 feet
at the base, we may trace the ruins of a second story. This heap is
about 100 feet in height. It consists of bricks alternating with layers
of reeds at intervals of four or five feet in height. Here also there
are buttresses, in which the tiles are cemented with bitumen. To the
west lie the remains of an oblong structure of double the size. The
ruins of Nipur are sixty miles to the north of Erech, in the land
between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Here are several rounded heaps,
but they are of less extent than the remains of Ur, Senkereh, and Erech.
The heaps of ruins which rise out of the plains some miles to the
south-west of Babylon--the Arabs call them Birs Nimrud, _i.e._ "the
fortress of Nimrod"--exhibit the same plan of structure as the ruins of
the temples at Ur and Erech. Within a square wall, on a platform of
brick, rises a square story, 272 feet on every side, and 26 feet in
height; over this is a second story, of the same height, but forming a
square of 230 feet only, and not placed exactly in the middle of the
lower story, but in such a manner that on one side it recedes 12 feet
only, but on the other 30 feet from the edge of the lower plateau. In
the same way the third and still smaller story rests on the second. It
is of the same height as the others. The fourth story is only 15 feet in
height. The loose mass of ruins does not allow us to trace any more
stories. Hence the building in all probability consisted of seven
stories. It appears that these ruins, like the extensive heaps of
remains lying to the east of them (Tel Ibrahim), mark the site of the
ancient Borsippa. The tiles of the stories, which lie one over the
other, bear the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar II., and in the angles of the
building cylinders have been discovered,[401] on which Nebuchadnezzar
relates that the temple of the seven lamps of the earth, the tower of
Borsippa, which an earlier king had commenced but not completed, and
which had fallen into decay for many years, was again erected by him,
and the pinnacles covered with copper. In his great inscription of
Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar further tells us that he "restored the marvel of
Borsippa, the temple of the seven spheres of the sky and of the earth,
and covered the pinnacles with copper." In the same inscription it is
said that Nebuchadnezzar built temples at Borsippa to the goddess Nana,
to Adar, Bin, and Sin, and that he restored and completed Beth-Sida,
_i.e._ the chief temple of Nebo at Borsippa; nevertheless we may be
certain, from the cylinders actually found in the ruins, that the
remains are those of the temple of the seven lamps.[402]
Turning from Borsippa to Babylon, we find Herodotus describing the
largest temple of the city in the following manner:--"The sanctuary of
Zeus Belus--it is in existence still--forms a square of two stadia on
every side, and is furnished with iron gates. In the midst is a massive
tower, a stadium in the square. Over this tower stands another, and
again another, till there are eight towers, one over the other. They are
ascended from the outside, and the ascent goes up round all the towers.
Half-way up there is a resting-place, and seats for those who are
ascending. On the highest tower is a large temple, and in the temple a
large and beautifully-prepared bed, and beside it a golden table. There
is no image there, nor does anyone watch there through the night except
a woman of the country, whom, as the Chaldaean priests say, their god has
chosen out of all the land. They also declare, though I do not believe
it, that the god sometimes comes into the temple and rests on the bed.
In this sanctuary there is also another temple below, and in this there
is a great image of the seated Zeus, of gold, and a large golden table;
the footstool and seat are also of gold; and altogether, as the
Chaldaeans say, the amount of gold used is 800 talents. Outside this
temple is a golden altar, on which only sucking creatures may be
sacrificed, and also a larger altar, where the full-grown animals are
sacrificed. On this the Chaldaeans burn in every year 1,000 talents of
incense when they celebrate the festival of the god. Here was another
golden image of the god, 12 cubits high. But this I did not see; I only
repeat what the Chaldaeans told me. This image Xerxes had taken away.
Such were the adornments of the temple, and besides these there were in
it many dedicatory offerings given by individuals."[403]
Diodorus, who wrote four hundred years later than Herodotus,
relates:--"In the middle of the city was the sanctuary of Zeus, whom the
Babylonians call Belus. But as the writers give different accounts of
the temple, and the structure has fallen from age, it is not possible to
say anything certain about it. Yet they agree that it was extremely
high, and that the Chaldaeans here made their observations of the stars,
as the height of the building enabled them to observe accurately their
rising and setting. The whole building is said to have been constructed
of burnt brick and bitumen, with great skill and much ornament. On the
top were three statues of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea, of beaten gold. The
statue of Zeus represented him standing and advancing. It was 40 feet
high and 1,000 Babylonian talents in weight. Of the same weight was the
statue of Rhea, in which the goddess was seated on a golden throne.
Beside her knees were two lions, and close at hand two very large
serpents of silver, each weighing 30 talents. The standing figure of
Hera weighed 800 talents; in her right hand she held a serpent by the
head, and in the left a sceptre studded with precious stones. Before
these statues was a common table of beaten gold, 40 feet long and 15
feet broad, and 500 talents in weight. On the table were two chalices,
each 30 talents in weight. There also were two vessels for incense, each
30 talents in weight, and three great jars, of which that consecrated to
Zeus was 1,200 talents in weight, and the two others 600 talents
each."[404] Strabo contents himself with the remark: "The now ruined
grave of Belus was a square pyramid of burnt bricks. It was a stadium in
height, and a stadium on every side. Alexander intended to rebuild it,
but the work was enormous, and required a long time; the removal of the
debris alone employed 10,000 workmen for two months, so that he could
not bring it to an end, for soon after he fell sick and died."[405] What
Diodorus tells us of the many thousand talents of gold, of the statues
and utensils on the top of the temple-tower, is borrowed from Ctesias,
and belongs to the romance or poetry of the East from the time of the
empire of the Medes. But we cannot doubt that there was a considerable
amount of gold in the greatest sanctuary at Babel. The seated image of
gold in the lower temple, which Herodotus saw, weighed, according to the
Chaldaeans, 800 talents, _i.e._, on the light imperial scale, 50,000
pounds.
It was this magnificent temple at Babylon to which the tradition of the
Hebrews has attached the account of the building of that tower in the
plain of Shinar of which the top should reach heaven. The mighty men,
the giants of the ancient days, desired to climb heaven. Their insolence
and wicked purpose was punished by the confusion of language and the
dispersion of mankind. Josephus makes Nimrod, as the founder of the
kingdom of Babylon, the promoter of this wicked scheme. Nimrod intended
the tower to be so high that a second flood could not reach the top, and
thus men would be able to bid defiance to the gods, and yet be secure
against a second destruction.[406]
Let us now inquire what conclusions, if any, can be derived from the
inscriptions about the great temple of Babylon. From ancient times there
was at this place a sanctuary of the name of Beth-Sagall, or
Beth-Saggatu, _i.e._ "House of the Height." Whether this was erected as
early as Hammurabi is doubtful; but an inscription of his successor
tells us that he set up the image of the god Merodach (Marduk) in
Beth-Sagall.[407] These inscriptions of king Esarhaddon, who ruled over
Assyria and Babylonia from 681 B.C. to 668 B.C., tell us that "he caused
tiles to be made in Babylon for Beth-Saggatu, the temple of the great
gods."[408] After the restoration of the Babylonian empire
Nebuchadnezzar always calls himself in his inscriptions, "Supporter of
Beth-Saggatu, and Beth-Sida." Beth-Sida, _i.e._ "House of Prosperity,"
or "House of the Right Hand," was the name of the rich temple of Nebo at
Borsippa. "Like a pious man," says Nebuchadnezzar in one of his
inscriptions, "I have dealt towards Beth-Saggatu, and towards Beth-Sida.
I have magnified the splendour of the god Merodach, and the god Nebo, my
lords: I have completed Beth-Sida, the eternal house, where Nebo and
Nana are enthroned, at Borsippa."[409] "I have set up Beth-Saggatu, and
beautified it; Beth-Sida I have completed."[410] On the cylinders found
in the ruins of the temple of the seven lamps, Nebuchadnezzar says:
"Beth-Saggatu is the temple of the Heaven and the Earth, the dwelling of
Merodach, the lord of the gods, and with pure gold have I caused the
temple to be covered, where his splendour rests; the temple of the
foundations of the earth, the tower of Babylon, I have restored, with
tiles and copper I have completed it, and raised its summit."[411] The
chief inscription on the stone of black basalt relates at greater length
how Nebuchadnezzar adorned the sanctuary in Beth-Saggatu, where Merodach
rested; how he set up the marvel of Babylon, the temple of the
foundations of the heaven and the earth; how he raised the summit with
tiles and copper. The description of this erection concludes with the
satisfaction felt in seeing that Beth-Saggatu was now completed.[412]
And not only does Nebuchadnezzar boast of the care and attention
bestowed by him on Beth-Sida and Beth-Saggatu. The prince before whose
arms the creation of Nebuchadnezzar, the restored kingdom of Babylon,
was overthrown--Cyrus, the Persian, calls himself on the stamp of a tile
at Senkereh, "Kuru, supporter of Beth-Saggatu and Beth-Sida, son of
Kambuzija."[413]
This series of evidence shows that the lofty temple of Belus, which
Herodotus has described for us above, was to the Babylonians "the House
of the Height," the temple of Bel Merodach (p. 268), and that it was the
first of the three temples in which the kings of Assyria sacrificed when
they trod the soil of Babylon at the head of their victorious armies,
or as sovereigns; and that of these three rich temples, _i.e._ the
temple of Nergal at Kutha, Beth-Sida, the temple of Nebo at Borsippa,
and Beth-Saggatu, the temple of Merodach at Babel, the latter was
certainly the most wealthy. Moreover, the inscriptions show that the
foundation goes back as far as the times of king Hammurabi, whose
accession we found it possible--on hypothesis only, it is true--to place
in the year 1976 B.C. But even the Hebrew narrative of the building of
the Tower of Babel, which must have been written down before 1,000 B.C.
(below, chap. vii.) proves, in this respect harmonising with the
inscriptions, that long before this time there must have been in Babylon
a structure of great height, but unfinished.
Herodotus, in his description of Babylon, tells us that the Tower of
Belus was on one side of the Euphrates, and the royal castle on the
other. On which side each of these lay, he does not state. Xenophon
speaks of the palace of Babylon, and beside this of special
castles.[414] From the accounts of those who accompanied Alexander, it
is clear that there were two royal castles in Babylon, one on the right
hand and one on the left of the Euphrates, which certainly were not
built under the Achaemenids. Berosus tells us that Nebuchadnezzar built
himself a palace beside that of his father Nabopolassar. The
inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar speak repeatedly of the continuation of
the palace at Babylon which his father had begun.[415] As the two great
heaps of ruins on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, El Kasr and Amran
ibn Ali, exhibit on the tiles found there the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar,
this palace of the ruler of the restored kingdom must have lain on the
east bank of the Euphrates. Diodorus describes the two castles of
Babylon, of which one was on the east and the other on the west bank of
the river; while both were adorned with various ornaments. "That in the
part lying towards the west" had a circuit of sixty stades, inclosed by
lofty and costly walls. These were followed by a second circular wall,
on the rude bricks of which various kinds of animals were stamped, and
brought into a resemblance with the reality by the painter's art. The
circumference was forty stades in length, and the wall was three hundred
bricks in thickness; the height, according to Ctesias, was fifty
fathoms, and the tower rose to sixty fathoms. The third interior wall
which surrounded the buildings was twenty stades in circuit, but in
height and thickness it surpassed the middle wall. On this and the
towers belonging to it animals of all kinds were depicted with
considerable skill in form and colour. The whole exhibited a chase, full
of many different animals, which were of more than four cubits in size.
Among these was a queen on horseback, who threw her dart at a panther;
and at hand was the king, who thrust at a lion with his lance. This
palace surpassed both in size and beauty the palace on the other side of
the Euphrates. Here the exterior wall of burnt tiles was only thirty
stades in circumference, and instead of the numerous animals were bronze
statues of a king and a queen and of governors, and also a bronze statue
of Zeus, whom the Babylonians call Belus. But in the interior were
military evolutions and hunting scenes of every kind, which gave varied
amusement to the spectator.[416] Ctesias, whom Diodorus followed in
his description of the palace on the west bank, as in his account of the
treasures in the Tower of Belus (p. 293), has also borrowed, in his
description of this castle, the erection of which he ascribes to Ninus,
from the Medo-Persian Epos, and this, as I shall show below, endeavoured
to place the glory of Ninus and Semiramis in the most brilliant light.
Hence, though here, as in the account of the treasures, considerable
deductions are to be made, we can nevertheless recognise the fact that
the castle of the ancient kings of Babylon on the western bank of the
Euphrates was of considerable size, magnificent, and well fortified,
although the remains now in existence are fewer and far smaller than
those of the palace of Nebuchadnezzar on the eastern bank of the
Euphrates, where the painted and glazed tiles also confirm what Diodorus
says of the battle and hunting scenes of this palace. If the ancient
royal castle lay on the western bank, the Tower of Belus rose opposite
it on the eastern bank. This is proved by an inscription of
Nebuchadnezzar, in which we are told:--"In order to protect Beth-Saggatu
more strongly, and secure it from the attack of the enemy, I have
erected a second wall, the wall of the rising sun, which no king had
built before me."[417] Hence we may with certainty affirm that the most
northern of the heaps on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, the heap of
Babil, the summit of which still rises 140 feet above the river, is the
remains of the great tower of Bel Merodach.
The ancient kings of Babylon, Hammurabi and his successors, not only
built temples and palaces, but also fortresses. Hammurabi has himself
already told us, that he built the fortress of Ummubanit, "the towers
of which were as high as mountains." Kurigalzu built the fortress of
this name (Akerkuf, p. 262). Of the extensive walls of Ur and Erech we
have already spoken, and Sennacherib could boast of having taken
eighty-nine fortresses in Babylonia (p. 258).
Herodotus observes that in Babylonia the river (Euphrates) does not
overflow into the fields spontaneously, as in Egypt. It is not so active
as the Nile, and the water has to be raised artificially by hand, and by
wheels.[418] The provision of a sufficient supply of water for the land
was not neglected by the kings. We have already seen (p. 261) that king
Hammurabi boasted to have supplied Sumir and Accad with water for ever.
The canal system of Babylonia began about 150 miles above the
metropolis.[419] The main object was to protect the plain from the rapid
floods of the Euphrates by dams, and to moderate the flow of the
inundation. Reservoirs were required to receive the water of the
overflow, and preserve it against the time of drought. It was also
necessary to carry the water as far as the middle of the plain, which in
ordinary years it failed to reach, to form a network of canals to convey
water from the Euphrates even when there was no inundation, and finally
to dig trenches to remove the water from districts where it lay too
long, and to drain the broad marshes on the lower river near the mouth
of the Euphrates. From the inscription of Hammurabi, and the numerous
remains of dams and canals, we may conclude that the kings of Babylon
constructed large and comprehensive works of this kind, which were of
use not in agriculture only, but for commerce also. The brief duration
of the later restoration of the kingdom could not allow time to complete
the greater part of the vast structures and conduits, of which traces
and ruins are still in existence. The canal Naarsares, which was carried
from the Euphrates above Babylon toward the west, and ran parallel to
the stream till within a short distance of the mouth; the canal
Pallakopas, which was derived from the main stream 100 miles below
Babylon, and emptied into the Chaldaean lakes, in order to convey to them
the excess of water from the Euphrates; and three junction canals above
Babylon between the Euphrates and Tigris, from which trenches branched
off for irrigation, appear to belong to the time of the ancient kingdom
(see below). These labours of the princes, the numerous dams and "waters
of Babylon," attained their object. Babylonia was a garden where the
land brought forth more abundant fruits than in Egypt.
Very few relics are left of the sculpture of the Babylonians. If we set
aside a few sketches on cylinders and seals, we have no means of knowing
at first hand the images of their gods. The form of the god Nebo on the
cylinder of Urukh has been already mentioned (p. 260). The finished
statues cannot have been very different from the images of the Assyrian
gods and the statues of Nebo (p. 267). The remains of the ornaments of
the friezes in the palaces of Babylon are scarcely to be distinguished
from Assyrian sculptures. They are bearded, long-haired heads of serious
expression, with tall, upright headdresses. Beyond these only a few
figures in clay have been preserved, which are not without a certain
truth of nature, though exaggerated, and a rude though powerful lion of
stone standing over a prostrate man, from the ruins of Babylon. Whether
we regard it as unfinished, or as belonging to the infancy of art, this
work is all that we possess of full figures in stone, except a duck,
intended for use as a weight (p. 282). The human forms on the numerous
seal cylinders are often sketched in rude, childish outlines. On the
other hand, the single relief of a king of Babylon hitherto discovered,
though massive, is of artistic and neat workmanship. The king wears a
long and very richly-adorned robe with close sleeves, which are fastened
by bracelets round the knuckles. The robe reaches to the ankles, over
which come the richly embroidered shoes. The head is covered by a tall,
upright tiara, on which are horses with wings and horns. The king has a
bow in his left hand, and two arrows in his right; in his girdle is a
dagger. It appears to be an image of Mardukidinakh, the opponent of
Tiglath Pilesar I. of Assyria (p. 262). The forms of the animals in the
reliefs, and the cylinders, are lively in conception and vigorous in
workmanship; they consist of dogs, birds, apes, deer, and antelopes.
Humorous sketches of animals in caricature are also found on cylinders,
and the earrings and ornaments, found in the ruins, are, in part, of
delicate workmanship.
The most remarkable remains in the ruins of Ur and Erech are the tombs.
At Ur, outside the wall already mentioned, there is a broad band of
sepulchres encircling the ruins of the wall. The tombs are chambers of
seven feet in length, three to four feet in breadth, and five feet in
height. The roofs are formed by tiles projecting in successive layers
over the walls, and thus gradually approaching each other. The floors
are also covered with tiles. On the tiles lay a mat of reeds, and on
this the corpse was placed, generally turned to the left side, with the
head on a brick; the right arm, laid towards the left over the breast,
rests the fingers on the edge of a copper saucer. Clay vessels for food
and drink are found on the walls. In the ruins of Erech the whole space
between the three prominent heaps of ruins and the external walls is
filled with tombs, bones, and relics of the dead. The coffins here are
receptacles partly oval, made of burnt clay in a single piece, about
seven feet long, two and a half broad, and two to three feet high,
contracting towards the top; and partly narrow funnel-shaped vessels of
clay rounded off at both ends and united in the middle, in which the
body was closely fitted. The position of the skeletons and objects round
them are the same in the oval coffins as in the brick vaults. As a rule
these coffins are not found under the surface, but in raised brick
buildings. They lie thickly together, and often in several rows, one
upon the other. Relics of weapons, necklaces, and bracelets, gold and
silver rings for the fingers and toes, and other ornaments, are found in
these sepulchres.[420]
The industry of the Babylonians quickly attained great skill and wide
development. They were famous for their weaving in wool and linen. The
nations of the West agree in acknowledging the excellence of the cloths
and coloured stuffs of Babylonia. Their pottery was excellent and the
manufacture active; the preparation of glass was not unknown; the
ointments prepared in Babylon were famous and much sought after, and the
stones cut there were highly valued. The products of Babylonian skill
and industry were first brought to their kinsmen in Syria, who could
offer oil and wine in exchange. In the Hebrew scriptures we find
Babylonian cloaks in use in Syria before the immigration of the Hebrews
into Canaan.[421] How active the commerce between Babylonia and Syria
was even before that date is proved by the circumstance that the tribute
which in the sixteenth century B.C. was received by Tuthmosis III. from
Syria is put down on the inscriptions at Karnak (p. 135) in part in
weight by the mina, and in part, when reduced from the Egyptian to the
Babylonian weight, gives round sums corresponding to the Babylonian
weight, from which the conclusion can be drawn that the imperial
Babylonian weight and the Babylonian money weight were already in use in
Syria about this time. That the trade mina of the Syrians was the
sixtieth part of the heavy (weight) talent of the Babylonians is
ascertained; but the heavy and light gold talent, as well as the silver
talent of 67-1/3 pounds, must, according to these deductions, have been
known to the Syrians about this date.[422] Afterwards the Hebrews put
their gold shekel, on the basis of the heavy gold talent of Babylon, at
the fiftieth part of the mina of this talent. Besides the silver talent
of Babylonia, there was also a heavy silver talent of about ninety
pounds (44,760 kil.) in use in Syria. This came into existence because
in Syria fifteen, and not ten, silver pieces (fiftieths of the mina)
were equal to the fiftieth of the heavy gold mina (1-3/5 pounds),
(p. 285).[423] Along with their weights the Syrians also adopted the
cubic measures of the Babylonians.
The rough material required by Babylonian industry was supplied in the
first place by the Arabs, who exchanged their animals, skins, and wool
for corn and weapons. Wine, and more especially wood, of which there was
none in Babylonia, were brought by the Armenians from their valleys in
the north down the Euphrates to Babylon.[424] Before 1500 B.C. the
commerce of the Arabs brought the products of South Arabia, the spices
of Yemen, and even the products and manufactures of India, especially
their silks, which reached the coasts of Southern Arabia (see below), to
Babylon. The Babylonians required the perfumes of Arabia and India to
prepare their ointments. In order to prepare the best or royal ointment,
twenty-five of the most precious perfumes were mixed together.[425] When
the cities of Phenicia became great centres of trade which carried the
wares of Babylonia by sea to the West in order to obtain copper in
exchange, the trade between Babylonia and Syria must have become more
lively still. It was the ships of the Phenicians which brought the cubic
measure, and the weights, and the cubit of Babylonia to the shores of
Greece, and caused them to be adopted there. In the ninth or eighth
century B.C. the Greeks completely dropped their old measures of length
and superficies, and fixed their stadium at 360 Babylonian cubits, their
plethrum at the length and the square of sixty Babylonian cubits, and
regulated the Greek foot by the Babylonian at a measure from 308 to 315
millimeters, and made their cubit equal to one and a half of these
feet.[426] The light Babylonian talent became known in Greece under the
name of the Euboeic talent, while the Greek city Phocaea, on the
shores of Asia Minor, struck the oldest Greek coin, the Phocaean stater,
at the value of a fiftieth of the heavy gold mina of Babylon (1-3/5
pounds). Chios, Clazomenae, and Lampsacus followed the heavy Syrian
silver talent in their coinage; and lastly, Croesus made his gold
stater equal to the fiftieth part of the mina of the light Babylonian
gold talent (50-1/2 pounds), and his silver stater equal to the fiftieth
part of the mina of the Babylonian silver talent of 67-1/3 pounds.[427]
FOOTNOTES:
[401] H. Rawlinson, "Journ. Asiat. Soc." 1861, 18, 2 ff.
[402] The assumption that the Birs Nimrud is the temple Beth-Sida at
Borsippa is contradicted by the inscriptions. The measurements of the
temple give no support for such a theory, even if the forty-two cubits
of the cylinders of Rawlinson are interpreted with Norris, "Dict." p.
280, by Amatgagar; for we do not know the value of this measure exactly.
I cannot regard Borsippa as a part of Babylon in the teeth of the direct
testimony of Strabo (p. 728), Justin (12, 13), and Ptolemy (5, 20). The
inscriptions of the Assyrians, and, not least, those of Nebuchadnezzar
himself, always mention Borsippa beside Babylon. If it be maintained
that in spite of this Nebuchadnezzar might have included Borsippa in the
walls of Babylon, the theory is contradicted by Berosus (Joseph, "c.
Apion." 1, 20), according to whom Cyrus besieges and takes Babylon while
Nabonetus is blocked up in Borsippa, and by Nebuchadnezzar himself, who,
after speaking of the great walls of Babylon, adds:--"I also laid the
foundations of the walls of Borsippa, the Tabi-subur-su" (Menant,
"Babylone," p. 205).
[403] Herod. 1, 181-183.
[404] Diod. 2, 9.
[405] Strabo, p. 738.
[406] "Antiq." 1, 4.
[407] G. Smith, "Records of the Past," 5, 69, 73.
[408] Aberdeen inscription in Menant, "Annal." p. 248.
[409] Cylinder Phillips in Menant, "Babylone," pp. 210, 211.
[410] Cylinder of the British Museum in Menant, p. 212.
[411] Menant, "Babylone," p. 216.
[412] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 202.
[413] "Transactions Bibl. Arch." 2, 148.
[414] "Cyr. Inst." 7, 5.
[415] Cylinder Grotefend, in Oppert, "Exped." 1, 232. Chief inscription
in Menant, p. 206.
[416] Diod. 2, 8.
[417] Cylinder Phillips, in Menant, "Babylone," p. 210.
[418] Herod. 1, 193. 2, 11.
[419] Xen. "Anab." 1, 7; Ammian, 24, 3; Strabo, p. 748, puts the borders
of Babylon at a canal, 18 schoenes, _i.e._ 135 miles above Seleucia,
and Seleucia was somewhat higher than Babylon.
[420] W. K. Loftus, "Warka, its Ruins and Remains;" "Transactions of the
Royal Society," 2, 6, 1-64.
[421] Joshua, vii. 21.
[422] Brandis, "Muenzwesen." s. 93.
[423] Brandis, _loc. cit._ s. 105 ff.
[424] Herod. 1, 194.
[425] Movers, "Phoenizier," 2, 3, 103.
[426] Brandis, "Muenzwesen," s. 21 ff.
[427] Brandis, "Muenzwesen," s. 71, 107, 121.