NEBUCHADNEZZAR AND HIS SUCCESSORS.
Assyria had become known to the Greeks about the time when Tiglath
Pilesar II. had reduced Syria to submission, and the cities of the
Phenicians were subject to the kings of Asshur--_i.e._ about the middle
of the eighth century B.C. Hence for them the name Assyrians denoted the
whole population of Asia from the Syrian coast to the Tigris, and the
range of the Zagrus: "Syrians" is merely an abbreviated form of the name
"Assyrians." In this sense Herodotus says: "After the fall of Nineveh
Babylon was the chief city of the Assyrians."[679] As a fact
Nebuchadnezzar had united under his dominion the whole of the Semitic
tribes on both sides of the Syrian desert. The stubborn resistance of
the Phenicians and Hebrews had been broken by repeated campaigns; at
least, after the subjugation of Tyre, we hear no more of rebellion by a
Syrian tribe against Babylonia.
Nebuchadnezzar was able to complete the work which his father
Nabopolassar had commenced by liberating Babylon from Assyria after two
centuries of supremacy and one century of dominion, and had secured by
it the annihilation of Assyria. The second king of this name on the
throne of Babylon--Nebuchadnezzar I. had fought against Assyria with
some success in the first half of the 12th century B.C. (II. 37)--he was
the true founder of the new kingdom. Berosus is fully justified in
saying of him, that he surpassed the achievements of all the earlier
kings of the Chaldæans, though the addition that he ruled over Egypt, as
well Phoenicia, Syria, and Arabia, is to be ascribed to the vainglory
of the Babylonian.[680] Nebuchadnezzar was indeed a prince of
extraordinary gifts. He proved himself a brave warrior in the great
victory which he gained over the Egyptians at Karchemish, and in the
subsequent campaigns against the Arabians, Syrians, and Egyptians. The
fame of his battles reached the Greeks: we find Hellenic nobles, as
Antimenidas of Lesbos, the brother of the poet Alcæus, in his army.[681]
At Karchemish and in the south of Judah these had an opportunity of
measuring themselves against their countrymen in the service of Necho
and Hophrah. But Nebuchadnezzar did not allow the successes of his arms
to tempt him beyond the limits which he had fixed for himself. He was
not a conqueror in the Oriental sense, pressing onward to unlimited
dominion. With a clear sense of his power, he placed bounds on his
campaigns: as we saw, he refrained from attacking Egypt. His chief care
was the secure foundation and continuance of his kingdom, and he clearly
recognised the conditions which would promote this aim. The object,
which he thus set before himself, he sought to realise with wisdom, with
unwearied effort, and the greatest perseverance. He did much to promote
the welfare of his kingdom; to encourage agriculture and trade; to
improve the communications of Babylon by land and sea. He secured the
strongest protection for his land and metropolis by a magnificent and
well-considered system of fortifications. He must be numbered among the
foremost princes of the ancient East. An engraved stone in the Berlin
Museum presents us with a head; the cuneiform letters round it tell us:
"To Merodach Nabukudurussur, king of Babylon: in his life he prepared
it."[682] It is a portrait in profile, quite different from the only
other relief of a Babylonian king which has come down to us (I. 302);
quite different also from the delineations of the Assyrian kings.
Instead of the tall _kidaris_, and the long curled hair and beard, this
head wears a closing helmet with a low ridge. The hair can be seen
beneath it, but it does not fall on the neck: the face is smooth and
beardless. The lines are round and full, the neck strong. Under the
helmet protrudes the forehead, which slightly recedes; the brows are
closely knit; there is a look of authority in the eye. The nose is
straight and well-formed: the chin is short and round, and slightly
elevated. It is the picture of a strong and even imperious will, a firm
self-conscious power.
Babylon must have suffered severely in the repeated campaigns of Tiglath
Pilesar II., Sargon, Sennacherib, and Assurbanipal, in the struggle for
the possession of the Chaldæan districts, for Bit Yakin and Babylon.
Babylon was besieged and taken by Sennacherib, and severely punished.
The restorations of Esarhaddon were no doubt again destroyed at the
second capture of the city by Assurbanipal. How far Nabopolassar
succeeded in securing not Babylon only and the larger cities, but the
country also from devastation and plunder by the Sacæ, we do not know.
In any case there must everywhere have been deep and severe wounds in
need of healing.
We saw that the produce of the agriculture of Babylon, the fruit of the
field, depended on the irrigation, the system of canals, and the
regulation of the overflow of the Euphrates. Nebuchadnezzar must have
commenced his work by putting in order the dams of the Euphrates, which
it was no easy task to keep up, by providing with water-courses or
cleaning out the canals which had become dry or blocked up.[683] The
great canals of the old kings were still in existence, the canal of
Hammurabi, the Narsares, the Pallakopas, and the connecting canals
between the Euphrates and Tigris above Babylon.[684] Nebuchadnezzar must
have taken measures for their restoration. He increased the number of
the connections between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and made them more
useful by cutting a new canal from the Euphrates to the Tigris, of
sufficient dimensions to carry the largest vessels. This was the Nahr
Malka, _i.e._ the king's trench. Herodotus calls it the largest of the
Babylonian canals. According to Xenophon's statement there were four
canals connecting the Euphrates and the Tigris, one hundred feet in
breadth, and deep enough to carry even corn ships. They were bridged
over, and about four miles from each other. From these were derived the
canals of irrigation, first the large, then the small, and lastly
runnels like those in Greece for watering the fields of millet. The
larger canals of irrigation were so deep that the Greeks with Clearchus
could not cross them without bridges; and for the construction of these
the palms which shadowed the banks of the canals were felled. Clearchus
and Xenophon crossed the two northernmost of the connecting canals in
order to come from the Median wall to Sittace on the Tigris. The first
they crossed by the permanent bridge, the second by a bridge of boats
supported by seven merchantmen. The lining of these canals was
constructed of bricks, united with asphalt-mortar. There still exist
four canals connecting the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Saklawiye is
followed by the Nahr Sersar; further to the south is the Nahr Malka,
which leaves the eastern bank of the Euphrates below Feludsha, in order
to reach the Tigris at the point marked by the ruins of Seleucia--this
is the great canal constructed by Nebuchadnezzar: lastly, immediately
above Babylon, is the Nahr Kutha, named after the city of Kutha. Thus
Nebuchadnezzar completed the old canal system of Babylon; he facilitated
the communication between the two rivers in the upper part of the land,
and increased the irrigation. He also gave attention to the lower land:
between the Narsares and the Pallakopas, which carry away the overflow
of the water of the Euphrates, below Babylon, he made trenches in order
to drain the marsh, and he caused dams to be erected on the sea-coast in
order to keep out the inundations of the sea.[685]
In order to avoid destructive floods at the time of the yearly
inundation, in order to bring about a graduated and regular rise of the
Euphrates, in order to receive the overflow in the years when the
inundation was higher, and apply the water thus stored in the years of
drought,--in a word, in order to have the water of the Euphrates
completely under control, Nebuchadnezzar took in hand, and completed,
one of the most magnificent of hydraulic works. Above Babylon, and the
four canals which connect the Euphrates with the Tigris on the northern
border of Babylonia proper, lay the ancient city of Sippara (I. 257).
Near this, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, was excavated a vast
basin, not inferior to the artificial lake of Amenemha. The circuit of
this basin is said to have been 420 stades (_i.e._ 50 miles); the depth
reached 35 feet. The trenches and dams, which formed this basin, were
cased, on the inclines, with masonry, and the excavated earth was used
for the embankment of the Euphrates. According to the excerpt in
Abydenus, Berosus allowed a circuit of 40 parasangs, _i.e._ 150 miles,
for this basin, with a depth of 20 fathoms, and added that the sluices,
which opened and shut of themselves, according to the level of the water
in the basin of the Euphrates, irrigated the level land. If the circuit
of the basin was really 50 miles, we must suppose that here, as in the
lake of Amenemha, a low-lying strip of land was changed by embankment
into a basin or wide reservoir.[686] With this great undertaking were
connected other hydraulic works erected at Ardericca. At this place
Nebuchadnezzar caused a new bed to be excavated for the Euphrates, with
sharp curves, either to lessen the force of the current, and make
navigation up the current possible, or, which is more probable, because
it was necessary to moderate the flow of the river in order to conduct
the inundation into the basin at Sippara.[687] By means of this basin at
Sippara Nebuchadnezzar really brought the Euphrates into his power. Even
though the excess of the water of the stream might be too much for its
large dimensions in any single year, the canals leading to the Tigris
provided the means of carrying off the excess into that river, and at
the same time it was possible owing to the connections to counteract by
means of the Euphrates the inequality of the water in the lower Tigris.
The regulation of the inundation, of the bed and level of the Euphrates,
and of the level of the Tigris, was not only an assistance to
agriculture, but to trade also, inasmuch as it facilitated the
navigation in both streams. In this way trade received considerable
support, and Nebuchadnezzar also paid attention to it beyond the borders
of the Babylonian land. To his time apparently belongs the foundation of
the Babylonian colony of Gerrha on the Arabian coast of the Persian
Gulf. For the trade of Babylonia with South Arabia and the products of
India which came to South Arabia (I. 305), it was important to avoid the
transport by land and the middle trade of the Arabians, and to obtain
those wares by direct marine trade with Babylonia. The building of the
harbour city of Teredon at the mouth of the Euphrates, 400 miles below
Babylon, which became the chief centre of the trade in Arabian spices,
is, as we are definitely informed, the work of Nebuchadnezzar, and the
Dedanites in whose land lay the colony of Gerrha (the modern Chatif)
opposite the Bahrain islands, at a distance of 300 miles from Teredon,
had been subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar (p. 329). The Gerrhæans brought
the products and the incense of Arabia on board ship to Babylon; from
hence it was sent up the river to Thapsacus, and from thence carried by
land in every direction.[688] In this way the lucrative trade with South
Arabia by the sea-route of the Persian Gulf must have been gained for
Babylon. Hence it appears that Nebuchadnezzar built Teredon and founded
Gerrha with the same object with which the Phenicians--in order to avoid
the middle trade of the Arabians, and the difficulties of the caravan
trade--arranged their navigation from Elath to South Arabia, in the time
of Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and Uzziah of Judah. The Babylonians were
already or subsequently became acquainted with the navigation on the
Persian Gulf. Their voyages extended to the bold headland of the
mountains of Maketa (Cape Mussendom), where it was possible to enter
into direct communication with the Indians.[689] At a later time we hear
only of the Gerrhæans as middle-men in the trade with the Sabæans, while
in the Hebrew Scriptures the Rhegmæans and Dedanites carry on trade with
Sabæa. The Gerrhæans carried the products of Arabia to Babylon by sea;
then they passed not merely up the Euphrates, but also across the desert
in a slanting direction to Syria. It must have been one of the most
beneficial results of the hydraulic works of Nebuchadnezzar that the
Euphrates could be navigated up the stream; and triremes could advance
as far as Thipsach. Trade was greatly facilitated by the fact that the
wares of India and Arabia could not only be brought by water to Babylon,
but could also be conveyed along with the products of Babylonian
industry to that city where the most crowded caravan routes from
Cilicia, Syria, and Phoenicia, touched the Euphrates,[690] while, on
the other hand, the wares brought along these routes from Syria could be
carried in return to Babylon. By the Nahr Malka the ships of heaviest
burden could then pass from the Euphrates into the Tigris. If the cities
of the Phenicians lost their sea trade on the Persian Gulf by their
dependence on Babylon--in case the Egyptians closed that gulf to the
subjects of Nebuchadnezzar--they were compensated by the fact that they
could obtain the products of South Arabia, not only by the caravan route
by Elath, but also in Babylon itself. Moreover, the Arabian tribes on
the Euphrates and in the Syrian desert, the Kedarites and their
neighbours, were subject to Nebuchadnezzar, and the construction of the
roads which led from Babylon through the desert to the West, to Sela and
Elath, which provided a far shorter means of connection with Syria than
the old caravan routes by Damascus and Tadmor to Thipsach, and by Riblah
and Hamath to Karchemish, must certainly be ascribed to
Nebuchadnezzar.[691]
Under the protection of the common head the caravans of the Phenicians
travelled in peace along secure roads from the Syrian Sea to the
Euphrates, the Tigris, the Persian Gulf, and the east coast of the Red
Sea. The impulse which the trade thereby acquired might cause the
supremacy of Nebuchadnezzar to appear to the Phenician cities not only
tolerable, but advantageous. The easier and more secure connection with
Babylon might, at any rate, teach them to forget in part the loss which
their market had suffered by the fall of Nineveh. The increased
productiveness of agriculture, the livelier trade, and consequent growth
of industry, could not but raise the power and resources of the
Babylonian kingdom. The more lively the intercourse between the two
great halves of the kingdom separated by the desert, the more passable
the desert became, the easier was it for troops to march from Babylon to
Gaza, from Harran to Hamath. And if the canals of the Babylonian plain
carried the ships of the Euphrates to the Tigris, and left no field
without irrigation, they at the same time largely increased the means of
defence in the native land.
The numerous invasions which Babylonia had suffered from the Assyrians
must have been held in lively recollection, and the founder of the new
kingdom could not omit to bestow his earnest attention on the mode of
preventing such dangers for the future. They were only possible on the
side of Media. So far as the difference of force in comparison with
Media was not removed by the better frontier, the more homogeneous
population, and the greater productive power in Babylonia, it was
necessary to attempt to remove it by the erection of fortresses in the
land. As the attacks of the Assyrians had taken place from the North,
the attacks of the Medes were also to be expected from that quarter.
Mesopotamia might, in case of necessity, be abandoned, if the native
land were made secure. Babylonia had excellent bulwarks on the East and
West in the Euphrates and the Tigris; in the North the line of canals,
especially the new and broad canal, Nahr Malka, formed a similar
protection. The basin of Sippara was not merely constructed with a view
to the cultivation of the soil and the navigation; it was at the same
time calculated that the supply of water contained in it was sufficient
to change the most northern of these canals into deep watercourses. The
sluices were guarded by the fortress of Sippara.[692] How destructive
this basin would one day be to his metropolis, how it would render vain
the fruit of all his labours, Nebuchadnezzar never dreamed. If every
hostile power in the East and West had to cross a wide river in the face
of the Babylonian army, the two rivers from Sippara downwards could now
be filled by opening the great reservoir and by closing the sluices of
the Pallakopas in such a manner that it became more difficult than ever
to cross them. The same was the case with the canals. But the
difficulties here were not so great, and they did not satisfy
Nebuchadnezzar. In order to strengthen the defence of the northern
border, in order to protect the basin of Sippara, on which depended the
filling of the upper canals and the feeding of the lower course of both
streams, to make more secure the fertile part of Babylonia,
Nebuchadnezzar built a strong wall, extending from the Euphrates to the
Tigris, above the four canals and the fortified Sippara. This
fortification the Greeks call "the Median wall." It was, in fact,
intended to meet the attacks of the Medes. Had Nebuchadnezzar chosen for
the line of the wall the point at which the two rivers most nearly
approach each other, the length of it would have been little more than
25 miles; but as Sippara and all the land of the canals had to be
protected, the wall must have been placed farther to the north. It
appears to have left the Euphrates at Ssifeira below the modern
Feludsha, and, extending in a north-easterly direction, it reached the
Tigris at some distance above the modern Bagdad. The length was thus
from 60 to 75 miles. The wall was constructed of burnt bricks joined
together by mortar of asphalt; according to Xenophon,[693] who saw
parts of it still standing, the breadth was 20 feet and the height 100
feet. The native land, the centre of the kingdom, was thus protected;
and even when it was lost, in spite of the protection of the two
streams, the canals, and the long wall, the metropolis was intended to
present impregnable fortresses to the enemy.
Babylon had no doubt suffered the most severe wounds in all the land of
Chaldæa through the capture by Assurbanipal. Berosus says:
"Nebuchadnezzar restored the old city, and also built a new one, and
that the besieger might not enter the city by averting the stream, he
surrounded the inner city as well as the outer with three walls, one of
burnt bricks, the other two of unburnt bricks and bitumen, and thus he
fortified it in a very striking manner, and adorned the gates with great
splendour."[694] Herodotus, who saw the city more than one hundred years
after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, when it had been four times captured
by Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes, describes it thus: "The city is situated
in a wide plain, and forms a square of 120 stades on each side, so that
the whole circuit reaches 480 stades. It is divided into two parts, and
the river Euphrates flows through the middle. It is surrounded by a
broad and deep trench, which is always filled with water. The soil taken
from this trench was made into bricks, and burnt; and these bricks were
applied, first to lining the trench and then to building the wall. The
wall is 50 Babylonian cubits in thickness and 200 cubits in height. The
bricks are held together by bitumen-mortar, and at every thirtieth
course they are separated by a layer of reeds. On the wall are houses of
a single chamber, built on either side opposite each other, and yet
sufficient space is left between them for a chariot and four to pass. In
the wall are one hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels and
side-posts. The wall has wings which run along the river on either side,
and the banks are cased with masonry of burnt bricks. The city itself is
filled with houses of three and four stories, through which are straight
streets--both those which lead to the river and the rest. Those which
run down to the river have each a brazen gate in the masonry on the
river, through which you pass on steps of burnt brick into the
water.[695] And within this wall, which is as it were the corslet of the
city, is another wall, not much inferior in strength to the other, but
less in extent. Of the two parts of the city the centre of the one is
occupied by the royal citadel, the centre of the other by the temple of
Belus with the gates of brass."[696] In another passage Herodotus gives
the names of some of the gates of Babylon; he mentions the gate of
Belus, the gate of Semiramis, the gate of Ninus, the gate of the
Chaldæans, and the gate of the Cissians.
That gates in Babylon could not be named after Ninus and Semiramis,
_i.e._ after fictitious rulers, and hardly after the Chaldæans, needs no
proof in detail. But the narrative of Herodotus, in which these names
are found, goes back in other respects to Medo-Persian poems, which, as
we already found, could tell of Ninus and Semiramis. The Babylonians
were better acquainted with the history of Assyria. It is more striking
that in the description of the city Herodotus speaks of the walls and
gates of Babylon as if they were uninjured; and yet, some twenty years
after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus took Babylon by storm; and
scarcely twenty years afterwards Darius overcame the city, after a siege
which lasted nearly two years. A new rebellion quickly followed, to be
crushed by a third capture of the city; and even after this a new rising
of the Babylonians was again repressed by Xerxes. After this series of
struggles the walls and gates could not have remained uninjured, and
Herodotus himself tells us that Darius destroyed the gates after the
long siege.[697] Were Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes likely to allow the
Babylonians, after each capture of the city, to restore the walls in
which the city trusted?--were they not rather likely to take care that
after each capture long portions of the wall should be destroyed, and so
remain?
Next to Herodotus in point of time, Xenophon and Ctesias are our
informants about Babylon. Xenophon did not see the city; he only came
within 45 miles of it. He contents himself with remarking that Babylon,
the wealthiest city in Asia, was surrounded by strong and lofty walls;
that the Euphrates flowed through it; that it contained a palace and
citadels, that the doors of the houses were made of palm-wood.[698]
Ctesias, who had been in Babylon, gives to the wall of the city,
"through which the Euphrates flows," a circuit of 360 stades (45 miles).
The wall, built of burnt brick and bitumen, broken by numerous large
towers, was 50 fathoms in height; and on either bank of the river ran a
protecting wall, equal in strength to the city wall. The length of
these walls was about 160 stades. His description of the two royal
citadels, "both of which lay on the river," one on the west side, the
other on the east--the former was surrounded by a triple wall, and had a
circuit of 60 stades, while the other on the east side was only half the
size--his description of the golden statues of gods in the temple of
Belus, and the golden altar and furniture, is already known to us (I.
293). About half a century after Ctesias, Cleitarchus and the companions
of Alexander of Macedon inform us that the wall of Babylon had a circuit
of 365 stades; the height they give at 50 cubits; the width allowed
ample room for two wagons to pass each other. Two hundred and fifty
towers rose above the wall, of a corresponding height and thickness.
Between the wall and the houses was left a clear space of two
plethra.[699] That the number of towers was so small in comparison with
the circuit of the wall is no reason for wonder--so Diodorus or his
authority adds--for the city was surrounded by a wide belt of marshes,
and it did not appear to be necessary to build towers where the marshes
afforded sufficient protection.[700]
The accounts which have been preserved of the stay of Alexander of
Macedon in Babylon also prove the existence of two royal citadels, one
on each bank of the Euphrates. In the last days of his life Alexander
lived in the king's palace, from which the house of Bagoas, with whom on
one occasion he banqueted, was distant ten stades.[701] From the
banquet-hall in this palace, where he had given his commands to his
generals, and rested till the dusk of the evening, he was carried in a
litter to the river, and conducted on board ship to the park on the
other side of the river, where he bathed and rested. After spending
three days there in his chamber--on the first day he played at dice with
Medius; on the second he listened to the account of Nearchus about the
voyage from the Indus through the great sea; on the third he bade his
generals enter to receive instructions for setting out in three days--he
caused himself to be brought into the house near "the large bath;" he
gave orders for the generals to keep watch in the portico, and the
Chiliarchs and the Pentacosiarchs before the doors. When more seriously
ill he was conveyed from the garden into the more distant royal palace,
where the generals entered, and the soldiers forced their way into his
presence.[702]
Leaving out of sight what may have remained, and did remain uninjured,
of the outer walls and towers of the city, when Herodotus and Ctesias
were in Babylon, and when the Macedonians of Alexander saw the city, it
is clear that in the fifth and fourth century B.C. so much remained
standing that the line of the trenches and the wall could be clearly
traced. If the circuit of 365 stades, given by Cleitarchus, is clearly a
fiction derived from the number of days in the Babylonian year, we shall
still be able to give the preference to the 360 stades of Ctesias over
the 480 stades of Herodotus, though Aristotle remarks, "Babylon reached
the extent of a nation, not of a city."[703] Since, as Ctesias also
tells us, the two walls on the Euphrates were nearly 160 stades in
length, the wall on each bank would be nearly 80 stades in length,
_i.e._ about 10 miles. Supposing that the Euphrates passed
diametrically through the city, which was not the case, the city wall,
if we also suppose that the city, as Herodotus says, was an exact
square, would at the utmost have a circuit of 320 stades, _i.e._ of
about 40 miles. We cannot therefore avoid the conclusion that in the 480
stades of Herodotus the 160 stades of the two walls on the river were
included; if he inquired about the total length of the city walls the
answer may very well have included the walls by the river.
Berosus told us above that Nebuchadnezzar surrounded the old city as
well as the new, the inner city as well as the outer, with a triple
wall. By the outer city we must understand the new city, which,
according to Berosus, Nebuchadnezzar built. The old city lay, like the
old citadel (I. 298), on the west bank of the Euphrates. Of this old
citadel the remains of a square keep on the river, now called Abu
Ghozeilat, are still in existence. Herodotus, and the Greek authorities
after him, know nothing of an old and a new city, they only knew a city
divided into two parts by the Euphrates. Herodotus does not speak of
three walls but only of two, an outer and an inner wall, "hardly
inferior in strength to the other, but of less extent," (p. 369). If to
these two walls of Herodotus we reckon the walls which enclosed the
fortresses on each side of the Euphrates, Herodotus would be in
agreement with Berosus. But Ctesias and the companions of Alexander know
of one wall only, enclosing Babylon. It would be very remarkable that
within half a century or even a century after the time of Herodotus, no
trace was left of the two inner walls mentioned by him. Herodotus allows
for the outer wall a height of 200 cubits, _i.e._ of 300 feet, and a
breadth of 75 feet: Ctesias mentions the same height, (50 fathoms).
Moreover, Ctesias allows a similar height for the second wall of the old
citadel, and a height of 70 fathoms for the towers; the third wall was
higher still (I. 298). The companions of Alexander allow a height of
only 50 cubits for the walls of Babylon. The walls of the island city of
Tyre, on the side turned towards the mainland, were 150 feet in height.
Xenophon saw strips of wall 150 feet in height still standing on the
site of ancient Nineveh. We saw above that the Median wall of
Nebuchadnezzar, the first line of defence for the land, was 100 feet in
height, and 20 feet in breadth; hence we may conclude that the walls of
Babylon must certainly have been stronger and higher. A Hebrew
contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar speaks emphatically of the "broad walls,"
"the lofty gates" of Babylon; he tells us that "Babylon reached to the
heavens, and the height of the fortress none could climb."[704] As
neither Cyrus nor Darius with all their siege material could make any
impression on the walls of Babylon; as Nebuchadnezzar would certainly
make the walls of Babylon stronger than the walls of Chalah and Nineveh,
so that neither battering-rams nor besieging-towers could injure them,
neither arrows nor scaling-ladders could over-top them, we have good
ground for assuming that Nebuchadnezzar strengthened the wall already in
existence, and raised it to a height of 200 feet, (Pliny gives it a
height of more than 200 feet);[705] that the towers rose to 300 feet. It
was the standing walls of towers of this height which caused Herodotus
and Ctesias to believe that the wall was once of the same height
throughout. A height of 200 feet presupposes a corresponding breadth of
about 40 feet, which leaves for the gangway behind the towers breadth
sufficient for a chariot and four horses, or for two wagons of burden.
We may maintain the assertion of Berosus, that it was Nebuchadnezzar who
added a new city on the eastern bank of the Euphrates to the old city on
the western bank, so that the Euphrates henceforth flowed through the
city. We have already seen that the great temple of Bel Merodach, Bit
Saggatu, the tower of Babel, was on the eastern bank of the Euphrates,
opposite to the old city and the citadel of the ancient kings, who ruled
over Babylon before the times of the Assyrian dominion; we recognised
the remains of it in the most northern heap of the ruins of Babylon on
that bank of the river, the heap of broken bricks now called Babil. In
the ruins we can recognise the traces of a square structure, the sides
of which are directed to the four quarters of the sky. Its extent
reaches 1500 or 1600 feet; the ruins now rise 140 feet above the level
of the Euphrates. Herodotus allows a stadium (600 feet) for each side of
the tower; the outer wall with the gates of brass was two stades on each
side.[706] Berosus tells us: "Nebuchadnezzar built a second palace
beside the palace of his father, which abutted upon it. To describe its
height and splendour would be superfluous: it was large and quite
extraordinary."[707] Since the bricks of a ruin-heap to the south of the
remains of the tower of Belus, on the east bank of the Euphrates, now
called El Kasr--bricks which are twelve inches long and as many broad,
and three inches in thickness--bear on the under side the stamp of
Nebuchadnezzar, we are certain that the restorers of the kingdom,
Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, built their residences on this side of
the Euphrates, opposite to the palace of the ancient kings. It is these
which Ctesias has described to us as the smaller royal citadel, lying
on the eastern bank, and enclosed by a wall of 30 stades in length. He
dwells on the statues of brass to be found here, and the descriptions of
battles and hunting-scenes (I. 298). So far as the fragments allow us to
see, the palaces of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar formed a square
structure, which, 1600 feet in length, ran from north to south, close
along the bank of the river: from the bank towards the east the breadth
of the ruins is 1200 feet. The remains still rise about 70 feet above
the river. Slabs of stone discovered in these ruins bear the
inscription: "Great palace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, son of
Nabopolassar, king of Babel, the worshipper of Nebo and Merodach his
lords."[708] Among tiles and bricks, yellow and white, we find here a
number of glazed tiles, with brightly-coloured remains of pictures in
relief, of horses' hoofs, and lions' paws, of parts of the human body,
curled beards, and long hair, which prove that the walls of the palace
or the sides of the rooms were adorned with reliefs, in mosaic, of
hunting-scenes and battles. Like Assyrian plastic work, these remains
are heavy, and mostly exaggerated in the modelling. The lion of granite,
already mentioned, (I. 302) was discovered in the ruin-heap of Kasr.
In this citadel, so Berosus informs us, "Nebuchadnezzar erected
platforms on stone pillars, which he caused to have the appearance of
mountains, inasmuch as he so arranged them that they were planted with
trees of every kind. This hanging garden (_paradisus_), as it was
called, he built to please his wife, who had been brought up in the
Median district, and wished to have a scene like her own home."[709]
Nebuchadnezzar might gladly pay honour to Amyite, the daughter of
Cyaxares, whose hand had been the seal of the league between Media and
Babylonia against Assyria. Abydenus narrates, after Berosus, that
"Nebuchadnezzar adorned the royal citadel with trees, and called the
work the hanging gardens."[710] Diodorus also describes what he too
calls the _paradisus_, by the name in use for such things in Iran: "To
please a Persian lady these gardens were intended to imitate the
mountain meadows and the tree-gardens of her land." "The _paradisus_" so
we are told in Diodorus, "was 400 feet on every side; it had an ascent
like a mountain, and stories, one over the other, so that it looked like
a theatre. Under the ascent were vaults, which bore the weight of the
garden, in moderate height one over the other. The highest vault, which
supported the highest layer of the garden, was 50 cubits in height, so
that it was of an equal height with the towers of the outer wall (of the
citadel). The walls of the pleasure-garden were artificially
strengthened; they were 22 feet in width; the passages were 10 feet in
width: the caps of the vaults were covered with stone slabs of 16 feet
in length and 4 feet in breadth. On these were layers of reeds, with a
large amount of bitumen, and upon this a double layer of burnt tiles
united with gypsum; on this followed a third layer of plates of lead,
that the moisture of the earth might not penetrate into the masonry. On
the lead plates was then placed as much earth as was sufficient for the
roots of the largest trees. This earth was then smoothed and planted
with trees of every kind, which could give pleasure by their size and
grace. In the vaults were various objects of the royal household
economy; one of the uppermost contained the machines by which the water
was raised through pipes from the river in such a manner that no one
could observe it from the outside."[711] Strabo gives the following
description: "The garden lies on the river. It is a square plantation,
400 feet on every side. The garden is supported by vaults which rest on
arches, one of which is supported on another by means of cube-shaped
pillars. The pillars are hollow and filled with earth, so that they can
receive the roots of the largest trees. The vaults and arches are built
of burnt tiles and bitumen. The uppermost story has an ascent like a
stair-case, and abutting on this are pumping-works by which the persons
appointed for the office continually raise water from the Euphrates into
the garden."[712] This hanging garden is the _paradisus_ into which
Alexander was brought from the old citadel on the other side of the
river. We saw above that one side of the garden adjoined the great bath
and the other the palace, _i.e._ the palace of Nabopolassar and
Nebuchadnezzar. In the third and most southern heap of ruins in Babylon,
on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, now called Amran ibn Ali, modern
explorers believe that they have discovered the site of the hanging
gardens which rose from the Euphrates. The bricks of the ruins bear the
name of Nebuchadnezzar, but one has been found among them bearing the
name of Esarhaddon of Asshur. We saw that Esarhaddon built much in
Babylon, but hardly on this site; the inscription of the brick speaks of
buildings at Bit Saggatu, but the brick itself has no doubt been brought
to this site from some other place owing to the changes which Babylon
underwent after the reign of Esarhaddon. According to the position of
these ruins the buildings of which they are the remains formed an
irregular square; the side on the river measures more than 1800 feet in
length: the eastern side is about 1100 feet, the depth about 1300 feet.
If this is really the site of the terrace gardens, the other ruins may
be the remnants of the great bathing-house, of which we heard above (p.
372). The corpses found in the vaults of these ruins, of which the
coffins are formed by bricks placed together, belong to the period of
the rule of the Parthians over Babylon.[713]
Round the new citadel of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar on the eastern
bank, round the old, most sacred temple of the city, the temple of
Merodach, rising on a broad basis in seven receding stories (I. 296),
which Nebuchadnezzar was the first to complete, as we shall soon see,
_i.e._ to raise it to its full height of about 600 feet--round these
great buildings, on the same side of the river, the new city must have
arisen, which, according to the statement of Berosus, Nebuchadnezzar
added to the ancient Babylon. As this new city and its fortification
date from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the permanent bridge over the
Euphrates must also be the work of that king. This bridge Herodotus
ascribes to Nitocris, queen of Babylon--by whom is meant Amyite, the
consort of Nebuchadnezzar--while Ctesias represents it as being built by
Semiramis, on the ground of the Medo-Persian songs which were inclined
to ascribe everything to the founders of the extinct Assyria, but very
little to the still existing Babylon.[714] Before there was a palace and
city and city wall on the eastern bank, a permanent bridge was not
merely not required and useless; it would have been a dangerous piece of
folly for the city, which would simply have facilitated the approach to
an enemy coming from the east. According to the description of the
bridge which Diodorus has borrowed from Ctesias it crossed the
Euphrates between the two citadels, "which lay on the river in order to
overlook the whole city, and formed as it were the keys of the most
important parts of it." It was of the length of five stades, and was
supported by stone pillars, which stood at a distance of twelve feet
from each other, and rested on an artificial foundation in the bed of
the river. The stones of the pillars, in order to hold them together,
were secured with clamps of iron, and the joints were filled up with
lead. On the side which faced the stream the pillars formed sharp but
rounded angles, which gradually extended to the width of the pillar, in
order that the violence of the stream might be broken, and the rounded
edge might moderate its force. The bed on the pillars was 30 feet in
breadth and consisted of huge palm trunks and beams of cedar and
cypress.[715] Herodotus says: "Any one who wished to cross from one side
to the other had to go by ship. But as this was found to be troublesome,
in my opinion, a remedy was discovered. The Euphrates was dried up by
diverting all the water into the excavated basin; and nearly in the
middle of the city a bridge was built of stones, which were clamped
together with iron and lead, and at the same time the banks of the river
so far as it flows through the city were cased with burnt bricks, and
the descents from the small gates to the river were built up with
similar bricks. In the day-time the beams of the bridge were let down so
that the Babylonians could cross over; at night they were drawn
up."[716]
Owing to the breadth and size of the stream, and the violence of the
current at the time of the inundation, the building of a permanent
bridge was no easy task. Strabo puts the breadth of the Euphrates at
Babylon at 600 feet, Xenophon who saw the river some miles above Babylon
puts it at twice that breadth.[717] Diodorus has already told us that
the bridge was five stades, _i.e._ 3000 feet, long. This statement may
be exaggerated, yet owing to the heavy flood at the time of the
inundation, however this might be moderated by the basin at Sippara, the
bridge must have been raised so high, the buttresses and shore walls
must have been thrown so far back, that a considerably increased body of
water could pass down without undermining the casings and the shore
walls. That the new basin at Sippara was used in order to facilitate the
building of the bridge, and erection of the shore walls, in order to
reduce as much as possible the amount of water in the stream while the
building was going on, as Herodotus tells us, is a statement we have no
reason to contest. In his time the bridge was still standing: the
companions of Alexander make no mention of it.
Nebuchadnezzar's buildings at Babylon were intended in the first
instance for the protection of the city. Sennacherib and Assurbanipal
had taken Babylon; such a misfortune was never to befall the city again.
Nineveh and Chalah had been situated on one side only of the Tigris:
Babylon must be situated on both sides of the Euphrates. The city became
stronger by being situated on both sides of the river. The investment
would be a matter of difficulty, for the investing army had to be
divided, and these halves were separated by the Euphrates, so that they
could with difficulty keep up communications, still less could they
render mutual assistance. The investment would become more difficult
still if as wide a circuit as possible were given to the city wall. It
was not the multitude of inhabitants that required a wall of nearly 40
miles in length--there is here no ground for attributing to the city of
Babylon a much larger population than that of Nineveh, or assuming it to
be more than 500,000--the object was to make a blockade difficult or
impossible for an enemy. An outer wall of 40 miles is scarcely greater
in extent than the outer wall of Paris, which was built in the fourth
century of our era, and what the states of the most ancient civilisation
on the Nile, the Euphrates, and Tigris could do in the way of vast
buildings, is shown to us in numerous examples, and remains on an
astonishing scale. By thus extending the city walls of Babylon strips of
arable and pasture land were obtained, which supplemented the stores of
the city, and could support the cattle required in a time of siege; an
open space was gained for the population of the land, who would fly into
the walls of Babylon at the approach of an enemy. Besides, the walls of
Babylon must be in a position to receive the Babylonian army in the
event of a defeat. If the line of the Euphrates or the Tigris could not
be held in a war, if the Median wall and the four lines of the canals
behind it between the Tigris and Euphrates were abandoned, if the army
were forced behind all these or defeated in open field, it must be sure
of finding certain protection behind the walls of the main city. When
rested in this great open space, and again thoroughly armed, it could
not only hold the walls with ease, for they, as we have seen, were so
high and strong, that they almost defended themselves; it could sally
forth for new encounters in the open field. If the enemy divided his
forces in order to invest the city, the army of Babylon could attack
either of these halves with the whole force, and thus had the best
prospect of a successful battle. It certainly was not the furtherance
of intercourse which primarily induced Nebuchadnezzar to build the
permanent bridge; a bridge such as the enemy could not destroy by
putting beams or heavily laden vessels into the river above the city
secured for the army when it had retired into the city the speediest
means of passing from bank to bank, and put it in a position to make a
sudden onset on the right or left bank. Even if the worst happened, and
the enemy succeeded in gaining possession of the city on the western or
eastern bank, the bed of the bridge was easily thrown off, and the
defence of the part of the city which was still uncaptured was scarcely
rendered at all more difficult by the pillars. The fixing of the
foundations of the shore walls which secured the new eastern as well as
the old western part of the city against attempts of the enemy on
vessels, and from the river, and which was intended to render possible
the defence of each part of the city after the loss of the other, would
be very difficult: the fixing of the foundations of the pillars of the
bridge would be more difficult still, and the bridge could not be
rendered secure against the force of the high flood without the basin of
Sippara. We see how the buildings of Nebuchadnezzar hang together; they
all spring from one conception, from one connected system.
To this extent do the accounts of Western authors allow us to survey and
criticise the buildings of Nebuchadnezzar. From his own inscriptions we
gain some further explanations. The cylinder Rich informs us that
Nebuchadnezzar restored a watercourse to the east of Babylon, of which
the dams had fallen down, and the outlet was stopped up; that he dug a
canal in honour of Merodach in the neighbourhood of Babylon.[718] On a
brick in his buildings at Babylon Nebuchadnezzar says: "I am
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, restorer of Bit Saggatu, and Bit Zida
(_i.e._ of the temple of Merodach at Babylon, and of Nebo at Borsippa),
son of Nabopolassar I. I have built a palace for the abode of my kingdom
in this city of Babel, which is situated in the land of Babel. I have
laid its foundations deep below the waters of the Euphrates, and written
the memorial thereof on cylinders. With thy help, O Merodach, god of
gods, I have built this palace in the midst of Babylon. Come hither to
dwell, increase the number of the births, and through me let the people
of Babylon be victorious down to the latest days."[719] On another brick
we are told: "Nabopolassar, the father who begot me, built the great
walls of Babylon; he caused the trenches to be cut, and the sides
thereof to be firmly covered with bricks and bitumen."[720] On the other
hand, a cylinder discovered at Babylon tells us: "I am Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, the glorious prince. I have built Imgur Bel and Nivit
Bel, the great walls which surround Babylon, upon their lines. I have
busily constructed the trenches, cased with bricks and bitumen. I have
made straight the streets of Babylon. I have set up brazen gates in the
great porticoes, and I have widened the streets of Babylon. I have taken
forethought to protect Babylon and Bit Saggatu. Merodach, mighty prince,
strengthen the work of my hands for glory, increase for the highest
honour the course of my days, and my posterity, O lord of lords."[721]
More detailed, and, at the same time, more definite, is the information
given on the cylinder Philipps; the king has completed the wall round
the old city, and built the wall round the new city on the east, and
then the remaining works of Nebuchadnezzar are enumerated. "I am
Nebuchadnezzar, king of justice, shepherd of the nations, leader of men,
director of the worship of the gods Bel, Dagon, Samas, and Merodach. I
am he who carries out their counsels. Merodach the great lord has raised
me to the dominion over the nations. I demeaned myself with humility
before the god who created me. Babylon is the shrine of the god
Merodach. I have completed Imgur Bel, the great wall. I have erected
great gates and covered their portals with brass. I have cut great
trenches and cased their sides with bricks and bitumen. On the height of
the walls I have erected small towers. In order to protect Bit Saggatu
effectually, and defend it against the enemy, and against attacks which
might be directed against imperishable Babylon, I have built a second
wall, at the extreme end of Babylon, the wall of the rising sun, which
no king had built before me. This wall I caused to be erected to protect
the products of the plain of Babylon, and to provide a refuge for the
land of Sumir and Accad. I have founded, I have completed Bit Zida, the
eternal house at Borsippa. The posts of the shrine of the god Nebo I
have covered with gold. There are enthroned Nebo and Nana. At Sippara I
have founded and built the temple of the day, in honour of the gods
Samas and Bin, my lords. At Larsam (Senkereh), I have founded and built
the temple of the day, in honour of the gods Samas and Bin. In honour of
the god Sin, who exalts my kingdom, I have built a temple at Ur
(Mugheir, I. 258). At Nipur I have founded and built a temple in honour
of Anu (?), my lord. The glorious treasures of Istar of Arak (Erech),
the supreme lady of Arak, I have again brought into their place in the
city of Arak. I have behaved myself as a pious man towards Bit Saggatu
and Bit Zida. I have exalted the splendour of Merodach and Nebo, my
lords: I have brought to them the booty which I owed to them. I have
established the seat of power in Babylon; I have founded and built it in
Babylon. I have brought great cedars from the summits of Lebanon, to
make beams for it. I have caused an enclosure to be built up, and in the
midst I have adorned the abode of my kingdom."[722]
This cylinder proves that Nebuchadnezzar's buildings were not confined
to Babylon. He claims to have founded Bit Zida, _i.e._ the temple of
Nebo at Borsippa, one of the three chief temples of Babylonia (I. 272);
but this temple had been in existence many centuries before his time.
Hence founding and building can here mean no more than restoring and
completing: just as elsewhere Nebuchadnezzar constantly calls himself
the restorer of Bit Zida and Bit Saggatu. We found already that beside
the temple of Nebo at Borsippa, Nebuchadnezzar had restored and
completed another temple in that city. This was the tower of Borsippa,
the temple of the seven lamps, _i.e._ of the seven planets, of the seven
stories of which four can still be traced in the great ruins of Birs
Nimrud, some miles to the south-west of the ruin-heaps of Babylon (I.
291). In the same way it is renovations and restorations of the temples
of the ancient princes of Ur, Erech, and Nipur, which are meant when
Nebuchadnezzar claims to have founded and built temples at Sippara and
Senkereh to Samas and Bin, at Ur to Sin, and at Nipur to Anu.
In the very comprehensive inscription, preserved on a stone of black
basalt found at Babylon--a stone more than three feet in height and
breadth--Nebuchadnezzar begins with stating that Merodach and Nebo, the
gods which he, like his father and his descendants and successors,
worshipped most zealously, had given him the dominion. He points out the
extent of his kingdom, speaks of his victories and his buildings, and
then passes on to the temples which he has built. After this come the
fortresses, the buildings at Bit Saggatu and at Bit Zida: the building
of the palace completes the list. The chief passages, so far as they are
understood with any certainty, are as follows: "I am Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, great, mighty, submissive to Merodach, supreme Patis
(II. 31), suppliant of Nebo, day and night taking thought for the
restoration of Bit Saggatu and Bit Zida, who increase the glory of
Babylon and Borsippa, the eldest son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon:
I. The god Bel created me, and the god Merodach placed the germ of my
life in my mother. I have restored the shrines of the supreme deity,
extended the worship of the god, and spread abroad the worship of the
high divinity of Nebo. Merodach, the great god, has raised my head to
the dignity of king; he has given me the dominion over the hosts of men.
Nebo, who sits on the throne in heaven and upon the earth, has put into
my hands the sceptre of justice. The lands from the upper to the lower
sea (_i.e._, no doubt, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean) I
have kept in obedience; the impassable roads I have made passable. The
evil I have punished. I have discovered the plans of the enemies of the
land, and made many prisoners: rich booty of silver, gold, and precious
metals, costly things in abundance, I have collected in Babylon. Bit
Saggatu, the great temple of the might of Merodach, I restored and
covered with gold, so that it shone like the day: I have dedicated an
altar to the god Ilu (El). The largest trees from the tops of Lebanon I
brought down for the portico of Merodach. I have been able to complete
Bit Saggatu; to obtain this end I invoked the king of the gods, the lord
of lords. Bit Zida I have set up, and covered the shrine of Nebo with
gold. I have restored the temple of the seven lamps at Borsippa (I.
291). In the midst of Babylon I have erected a great temple in honour of
Bilit, the supreme lady, the mother, who created me; I have built a
temple in Babylon to Nebo, who has given me the sceptre of justice, to
rule the nations." Nebuchadnezzar then enumerates the rest of the gods
to whom he has built temples at Babylon; the moon-god Sin; Bin, who
gives fruitfulness to his land; the great goddess Nana; and, finally,
the lady of Bit Ana. At Borsippa he also built temples to the great
goddess Nana, and to Bin; he erected a shrine in Bit Zida to Sin. "Imgur
Bel and Nivit Bel, the two great walls of Babylon, Nabopolassar, king of
Babylon, the father who begot me, had commenced, but he had not
completed their beauty. The outer trenches he excavated, and enclosed
them with bricks and bitumen, and the banks of the river Euphrates he
cased with bricks: but he did not complete this and other works. I, his
eldest son, the chosen of his heart, have completed Imgur Bel and Nivit
Bel, the great walls of Babylon." Nebuchadnezzar further informs us that
he set up two mighty casing walls, and united them with the trenches of
his father; that he enclosed the water of Bursabu with walls for the
inhabitants of Babylon, and carried the line of these walls to Imgur Bel
and Nivit Bel. Then he mentions the building of great gates in the wall
Imgur Bel and their adornment; then observes that he measured a circuit
of 4000 _Ammat gagar_ (land-cubits), and mentions the building of the
mighty wall of the rising sun, _i.e._ the outer wall of the new city on
the eastern bank: this wall he surrounded with water: thus had he
strengthened the city and protected the land of Babylon. Next follows an
account of two trenches and fortifications, which he erected, in order
to render more difficult the attack of the enemy on the wall of Imgur
Bel 490 _Ammat_ in length.[723] Finally, Nebuchadnezzar tells us that he
founded the Tabisubur-su, _i.e._ the outer wall of Borsippa, and
excavated the trenches. "Bit Saggatu and Bit Zida, I made to shine as
the sun, the temples of the great gods I made to shine as the day.
Merodach, who raised me to dominion, and Nebo, who entrusted me with
dominion,--their dwellings have I exalted at Babylon and Borsippa.
Nabopolassar, the father who begot me, had begun to build a palace of
bricks. I laid the foundations, and made use of great beams of
cedar-wood, and collected treasures here. In Babylon alone, and in no
other city, I exalted the abode of my dominion." "For the admiration of
mankind I set up this house; the fear of the power and the presence of
my kingdom surround its walls. With thy help, Merodach, sublime god, I
have erected this dwelling. May I receive in it the rich tribute of the
kings of all lands of the world, from the West to the East. May the
enemy never triumph, and may men (?) of Babylon reign here for my sake
down to the most distant days."[724]
In a reign of forty-three years, of which the first three decades,
though not each year of them, were occupied by the Egyptian, Arabian,
and Syrian wars, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in restoring almost entirely
the buildings of the old kings of Babylon, the ancient temples of the
land. In Babylon he completed the great temple of Merodach, and built
temples there to Bilit, Nebo, Sin, Bin, and Nana. Four cylinders concur
in mentioning that he also built a temple there to the goddess
Zarpanit.[725] He adorned the temples of Babylon, as Berosus tells us,
and the inscriptions confirm his account, in a costly manner with the
booty of his victories.[726] It is certainly no exaggeration if the
Hebrews speak of Babylon as "the beauty of the kingdoms, the pride and
glory of the Chaldæans."[727] From the temple tower of Merodach now
completed, the lofty signal of the city, the eye must have ranged far
over the surrounding walls to the palm groves,[728] the canals and
corn-fields. From the towers of the new citadel, the terrace of the
hanging gardens, it must have been possible to survey the city with all
its temples, the broad mirror of the Euphrates, the busy life in the
streets and on the bridge. Here, without doubt, Nebuchadnezzar might
have uttered the saying which a Hebrew puts in his mouth: "This is
Babylon the great, which I have built for myself as a royal habitation,
as a sign of my glory."
It was not the metropolis only which was restored and exalted to greater
splendour than before; the rest of the cities were not forgotten. At
Borsippa Nebuchadnezzar completed the great temple of Nebo, restored and
completed the temple of the seven planets (of Birs Nimrud), and also
built temples to Nana and Bin. At Sippara he built a temple to the gods
Samas and Bin; the same gods, as he assures us, received a temple at
Senkereh; and this is confirmed by a cylinder discovered there: he
restored the temple of the moon-god at Ur, as he tells us, and the
bricks of Ur confirm his statement;[729] Istar of Erech received back
her treasures, and the god Anu received a temple at Nipur. More
extensive than the temples are the works of fortification which he
erected on a magnificent and well-considered system, the Median wall,
and the walls of Babylon itself. We saw how closely these fortifications
were connected with his great hydraulic works for the regulation of the
inundation, for the connection of the Euphrates and the Tigris, for the
drainage of the land at the mouth of the Euphrates. The same care which
he showed in these connections by water, and in planting those harbours
on the Persian Gulf, for the advancement of trade and intercourse, he
also showed in making roads by land. He laid almost indestructible
foundations for the agriculture of Babylonia, the welfare of the native
land. After a triple subjection of Babylonia the Achæmenid kings could
still collect 1000 talents (more than £300,000) in land-tax from the
country; and impose on it for four months in the year the maintenance of
the king's table in addition to the support of the satrap, his court,
his officers, and the garrisons. The value of the products required each
day for this table was rated at from 30 to 40 talents. The Babylonians
preserved the most grateful memory of Nebuchadnezzar. Even after the
fall of the kingdom the recurrence of his name was enough to bring them
twice into arms against the Persian dominion.
The buildings begun by Nebuchadnezzar were not all finished when he
died, in the year 561 B.C. None of his successors came near him in
military skill, in circumspection and enterprise. The active acquisition
and fortification of the empire were followed by supine enjoyment. This
was quickly succeeded by neglect of government and obedience,
conspiracies of relations and court officers. Evilmerodach, the son of
Nebuchadnezzar, reigned, according to Berosus, with caprice and want of
intelligence.[730] Towards Jechoniah of Judah, the son of Josiah, whom
Nebuchadnezzar had carried captive thirty-six years previously to
Babylon--he had only sat on the throne three months--Evilmerodach showed
kindness. He released him from his long imprisonment, invited him to his
table, and treated him like the other conquered princes, for whom
Babylon was a compulsory place of residence.[731] After a reign of two
years the son of the great king came to an end by assassination. It was
the husband of his sister, his brother-in-law, Neriglissar, who removed
him out of his way (559 B.C.). In the buttresses on the Euphrates at
Babylon we find bricks which show that walls on the river commenced by
Nabopolassar, and continued but not completed by Nebuchadnezzar, were
carried on by Neriglissar. The stamp of the bricks runs thus:
"Neriglissar, king of Babylon, maintainer of Bit Saggatu and Bit
Zida."[732] On a cylinder found at Babylon, Neriglissar calls himself
son of Bel-labar-iskun, and speaks of his buildings at Bit Saggatu, of a
water-basin "of the rising sun," of the erection of moats round the
royal citadel.[733] Neriglissar died after sitting on the throne for
four years: the son whom he left behind, Labaessoarach by name, was
still a boy. But the great kingdom of the Medes had already succumbed to
the Persians, and Babylonia was in need of a man. The chiefs of the
court conspired together; Labaessoarach was murdered after bearing the
title of king for nine months; and the throne was conferred by the
common resolution of the conspirators on one of themselves, by name
Nabonetus (555 B.C.).[734]
Berosus tells us that Nabonetus (Nabunahid) built the walls of Babylon
on the river of burnt bricks and bitumen. A number of these bricks,
found in the remains of the bulwarks, confirm the statement: Nabonetus
as a fact completed the walls of the river. Red or gray, and entirely
covered with bitumen, they display the stamp: "Nabunahid, king of
Babylon, maintainer of Bit Saggatu, and Bit Zida, worshipper of Nebo,
son of Nabubalatirib."[735] Nabonetus did not only build at Babylon;
bricks at Senkereh and Ur prove that there also he continued the
buildings of Nebuchadnezzar.[736] On an injured cylinder, discovered at
Ur (Mugheir) he tells us that Nebuchadnezzar had begun to erect there
the temple of Samas and Sin, his lords; that he, Nabonetus, completed
the work.[737] We are acquainted with the heaps of this temple in the
north-west of the ruins (I. 289). The tiles of the lower story bear the
stamp of Urukh, those of the upper the stamp of his son Dungi; others
show the stamp of Ismidagon, king of Ur, and Kurigalzu of Babylon, who
restored this temple at the end of the fifteenth century.[738] On four
clay cylinders found in these ruins, which repeat the same inscription,
Nabonetus tells us that the building of the ancient kings, Urukh and
Dungi, in honour of the great goddess (of Ur), lay in ruins. This temple
he restored on the old foundations, as it had been before, in bricks and
bitumen. He had completed this structure in honour of the god Sin; might
the god grant continuance to his work. At the same time he entreats Sin
to implant reverence for his great divinity in the heart of his
first-born son, Bel-sar-ussur (Belshazzar).[739] Beyond this we only
know of Nabonetus that in the year 551 B.C. he made Hiram, of the race
of Ethbaal, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried to Babylonia after the
blockade of Tyre, king of that city, and sent him there.[740] The most
difficult of all tasks was already awaiting Nabonetus: he had to meet
the storm which convulsed Asia. Nebuchadnezzar had been ever intent on
making the power of his kingdom equal to the power of the Medes. Media
and Lydia too were now subject to Cyrus. A mightier power than
Nebuchadnezzar had ever looked forward to had set foot in Babylonia, in
the East, the North, and the West.
"By the waters of Babylon sat" the Jews whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried
from their homes. They were men of distinction, the first in rank and
culture, and the priests: it was the intellectual nucleus of the people
that had been transplanted to Babylonia. The danger that this nucleus,
in despair of the protection of their own god, should turn to the gods
of the conquerors as being more mighty, was not great. Jehovah was no
longer merely the tribal God of Israel, who had been unable to protect
his tribe against all other nations: the prophets had announced him as
the Almighty God of the world, who ruled over the kingdoms of the earth,
who would raise up and throw down at his pleasure, who exercises
justice. Moreover, the captives possessed in the Book of the Law
(Deuteronomy) a plain rule of life, which had been wanting to the
Israelites when transplanted by the Assyrian kings. Among them were
earnest spirits and mighty hearts, who preserved their courage and hope
unbroken. Opportunities for these qualities were not wanting in their
dealings with their countrymen, for the exiles in their differences with
each other repaired much more readily to their own countrymen who were
skilled in the law, than to the magistrates of the Babylonians. Among
those who were first carried away in the year 597 B.C. (p. 332), was the
priest Ezekiel, who had his dwelling on the Chaboras, in Mesopotamia.
The rulers often came to consult Ezekiel, and the elders gathered in his
house, "that he might ask Jehovah for them."[741] His announcements are
strongly coloured by the priestly point of view on which he takes his
stand. He maintains strictly the rubrics and customs of worship, the
correct offering of sacrifice. It is a comfort to him in his sorrow to
imagine, in minute detail, how the temple is to be restored with all its
buildings, the land divided among the tribes, what was to be allotted to
the priests, and what duties would devolve upon them, if Jehovah should
restore Israel again out of the captivity.[742] Hence with the firmer
conviction could Ezekiel say to his people, that they were a people of
"an impudent face and hardened heart,"[743] but that Jehovah had no
pleasure in the death of the evil-doer, but only in his conversion and
improvement;[744] that Jehovah would assemble them out of the lands into
which they were scattered. "I will bring you," so Jehovah speaks in
Ezekiel, "into the wilderness of the nations; and there will I plead
with you face to face, as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness
of the land of Egypt. I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will
bring you into the bond of the covenant. And I will purge out from among
you the rebels and them that transgress against me. They shall not
return to Israel. I will sprinkle pure water over you that ye may be
clean. I will put a new heart and a new spirit within you, and will take
the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh out of
my spirit, that ye may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances. Then
shall ye loathe yourselves for the evils which ye have committed in all
your abominations; and the ruins of the cities shall be built up and
inhabited, and the wilderness shall be as the garden of Eden. Israel and
Judah shall no more be two nations; they shall both be my people, and I
will be their God, and my servant David shall be king over them, their
only shepherd. I will conclude with them an eternal covenant of peace,
and establish them in the land wherein their fathers dwelt, and multiply
them, and let my sanctuary and my dwelling be for ever among them."
Prophecies uttered with such conviction and certainty, supported and
strengthened the hope of the people in the coming restoration of the
kingdom. It was possible by the help of Jehovah. It might be expected
all the sooner, the more zealously and heartily the exiles worshipped
Jehovah. The more melancholy the present state of affairs, the greater
was the yearning with which the eye was directed upwards. Under their
foreign rulers the Jews became accustomed more and more to think of
Jehovah as the one and only king of Judah who would rescue his faithful
people out of their slavery in Babylon, even as he had once led them
forth with a strong hand and an outstretched arm out of Egypt. In the
strange land and among strangers, where the Jews were kept together by
nothing more than their common religion, where besides their religion
nothing was left to them, adherence to the old faith struck deeper
roots, and the increasing strength of religious conviction saved the
nationality.
FOOTNOTES:
[679] Herod. 2, 178.
[680] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 19.
[681] Alcæi fragm. 35, ed. Bergk.
[682] Tassie, "Catalogue Raisonné," p. 64; Raspe, "Planches," 11, 653.
[683] Cp. Strabo, p. 739.
[684] Vol. I. p. 300. Herod. 1, 185. Arrian, "Anab." 7, 21. Polybius, 9,
43. Strabo, p. 754. Ammian. Marcell. 23, 6. Ptolem. 5, 20.
[685] Vol. I. p. 301. Abyden. fragm. 8, 9, ed. Müller. The position of
the [Greek: Basileios potamos] is fixed by Ptolemy, 5, 17. That
Nebuchadnezzar caused the Nahr Malka to be excavated follows from the
words of Abydenus in Eusebius ("Chron." I. p. 37, ed. Schöne): Armacalen
fluvium ex Arazane (Euphrate) derivavit: cp. "Præp. Evang." 9, 41.
Armacale must obviously be the same name as Nahr Malka. Cp. Plin. "Hist.
Nat." 6, 26 (30). On the position of the Nahr Malka, Xen. "Anab." 2-4.
Ammian. Marcell. 26, 6; and that it was navigable, Herod. 1, 193.
[686] Abydenus in Eusebius, _loc. cit._ "Præp. Evang." 9, 41. Diod. (2,
9) ascribes this basin, as he does all the buildings of Babylon, with
the exception of the hanging gardens, to Semiramis. Herodotus describes
the basin, and considers the maker of it to be, not Semiramis, but
Nitocris, who lived five generations later. To the same queen he
ascribes the works in the bed of the Euphrates, the embankment of the
river, and the bridge over the Euphrates, 1, 184-188. He fixes the date
of Nitocris more precisely when he states that Cyrus marched against her
son, who like his father was called Labynetus, and took Babylon. We know
for certain that no woman reigned over Babylon from Nabopolassar to the
overthrow of the kingdom. Herodotus' knowledge about the kingdom of
Babylon is extremely scanty; he obtained his information, it would seem,
chiefly through the Persians; and it is restricted chiefly to these two
names, Nitocris and Labynetus, for he denotes by the same name the
Babylonian, who arranged the peace between the Medes and the Lydians
(supr. p. 260). In the one case Nabopolassar is meant by Labynetus, in
the other Nabonetus; and so Nitocris can only be Amyite, the daughter of
Cyaxares, the consort of Nebuchadnezzar (p. 285). The statement of
Berosus in Abydenus, putting the extent of the basin at 40 parasangs (it
is also found in Diodorus, 2, 9, viz. 1200 stades), is so exaggerated
that in this particular the statement of Herodotus, who allows an extent
of 420 stades to the lake, deserves the preference. Diodorus, _loc.
cit._, gives the depth as stated in the text; according to the Armenian
Eusebius it was 20 cubits; according to the "Præp. Evang.," which also
quote Abydenus, it was 20 fathoms, _i.e._ 120 feet.
[687] Herod. 1, 185. It is clear from the account of Herodotus that the
artificial bends in the river-bed lay above Sippara. The object which
Herodotus ascribes to these works in the river--that the long and
winding navigation and the large lake were intended to hinder the Medes
from coming to Babylon and seeing what took place there--is naïve
enough. The Ardericca of Herodotus is, no doubt, identical with the
Idikara of Ptolemy, which he places more than three-fourths of a degree
higher up the Euphrates than Sippara. Ptolem. 5, 17, 19.
[688] Aristobulus in Strabo, p. 766. Eusebius, "Chron." 1, p. 40, ed.
Schöne; "Præp. Evang." 9, 41. Dionys. "Perieg." v. 982. Ptolem. 5, 19.
Movers' somewhat different view on Gerrha is given, "Phoenizier," 2,
3, 308.
[689] Isaiah xliii. 14. Æsch. "Pers." v. 52-55. Arrian, "Ind." 32.
Strabo, p. 766.
[690] Strabo, _loc. cit._ Diodorus, 14, 21, 81. Vol. II. p. 297.
[691] Movers, "Phoenizier," 2, 3, 306. This road certainly cannot be
carried back to the Phenicians; the nearest way, from Nineveh to Syria,
often traversed by the Assyrian kings on their campaigns, passed by
Karchemish on the lower Orontes.
[692] Plin. "Hist. Nat." 6, 26 (30).
[693] Eratosthenes in Strabo puts the length of the wall at 200 stades
(25 miles) only, Xenophon at 20 parasangs (75 miles), "as it is said:"
in his time a part of the wall was still standing, "Anab." 2, 4; cp.
Joseph, "c. Apion." 1, 20. But it is at the same time clear from the
whole narrative of Xenophon that the Median wall was not situated at the
narrowest point, but far higher up, where the distance between the
rivers is far wider, _i.e._ above Sittace. We have no definite evidence
that this wall was built by Nebuchadnezzar. If Strabo ascribes it to
Semiramis, that means no more than the fact that the modern inhabitants
give the name Sidd Nimrud to the remains. A wall against attacks from
the North, against attacks of the Medes, would have no meaning before
the rise of the power of the Medes; its origin and importance are
entirely due to anxiety in regard to the Medes, and that such anxiety
did exist, was due to the experience which Babylonia had had of Assyria,
and the relative power of the two kingdoms; and it is also shown in the
statements of Herodotus about the object of the windings in the river
and the lake. The successors of Nebuchadnezzar were hardly in a position
to undertake such works. This could be done at most by Nabonetus; but as
Josephus ("c. Apion." 1, 20) quotes from Berosus a comparatively
unimportant building of this king, the Median wall would not have been
forgotten if it had arisen from him. On the direction of the wall, cp.
Grote, "Hist. of Greece," 9, 89.
[694] Beros. fragm. 14, ed. Müller.
[695] Herod. 1, 186.
[696] Herod. 1, 178, 179.
[697] Herod. 3, 159.
[698] Xenoph. "Anab." 2, 2, 6. "Inst. Cyr." 7, 5, 7, 21.
[699] Diod. 2, 7. Cp. Arrian, "Anab." 7, 17, 6. Pseudo-Callisthenes
ascribes to Babylon a diameter of no more than 12 stades and 220 or 206
feet: he ascribes to the city of Alexandria in Egypt a diameter of
16-1/2 stades; 1, 31.
[700] Diod. 2, 7.
[701] Eumenes in Æl. "Var. Hist." 3, 23.
[702] So the Ephemerides in Arrian, "Anab." 7, 25, and in Plut. "Alex."
c. 75.
[703] "Pol." 3, 1, 12.
[704] Jerem. li. 53, 58.
[705] "Hist. Nat." 6, 26.
[706] Vol. I. p. 295.
[707] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 19.
[708] Oppert, "Exped." 1, 140 ff.
[709] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 19.
[710] Euseb. "Præp. Evang." 9, 41, 8.
[711] Diod. 2, 10.
[712] Strabo, p. 738.
[713] Oppert, "Exped." 1, 156 ff.
[714] It is the less doubtful that the bridge is the work of
Nebuchadnezzar, since the basin of Sepharvaim is vouched for as his work
by Berosus.
[715] Diod. 2, 8.
[716] Herod. 1, 186.
[717] "Inst. Cyri," 7, 6.
[718] Ménant, "Babylone," p. 213.
[719] W. A. Inscript. 1, 52. No. 6 in Ménant, "Babylone," p. 215.
[720] Ménant, _loc. cit._, p. 214
[721] Ménant, _loc. cit._, p. 213.
[722] Ménant, _loc. cit._, p. 208.
[723] Colum. 6, 22; 8, 42.
[724] Ménant, "Babylone," p. 200 ff. Rodwell, "Records of the Past," 5,
113 ff. Two private documents of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar are in
existence, one from the first part of his reign, 604 B.C.; the second
from the twentieth, 584 B.C. Oppert et Ménant, "Doc. Juridiq." p. 257
ff.
[725] Ménant, _loc. cit._, p. 215.
[726] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 19.
[727] Isaiah xiii. 19 ff.
[728] Arrian, "Anab." 7, 19, 4.
[729] Ménant, _loc. cit._, p. 218.
[730] Berosi fragm. 14, ed. Müller.
[731] 2 Kings xxv. 27-30.
[732] Oppert, "Exped." 2, 324, cf. 1, 181.
[733] Ménant, _loc. cit._, p. 249.
[734] Berosi fragm. 14, ed. Müller. That Evilmerodach ascended the
throne in 561 B.C. is established, not only by the astronomical canon,
but also by the statement of the Hebrews that Evilmerodach liberated
Jechoniah in the thirty-seventh year of his imprisonment, 2 Kings xxv.
27. Jerem. lii. 31. Between Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonetus the
astronomical canon only mentions Evilmerodach and Neriglissar, with six
years between them. Josephus supplements this by the dates of the years
in Berosus ("c. Apion." 1, 20), which in the result agree with the
canon. Cf. Euseb. "Chron." 1, p. 50, ed. Schöne. "Præp. Evang." 9, 40.
The accession of Nabonetus in the year 555 B.C. is also fixed by the
document in Oppert et Ménant "Doc. Jurid." p. 262. The statements of
Josephus ("Antiq." 10, 11, 2) are entirely false and untenable. The name
of the last king Nabonetus is established against the Labynetus of
Herodotus (1, 77) by the inscriptions.
[735] Oppert, _loc. cit._, 1, 325, 326.
[736] Oppert, _loc. cit._, 1, 262, 269.
[737] Oppert, _loc. cit._, 1, 272 ff.
[738] Vol. I. 289; II. 33. Ménant, _loc. cit._, pp. 253, 255.
[739] Oppert, _loc. cit._, 1, 262, 263. Schrader, "Keilinschr. und A.
T." s. 280.
[740] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 20, 21. Above, p. 354, _n._ In the
fourteenth year of the reign of this Hiram Cyrus conquered Babylon; he
must, therefore, have been placed on the throne in 551 B.C.
[741] _E. g._ Ezek. xx. 1.
[742] Ezek. xx. 40; chaps. xl.-xlviii.
[743] Ezek. ii. 4.
[744] Ezek. xviii. 21-23.