The History of Antiquity Volume Iii Part 24

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 ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 a.s.sistance 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 Gerrhaeans brought the products and the incense of Arabia on board s.h.i.+p 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 Gerrhaeans as middle-men in the trade with the Sabaeans, while in the Hebrew Scriptures the Rhegmaeans and Dedanites carry on trade with Sabaea. The Gerrhaeans carried the products of Arabia to Babylon by sea; then they pa.s.sed 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 s.h.i.+ps of heaviest burden could then pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sable the desert became, the easier was it for troops to march from Babylon to Gaza, from Harran to Hamath. And if the ca.n.a.ls of the Babylonian plain carried the s.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.syrians 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 h.o.m.ogeneous 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 a.s.syrians 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 ca.n.a.ls, especially the new and broad ca.n.a.l, 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.ls. 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 ca.n.a.ls, 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 Chaldaea through the capture by a.s.surbanipal. 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 s.p.a.ce is left between them for a chariot and four to pa.s.s. In the wall are one hundred gates, all of bra.s.s, 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 pa.s.s 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 bra.s.s."[696] In another pa.s.sage 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 Chaldaeans, and the gate of the Cissians.

That gates in Babylon could not be named after Ninus and Semiramis, _i.e._ after fict.i.tious rulers, and hardly after the Chaldaeans, 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 a.s.syria. 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 G.o.ds 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 pa.s.s 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.suming 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 a.s.sertion 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 a.s.syrian 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 bra.s.s was two stades on each side.[706] Berosus tells us: "Nebuchadnezzar built a second palace beside the palace of his father, which ab.u.t.ted 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, Nabopola.s.sar 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 bra.s.s 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 Nabopola.s.sar 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 Nabopola.s.sar, king of Babel, the wors.h.i.+pper 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 a.s.syrian 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 a.s.syria. 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 pa.s.sages 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 ab.u.t.ting 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 Nabopola.s.sar 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 a.s.shur. 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 Nabopola.s.sar 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 a.s.syria, 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 s.h.i.+p. 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 b.u.t.tresses and sh.o.r.e walls must have been thrown so far back, that a considerably increased body of water could pa.s.s down without undermining the casings and the sh.o.r.e walls. That the new basin at Sippara was used in order to facilitate the building of the bridge, and erection of the sh.o.r.e 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 a.s.surbanipal 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 a.s.sistance. The investment would become more difficult still if as wide a circuit as possible were given to the city wall. It was not the mult.i.tude 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 a.s.suming 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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 s.p.a.ce 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 s.p.a.ce, 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 pa.s.sing 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 sh.o.r.e 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 ca.n.a.l 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 Nabopola.s.sar 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, G.o.d of G.o.ds, 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: "Nabopola.s.sar, 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 wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds 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 G.o.d who created me. Babylon is the shrine of the G.o.d Merodach. I have completed Imgur Bel, the great wall. I have erected great gates and covered their portals with bra.s.s. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.ds Samas and Bin, my lords. At Larsam (Senkereh), I have founded and built the temple of the day, in honour of the G.o.ds Samas and Bin. In honour of the G.o.d 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 G.o.ds which he, like his father and his descendants and successors, wors.h.i.+pped most zealously, had given him the dominion. He points out the extent of his kingdom, speaks of his victories and his buildings, and then pa.s.ses 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 pa.s.sages, 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 Nabopola.s.sar, king of Babylon: I. The G.o.d Bel created me, and the G.o.d Merodach placed the germ of my life in my mother. I have restored the shrines of the supreme deity, extended the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d, and spread abroad the wors.h.i.+p of the high divinity of Nebo. Merodach, the great G.o.d, 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 impa.s.sable roads I have made pa.s.sable. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.ds, 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 G.o.ds to whom he has built temples at Babylon; the moon-G.o.d Sin; Bin, who gives fruitfulness to his land; the great G.o.ddess Nana; and, finally, the lady of Bit Ana. At Borsippa he also built temples to the great G.o.ddess Nana, and to Bin; he erected a shrine in Bit Zida to Sin. "Imgur Bel and Nivit Bel, the two great walls of Babylon, Nabopola.s.sar, 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 s.h.i.+ne as the sun, the temples of the great G.o.ds I made to s.h.i.+ne 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.

Nabopola.s.sar, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.ddess 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 Chaldaeans."[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 ca.n.a.ls 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 G.o.ds Samas and Bin; the same G.o.ds, as he a.s.sures us, received a temple at Senkereh; and this is confirmed by a cylinder discovered there: he restored the temple of the moon-G.o.d at Ur, as he tells us, and the bricks of Ur confirm his statement;[729] Istar of Erech received back her treasures, and the G.o.d 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 Achaemenid 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 circ.u.mspection 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 a.s.sa.s.sination. It was the husband of his sister, his brother-in-law, Neriglissar, who removed him out of his way (559 B.C.). In the b.u.t.tresses on the Euphrates at Babylon we find bricks which show that walls on the river commenced by Nabopola.s.sar, 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 succ.u.mbed to the Persians, and Babylonia was in need of a man. The chiefs of the court conspired together; Labaessoarach was murdered after bearing the t.i.tle 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, wors.h.i.+pper 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 G.o.ddess (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 G.o.d Sin; might the G.o.d 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 G.o.d, should turn to the G.o.ds of the conquerors as being more mighty, was not great. Jehovah was no longer merely the tribal G.o.d of Israel, who had been unable to protect his tribe against all other nations: the prophets had announced him as the Almighty G.o.d 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 a.s.syrian 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 wors.h.i.+p, 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 a.s.semble 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d, 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 wors.h.i.+pped 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] Alcaei fragm. 35, ed. Bergk.

[682] Ta.s.sie, "Catalogue Raisonne," 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. Muller. 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. Schone): Armacalen fluvium ex Arazane (Euphrate) derivavit: cp. "Praep. 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._ "Praep. 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 Nabopola.s.sar 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 Nabopola.s.sar 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 "Praep. 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 nave 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.

Schone; "Praep. 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. aesch. "Pers." v. 52-55. Arrian, "Ind." 32.

Strabo, p. 766.