Chapter XVIII: Babylon (5)

[366] Relaçam em que se tratam as guerras e grandes victorias que alcançou o grãde rey da Persia Xa Abbas do grão Turco Mahometto and seu Filho Amethe, pello Padre F. Antonio de Gouvea (Lisboa, 1611).

[367] _Purchas His Pilgrimes_, Part II, pp. 1533, 1534 (London, 1625).

[368] As to the signification of the strange, wedge-shaped character described by the noted Italian traveler, Pietro della Valle admits that he knows nothing. In the fifteenth chapter of his _Viaggi_ he frankly declares: “E queste iscritzioni in que lingua e lettera siano non si sa perchè è caratere oggi ignoto.”

[369] _Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique_, p. 145 _et seq._ (London, 1638).

[370] Chardin became an English citizen and achieved such fame as a traveler that a tablet was dedicated to his memory in Westminster Abbey bearing the legend “Sir John Chardin--_nomen sibi fecit eundo_.”

[371] _Explorations in Bible Lands during the 19th Century_, pp. 23, 24 (by H. V. Hilprecht, Philadelphia, 1903).

How Grotefend achieved such marvelous success when others, apparently more competent than he, had failed has been explained by the fact that “he early displayed a remarkable aptitude for the solution of riddles: a peculiar talent which he shared in common with Dr. Hincks, who also acquired great distinction as a cuneiform scholar.” _The Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions_, p. 169 (by A. J. Booth, London, 1902).

Dr. R. W. Rogers, in his instructive work, _A History of Babylonia and Assyria_, Vol. I, p. 61 (New York, 1915), referring to the same subjects, writes:

“It were difficult, if not impossible, to define the qualities of mind which must inhere in the decipherer of a forgotten language. He is not necessarily a great scholar, though great scholars have been successful decipherers. He may know but little of the languages that are cognate with the one whose secrets he is trying to unravel. He may, indeed, know nothing of them, as has several times been the case. But the patience, the persistence, the power of combination, the divine gift of insight, the historical sense, the feeling for archæological indications, these must be present, and all of these were present in the extraordinary man, Grotefend, who now attacked the problem that had baffled so many.”

[372] Hilprecht, _op. cit._, p. 71; _cf._ _A Memoir of Major General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson_, pp. 143–148, 153–157 (by his brother, Canon George Rawlinson, London, 1898); Booth, _op. cit._, pp. 106–114.

[373] Although it was supposed that this prize, awarded by so learned a body as the French Institute, would be tantamount to _une sanction qui devrait dissiper toutes les susceptibilités_, many remained as skeptical as ever and continued “to decry a language in which one can never know if a syllable is ideographic or phonetic, and, when phonetic, which of two or three different values it may have in that place.” _Cf._ A. J. Booth, _op. cit._, p. 416.

[374] _Op. cit._, pp. 118, 119.

[375] _New Light on the Bible and the Holy Land_, p. 10 (by B. T. Evetts, New York).

[376] _The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 110 (by M. Jastrow, Philadelphia, 1915).

[377] A few years before his death, when presiding at the commencement exercises of the College of Dole, in the Department of the Jura in which he was born and brought up, Pasteur told his youthful audience: “When one has studied much, one comes back to the faith of a Breton peasant; as to myself, had I studied more I should have the faith of a Breton peasant-woman.” _The Ave Maria_, February 14, 1920.

[378] _Bible, Science and Faith_, p. 314, 315 (Baltimore, 1895). _Cf._ also _Evolution and Dogma_, Chap. VIII (by J. A. Zahm, Chicago, 1896).

[379] _Babel und Bibel_, p. 4 (Leipzig, 1903).

[380] A name which, as we have seen, is also applied to the Euphrates.

[381] _Cf._ R. I. Wilberforce in _The Five Empires_, Chaps. XV, XVIII (London, 1852).

[382] _Alexander the Great_, p. 368 (by B. I. Wheeler, New York, 1900).

[383] Creasy’s _Decisive Battles of the World_, p. 79 (New York, 1899).

It was at Arbela, where was to be settled once for all the question of world supremacy, that Alexander, when counseled by his generals to make a night attack on Darius, gave the famous answer οὐ κλέπτο τἠν νίκην--I steal no victory--words that were his motto during his eventful and brilliant career.

[384] _Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes_, Vol I, p. 185 (Paris, 1677).

[385] Die Bedeutung des heutigen Namen’s Kal. ‘at Schergat ist bis jetzt unaufgeklärt geblieben und durfte vielleicht eine Altassyrische Reminiscenz bergen. _Vom Mittelmer zum Persischen_ Golf. Vol. II, p. 210 (by M. von Oppenheim, Berlin, 1900). His countryman, Baron Thielmann, writing of the same ruins a quarter of a century earlier, declares: “This great field of ruin with its pyramid looks truly venerable, but science has as yet made no discoveries here which could help us solve the mystery of this remnant of an ancient era.” _Journey in the Caucasus, Persia and Turkey in Asia_, Vol. II, p. 136 (London, 1875).

[386] _Cf._ Sayce _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, p. 122 (London, 1898).

[387] See Jastrow, _op. cit._, p. 229.

[388] See W. Andræ’s _Der Anu-Adad-Tempel in Assur_ (Leipsic, 1909); and his _Die Festungswerke von Assur_ (Leipsic, 1913).

[389] _Op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 328.

[390] See _Die Stelenreien in Assur_, p. ii (by Walter Andræ, Leipsic, 1913).

[391] “Many other works of Semiramis,” writes Strabo, “besides those of Babylon, are extant in almost every part of this continent, as, for example, earth-works which are called mounds of Semiramis, walls and fortresses, aqueducts and cisterns for water, stair-like roads over mountains, canals communicating with rivers and lakes; roads and bridges.” _Geography_, Bk. XVI, Chap. II.

[392] Polyænus _Strategemeta_, VIII, 26.

[393] _Cf._ _La Légende de Semiramis_, pp. 22, 23 (by François Lenormant), in _Mémoires de l’Academie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Belgique_, Tom. XL (1873).

[394] A. H. Sayce in _Herodotos, with Notes, Introductions and Appendices_, p. 105 (London, 1883).

[395] Ibid., p. 303.

[396] Ibid., p. 362.

[397] Mr. Robertson Smith in _The English Historical Review_, Vol. II, p. 305, April, 1887.

[398] _Op. cit._, p. 317.

[399] As many fantastic stories are related about Dietrich von Bern--Theodoric the Great, King of the East Goths--as there are about Semiramis. As the Assyrian queen was said to have been nursed by doves in her infancy and to have been transformed into a dove after her death so, the German legends have it, Dietrich von Bern was descended from a spirit and made his exit from the world on a black horse. In Lusatia the mythical _Wild Huntsman_ who, during violent storms, rides furiously across the heavens is called Dietrich von Bern. Living so long after Semiramis it is more surprising that his life should be made the theme of Middle High German poems and Old Norse sagas than that the Assyrian queen should have been made the subject of oriental myth and Greek legend.

[400] Lehmann-Haupt in his interesting and illuminating lecture on _Die historische Semiramis und ihre Zeit_, which was delivered before the _Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft_ in Berlin, February 6, 1910, declares: “Von der sagenhaften Ümhüllung befreit, sehen wir Semiramis vor uns als eine Herrschergestalt, die zu einer Zeit, da sonst der Frau eine Beteiligung am öffentlichen Leben versagt war, die Geschichte zweier, vornehmlich durch ihre Klugheit und Umsicht verbundener Reiche in Krieg und Frieden entscheidendend und durchgreifend geleitet hat.” P. 68 (Tübingen, 1910).

How different is this conclusion of the learned German, which is based on the brilliant discoveries of Andræ and his colleagues, from that of the distinguished Orientalist, F. Lenormant, who, as the result of an exhaustive study of Semiramis, makes the _ex cathedra_ statement “_ce personage divin ... doit être definitivement rayé de l’histoire_--this divine personage ought to be definitely expunged from history.” _Op. cit._, p. 68.

[401] _Geography_, Bk. XVI, Chap. I, IX.

[402] Arrian’s _Anabasis of Alexander_, Bk. VII, Chap. VII.

[403] _Voyage au Levant_, Tom. III, p. 200 (Amsterdam, 1727).

[404] Ibid., III, p. 183.

[405] So hot is it in Susa, the Greek geographer writes, that “lizards and serpents at midday in the summer ... cannot cross the streets quick enough to prevent their being burnt to death midway by the heat.” _Op. cit._, Bk. XV, Chap. III.

[406] “There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the desert, the ‘Zauba’ah,’ as the Arabs call it. Devils or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high, rush over the plain lashing the sand at their base like a sea surging under a furious whirlwind; shearing the grass clean away from the roots, tearing up trees which are whirled like leaves and sticks in the air, and sweeping away tents and houses as if they were bits of paper. At last the columns join at the top and form, perhaps three thousand feet above the earth, a gigantic cloud of yellow sand which obliterates not only the horizon but even the midday sun. These sand-spouts are the terror of travelers.” _Thousand and One Nights_, Vol. I, p. 114 (by Richard F. Burton, Benares, 1885).

[407] _Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh with a Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad_, Vol. II, p. 148 (London, 1836).

[408] _Journey in the Caucasus, Persia and Turkey in Asia_, Vol. II, p. 138 (London, 1875).

[409] _Convito_, IV., 2.

[410] _Divina Commedia_, IV, v. 121, _et seq._

[411] Moore’s _Lalla Rookh_, p. 181 (New York, 1890).

[412] _Life and Letters of E. B. Cowell_, p. 318 (by G. Cowell, London, 1904).

[413] Daniel, iii.

[414] _Op. cit._, II, 139.

[415] Gertrude L. Bell, in _Amurath to Amurath_, p. 246 (London, 1911).

[416] “Le Khalife, alors tout-puissant, vivait là au milieu de ses milices et de tous les grands scheiks de son royaume, plus entouré de courtisans que Louis XIV à Versailles. Il réservait d’ailleurs toutes ses faveurs à ceux qui venaient embellir Samara en coustruisant quelques belles residences dans le voisinage du palais.” _Description du Palais de Al-Moutasim Fils d’Haroun-al-Raschid à Samara et de Quelques Monuments Arabs connus de la Mesopotamia_, p. 23 and plate XIV (par M. H. Violet, Paris, 1909). _Cf._ Sarre und Herzfeld’s illuminating monograph on Samara.

[417] _Cf._ Von Oppenheim, _op. cit._, II, p. 221.

[418] _Op. cit._, p. 381.

[419] _Cf._ _Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Armenia_, Vol. II, p. 152 (by W. F. Ainsworth, London, 1842).

[420] _Les Missions Catholiques Françaises au XIXe Siècle_, Tom. I, p. 223, _et seq._ (Paris, 1900).

[421] _Cf._ _Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman_, Tom. I, p. 172 _et seq._ (by the Vicomte De la Jonquière, Paris, 1914).

[422] _Du Caucasus au Golfe Persique à travers l’Arménie, le Kurdistan et la Mesopotamie_, p. 458 _et seq._ (by P. Müller-Simonis and H. Hyvernat, Washington, 1892).

[423] See the interesting work of Mme. Dieulafoy on _La Perse, la Chaldée et la Susiane_, p. 576 _et seq._ (Paris, 1887).

[424] _Turquie Agonisante_, p. 137 (Paris, 1913).

[425] _Baghdad during the Abbassid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources_, pp. 12–14 (by G. Le Strange, Oxford, 1900).

[426] Le Strange, _op. cit._, p. 64 _et seq._

[427] Le Strange, _op. cit._, p. 71.

[428] _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, Vol. I, p. 63 (translated and edited by H. Yule, London, 1903).

[429] _Bibliothèque Orientale_, Tom. I, p. 326 (The Hague, 1777).

[430] _Op. cit._, I, 72.

[431] _History of the Mongols from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century_, Part III, p. 127 (by H. H. Howorth, London, 1888).

[432] See _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, on a _Greek Embassy to Bagdad 917, A. D._ (January, 1897).

[433] _Cf._ Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, Chap. LII.

[434] At this period, Sir Richard Burton tells us, London and Paris were in a state of quasi-savagery and “their palatial halls were spread with rushes.”

[435] Bagdad, at the zenith of its grandeur under Harun-al-Rashid, was the worthy successor of Babylon and Nineveh. It “had outrivalled Damascus, ‘the Smile of the Prophet,’” and “was essentially a city of pleasure, a Paris of the ninth century.” “Thither flocked from all parts of the oriental world the most noted and capable poets, musicians and artificers of the time; and the first thought of the Arabian or Persian craftsman who had completed some specially curious or attractive specimen of his art was to repair to the capital of the Muslim world, to submit it to the Commander of the Faithful from whom he rarely failed to receive a rich reward for his labors. Surrounded by pleasure-gardens and groves of orange, tamarisk, and myrtle, refreshed by an unfailing luxuriance of running streams, supplied either by art or nature, the great city on the Tigris is the theme of many an admiring ode or laudatory ghazel; and the poets of the time all agree in describing it as being, under the rule of the great Caliph, a sort of terrestrial paradise of idlesse and luxury, where, to use their own expressions, the ground was irrigated with rose-water and the dust of the roads was musk, where flowers and verdure overhung the ways and the air was perpetually sweet with the many-voiced song of birds, and where the chirp of lutes, the dulcet warble of flutes and the silver sound of singing houris rose and fell in harmonious cadence from every corner of the streets of palaces that stood in vast succession in the midst of their gardens and orchards, gifted with perpetual verdure by the silver abundance of the Tigris, as it sped its arrowy flight through the thrice-blest town.” _Thousand and One Nights_, Vol. IX, pp. 333, 334 (translated by John Payne, London, 1884).

[436] _Historical View of the Literature of the South of Europe_, Vol. I, p. 30 (New York, 1827).

[437] _Haroun-Al-Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad_, p. 53 (by E. H. Palmer, London, 1881).

[438] Palmer, _op. cit._, p. 83.

[439] This crime, declares Sir Richard Burton, “stands out in ghastly prominence as one of the most terrible tragedies recorded in history and its horrible details make men write passionately on the subject to this our day.” _Thousand and One Nights_, Vol. X, p. 142 (Benares, 1885).

[440] Sismondi, _op. cit._, I, 30.

[441]

_Tamed Greece to tame her victress now began,_
_And with her arts fair Latium over-ran._

HORACE, _Epistles_, Book II, 1.

[442] Gibbon, _op. cit._, Chap. LII.

[443] See D’Herbelot’s _Bibliothèque Orientale_, s. v. “Honain.”

[444] _Cf._ _A History of Greece_, Vol. II, p. 224 (by G. Finlay, Oxford, 1877).

[445] _The History and Conquests of the Saracens_, p. 157 (London, 1877).

[446] Longfellow has chosen the grim episode said to have been connected with the tragic death of Al-Mostassem at the hands of Hulagu Khan for one of his well-known poems in which he makes his victor and executioner address the avaricious Caliph in the following words:

_I said to the Caliph, “Thou art old,_
_Thou hast no need of so much gold;_
_Thou shouldst not have heaped and hidden it here,_
_Till the breath of battle was hot and near,_
_But have sown through the land these useless hoards,_
_To spring into shining blades and swords,_
_And keep thine honor sweet and clear.”_

* * * * *

_Then into his dungeon I locked the drone,_
_And left him there to feed all alone,_
_In the honey cells of his golden hive;_
_Never a prayer, nor a cry, nor a groan,_
_Was heard from those massive walls of stone,_
_Nor again was the Caliph seen alive._

[447] Freeman, _op. cit._, p. 132.

[448] “Tamerlan fit passer au fil de l’epée tous sea Habitants, n’ epargnant ni age, ni sexe, ni condition et fit raser rez pied, rez terre tous ses principaux bätimens.” D’Herbelot, _op. cit._, s. v. “Timour.”

[449] _Cf._ Gibbon, _op. cit._, Chap. LXV. “The ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities was often marked by his”--Timour’s--“abominable trophies--by columns or pyramids of human heads.” Ibid., Chap. LXV. “The people of Ispahan supplied seventy thousand human skulls for the structure of several lofty towers.” Ibid., Chap. XXXIV.

[450] Howorth, _op. cit._, Part III, p. 1.

[451] _Cf._ Benjamin of Tudela, _op. cit._, p. 98 _et seq._ According to the Babylonian Talmud which “became the main factor in the history and development of Judaism,” the Jews of Babylon passed for a purer race than those of Palestine.

[452] “_Tous les pays_,” it is said in the French translation of the Babylonian Talmud, “_sont comme de la pâte relativement à la Palestine, mais ce pays l’est relativement à la Babylonie._” _Cf._ _Géographie du Talmud_, p. 320 (by A. Neubauer, Paris, 1868).

[453] The clever Ottoman author, Halil Halid, pertinently writes in reference to this subject: “In the language of diplomacy the French term ‘_action civilisatrice_’ may still have an impressive sound, but owing to the free use made of it by every politician and journalist, the sense of the term has been much contaminated with vulgarity. The dignified charm of the English political literature dealing with the affairs of the East has also begun to degenerate into something like a commonplace. The notion intended by the term is this, that when one of the mighty Powers of Christendom finds it incumbent upon itself to take under its patronizing ægis the internal affairs of a Muslim nation, which is incapable of holding its own, freedom, justice and the spread of civilization will either immediately or gradually follow the introduction of its good rule and signs of the public well-being will spring up here, there and everywhere.

“There is no necessity to cite here any examples of the astounding work which the civilizing Powers are doing in Eastern countries, as any one who studies the political settlement of these countries can find ample instances for himself. It should only be remarked that all the pains taken in this direction are at the expense of the sovereign rights and national independence of the people which submit to the civilizing tutelage.” _The Crescent versus the Cross_, pp. 184, 185 (London, 1907).

[454] “Neejdee horses are especially esteemed for great speed and endurance of fatigue; indeed in this latter quality none can come up to them. To pass twenty-four hours on the road without drink and without flagging is certainly something; but to keep up the same abstinence and labor conjoined under the burning Arabian sky for forty-eight hours at a stretch is, I believe, peculiar to animals of the breed.” _Personal Narrative of a Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia_, p. 310 (by W. G. Palgrave, London, 1869).

[455] The most prized horses in Arabia belong, it is said, to the _Khamsa_, namely, to one of the _Kehilan_ breeds, which, according to tradition, are descended from Mohammed’s five favorite mares.

[456] _Cf._ E. Reclus, _Asia_, Vol. IV, p. 466 (New York, 1855).

[457] _Op. cit._, pp. 25, 26.

[458] See _La Province de Bagdad_, p. 108 (by Habib K. Chicha, Cairo, 1908).

[459] “Who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise, in Eden towards the East, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life?” _De Principiis_, Bk. IV, Chap. I.

[460] _De Genesi ad Litteram_, Lib. VIII, Cap. I.

[461] _Wo lag das Paradies_, p. 44 (Leipsic, 1881).

[462] Lib. II, dist. 17, c. 5, “Unde volunt in orientali parte esse paradisum, longo interjacente spatio vel maris vel terræ a regionibus quas incolant hominea secretum, et in alto situm, usque ad lunarem circulum pertingentem, unde nec aquæ diluvii illuc pervenerunt.”

[463] _Cf._ _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, p. 255 _et seq._ (by S. Baring Gould, London, 1892).

[464] _The Voyage and Travaile of Sir John Mandeville_, Chap. XXX.

[465] See _Select Letters of Christopher Columbus_, pp. 141–147 (translated by R. H. Major and printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1870).

[466] _La Nouvelle Revue_, April 15, 1893.

[467] _Atlantis, The Antediluvian World_, p. 455 (New York, 1884).

[468] _Popular Science Monthly_, p. 678, September, 1883.

[469] _Paradise Found_, p. 433 (by W. F. Warren, Boston, 1885).

[470] _The Human Species_, p. 175–177 (New York, 1890).

[471] _Histoire Ancienne de l’Orient_, Tom. I, p. 96 _et seq._ (Paris, 1881).

[472] See chapter on The Site of the Garden of Eden, in _Science and the Church_ (by J. A. Zahm, Chicago, 1896), from which I have extensively drawn for the present treatment of the subject.

[473] _Cf._ _Dictionnaire de la Bible_, Tom. IV, Col. 2121 (pub. by F. Vigoroux, Paris, 1908).

[474] See _Reise der K. preussichen Gesellschaft nach Persia_, Tom. I, p. 146 (by H. Brugsch, Leipsic, 1862).

[475] _Cf._ Dom Calmet, _Commentaire littéral sur la Genèse_, p. 61 (Paris, 1715).

[476] Duo sunt amnes qui in unum coeunt deinde abeunt in diversas partes. Ita flumen unum est in confluente; duo autem inferioribus alveis sunt capita, et duo versus mare postquam rursus longius dividi incipiunt. See his _Commentarius in Genesin_. The map of Babylonia, which accompanies the text renders the author’s view quite clear, although it does not specify the site of the Garden of Eden.

[477] See _The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments_, pp. 95, 96 (by A. H. Sayce, London, 1894). _Cf._ _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia_, Chaps. I, II (by T. G. Pinches, London, 1908); _The Chaldean Account of Genesis_, p. 305 (by George Smith, London, 1876).

[478] Ibid., p. 97.

[479] _Op. cit._, pp. 97, 98.

[480] _Modern Science and Bible Lands_, pp. 197, 198 (New York, 1889).

[481] _Skizze der Geschichte und Geographie Arabiens von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum Propheten Muhammed_, Vol. II, p. 317, _et seq._ (Berlin, 1890).

[482] _Aufsätze und Abhandlungen_, p. 273 _et seq._ (Munich, 1901).

[483] “E chiaro che il narratore nel detto brano della Genesi ha avuto, dinazi agli occhi un luogo ben noto, e si e data la pena di discriverlo mimutamente, affinche non potessero surgere dubbi sul paese che egli voleva indicare.” _Studi di Storia Orientale_, Vol. I, p. 121 (Milan, 1911).

[484] Referring to the discovery of the word Eden--Edina--in cuneiform inscriptions the distinguished Assyriologist, T. G. Pinches, _op. cit._, p. 72, writes: “That we shall ultimately find other instances of Eden as a geographical name, occurring by itself and not in composition with another word, as in the expression _Sipar Edina_, and even a reference to _gannat Edinni_, ‘the Garden of Eden,’ is to be expected.”

[485] Purgatorio, XXXIII, 145.

[486] So called because of an Eastern tradition that it was the plantain and not the apple which was the forbidden fruit in Paradise. It is also known as Adam’s fig.

[487] _Paradise Lost_, Bk. IV.

[488] Nature herself confesses to have given the tenderest hearts to the human race, as she gave them tears; this is the best part of our faculties. _Satire XV_, vv. 131–133.

[489] According to Dr. Fries, an eminent German scholar, all games of ball are traceable back to an old light myth which was presumably Babylonian in origin: “_Alles Ballspiel_,” he writes, “_ja bis herab zum Lawn-Tenis auf denselben Gedanken-den Lichtkampf-zurückgeht._” _Studien zur Odyssee_, Vol. I, p. 324 (Leipsic, 1910).

[490] _The Excavations at Babylon_, p. 15 (London, 1914).

[491] “But the devils believed not, they taught men sorcery and that which was sent down to the two angels at Babel, Harut and Marut.” _The Koran_, Sura II, 96.

[492] Chap. XIII, vv. 19–21. In lieu of the word “satyrs” the _Vulgate_ has _pilosi_--the hairy ones--which is more in keeping with the original Hebrew text.

[493] Genesis xi: 4.

[494] Ερημία μεγάλη ἐστιν ἡ μεγάλη πόλις, Bk. XVI, I, 5.

[495] _The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation_, Vol. X, Part I, p. 63 (collected by Richard Hakluyt, Edinburgh, 1889).

[496] “The inhabitants of these parts are as fond of attributing every vestige of antiquity to Nimrod as those of Egypt are to Pharaoh.” Rich, _Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon_ (London, 1818).

[497] _Op. cit._, Tom. I, p. 382 _et seq._

[498] That Della Valle had no doubt that the mound of Babil was really the ruin of the Tower of Babel is quite evident from the positive statement which he makes to this effect: “che sia quella Babel antica è la torre di Nembrotto, non c’è dubbio, secondo me, perche oltre che il sito lo dimostra, da’ paesani ancora oggidi è conisciuta per tale, ed in Arabico è chiamata volgarmente Babel.” _Op. cit._, p. 384.

[499] Koldewey, _op. cit._, p. 11, _et seq._

[500] _Op. cit._, p. 101.

[501] _Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia_, Vol. II, p. 365 (by Robert Ker Porter, London, 1822).

[502] _Op. cit._, p. 317. The Jews of Babylonia call the tower of Birs-Nimrud “Nebuchadnezzar’s prison,” for what reason is not clear.

[503] _The Old Testament in the Light of Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia_, p. 138 (by T. G. Prinches, London, 1908).

[504] _Observations Connected with the Astronomy and Ancient History, Sacred and Profane, on the Ruins of Babylon_, p. 2 (by T. Maurice, London, 1816).

[505] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 336.

[506] _Cf._ _Expedition de Mesopotamie_, Vol. I, Lib. I (Paris, 1863).

[507] See also _Die Tempel von Babylon and Borsippa_, p. 59 (by Dr. Koldewey, Leipsic, 1911), that speaks of Oppert’s _verkehrter Stadtplan von Babylon_ and who declares that Borsippa, as an independent city, bore the same relation to Babylon as does Charlottenburg to Berlin.

[508] _The History of Herodotus_, Bk. I, 178, 179.

[509] _Library_, Lib. II, Chap. VII.

[510] Rich, _op. cit._, p. 43.

[511] _De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni_, Lib. V, Cap. I.

[512] _The Geographical System of Herodotus Examined and Explained_, p. 347.

[513] _Op. cit._, p. 2.

[514] _Im Lande des Einstigen Paradieses_, p. 30 (Stuttgart, 1903). According to Oppert the great wall of Babylon embraces an area fifteen times as great as that of Paris in 1850 and as extended as that of the entire department of the Seine. Ibid., Vol. I, p. 234.

[515] _Op. cit._, p. 5.

[516] _Op. cit._, II, 8.

[517] Koldewey, _op. cit._, p. 54.

[518] Arrian’s _Anabasis of Alexander_, Bk. VII, Chap. XXVI.

[519] According to the measurements of Rich, the current of the Euphrates runs at a medium rate of about two knots an hour while that of the Tigris has a maximum velocity of full seven knots.

[520] _Commentary on Isaias_, Bk. V, Chap. XIII, _Patrologiæ Latinæ_, Vol. XXIV (Migne, Paris, 1865).

[521] _Op. cit._, Bk. I, Chap. 181.

[522] _Geography_, Bk. XVI, Chap. I, Sec. 5.

[523] _Op. cit._, p. 196.

[524] Ibid., p. 196.

[525] “Principio Assyrii”--the Chaldeans--“propter planitiem magnitudinemque regionum quos incolebant, cum cœlum ex omni parte patens et apertum intuerentur, trajectiones motusque stellarum observaverunt.” _De Divinatione_, Lib. I.

[526] _Op. cit._, Lib. V, Cap. I.

[527] _Op. cit._, p, 103.

[528] For a description of the ruins of Cuzco and the Great Chimu, as compared with those of Babylon, see _Along the Andes and Down the Amazon_, Chaps. XIII, XV (by J. A. Zahm, New York, 1911).

[529] _The History and Conquests of the Saracens_, p. 2 _et seq._ (by E. A. Freeman, London, 1877).

[530] _Babel and Bibel_, p. 36, 37 (London, 1903).

[531] _The Archæology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions_, p. 111 (London, 1908).

[532] Entitled _Der babylonische Ursprung der ägyptischen Kultur_ (1892).

[533] Pliny, speaking of Belus, says: “Inventor hic fuit sideralis scientiæ, Naturalis Historiæ,” Lib. VI. Cap. 30.

[534] _Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, p. 8 (New York, 1912).

[535] See especially _Astronomisches aus Babylon, oder das Wissen der Chaldäer uber den gestirnten Himmel_ (by J. Epping, in collaboration with J. Straszmaier, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1889); _Die Babylonische Mondrechnung_ (by F. Kugler, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1900).

[536] _Cf._ Dumont _op. cit._, p. 60.

[537] A comparison of the lunar periods as given by Babylonian and by modern astronomers will show how exact were the calculations of the observers of ancient Chaldea.

Periods as calculated by Babylonian astronomers:

Mean sidereal month 27 days, 7 hours, 43’ 14″
Mean synodic month 29 days, 12 hours, 44’ 31.3″
Mean draconitic month 27 days, 5 hours, 5’ 35.8″
Mean anomalistic month 27 days, 13 hours, 18’ 34.9″

Periods as calculated by modern astronomers:

Mean sidereal month 27 days, 7 hours, 43’ 11.5″
Mean synodic month 29 days, 12 hours, 44’ 2.9″
Mean draconitic month 27 days, 5 hours, 5’ 36″
Mean anomalistic month 27 days, 13 hours, 18’ 39.3″

From the foregoing figures it is seen that the maximum difference of time, as given by ancient and modern observers, is less than a half minute; the minimum one-fifth of a second! See Kugler’s _Die Babylonische Mondrechnung_, pp. 24, 40, 46.

[538] Kugler _op. cit._, p. 206.

[539] Hammurabi’s code which is carefully engraved on a large stele of black diorite was found by M. de Morgan and the distinguished Dominican archæologist, Father Scheil, among the ruins of Susa--the Susan of the Bible--whither it had been carried from Babylon as loot by the Elamites. When found in December, 1901, and January, 1902, it was in fragments but the parts were easily rejoined. In October, 1902, there appeared an admirable translation of it by Father Scheil which everywhere excited the greatest interest among scholars both of the Old and the New World. In many respects, it is the most interesting and valuable inscribed monument of old Babylonia which has yet been brought to light.

[540] _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters_, pp. vii, viii (by C. H. W. Johns, New York, 1904).

[541] _Op. cit._, p. 186.

[542] _Apocalypse_, xvii: 5; xviii: 21.

[543] _Daniel_ iv: 27, 28.

[544] Chap. li: 58.

[545] Chap. li: 37.

[546] Chap. li: 62.

[547] _Psalm_ cxviii: 89.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.

3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.

4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.