A History of Babylonia and Assyria, Book I: Prolegomena
Robert William Rogers author
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CHAPTER X
THE LANDS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
THE Babylonian and Assyrian peoples had their seat in a great valley with but one distinct and sharp natural boundary. This clear boundary was the Persian Gulf upon the south, which said to all landsmen, "Thus far shalt thou come and no farther." That boundary these peoples respected and never ventured out on the troubled and mysterious waters. On the east the boundary between them and their next neighbors was fluctuating and uncertain. The natural boundary would seem to be the mountains of Elam, but these mountains slope gradually westward to the plain, and do not rise precipitously from it. Down these slopes poured hordes of men in all ages, and there was no sharp line of defense to keep them from the valley, while on the other hand the people of the valley were often filled with conquering power sufficient to extend their border far up the slopes into Elam. On the north, also, the boundary was almost equally uncertain. The mountains of Armenia might be regarded as the natural border on the north, but these are intimately connected with the great valley, for they belong to the drainage system of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and, like the mountains of Elam, slope more gently toward than from the valley. On the north, therefore, as on the east, the lands of Assyria and of Babylonia were open to incursion from the outside, or to raids from within outward. The western border was still more indefinite. In the northwest the valley land swept away in a gentle rise from the Euphrates to the plateau of Aram, and over it even to the Mediterranean. While upon the southwest the desert formed the only barrier between the valley and Arabia or the lands of the Jordan valley. Nomadic peoples passed over this barrier with ease, and became powerful factors in the history of the Babylonians. On the other hand, however, the Babylonians did not readily pass the broad line of the desert. Within this roughly bounded country two great empires existed for centuries, and the dividing line between them moved up and down the valley as the power of either became stronger than that of the other. Nature had set no boundary between them, for the whole valley lay open from north to south. Yet, though this is true, there have existed from remote times separate provinces in the valley, with more or less definite boundaries between them. If we begin in the south, these separate provinces may thus be described: Close to, the Persian Gulf was a small country, the country of the Sea Lands, the influence of which was marked in the early history of the whole valley. The country of the Sea Lands was entirely alluvial, and small in extent. Through it in early times the Tigris and the Euphrates passed by separate estuaries into the Persian Gulf. Later, though at what time is unknown, the two rivers united and began to flow through one channel into the sea. This alluvial territory is now growing by the river deposits at the rate of about a mile in seventy years, and there is good reason for believing that its average growth in historic time has been not less than a mile in thirty years. If the ratio of increase has been as high as this, the country of the Sea Lands was a very small land during the period 4000-600 B. C. Above it geographically lay the land of the Kaldi, likewise alluvial, and extending northward nearly to the city of Babylon. It has also no line of clear separation from the Sea Lands, nor from Babylonia to the north. As kings from the Kaldi country later ruled in Babylon and had control over the whole vast empire, of which it was the capital, the name of Chaldea was extended by Greek and Roman historians so as to include the whole of Babylonia. Next above the land of the Kaldi was Babylonia itself, which extended northward along the valley, with two exceptions, to the Armenian mountains. These exceptions were the original lands of Assyria and Mesopotamia. Assyria, in its original geographical and historical sense, was the small triangular-shaped land lying between the Tigris and the Zab Rivers and the Median mountains. When the Assyrians gained in power and numbers they soon extended their dominion beyond these very narrow boundaries, and with their dominion went likewise the geographical name, so that even in early times the name Assyria had been carried westward to the Euphrates and southward as far as Hit, while to the Greeks and Romans it covered the entire valley.224 The other separate land or province was-the small country included between the Euphrates and the Khabur Rivers and the mountains of Armenia. This was the land known as Nahrina, the Aram-Naharaim225 of the Hebrews, and the Mesopotamia of the Greeks and Romans. Unhappily this name of Mesopotamia was extended to cover the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates southward even to the Persian Gulf. This completely destroys the historical nomenclature, and introduces a confusion that does not appear in any of the records of either the Assyrians or Babylonians. For this country between the Tigris and Euphrates, including Assyria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Chaldea, and the Sea Lands, the ancient inhabitants had no general geographical name. The geographical terminology varied with the rise and fall of political power. There were, however, certain clear exceptions to this general rule. For example, the name Assyria was never extended so as to cover Babylonia proper, though it is ex. tended so far westward. On the other hand, the name Babylonia is carried so far north as almost to include
Assyria, though the small original land of Assyria appears always to be kept sharply distinguished. The general term of the Assyro-Babylonian valley may properly be used to cover all the country. Though the word Mesopotamia was never applied by either Assyrians or Babylonians to their country, yet it is in a real sense the product of two rivers, in a sense almost as complete as that Egypt is the product of the Nile. The Tigris and the Euphrates have their sources upon opposite sides of the same mountain range. This is the highest ridge between the Black Sea and the great valley, and the only one which has peaks bearing perpetual snow-hence known to the ancient Greeks as the Niphates. From its western side the Euphrates flows westward to Malatiyeh, as though to lose itself in the Mediterranean. But at Malatiyeh the course is suddenly changed to the southeast, passing within a few miles of the source of the Tigris at Lake Goljik, thence forcing its way through the mountains in a tortuous course. Thence its course is generally southeast until opposite Baghdad, where it approaches to within twenty miles of the Tigris, and the rivers appear about to form a junction. Both, however, again separate, and only make their final union at last after a very sharp convergence. The estimated length of the Euphrates is seventeen hundred and eighty miles. It is navigable for a distance of twelve hundred miles above its mouth. During its whole course it is an imposing river among the greatest rivers of the world. Like most mountain streams, its early course is swift and its bed rocky. Its first great tributary is the Kara Su--that is, the Black Water--at Keban-Maaden, a few miles west of Kharpoot. Its next affluent is the Sajur, received from the right, or west. This is followed by the Balikh, which, in a course of only one hundred and twenty miles, brings the water from Mount Masius. The next is the Khabur, also received from the left, which brings another considerable body of water also from the lower slopes of Mount Masius. From this point, for eight hundred miles until the junction with the Tigris, the Euphrates receives no tributaries whatever. It has been well said that the "upper region of the Euphrates resembles that of the Rhine, while its middle course may be compared with that of the Danube, and its lower with the Nile."226 The Tigris is formed by the junction of two small head streams, the eastern rising near Bitlis, not far from the western bank of Lake Van, while the western comes from the neighborhood of Kharpoot. Unlike the Euphrates, the Tigris receives many important tributaries, which flow down from the Zagros and Elmatine mountains. The first important one of these is the Eastern Khabur, after which in rapid succession follow the Upper Zab, the Lower Zab, the Adhem, and the Diyaleh. This constant accession of fresh water gives the Tigris a character entirely different from the Euphrates. The Euphrates continually decreases in size and flows ever in a more sluggish stream. When it receives the Khabur it is four hundred yards wide and eighteen feet deep; at Irzah or Werdi, seventy-five miles lower down, it is three hundred and fifty yards wide and of the same depth; at Hadiseh, one hundred and forty miles below Werdi, it is three hundred yards wide, and still of the same depth; here its current is four knots per hour in the flood season, but this speed diminishes within the next fifty miles; at Hit, fifty miles below Hadiseh, its width has increased to three hundred and fifty yards, but its depth has been diminished to sixteen feet; at Felujiah, seventy-five miles from Hit, the depth is twenty feet, but the width had diminished to two hundred and fifty yards. From this point the contraction is very rapid and striking. The Saklowijeh Canal is given out upon the left, and some I way further down the Hindiyeh branches of upon the right, each carrying, when the Euphrates is full, a large body of water. The consequence is that at Hillah, ninety miles below Felujiah, the stream is no more than two hundred yards wide and fifteen feet deep; at Diwaniyeh, sixty-five miles further down, it is only one hundred and sixty yards wide; and at Lamlun, twenty miles below Diwaniyeh, it is reduced to one hundred and twenty yards wide, with a depth of no more than twelve feet. Soon after, however, it begins to recover itself. The water, which left it by the Hindiyeh, returns to it upon the one side, while the Schatt-el-Hai and numerous other branch streams flow in upon the other; but still the Euphrates never recovers itself entirely, nor even approaches in its later course to the standard of its earlier greatness. The channel from Kurnah to El Khitr was found by Colonel Chesney to have 44 an average width of only two hundred yards, and a depth of about eighteen or nineteen feet, which implies a body of water far inferior to that carried between the junction of the Khabur and Hit." The Tigris and the Euphrates have both flood seasons and carry their waters over a wide extent of country, exactly as the Nile. This fact is so perfectly clear that there can be no doubt concerning it, though Herodotus directly asserts the contrary, saying, .The river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn lands of its own accord, but is spread over them by the help of engines."227 The rise is indeed not so prolonged as the rise of the Nile, but its influence is, nevertheless, distinctly to be seen. The rise in the Tigris is due to the melting of the snows on the mountains, and as it drains the southern slopes, and the Euphrates the northern slopes, the Tigris rises more rapidly. The Tigris usually begins to rise early in March. By the first or second week in May the highest point is reached, and the river then declines rap. idly and reaches its level at about the middle of June. As the course of the Tigris during the entire upper part of its course is between banks of considerable height, the river rarely overflows. On its lower course, however, and especially between the thirty-second and thirty-first parallels, it covers a wide extent of country. The inundation of the Euphrates is much more regular and extensive. The melting of snow on the northern slopes is slower, and the river begins to swell very slowly about the beginning of March, and gradually increases until the highest point is reached about the end of May, when the waters stand about thirteen feet above low water. 228 At this point the river remains, for about a month, sinks slightly toward the middle of July, and then more rapidly till September. The Euphrates begins to overflow its banks much higher up than the Tigris, and even at its junction with the Khabur is described as "spreading over the surrounding country like a sea." From Hit downward the river spreads over both banks, but with a strong tendency to flow farther and more deeply over the western bank. The slow and regular rise of the river made it exceedingly valuable for irrigation, and the Babylonian people fully availed themselves of this great opportunity. Along its banks were constructed brick walls provided with breakwaters to divert and control the swift current at the rise. Sluice gates controlled the rise so that the eastern bank received an inundation equal to the west, while canals almost innumerable diverted the retreating waters, and prevented the flow from damaging the cultivable area. Furthermore, the water was retained in sufficient quantity to supply an irrigation system far back from the river for the grain harvest, after the fall of the river. This entire system is now a vast ruin. The river rises and falls as it wills, and sweeping far over the western bank, turns the country into a morass. The harm of this is both negative and positive. It makes impossible any such great in. gathering of grain as existed when this great valley was the world’s granary, and it fills the land with a dangerous miasma, which produces fevers and leaves the inhabitants weak and sickly. There are few instances in the world of a sadder waste of a beautiful and fertile country. In. the lower alluvial country the Tigris and Euphrates have made numerous changes in their river beds. These changes have often begun in the spring and summer floods and then continued. The branch streams which are thus formed perpetually vary, being sometimes so large as to be navigable and again left absolutely dry. Yet, on the whole, with the exception of the great change produced by the union of the Tigris and Euphrates at their mouths, the general course of the rivers remains about the same throughout the historic period. Of the changes in branch streams by far the most important are on the side of Arabia. There branches off near Hit a wide, deep channel, which skirts the Arabian rocks and passes into the Persian Gulf by an entirely distinct channel. This conveys a considerable body of Euphrates water, and keeps back the encroachment of the desert, thus extending considerably the arable part of Chaldea and the Sea Lands. There is some doubt as to its age, and as to whether or not it was in the beginning partly or wholly artificial. Besides the two rivers neither Assyria nor Babylonia has any supplies of water beyond one single freshwater lake, on the Arabian side of the Euphrates fifty miles south of the ruins of Babylon, and twenty-five or thirty miles from the river. It does not appear to have been well known or counted of importance by the ancient inhabitants, for no mention of it has yet been found in any Assyrian or Babylonian texts; it was known to the Romans as and is now called Bahr-i-Nedjif. It lies in a basin forty miles long and from ten to twenty miles broad, inclosed on three sides by limestone hills varying from twenty to two hundred feet in height. On the remaining side there is a ridge of rock which separates it from the Euphrates basin. At the season of the inundation the Euphrates pours water into this lake and then it appears to be a part of the inundation. The water is then sweet and good. When the river returns to its original level the lake remains with but very slight change in volume, but the water becomes so disagreeable as to be unpotable. It has been supposed that this may be due to its connection with rocks of the gypsiferous series. The great valley has a climate which appears little fitted to produce men of energy and force, for the temperature over its entire surface is very high in the summer season. In the far south, along the Persian Gulf, and in the near-by regions, the atmosphere is moist and the heat is of the same character as that of Hindustan or Ceylon. Records do not exist to show the range of the thermometer, but the passing traveler states the simple fact that the temperature is higher than at Baghdad. In Baghdad the average maximum daily temperature indoors during June and July is set down as 107° Fahrenheit, and it often goes up to 120° or 122°.229 At present this high temperature is also reached in the north as far up at least as Mosul. It is now also rendered much more oppressive by hot winds, which arise suddenly and filled with impalpable sand drive about in eddying circles or sweep in vast clouds over a wide extent of country. This dust becomes at times so thick as to completely shut off near objects from the vision, as though by a fog. The. gleaming particles of sand shine beneath the sweltering sun, the sand enters nostrils or mouth and seems to choke the very lungs. Death itself sometimes alone terminates the suffering experienced in these terrible visitations. It is, however, altogether probable that in the period, of the ancient history neither the heat nor the sand was such a menace.230 Then the whole land in the south was one vast network of canals. The presence of the, body of water thus everywhere spread abroad greatly modified the temperature, so that the sudden change which now exists from the heat of the day to the cool of the night could not have been so great. Besides this these canals made the land a cultivated garden, free almost entirely from the incursion of yellow sand. These sands properly belong to the Arabian desert, from which they yearly come in increasing quantities into the plain and valley. During the period of the glory of Babylon these sand waves had certainly not gone beyond the Euphrates, and they could hardly have reached it. At present from May to November the sky is usually without a single cloud. In November the clouds gather, and in December and January there are heavy rains. These flow rapidly off into the rivers, for there is no canal system to retain the water for use in agriculture. There is no cold weather in all the land in the sense understood in the temperate zone. There is in midwinter an occasional sign of frost, sufficient to whiten the dew upon the grass in early morning, and in rare cases ice has been known to form in the marshes. So mild, indeed, are the winters that Persian kings made Babylon their winter residence to avoid the bitter cold of their own highlands. In recent times native Indians, expelled for state reasons from their own country, fix their residence in Bassorah or Baghdad to enjoy the mild winter climate. The whole alluvial plain of Babylonia was proverbially fertile in the ancient world. Herodotus began the chorus of praise in the west, and it has continued with greater or less emphasis down the ages. He begins his praise in the oft-quoted words: .Of all countries that we know, there is none that is so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension, indeed, of growing the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful as to yield commonly two hundredfold, and when the production is at the greatest, even three hundredfold. The blade of the wheat plant and of the barley plant is often four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within my own knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have already written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible to those who have not visited the country."231 The same note exactly is struck by Theophrastus in his statement: .In Babylon the wheat fields are regularly mown twice, and then fed off with beasts to keep down the luxuriance of the leaf; otherwise the plant does not run to ear. When this is done the return in lands that are badly cultivated is fifty fold; while in those that are well farmed it is a hundredfold."232 Strabo follows in the same strain, saying: "The country produces barley on a scale not known elsewhere, for the return is said to be three hundredfold. All other wants are supplied by the palm, which furnishes not only bread, but wine, vinegar, honey, and meal;.233 and Pliny says that the wheat crop, where the land is well farmed, is a hundred and fifty fold. In estimating these tributes to the productiveness of the land it is perhaps well to remember that Herodotus had an affluent imagination and was inclined to exaggerate for effect. Theophrastus is more reliable when speaking of such matters, but probably leaned somewhat on the tradition of Herodotus. The other statements must be exaggerations. To the modern husbandman in this valley the yield of wheat and barley is from thirty to forty fold. When all allowance is made for the poor methods now followed, and for changed conditions, it is still unlikely that the ancient average yield greatly exceeded sixty fold. Modern travelers hardly equal the ancient in their estimate of the fertility of the soil, especially when compared with that of Egypt. Rich, who was a most careful observer and accurate reporter, says, "The soil is extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, oats, and grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half the degree of which it is susceptible." Chesney, who knew the land from much experience during survey work, is even more strong in the statement "Although greatly changed by the neglect of man, those portions of Mesopotamia which are still cultivated, as the country about Hillah, show that the region has all the fertility ascribed to it by Herodotus." Loftus adds to this the comparative statement that "the soil is not less bountiful than that on the banks of the Egyptian Nile."234 This statement is, however, of very slight value indeed, for when it was written Loftus had never been in Egypt. Probably the soundest modern estimate is that of Olivier, who knew both Egypt and Babylonia, and adjudged the former to be somewhat more fertile than the latter.235 It is commonly believed that wheat and barley are indigenous to the plains of the Euphrates, and that thence, after a period of cultivation, they spread westward over Syria and Egypt and on to Europe. If this be true, the land might well be expected to yield a good harvest of native cereals. But the productivity of the land did not stop with the great cereals. The inhabitants had a wide range of vegetables for food, among which are pumpkins, kidney-beans, onions, vetches, egg plants, cucumbers, "gombo" lentils, chick-peas, and beans. Above the vegetables and cereals of the land rose its trees, of which the variety was great, both of those that yielded fruit and of those that added merely to the beauty of the land; among these were the apple, fig, apricot, pistachio, vine, almond, walnut, cypress, tamarisk, plane tree, and acacia. But valuable and beautiful though they all were, none was equal in utility, in song, or in story with the palm. From the most ancient of days down to the present all the Orient has rung with the praises of the palm. In Babylon it found a suitable place for its development. It was cultivated with extreme care. Even in early times the process of reproduction had been discovered, and was facilitated by shaking the flowers of the male palm over those of the female. From the products of this tree the peasantry were able almost to support life. The fruit was eaten both fresh and dry, forming in the latter case almost a sweetmeat. If decapitated, the tree gave a juice which might be used as a wine, and was "sweet and headachy," in the opinion of Xenophon. The Greeks even assert that the Babylonians derived from the palm bread, wine, vinegar, honey, groats, string and ropes of all kinds, firing, and a mash for fattening cattle. The fauna of the land was as rich and as varied as its flora. The rivers swarmed with fish. In their slow- flowing waters the barbel and carp grew to large size and were most highly esteemed. But the eel, murena, silurus, and gurnard were also used for food, and found in abundance. By the waters and amid the great reeds which almost seemed to wall in the rivers were birds in extraordinary variety, among them pelicans, cranes, storks, herons, gulls, ducks, swans, and geese. On land were found the ostrich, the bustard, partridge, thrush, blackbird, ortolan, turtledove, and pigeon, together with birds of prey like eagles and hawks. A few snakes are found, of which only three varieties are known to be poisonous, but none of these are so dangerous as many found in adjoining lands. The larger animals were numerous, but of all the varieties that existed wild only the ox, ass, goat, and sheep were domesticated at an early period and made useful to man. To these were added the domestic hog, which seems, however, to have remained in a semi-wild state. In a later period the horse and camel were brought into use. But if the domesticated animals were comparatively few, the wild animals were of extraordinary number. At the head of all of them, in the estimation of the Assyrian and Babylonians, stood the lion. He is not so fierce as his namesake of Africa. In size he is not much larger than a St. Bernard dog, and his Assyrian name originally meant big dog. The modern representative in the same regions is not deemed formidable by Europeans, for he never attacks men save when brought to bay in a position from which there is absolutely no chance of escape, when he will fight desperately. The natives, however, hold them in dread, and never make a fight against one which may be seen in the very act of slaying sheep. There are two varieties, one without a mane and the other with a mane of thick, tangled black hair. It is the latter which excites most fear in the native breast. The Assyrian and Babylonian kings hunted lions in the chase, and made great boast of the number that they had slain. The chase of the lion was, indeed, the royal sport, and fills a large share of the numerous monumental illustrations of hunting. In very early times the elephant wandered at will over the middle Euphrates country, but it disappeared certainly before the thirteenth century, and was henceforward only an object of curiosity, when received by kings as presents in distant wars. Like the elephant, other beasts of chase or prey early disappeared, or ceased to be objects of interest because of their rarity. Among these were the urns, leopard, lynx, wild-cat, hyena, porcupine, beaver, and the ibex. During at least a large part of the history the wild ass and onager roamed in small herds over much of the country and especially between the Balikh and the Tigris. The beauty and swiftness of the wild ass have long been celebrated in the Orient, and the Assyrians admired and represented them in their monuments. It appears that they attempted to tame them for the drawing of chariots, but met with poor success. Modern attempts to make them serviceable have been equally futile. The natives frequently capture foals and rear them on milk in the tent. They become docile and affectionate, but are delicate in captivity and useless for labor. Two varieties of deer appear in monumental representation, the one apparently representing the gray deer, which still exists in the country, and the other the fallow deer, which is now entirely unknown. The hare, also, is frequently exhibited as the object of chase. While both Babylonia and Assyria were exceedingly rich in flora and fauna, they are both, and especially the former, exceedingly poor in mineral wealth. The alluvium is absolutely destitute of metals and of stone. This had an important reflex influence upon the civilization of the country. As stone was not procurable close at hand, the early builders who would have it for utility or decoration sought it at great distances. From Arabia came probably the earliest stone utilized in the country. This had to be transported long distances overland. The skill required for this in the overcoming of engineering difficulties pushed forward the development of the people in mechanical pursuits, and hence reacted upon civilization. But even as early as 3000 B. C. stone was brought from the Lebanon and the Amanus. This was rafted down the Euphrates, after a considerable land journey to its upper waters. And herein was cause for the study of problems in river transportation and in the construction of navigable rafts. Such problems as these would be insoluble by natives in the same district at present, but they were successfully carried out on a large scale in early times, as the great buildings and the inscriptions describing them abundantly witness. But, though the Babylonians did thus acquire stone, they could hardly have secured enough to house the entire population as well as for royal residences and the homes of the gods. The need for a permanent and less costly building material was solved in another way. There was beneath their feet an inexhaustible supply of the best qualities of clay. This was readily molded into bricks. Some of these were dried in the sun, and were then deemed sufficient for the filling in of the interiors of walls. Others were baked in kilns, and with these the walls were faced. In the excellence of materials used, and in the perfection of form, texture, and solidity, and in the great size of their bricks the Babylonians have probably never been excelled. The same material was used for the manufacture of books or tablets. These were made even more carefully, and were almost indestructible. For records the ancient world knew nothing their superior and perhaps nothing equal. The papyrus of ancient Egypt was so fragile and so easily destroyed by either fire or water that it bears no comparison with the brick which resisted both almost equally well. The clay tablet has preserved through the centuries a vast literature, much of it uninjured, while untold portions of the literature of the more cultured Egyptians have hopelessly perished. In the erection of buildings the bricks were joined together in three different ways. They are found simply set together in the interior of walls, without any substance to form a close junction. More commonly they were united by bitumen, which was found in several parts of the country, but especially at Hit. Here are inexhaustible springs which have supplied the whole surrounding country for untold centuries, and form the subject of repeated references in the literature not only of Babylonia, but of Egypt, Greece, and Rome as well.236 Slime and mud were also used, and with these calcareous earths appear to have been mixed, the whole forming a solid and extremely tenacious mortar. From the bitumen pits petroleum is now taken, and may have been known to the ancients. But here ends the very brief catalogue of the mineral products of Babylonia. The land could hardly be poorer in this respect. In mineral wealth Assyria was incomparably superior to Babylonia. Stone of excellent quality, and in many varieties, such as limestone, conglomerate, and sandstone, is found on every hand, while other stones were easily accessible. A soft and beautiful alabaster, readily cut into slabs, abounds on the eastern banks of the Tigris. This beautiful material was extensively used for wainscoting in Assyrian palaces, and its outer surfaces were then richly carved in bas-reliefs. The progress thus made in the art of sculpture was noteworthy, and is to be numbered among the greatest triumphs won by this warlike people in the arts of peace. The mountains of Kurdistan, easily reached by the rivers or water courses above the great cities, supplied many beautiful forms of marble; while Mount Masius offered a fine quality of dark-colored basalt of great fineness and hardness. These stones were indeed not used for the walls of buildings. The colonists of Assyria retained the custom of Babylonia, from which they had come, and built their houses, temples, and palaces of brick, and later ages continued to follow their example. Like Babylonia, Assyria had extensive bitumen pits, located at Kerkuk,237 in the territory between the Lesser Zab and the Adhem, while another source is found in the bed of the Shor-Derreh torrent, near Nimroud. Salt is also obtainable in the former district. The lands which were thus rich in flora and fauna and sufficiently supplied with minerals for man’s ordinary use maintained a great population, largely settled in cities, in which the real political life of the land began. The cities which play important parts in the later history may here be set down, with just enough of color and description to make them real in the story of their political life. In the far south lay the city of Eridu, which played but a small part in all the history of Babylonia, unless indeed it had importance in a period still more ancient than that known to us. The site is now known as Abu- Shahrein,238 and has not yet been adequately studied. The remains of the city, so far as they have been excavated, appear to contain a large temple, which was probably the home of the god Ea, who here received special veneration. West of Eridu stood the great city Ur, which occupied from the earliest times down to the beginning of Babylon’s hegemony a position of distinguished influence in the land, and even thereafter continued to be the most important city in the south. The chief god of the city was Sin, the moon god, here worshiped under the name of Nannar. The moon god always exerted profound influence over the minds of the people, and Ur therefore was early adorned with a large temple for the worship of Sin, which was frequently restored down the centuries to the days of Nabonidus. The ruins of the city have been but slightly explored, and will almost certainly give a rich treasure, at some future day, to a complete examination of them. The mound is now called El-Mugheir239--the place of bitumen--for the inhabitants have used it for centuries as a place to secure bitumen, which they dug from between the bricks of Babylonian buildings. At the modern town of Senkereh,240 on the left bank of the Shatt-en-Nil Canal stood the next chief city, Larsa. This was also one of the most ancient cities of the land. The sun god held the chief position in Larsa, and here the early kings Ur-Gur and Dungi built a temple in his honor. This temple found restorers in Hammurabi, Burnaburiash, Nebuchadrezzar, and Nabonidus, and so remained a venerated spot unto the very end of Babylonian history. The city early played an important political part, and retained its place at the head of a small state even down to the reign of Hammurabi. It was the last city to succumb to him and yield allegiance to the conquering might of Babylon. Somewhat north of Larsa, probably at the mound of Tell-Id, was the city of Girsu, which is mentioned as early as the reign of Dungi, and was the chief city of at least one petty king (Urkagina) in the early period. Its influence was, however, small in comparison with those farther south or when compared with the city of Uruk (Erech, Orchoe), which is but a short distance from it. Uruk was a border city between northern and southern Babylonia, and long remained the center of a small independent kingdom. It was the place of worship of the goddess Nana of the Sumerians, with whom the Semitic inhabitants identified their goddess Ishtar. The temple dedicated to the goddess and called E-Anna (house of heaven) was built by Ur-Gur and Dungi and often restored. It now forms the ruin of El-Buwarije, while the general mass of ruins is called Warka,241 which has unhappily not been dug up. The city had independence at an early period, and is coupled by Hebrew tradition242 with the earliest centers of the land, and Babylonian records go far to prove that this is correct. It was, however, much more than a mere center of power. It was a seat of learning and must have had a library at a very early period. Many books in the library of Asshurbanapal, and especially religious hymns, bear colophons which show that they were copied from originals at Uruk. Strabo adds to this fact the statement that at Orchoe there was a school of Chaldeans, that is in his use of the word .astrologists." This would indicate that culture was still resident in this city, though it had vanished from other more ancient centers. The political, literary, and religious history of the city all make it of so great interest and importance that it is especially a matter for regret that it has never been properly excavated. On the banks of the canal Shatt-el-Hai, which unites the Tigris and Euphrates, is a mound Telloh,243 from which have come vast stores of inscribed tablets of every description. It marks, in all probability, the site of the ancient city of Lagash, which had a long history as a separate state, though with many fluctuations of power. The next city in our progress northward was Isin, of which, unhappily, very little is known. It was linked in the title of the kings who made Nippur, its near-by neighbor, the chief city of the land, but its history was swallowed up in the greater history of the places about it, and its ruins have not been certainly identified.244 Nippur, on the other hand, is now the best known city in all Babylonia. The greatest discoveries yet made beneath the soil of the entire land were made here by the University of Pennsylvania expedition. Nippur was the oldest center of the worship of the god Bel, and may be the oldest city of all Babylonia of which there is any known record. As Ur was the city of the moon god, and Sippara the city of the sun god, so was Nippur the home of Bel, and as these three were the greatest of the gods of Babylonia, so their cities outranked all others in early political history, until dethroned by force; after which they continued to be the chief places of veneration in all the empire. Nippur was rich in buildings devoted to religion and to royal residence, and its great ruin mound, Niffer or Nuffar, has yielded an extraordinary mass of ancient treasures. But great as all these cities were in age, and rich though they continued to be in religious associations, they were all surpassed in influence by the city of Babylon. They were forgotten of men when the dust and sand settled upon them, but the glory and the shame of Babylon remained. Even the name of the city lived on in the ruin heap Babil.245 The chief ruins of Babylon lie near the modern village of Hillah, and cover such a great extent of country that until very recently no men have been found bold enough to attempt the exploration of the entire mound. The city laid no claim to great age, and was probably not very ancient when Hammurabi made it the chief city over all the land and displaced the more ancient seats of power. The religious glory of the city was also in a sense fictitious. Its chief god had been Marduk (the biblical Merodach), and to him fitting worship was paid for generations. But Marduk’s own position in the pantheon was not great enough to bring to the city a religious primacy, and he was therefore identified with the great god Bel, and under that name was worshiped in Babylon. To him was erected a great temple in pyramidal form rising to seven stories, and known as E-sagila. Kings vied with each other to make this the largest and most beautiful shrine in the empire, and in it all rulers must needs "take the hands of Bel" before their authority was deemed valid. So came the city to possess political power, dominion over the hearts and consciences of men, and wealth unapproachable. To Babylon in the days of Nabonidus was joined another city, Borsippa, which may have been as old as the capital itself. In it stood the temple of E-zida, now Birs Nimroud,246 dedicated to Nabu (the biblical Nebo), on which kings lavished almost as much labor and wealth as upon E-sagila. The two cities were linked also in their religious festivals, for on the first day of Nisan (March-April), the beginning of a new year, the god Nabu left his temple in solemn procession to visit his father, Marduk, in Babylon. Of so great importance was this festival that the king was required to share in it, no matter where he might be at the time, whether on business or pleasure bent, under the penalty of forfeiting for the coming year the title of king of Babylon. It is easy to see that this gave enormous power to the priesthood, for it was they alone who represented these great deities in the eyes of all the people. Five hours (about fifteen miles) northeast of Babylon lay Kutha, now a mound and village called Tell- Ibrahim,247 once the leading city of northern Babylonia before the rise of the city of Babylon. The chief god of the city was Nergal, whose temple was called E-shid-lam, at which passing kings were wont to pay honors and offer sacrifices. From Kutha a profound influence passed into the world’s history by the act of one of the Assyrian kings. Sargon deported thence a number of inhabitants to Samaria on the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, who introduced the worship of Nergal and then engrafted upon it features derived from the religion of Jehovah. In close relation with Kutha stood the near-by city of Kish, somewhat as Borsippa stood to Babylon. In the extreme northern part of Babylonia, and nearly opposite to the present Baghdad, lies the mound Akerkuf,248 which marks the site of Dur-Kurigalzu (Kurigalzuburg), a city named after a Babylonian king, but the influence of which in history was slight. Much the same may be said of the city of Upi (Opis) during most of the period of Babylonian history, with this exception, that it appears to have had some influence during the Hammurabi period. The cities of Assyria were not so ancient as those of Babylonia, and their general character was commercial rather than religious, military rather than peaceful and culture-loving. Their temples were indeed large and imposing, for the Assyrians had amassed great wealth in war, and they believed, no less than the Babylonians, that the gods had led them to victory. They also boasted great piles devoted to the residence of kings, in which, however, libraries were not so common as in Babylonia. The first city of Assyria in age was Asshur, whose site is now marked by the mound of Kalah Shergat,249 on the right bank of the Tigris. It was originally a colony and dependency of Babylonia, but its kings spread their power over the adjoining country, which they named Asshur, after their city. It was the home of the great god Asshur, whose temple E-kharsag-kurkurra was erected by the earliest rulers of whom we know anything, and frequently restored by later monarchs. When Calah became the capital of the kingdom Asshur lost its dignity and decreased in size, but retained a certain reverence as the ancient site of the most revered national god, and as the mother city of the, kingdom. A little farther north, but on the eastern bank of the Tigris and at its junction with the Upper Zab, Shalmaneser I built the city of Calah, which he made the capital of Assyria. It remained the royal residence down to the age of Sargon. The mound Nimroud250 marks its site, and this has been fairly but not completely dug over. The city was not an ancient and venerated shrine of any deity, but worship was paid to Asshur in its temple. A little farther up the eastern bank of the Tigris the ruin heaps and squalid villages of Kuyunjik251 and Neby Yunus mark the site of Nineveh, which Sennacherib made the capital of the empire. The city was, however, much older than this, and may almost certainly be accounted one of the most ancient cities in the kingdom. It was the center of the worship of Ishtar, who was called Ishtar of Nineveh to distinguish her from Ishtar of Arbela. Ishtar of Nineveh was worshiped in a great temple on which generation after generation lavished extraordinary plunder. It was the dream of Sennacherib to make Nineveh surpass Babylon in size and magnificence, and, though he did not reach that ideal, he did make it a fine city, second only to the ancient mother city by the Euphrates. To all the world Nineveh stood as the representative city of the hated Assyrian empire, and that made its name a byword among the peoples. North of Nineveh, at the foot of the mountains, Sargon planted a new city, to which he gave his own name, Dur-Sharrukin (that is, Sargon’sburg), which he probably designed not only to make a royal residence, but also the capital of the country and a rival of Nineveh. The remains of the city at Khorsabad252 were the first Assyrian ruins excavated, and these have shown that he made the city magnificent with a palace and other buildings, but it never became even an equal of Nineveh.253 It apparently did not long outlive its founder, but sank away into insignificance. Far more important than this creation of the fancy of an Assyrian king was the city of Arbailu. How old this city was is not known. There is not in all the inscriptions any evidence that the Assyrian kings paid any attention to it. It certainly received at their hands no great palaces and no temples. It had no political weight in the development of Assyrian power, though it must have had an Assyrian populace. It lived a quiet life apart from the great tides of war or commerce during the Assyrian period, and survived the ruin which overwhelmed the empire. It was still an important city in Persian days, and continued to exist when the city of Nineveh was unknown save as a name in the memory. A great mound marks its site, and its name is retained in the modern Erbil.254 The mound has not yet been excavated, and may very probably contain important memorials of the city’s long career. Outside the strict limits of Assyria lay the city of Nagibina. It lay upon the Kharmis, a tributary of the Khabur, at the foot of the mountains. It was the center of an Assyrian province, and continued to live under the name of Nisibis after the empire had ended. Hadrian ceded it to the Parthians, but it returned to Roman rule and was flourishing at the time of Septimius Severus (Septimia Colonia Nisibis). Under the Seleucids it still continued prosperous and bore the name of Antiochia Mygdoniae. 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