Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/73

 TIIK HISTORY OF CIIALD/EA AND ASSYRIA. 53 as Assyrian, but should call Assyro-Ckaldcean. The differences of dialect between north and south were of little importance, and the language in question is that of the inscriptions in both countries. Another change requires to be mentioned. Our readers will remember the names of Ur, Erech, and many other cities which played a great part in the early history of the country, and were all capitals in turn. Babylon, however, in time acquired an unquestioned supremacy over them all. The residence of the Assyrian viceroys during the supremacy of the northern kingdom, it became the metropolis of the new empire after the fall of Nineveh. Without having lost either their population or their prosperity, the other cities sunk to the condition of provincial towns. For some hundred years Babylon had been cruelly ill-treated by the Assyrians, and never-ending revolts had been the consequence. Nabopolassar began the work of restoration, and his son NEBUCHADNEZZAR, the real hero of the Second Chaldee Empire, carried it on with ardour during the whole of his long reign. " He restored the canals which united the Tigris to the o . o Euphrates above Babylon ; he rebuilt the bridge which gave a means of communication between the two halves of the city ; he repaired the great reservoirs in which the early kings had caught and stored the superfluous waters of the Euphrates during the annual inundation. Upon these works his prisoners of war, Syrians and Egyptians, Jews and Arabs, were employed in vast numbers. The great wall of Babylon was set up anew ; so was the temple of Nebo at Borsippa ; the reservoir at Sippara, the royal canal, and a part at least of Lake Pallacopas, were ex- cavated ; Kouti, Sippara, Borsippa, Babel, rose upon their own ruins. Nebuchadnezzar was to Chaldsea what Rameses II. was to Egypt, and there is not a place in Babylon or about it where his name and the signs of his marvellous activity cannot be found." ! Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-three years (604-561), and left Babylon the largest and finest city of Asia, After his death the decadence was rapid. A few years saw several kings succeed one another upon the throne, while a revolution was beino- accomplished upon the plateau of Iran which was destined to be fatal to Chaldaea. The supremacy in that region passed from 1 MASPERO, Histoire anaettne, p. 506.