Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/813

 NEMROD

741

NEOC^SAREA

Johannes Petreius, under the direction of Petrua Apianus, under the title "Liber Jordani Nemorarii, viri clarissimi, de ponderibus". In the thirteenth century an anonymous author undertook to write a preamble to a fragment on mechanics, this fragment being of Hellenic origin, and, apparently, later than Hero of Alexandria. For this purpose he resumed Jordanus's work, correcting, however, its errors in mechanics. The method of virtual work, employed by Jordanus to justify the law of equihbrium of the straight lever, supplies this anonymous writer with some admirable demonstrations for the law of equilib- rium of the bent lever and for the apparent weight of a heavy body on an inclined plane. This preamble is found in many manuscripts, with the Hellenic frag- ment. In 1.554 it was cynically plagiarized by Nicolo Tartaglia in his "Quesiti et invention! diverse"; the manuscript text, found in Tartaglia's papers, was pub- lished at Venice, in 1565, by Antius Trojanus, under the title: "Jordani Opusculum de ponderositate, Ni- colai Tartalea; studio c.orrectum" (A Brief Work of Jordanus, on Ponderosity, carefully corrected by Nicold Tartaglia).

Cantor, Vorlesungen uber die Geschichle der Mathematik, II (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1900), 53-86; Duhem, Left origines de la Statique, I (Paria, 1906), 98-155; Idem. Eludes sur Leonard de Vinci, ceux qu'il a Im et ceuz qui I'ont tu, lat series (Paris. 1906), 310-16. Pierre Ddhem.

Nemrod, or Ximrod (nnoj of uncertain significa- tion, LXX ye^pJio), the name of a descendant of Chus (Cush), son of Cham (Ham), represented in Gen., X, 8-12, as the founder of the Babylonian em- pire and as a mighty hunter before the Lord. This last may be taken in the strict sense — hunter of wild beasts, for such we know the Babylonian princes to have been; or in the sense of warrior, the original word gibbor having the meaning "hero". The name of Nemrod has not yet been discovered among those found in the cuneiform inscriptions, and the attempts made by Assyriologists to identify him with historical or legendary personages known to us through these sources rest on more or less plausible conjectures. Thus by some scholars (Delitsch, Hommel, P. Haupt, etc.) he is identified with Gilgamesh, the hero of the Babylonian epic. The latter, whose name ap- pears frequently in the inscriptions, and who is often represented in the act of strangling a lion, is described in the poem as a powerful prince who subdues the monster ox-faced man Eabani and makes him his companion, after which he triumphs over the tyrant Humbaba, and slays a monster sent against him by the deities, Anu and Ishtar. Like the Biblical Nemrod he reigns over the city of Erech (Douai, Arach), but the texts fail to mention the other towns enumerated in Gen., x, 10, namely: Babylon, Achad, and Chalanne (Calneh). For the philological reasons underlying this hypothesis see Vigouroux, s. v., and Hastings, s. v. Nimrod. Sayce less plausibly iden- tifies Nemrod with the Kassite king, Nazi-Murutas, and T. Pinches (in Hastings) considers him to be the same as Marduk, the great Babylonian deity. In Genesis, x, 11, we read: "Out of that land came forth Assur, and built Ninive ..." This rendering of the •Vulgate seems preferable to that of the Revised Version: "Out of that land he (Nimrod) went forth into Assyria and builded Nineveh." Be that as it may, we know from other sources that Assyria with its capital Nineveh was at first a Babylonian colony, and it may be said to have been founded by Nemrod in the sense that it was a development of the power and civilization of Chaldea. A great number of Oriental legends grew up aroimd the meagre Biblical data concerning Nemrod. Thus with probable refer- ence to the supposed root of the name (TIO marad, "he revolted"), he is credited with having instigated the building of the tower of Babel and of being the author of Babylonian idolatry. Another legend is

to the effect that Abraham having refused to worship the statue of Nemrod was cast into a fiery furnace. A trace of this legend appears in II Esd., ix, 7, where the translator of the Vulgate renders the original "Ur of the Chaldees" (from which the Lord called Abra- ham), by "fire of the Chaldeans". It was only nat- ural that the renown of Nemrod as a builder should have caused his name to be connected with nearly all of the principal mounds and ruins to be found in Mesopotamia.

Hetzenauer, Commentarius in librum Genesis (Graz and Vienna, 1910), 190 sqq.; Hummelauer, Commentarius in Gene- sim (Paris, 1908), 317 sqq.; A Lapide, Commentaria in Scrip, Sac. I (Paris, 1869), 166 sqq.

James F. Driscoll.

Neocsesarea, a titular see, suffragan of Hierapolis in the Patriarchate of Antioch, sometimes called Ceesarea, as in " Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis ro- mani" (ed. Gelzer, 1882). Among its bishops were Paul, whose hands were burned by order of Licinius and who attended the Council of Niciea in 325 (Theo- doret, "Hist. eccL", I, VII); Meletius, opposed to the Council of Ephesus in 4.31; Patricius (451) and John (553). In the sixth-century " Notitia episcopatuum" of Anastasius (Echos d'Orient, Paris, X, 145) this see is mentioned as a suffragan of Hierapolis. According to Procopius (De iEdificiis II, 9), Justinian accomplished great things there. Neociesarea was a fort on the Euphrates, not far from Zeugma. Chabot thinks its site was the actual ruins of Balkiz (La frontiere de I'Euphrate de Pompee a la conquete arabe, Paris, 1907, 278 sq.).

Le QniEN. Oriens christianus, II (Paris, 1741). 947; Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani (Leipzig). 151; Chabot, Journal asiatique, II (Paris, 1900), 279 sq.

S. Vailh^.

Neocaesarea, a titular see of Pontus Polemoniacus, at first called Cabira, one of the favourite residences of Mithridates the Great, who built a palace there, and later of King Polemon and his successors. Pom- pey made it a city and gave it the name of Diopolis, while Pythodoris, widow of Polemon, made it her capital and called it Sebaste. It is not known pre- cisely when it assumed the name of Neocssarea men- tioned for the first time in Pliny, "Hist. Nat.", VI, III, 1, but judging from its coins, one might suppose that it was during the reign of Tiberius. It became the civil and religious metropolis of Pontus. We know that about 240, when Gregory Thaumaturgus was con.secrated bishop of his native city, Neocaesarea had but seventeen Christians and that at his death (270) it counted only seventeen pagans. In 315 a great council was held there, the acts of which are still extant. In 344 the city was completely destroyed by an earthquake (Hieronymus, "Chron.", anno 2362), meeting a similar fate in 499 (Theodorus Lector, II, 54). During the Middle Ages the Mussulmans and Christians disputed the possession of Neoca>sarea, and in 1068 a Seljuk general, Melik-Ghazi, whose tomb is still visible, captured and pillaged it; later, in 1397, it pa.ssed, together with the whole district, under the sway of the Ottomans. Being early placed at the head of an ecclesiastical province, Neocaesarea had four suffragan sees about 640 ("Ecthesis" of pseudo- Epiphanius, ed. Gelzer, 539), retaining them until the tenth century, when Trebizond obtained its independ- ence and, by degrees, the other three suffragans were suppres.sed. In 1391 the Archdiocese of Neoca-sarea was confided to the metropolitan of Trebizond (Miklo- sieh and Muller, "Acta", II, 1.54). About 1400 there was, however, a regular metrojiojitan (op.cit., II, 312) and there is still, but he resides at Ordou. Among the twenty-seven bishops of this city mentioned by Le Quien, the most noted are St. Circgory Thaumaturgus and St. Thomas, a martyr of the ninth century. Neo- caesarea, now called Niksar, is a small citv of 4000 in- habitants in the sanjak of Tokat and the vilayet of