Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/454

 433 NINUS. or 'Eo-opox of the LXX., Rawlinson, As. Journ. 1 850), as in Iliad, xx. 232 ; Post. Homeric, vi. 1 45 ; Virg. Aen.v. 127; Juveu. Sat. x. 259, &c. It is therefore, perhaps, less remarkable, that though Ni- neveh had so early in history ceased to be a city of any importance, the tradition of its former existence should remain in its own country till a compara- tively recent period. Thus, as we have seen, Tacitus and Ammianus allude to it, while coins exist (of the class termed by numismatists Greek Imperial) struck under the Roman emperors Claudius, Trajan, Maxi- minus, and Gordianus Pius, proving that,_ during that period, there was a Roman colony established in Assyria, bearing the name of Niniva Claudiopolis, and, in all probability, occupying its site. (Sestini, 3Ius. de Chaudoir, tab. ii. fig. 12, Clas. General, p. 159.) In later times the name is still extant. Thus, Ibn Atliir (quoting from Beladheri, in the annals of those years) speaks of the forts of Ninaioi to the east, and of 3Iosul to the west, of the Tigris, in the campaigns of Abd-allah Ibn Mo'- etemer, A. h. 16 (a. d. 637), and of Otbeh Ibn Farkad, A. H. 20 (a. d. 641). (Rawlinson, .4s. Journ. 1850.) Again, Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, speaks of it as opposite to Mosul {Travels, p. 91, ed. Asher, 1840) ; and Abulfaraj notices it in Ids Hist. Dynast, (pp. 404 — 441) under the name of Ninue (cf also his Chronicon, p. 464). Lastly, Assemani, in his account of the mission of Salukah, the patriarch of the Chaldaeans, to Rome, in A. D. 1552, when describing Mosul, says of it, " a qua ex altera ripae parte abest Ninive bis mille passibus" (£i6^. Orient, i. p. 524). In the same work of Assemani are many notices of Nineveh, as a Christian bishoprick, first under the metropolitan of Mosul, and subsequently under the bishop of Assyria and Adiabene {Bibl. Orient, vol. ii. p. 459, vol. lii. pp. 104, 269, 344, &c.). We have already noticed under Assyria the chief points recorded in the Bible and in the classical historians relative to the history of Nineveh, and have stated that it is impossible entirely to reconcile the various conflicting statements of ancient authors. It oidy remains to mention here, as briefly as pos- sible, the general results of the remarkable dis- coveries which, within the last few years, have thrown a flood of light upon this most obscure part of ancient history, and have, at the same time, afforded the most complete and satisfactory confirma- tion of those notices of Assyrian history which have been preserved in the Bible. The names of all the Assyrian kings mentioned in the Bible, with the exception, perhaps, of Shalmaneser, who, however, occurs under his name in Isaiah, Sargon, are now clearly read upon the Assyrian records, besides a great many others whose titles have not as yet been identified with those in the fists preserved by the Greek and Roman chronologists. III. It is well known that in the neighbourhood of ifosul travellers had long observed some remark- able mounds, resembling small hills ; and that Mr. Rich had, thirty years ago, called attention to one called Koyunjih, in which fragments of sculpture and pottery had been frequently discovered. In the year 1843, M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, at the suggestion of Mr. Layard, commenced his excavations, — first, witb little success, at Koyunjik, and then, with much greater good fortune, iu a mound called Khorsahdd, a few miles NE. of Mosul. To M. Botta's success at Khorsabdd the French owe all the Assyrian monuments in the collection of the NINUS. Louwe. In 1845, Jlr. Layard began to dig info the still greater mound of Nimrud, about 17 miles S. of Mosul; and was soon rewarded by the -exten- sive and valuable collection now in the British Mu- seum. These researches were continued by Mr. Layard during 1846 and part of 1847, and again during 1850 and 1851 ; together with a far more satisfactory examination of the remains at Koyunjik than had been made by M. Botta. Some other sites, too, in the neighbourhood were partially ex- plored; but, though of undoubted Assyrian origin, they yielded little compared with the greater mounds at Nimrud, Khorsahdd, and Koyunjik. It would be foreign to the object of this work to enter into any details of the sculptured monuments which have been brought to light. A vast collection, however, of inscriptions have been disinterred during the same excavations ; and from these we have been enabled by the labours of Colonel Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks to give names to many of the localities which have been explored, and to reconstruct the history of Assyria and Babylonia on a foundation more secure than the fragments of Ctesias or the history of Herodotus. It is also necessary to state that very extensive researches liave been made during 1854 in Southern Babylonia by Messrs. Loftus and Taylor in mounds now called Warka and Muqiieyer ; and that from these and other excavations Colonel Rawlinson has received a great number of inscribed tablets, which have aided him materially in drawing up a pre'cisof the earliest Babylonian and Assyrian history. Muqiieyer he identifies as the site of the celebrated " Ur of the Chaldees." From these various sources, Colonel Rau'linson has concluded that the true Nineveh is represented by the mounds opposite to Mosul, and probably by that one which bears the local name of the Nahi Yunas ; that this city was built about the middle of the thirteenth century b. c. ; and that, from it, the name of Nineveh was in after times transferred to several other sites in the neighbour- ■ hood. The great work of Nimrud (the seat of ■ Mr. Layard's chief labours), which it was natural, X on the first extensive discoveries, to suppose was the real Nineveh, is proved beyond question by both Col. Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks to have been called by the Assyrians Calah, or Calaoh. We cannot doubt but that this is the Calah of Genesis (x, 12), and the origin of the Calachene of Strabo (xi. p. 529, xvi. p. 735), and of the Calaoine of Ptolemy (vi. 1. § 2). From the inscriptions, it may be gathered that it was founded about the middle of the twelfth century b. c. The great ruin of Khor- sabdd (the scene of the French excavations), which has also been thought by some to have formed part of Nineveh, Colonel Rawlinson has ascertained to have been built by the Sargon of Isaiah (xx. I), — • the Shalmaneser of 2 Kings, xvii. 3, — about the year b. c. 720; and he has shown from Taciit that it retained the name of Sargkun down to the time of the Muhammedan conquest. Koyunjik, the principal ruin opposite to Mosul, and adjoining the Nabi Yunas, we know from the inscriptions to liave been constructed by Sennacherib, the son of Shal- maneser, about B. c. 700. The whole of this dis- trict has been surveyed with great care and minute- ness by Capt. Jones, within the last few years; and his account, with three elaborate maps, has been published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for 1855. From this we learn that the whole enclosure of Koyunjik and the Nabi Yunas (which we may