Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/374

 a place of little consequence, and that the great ruling city was the Assyrian capital Ninus. As Ute as the time of Hezekiah (b.c. 728 — 700) it is clear that Bahjlon was dependent on the Assy- rian Empire, though Merodach-Baladan is mentioned in Isaiah (xxzix. I) as, at that time, long or ruler in that city; for Polyhistor (op. Etueb. Arm, Chron, 42) states that after the reign of the brother of Sen- nacherib, Acises ruled; and that, after Acises had reigned thirty days, he was slain by Merodach-Bala- danus, who held the goTemment, but was m his turn slain and succeeded by Elibus. Polyhistor adds that, in the third year of the reign of Elibus, Sennacherib came up and conquered the Babylonians, took their king prisoner away into Assyria, and made his own son Awrdanus king in his place. Abydenus {ap. JEuaeb, Und. p. 53) states the same thing, adding that he built Tarsus after the plan of Babylon. The frag- ments preserved of Berossus, who lived in the age of Alexander the Great, and who testifies to the exist- ence of written documents at Babylon which were preserved with great care, supply some names, though we have no means of ascertaining howfiu- they maybe depended on. The commencement of the narrative of Berossus is a marvellous and fabulous account of the first origin of Babylonia. In it he speaks of Belus, whom he interprets to mean Zeus,and states that some of the most remarkable objects which he has noticed were delineated in the temple of that god at Babylon. (See Castor, op. Etueb. Arm. Chron. 81 ; Eupol. ap. JSiueb. Prciep. Evang. ix. ; ThaUus, ap. Theophan. ad Ant. 281 ; Aesch. Sttppl 318 and 322; Hesiod, Fragm. ap. Strab. i. p. 42 ; and Eustath. ad Dionys. 927, for the name of Belus, and various legends con- nected with it.) Berossus mentions the name Xi- suthrus, and with him a legend of a great flood, which has so remarkable a resembUmce to the nar- rative of the Bible, that it has been usual to sup- pose that Xisuthrus represents the Noah of Holy Scripture; adding that, alter the flood, the people re- turned to Babylon, built cities and erected temples, and that thus Babylon was inhabited again. (Beross. ap. Sync. Chron. 28 ; Euseb. Chron. 5. 8.) Apollo- dorus, professing to copy from Berossus, gives a dif- ferent and fuller list of rulers, but they are a mere barren collection of names. (ApoU. ap. Sync. Chron. 39 ; Euseb. Chron. 5.) The Astronomical canon of Ptolemy commences with the era of Nabonassar, whose reign began b.c. 747 twenty-three years after the appearance of the Assyrian King Pnl, on the W. of the Euphrates. It has been argu»l finnn this fact, in connection with a passage in Isuah (xxiii. 13) "Behold the land of the Chaldees; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness," that the first rulers of Babylon were of Assyrian origin; but this seems hardly a ne- cessary inference. It is, however, curious that Syn- cellns, after stating that the Ghaldaeans were the first who assumed the title of kings, adds that of tiiese the first was Evechius, who is known to us by the name of Nebrod (or Nembrod) who reigned at Babylon for six yeails and one thini. Naboniassar is said to have destroyed the memorials of the kings who preceded him. (Sync. Chron. 207) Of the mo- narchs who succeeded him according to the Canon we know nothing, but it is probable that they were for the most part tributary to the kings of Ninus (Nineveh). Mardoch-Empadus, the fifth, is probably the Merodach-Baladan <^ the Bible, who sent to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery from sick- ness. (2 KinySfZx. 12; haiahf xxxi. 1.) Somewhat later Manasses, king of Judah, is carried by the king of Assyria into captivity to Babylon. Then follow Sa- osduchinus and Chyniladan, who appear to have ruled partly at one city and partly at the other; and then Nabopollasar, who finidly overthrew Ninus, and re- moved the seat of the em^re of western Asia from the banks of the Tigris to Babylon. With his son Nebuchadnezzar commenced, in all probability, the era of Babylonian greatness, and the accounts in the Bible and in other writings are, for his reign, remarkably consistifnt with one another. The Bible relates many events of the reign of this king, his carrying the Jews into captivity, his siege and conquest of Tyre {Ezek, xxix 18), his descent into Egypt, and his subsequent return to Babylon and death there. Berossus (op. Joseph, c, Ap.) states that Nebuchadnezzar was sent with a great army against Egypt and Judaea, and burnt the temfde at Jerusalem and removed the Jews to Babylon, that he conquered Egypt, Syria, Phoe- nicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldaea. He adds that, on the return of the king from his Jewish war, he devoted much time to adorning the tonple oi Belus, rebuilding the city, constructing a new palace adjoining those in whidi his forefathers dwelt, but exceeding than in height and splendour, and erecting on stone pUlare high walks with trees to gratify his queen, who had been brought up in Media, and was therefore fond of a mountainous situation. (Beros. ap. Joseph, c. Ap. i. 19; Syncell. Chron, 220; ILns/eh, Praep. Evang,

Berossus goes on to state that after a reign of 43 years, Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by Evifane- rodachus, Neriglissoorus, and Labrosoarcfaodus, whose united reigns were little more than six years, till at length, on a conspiracy being formed agamst the last, Nabonnedns obtained the crown, and reigned sixteen years, till, in his seventeenth year, Cyrus took Babylon, the king having retired to the neigh- bouring city of Borsippus; that, on Cyrus proceeding to beside Borsippus, Nabonnedus surrendered him- self to the king of Persia, who sent him out of Babylonia and placed him in Carmania, where he died. (Beros. ap. Joseph, c. Ap. i. 20; Euseb. Praep. Evang. ix.)

Megasthenes (op. Abyden.; Euseb. Praep, Eva$k. X., Chron, 49) tells nearly the same story, slightly changing the names of the successors of Nebuchad- nezzar, and adding, that, Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon, turned the course of the Armakale (Nahr- Malcha), which was a branch of the Euphrates, constructed a vast receptacle for its waters above the city of Sippara, and built the city of Teredoa near the Erythraean Sea, i. e. the Persian Gulf, to check the incursions of the Arabs.

The first Greek who visited Babylon, so far as we know, was Antimenidas, the brother of the Poet Alcaens, who was there B.C. 600 — 580 (Strab. xiii. p. 617; Fragm. Ak., MUUer, Jihcm,Miis, p. 287); and the earliest Greek historian who gives any description of Babylon is Herodotus, who travelled thither about a century after the first conquest by Cyrus. His testimony is more valuable than that of any other writer, for be is the only one whom we know to have been an eye-witness, and whose account of what he describes has reached us uncurtailed. There is more or less uncertainty about all the others. Thus, of Ctesias, we have only what Diodorus and others have extracted. Of Berossus, who was a 