Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/323

 NINEVEH AND ITS REMAINS. SO? nardly to be outweighed by the supposed improbability of so great a walled space, when we consider how little we know where to set bounds to the po^- er of the Assyrian kings in respect to command of human labor for any process merely simple and toilsome, with materials both near and inexhaust- ible. Not to mention the great wall of China, we have only to look at the 1'icts Wall, and other walls built by the Romans in Britain, to satisfy our- selves that a great length of fortification, under circumstances much less fa- vorable than the position of the ancient Assyrian kings, is noway incredible in itself. Though the walls of Nineveh and Babylon were much larger than those of Paris as it now stands, yet when we compare the two not merely in size, but in respect of costliness, elaboration, and contrivance, the latter will be found to represent an infinitely greater amount of work. Larissa and Mespila, those deserted towns and walls which Xenophon saw in the retreat of the Ten Thousand (Anabas. iii. 4, 6-10), coincide in point of distance and situation with Nimroud and Kouyunjik, according to Mr. Layard's remark. Nor is his supposition improbable, that both of them were formed by the Medes out of the ruins of the conquered city of Nineveh. Neither of them singly seems at all adequate to the reputation of that an- cient city, or rather walled circuit. According to the account of Herodotus Phraortcs the second Median king had attacked Nineveh, but had been him self slain in the attempt, and lost nearly all his army. It was partly to re- venge this disgrace that Kyaxarcs, son of Phraortes assailed Nineveh (He- rod, i, 102-103) : we may thus see a special reason, in addition to his own violence of temper (i, 73), why he destroyed the city after having taken it 'Sli'ov avaardrov yEvo[ivt]<;, i, 178). It is easy to conceive that this vast walled space may have been broken up and converted into two Median towns, both on the Tigris. In the subsequent change from Median to Per- sian dominion, these towns also became depopulated, as far as the strange tales which Xenophon heard in his retreat can be trusted. The interposition of these two Median towns doubtless contributed, for the time, to put out of sight the traditions respecting the old Ninus which had before stood upon their site. But these traditions were never extinct, and a new town bearing the old name of Ninus must have subsequently arisen on the spot. This second Ninus is recognized by Tacitus, Ptolemy, and Ammianus, not only as existing, but as pretending to uninterrupted continuity of succession from the ancient "caput Assyria)." Mr. Layard remarks on the facility with which edifices, such as those in Assyria, built of sinburnt bricks, perish when neglected, and crumble awa^i Into earth, leaving little or no trace.