him, ever to hope to build any thing so great.* In this respect Ninus was successful; for the greatness, splendour, and magnificence of Nineveh remained unrivalled, and without a parallel, even to this day. This city was one hundred and £fty stadia, or about eighteen miles, in length; and ninety stadia, or about eleven miles, in breadth. Some learned men conceiving it impossible to realize the idea of an extent so great, have reduced the measurement of the stadium to little more than one half; but the Scriptures lead us to believe that the former account may not be exagge rated, for in the prophet Jonah we find it written," that Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey ;" and if we may judge of its extent by its population, we have the farther proof that, exclusive of the great mass of its inhabitants, it contained "more than six score thousand persons-or infants-who could not discern between their right hand and their left.+

See Appendix, D.

Mr Gibbon, whose enmity to revealed truth is so well known, seems to have considered the number of children as the amount of the entire population of Nineveh, for he

The walls of the city were an hundred feet high, and of so great a thickness that three chariots might drive a-breast on them with ease. They were fortified and adorned with fifteen hundred towers, two hundred feet in height.

When Ninus had achieved his immense undertaking, he resumed his expedition against the Bactrians. His army is said to have consisted of seventeen hundred thousand foot, two hundred thousand horse, and about sixteen thousand chariots armed with scythes. This force which appears to us utterly incredible, is justified by ancient historians, by a reference to the innumer able armies of the Persians at a later period; as well as to the succours sent from the single city of Syracuse in the time of Dionysius; and to the fact, that previous, to the invasion of Italy by Hannibal, that country, including citizens and allies, was able to send into the field near a million of men.

says, "Cette capitale ne contenoit que 120,000 habitans, et la foiblesse de ce petit royaume ne lui rendoit les menaces de Jonas que trop vraisemblables."'

Ninus in this expedition conquered a great many cities, and at last laid seige to Bactria the capital of the country. Here it is said he would have failed in his attempt had it not been for the diligence and assistance of Semiramis, the wife of one of his chief officers; but we are ignorant in what way she assisted him, except that she di rected Ninus how to attack the citadel, which yielding to his arms, he found in it immense trea

sures.

The history of this lady, who was a native of -Ascalon in Syria, is evidently so fabulous, that it appears unnecessary to relate it.*. The king having become enamoured of her, and finding her husband stood in the way, meditated his destruc 3dt blad ved je 18 z burb vị varð pr ་ ན? ad Ctesias, from whom the story of Semiramis is derived, is characterised by Gibbon as too great a fabulist to be im

Plicitly believed. "Ctesias a souvent quitté le personnage

d' historien pour celui de rhéteur et même de poëte. Ję mets, sans balancer, dans cette classe l'oracle d'Ammon, et

secours qu'un roi d'Assyrie envoya aux Trojans." And again, he says, "Je citerois ici la naissance et l'education de Semiramis,”

་ ༧ ་་་ ༧ ་་

Memoire sur la Monarchie des Medes, page 60.

tion; which led that officer-to escape the destruction which awaited him from his wicked and ungrateful master-to put himself to death, and Ninus espoused Semiramis.

Upon the return of the royal pair to Nineveh, Semiramis was delivered of a prince who was called Ninyas; and not long after, Ninus dying, left to his queen the government of the country, who, in honour of her husband, erected a magnificent monument to his memory, which remained extant for a long period after the ruin of Nineveh.

It has been insinuated by some authors, that Semiramis obtained the government of the empire by a stratagem which she employed during the life of her husband; and that, having held the reins of royal authority, at his pleasure, for the space of five days, she corrupted the chief officers of the kingdom by means of bribes and promises, who betraying the interests of their master, proclaimed her queen; and that she either immediately after caused Ninus to be put to death, or that he was first imprisoned, and afterwards murdered but this account is not generally credited.

Semiramis, however, having come to the throne on the death of Ninus, soon conceived the idea of covering the lowness of her extraction by the grandeur and splendour of her works. For this reason, and that she might at the same time surpass all her predecessors in magnificence, she undertook the building of mighty Babylon. In this labour she employed two millions of men, collected out of the innumerable provinces of her vast empire. But as many successive princes added to the splendour of this celebrated city in after ages, we shall, to give a concentrated view of its magnificence and glory, describe it not as it was in the days of Semiramis, but as it appeared in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. For while some

historians ascribe to Belus, and others to Semiramis, the honour of first founding this great Babylon, it was Nebuchadnezzar, who rendered it one of the wonders of the world.*

-The most celebrated and wonderful works in

As M. Rollin in his account of the works of Babylon has merely abridged the text of Prideaux, we have followed his example rather than his abridgement, and given from that author most of the details which follow.