The Hiftory of the ASSYRIANS, the BABYLONIANS, and the different nations antiently inhabiting ASIA MINOR. 36X 7 CHA P. I. The Hiftory of ASSYRIA, according to CTE SIAS and his followers. T HE names Affyria and Affyrian are of fuch compre- Its name henfive latitude with the Greek and Latin writers, as to take in all the country and people between the Mediterranean on the weft, and the river Indus on the east. This empire having been once very extenfive, the countries under its dominion, came to be denominated by the name of the fovereign ftate, which name they retained even long after the ruin of that great monarchy. Thus Mefopotamia was called Mid-Affyria. The name was alfo given to Babylon and Chaldea +, and according to Justin the country of Syria was firft called Affyria 1. Affyria Proper, which was fo called from Abur the fon of And Shem, and gave name to the other provinces, was bounded, boundary. according to Ptolemy, on the north by part of Armenia and mount Niphates, on the weft by the Tygris, on the fouth by Sufiana, and on the east by part of Media. The country with in thefe limits is by Strabo called Adiabene, and by Dio Caffius Atyria, both which names however generally fignify only provinces of the whole. Thefe provinces or diftricts, according to Ptolemy, were Calachene or Calacine, Arrapachitis, Adiabene, Arbelitis, Appolloniatis, Sittacene, and Chalonitis. Arrapachitis was the moft northern province, but what towns it contained is now utterly unknown. Calachene lay next to Arrapachitis and contained the cities Marde, Beffara, Refen, Calah, which Taft gave name to the whole province, and was built by Ahur, as the fcripture informs us. It is fuppofed by Bochart to be the fame with Halah, where the king of Affyria placed the captive Ifraelites. Adiabene was the chief province, and lay upon the Tygris to the fouth of Calachene. In this part of Affyria and near or upon the Tygris, ftood the famous and fo-much celebrated city of Ninus or Nineveh, as it is named in holy writ. Its extent and greatness is fufficiently defcribed by the prophet Jonah. Strabo allows it to have been much greater than Babylon, and Diodorus Siculus tells us, that it was 410 stades in circumference, or forty-feven miles, and that it was furrounded with lofty walls and towers, the former being 100 feet in height, and fo very broad that three chariots might drive on them a-breaft, and the latter 200 feet in height, and 1500 in number. It was ruined by the Medes, according to the prediction of the prophet Nahum, chap. iii. though it was afterwards rebuilt in fome part from its own ruins, as appears from Tacitus, Ptolemy, and Ammianus. A little farther fouth lay the town or rather the village of Gaugamela, where Alexander gained a compleat victory over Darius, which was afterwards named from the city Arbela, a few miles eaft from Gaugamela. Appolloniatis lay eaft of Adiabene, and was fo called from its metropolis Apol lonia, and contained befides Artemita, Charracclarta, Thebura, Arrapa, and others. Sittacene lay fouth of Appolloniatis, and had Sittace for its metropolis, a great and populous city, which Xenophon, who paffed through it, tells us ftood about a mile and a half from the Tigris. In Chalonitis, the moft fouthern province, were the cities of Chala and Ctesiphon, which last stood on the Tygris, a little below Seleucia, and on the oppofite bank, and in procefs of time became the metropolis of the Perfian empire. As this country lies between the 33 and 39th degrees of north latitude, in its happy times it probably was a land of plenty, according to the defcription given of it by Rabfbekeh; but fince the fall of its empire, having frequently become the feat of war between neighbouring ftates, it is now almoft a wilderness, excepting fome little land cultivated about its few and inconfiderable towns +. Among the rivers of Affyria may juftly be reckoned the Tygris, not only because it bathed all the weftern fkirts of this *Tacit. l. 12. Ammian. 1. 23. + Rauwolf's Travels, p. 2. coun country, but also because all the rivers of the kingdom fell into it, and the great cities Nineveh, Ctefiphon, and others, were fituated thereon. It is faid to have borrowed its name from the number of tigers on its banks; others derive its name from a Perfian word, fignifying an arrow, to denote the rapidity of its courfe; but according to Pietro della Valle and Thevenot, it is a flower ftream than the Euphrates, owing to its many windings and islands. The inhabitants of the country, even at this day, call it Hiddekel. The other rivers of lefs note were the Lycus, the Caprus, and the Gorgus, at almoft an equal diftance from each other, and fuppofed to have been between the cities Nineveh and Seleucia. The two former are now called the great and little Zab or Zarb. According to profane authors Affyria was the most antient Antiquity kingdom; but from fcripture it appears that of Babylon pre- of the ceded it a few years. It was founded by Afhur, who we are Afyrians. told went out from the land of Babylon, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Rezen. Some indeed, upon very flight foundations, interpret this text otherwife, and think that he, namely Nimrod, went out into Afyr, and founded the above mentioned cities, because the preceding verfes related to him, and the following verfes give an account of the pofterity of the line of Ham, who was not the ancestor of Afbur. From thence they conclude that Affyria was in the beginning only a branch of the Babylonifh empire. But the land of Abur, and the land of Nimrod are mentioned as two diftinct countries, Micah v. 6. and the kingdom of Babylon we find afterwards was conquered by the Affyrians, which proves that before this union they were two diftinct kingdoms. Nothing can be faid of the government of this people, ex- Their gocept what may be gathered from the conduct and deportment vernment, of their princes, in the very little we have of their hiftory. That they were a fmall nation under hereditary chiefs for many ages is not to be doubted, no more than that their government was very fimple. When their empire was in its moft flourishing ftate, their princes feem then to have been purely defpotic, and the fucceffion hereditary. Their laws were probably very few, and depending upon Laws, and the arbitrary will of their princes, who even fometimes arrogantly prefumed to pafs fentence on the whole world, and required that none other under heaven fhould be worshiped but themselves *. As to their religion, it is probable id latry prevailed early Religion. among them. We have in fcripture the names of feveral of their idols, fuch as Nifroch, Nergal, Adramelech, Anamelech, but in what form these were worshiped, or what relation they had to the idols of other nations, is uncertain. The goddes Derceto, whatever was her Affyrian name, according to Ciefias, Judith, ii. 2. & iii. 8. B 2 was The Ally rian em pire fup pofed to be found. ed by Ninus, B. Ch. 2059. was a deity of the Affyrians of an inferior order, in fubjection to another, who may have been the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis, or the Phoenician Aftarte on mount Aphac. Their customs, arts, learning, and trade muft certainly have differed but little from thofe of their neighbours the Babylonians, and their language was the fame with that of Syria. There is not a more controverted part of history than the account of the firft Affyrian kings. The first king of Affyria, according to Ctefias of Cnidos, was Ninus, but according to Syncellus he was only the fecond, and fucceffor of Belus; and from them to Sardanapalus, the Affyrians, through a fucceffion of near 40 princes, continued matters of the greatest part of Afia for about 1300 years, almoft till the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Even Ninus their firft king, according to Ctefias and his follower Diodorus Siculus, overran all the countries bordering upon the Mediterranean fea, or rather the whole of Afia Minor, and Egypt, Phenicia, and Cole-Syria, and the barbarous nations adjoining upon Pontus as far as the Tanais, and likewife the Caddufians, Tapyrians, Hyrcanians, Dacians, Derbicians, Carmanians, Choroneans, Borchanians, and Parthians, befides conquering Perfia, and the provinces of Sufiana, and that of Cafpiana, and many other lefs confiderable nations too tedious to recount: and all this wide empire extending from the Tanais and the Euxine fea on the north, to Ethiopia on the fouth, and from the Archipelago and the Mediterranean on the weft, as far caft as the Indus, he fubdued and made tributary That opi- about 40 years before the birth of Abraham. Whether this nion in- account is confiftent with the ftate of the world as related in the confiftent book of Genefis, our readers may eafily judge. There we find with the that in the days of Abraham, and ages after him, the Canaanites livfcripture ed independant under their own kings or patriarchs. The Moabites account. alfo, the Ammonites, the Midianites, the Edomites, the Amale kites, the Philistines were fubject to no foreign yoke, and free from ftrange lords till after the return of the Ifraelites from Egypt, which kingdom likewife feems to have remained unmolefted by foreigners till the days of Senacherib, Thofe who contend for the great antiquity and extenfive dominion of the Affyrians, found their opinion upon the authority of Ctefias, whom Ariftotle, who was almoft his cotemporary, and many others of the antients, declare to be a fabulous writer unworthy of credit. Indeed whoever perufes his Indica and Affyrian Hiftory, will not fcruple to conclude that he has been a man of little fincerity, and that his writings are a mere romance, calculated to aftonifh and amaze, and to strain credulity beyond all poffible bounds. That the Affyrians, like the neighbouring nations, continued a fmall ftate governed by their own princes for many centuries. is not to be doubted; but that it was late before they began to extend their conquefts, especially weftward, is evident from fcripture. Before we have any account of the Affyrians, Hadadezer king of Zobah, we find extended the Syrian monarchy on both both fides of the Euphrates, and king David alfo was mafter of a confiderable extent as far east as that river, and had no Affyrian to difpute the honour with him. There is no account of the Affyrians attempting any thing in the western parts of Afia till the reign of Pul, who made his first appearance on this fide the Euphrates in the decline of the kingdom of Damafcus. What they had done before that time in the eaft does no where appear, except in the exaggerated accounts of Cteftas. That the foundations of the monarchy were laid by Pul, or a few years before him, by the conquefts of fome of his predeceffors, there is the greateft reafon to conclude not from fcripture alone, but from feveral of the most unexceptionable of profane writers, fuch as Ptolemy in his Canon, Herodotus*, Appian †, and Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus . However, as the Ctefian account has been fo long received for truth by many of the wifeft and moft fagacious hiftorians and chronologers, and admitted, as we may fay, from ail antiquity into the body of hiftory, we fhall here prefent our readers with a fuccinct view of it, feeing, in his relation of eastern tranfactions, there may be fomething of truth at the bottom, as there uses to be in romances, Ninus the first king of the Affyrians, but the fucceffor of Afhur, according to those who are for connecting the facred and prophane hiftory of this period, was a prince of an enterprizing and ambitious fpirit. Having formed a defign of con- The exquering the neighbouring nations, and erecting an empire over tenfive them, he caufed the ftrongeft of his youth to be trained up in conquefts martial difcipline, and by long and continual exercife inured of Ninus. them readily to undergo all the toils and hazards of war. Having thus formed a gallant army, he refolved firft to invade his neighbours the Babylonians; but dreading the martial genius of the Arabians, who it feems were diftinguished for their love of independance and liberty before invafions or hoftilities were. known in the world, he made an alliance with their king Ariaus, who joined him with a large body of his fubjects. The Babylonians, who are reprefented as entirely ignorant in martial affairs, were an eafy conqueft to the two allied kings, and Ninus having impofed an annual tribute upon them, carried away their king and all his children captives, whom he afterwards put to death (A). His next expedition was against Ar |