hurricane. Had this been the cafe, Nimrod's temerity muft have been fill the greater, to rebuild a city and a tower, which God himself had overthrown with fuch marks of his displeasure. But the fcripture fays no fuch thing; and it is very probable, the building remained in the condition it was, when God put an end to the work by the confufion of languages; and that the tower confecrated to Belus, which is defcribed by Herodotus (m), was this very tower, which the fons of men pretended to raise to the clouds. It is further probable, that this ridiculous defign being defeated by fuch an astonishing prodigy as none could be the author of but God himfelf, every body abandoned the place, which had given him offence; and that Nimrod was the first who encompaffed it afterwards with walls, fettled therein his friends and confederates, and fubdued those that lived round about it, beginning his empire in that place, but not confining it to fo narrow a compafs: Fuit principium regni ejus Babylon. The other cities which the fcripture fpeaks of in the fame place, were in the land of Shinar, which was certainly the province, of which Babylon became the metropolis. From this country he went into that which has the name of Affyria, and there built Nineveh: (n) De terra illa egreffus eft Affur, & ædificavit Nineven. This is the fenfe in which many learned men understand the word Aftur, looking upon it as the name of a province, and not of the firft man who poffeffed it; as if it were, egreffus eft in Affur, in Affyriam. And this feems to be the most natural conftruction, for many reafons not neceffary to be recited in this place. The country of Affyria in one of the prophets (o) is defcribed by the particular character of being the land of Nimrod: Et pafcent terram Affur in gladio, & terram Nimrod in lanceis ejus; & liberabit ab Assur, cum venerit in terram noftram. It derived its name from Affur the fon of Shem, who without doubt had fettled himself and family there, and was probably driven out, or brought under fubjection by the ufurper Nimrod. This conqueror, having poffeffed himself of the provinces of Aflur, (p) did not ravage them, like a tyrant, but filled them with cities, and made himfelf as much beloved by his new fubjects as he was by his old ones; fo that the historians, (7) who have not examined into the bottom of this affair, have thought that he made ufe of the Affyrians to conquer the Bat lomans. Among other cities he built one more large and maguincent than the reft, which he called Nineveh, from the D 6 (m) Lib. I. c. 181. (n), Gen. x. 11. (2) Diod. 1, ii, p. 90. 12. name (a) Mic. v. 6. (p) Gers name of his fon Ninus, in order to immortalize his memory. The fon in his turn, out of veneration for his father, was willing that they who had ferved him as their king should adore him as their god, and induce other nations to render him the fame worship. For it appears plainly, that Nimrod is the famous Belus of the Babylonians, the firft king whom the people deified for his great actions, and who fhewed others the way to that fort of immortality, which may refult from human accomplishments. I intend to speak of the mighty ftrength and greatnefs of the cities of Babylon and Nineveh, under the kings to whom their building is afcribed by prophane authors, because the fcripture fays little or nothing on that fubject. This filence of fcripture, fo little fatisfactory to our curiofity, may become an inftructive leffon for our piety. The holy penman has placed Nimrod and Abraham, as it were, in one view before us; and feems to have put them fo near together on purpose, that we should fee an example in the former of what is admired and coveted by men, and in the latter of what is acceptable and well-pleafing to God. These two perfons, fo unlike one another, are the two firft and chief citizens of two different cities, built on different motives, and with different principles; the one, felf-love, and a defire of temporal advantages, carried even to the contemning of the Deity; the other the love of God, even to the contemning of one's felf. NINUS. I have already obferved, that moft of the prophane authors look upon him as the firft founder of the Affyrian empire, and for that reafon afcribe to him a great part of his father Nimrod's or Belus's actions. (r) Having a defign to enlarge his conquefts, the first thing he did was to prepare troops and officers capable of promoting his defigns. And having received powerful fuccours from the Arabians his neighbours, he took the field, and in the fpace of seventeen years conquered a vaft extent of country, from Egypt as far as India and Bactriana, which he did not then venture to attack. At his return, before he entered upon any new conquefts, he conceived the defign of immortalizing his name by the build. ing of a city anfwerable to the greatnefs of his power; he called it Nineveh, and built it on the eastern banks of the Tigris. (r) Diod. l. ii. p. 90—95• Fecerunt civitates duas amores vero amor Dei ufque ad contemptum duo: terrenam fcilicet amor fui uf. fui. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib, xiv. que ad contemptum Dei; cœleftem | c. 28. Tigris *. Poffibly he did no more than finish the work his father had begun. His defign, fays Diodorus, was to make Nineveh the largest and nobleft city in the world, and not leave it in the power of those that came after him, ever to build, or hope to build fuch another. Nor was he deceived in his view, for never did any city come up to the greatness and magnificence of this: It was one hundred and fifty stadia (or eighteen miles three quarters) in length, and ninety ftadia (or eleven miles and one quarter) in breadth; and confequently was an oblong square. Its circumference was four hundred and eighty ftadia, or fixty miles. For this reafon we find it faid in the prophet Jonah, (s) That Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days journey; which is to be understood of the whole circuit, or compafs of the city +. The walls of it were an hundred feet high, and of fo confiderable a thickness, that three chariots might go a-breaft upon them with ease. They were fortified and adorned with fifteen hundred towers two hundred feet high. After he had finished this prodigious work, he refumed his expedition against the Bactrians. His army, according to the relation of Ctefias, confifted of seventeen hundred thousand foot, two hundred thousand horse, and about fixteen thousand chariots, armed with fcythes. Diodorus adds, that this ought not to appear incredible, fince, not to mention the innumerable armies of Darius and Xerxes, the fingle city of Syracufe, in the time of Dionyfius the tyrant, furnished one hundred and twenty thousand foot, and twelve thousand horfe, befides four hundred veffels well equipped and provided. And a little before Hannibal's time, Italy, including the citizens and allies, was able to fend into the field near a million of men. Ninus made himself mafter of a great number of cities, and at laft laid fiege to Bactria, the capital of the country. Here he would probably have feen all his attempts mifcarry, had it not been for the diligence and affiftance of Semiramis, wife to one of his chief officers, a woman of an uncommon courage, and particularly exempt from the weakness of her fex. She was born at Afcalon, a city of Syria. I think it needlefs to recite the account Diodorus gives of her birth, and of the mira (s) Jon. iii. 3 • Diodorus fays it was on the bank of the Euphrates, and peaks of it as if it was fo, in many places; but be is miflaken. It is bard to believe that Diodorus does not speak of the bignefs of Nineveh ·3. with fome exaggeration; therefore fome karned men bave reduced the stadium to little more than one half, and reckon fifteen of them to the Roman mile inftead of eight. |