1722. Ante Chr.

in Chaldea, taking advantage of the low ebb to which the Affyrian power was reduced, revolted from him, and feized on the kingdom of Babylon for himfelf. Chynaladan, terrified at the news of this revolt, and dreading the calamities ready to befal him, fet fire to his palace, and was Yr. of Fl. confumed with all his wealth in the flames f(R). The Affyrian empire fubfifted several years after his death; but, as to his fucceffors, we are left quite in the dark. All we know for certain is, that it was in the end over- Chynalaturned by the Medes and Babylonians. Thus fell the em- dan burns pire of Affyria; concerning which we should have had his palace next to nothing genuine to relate, but for the affiftance of Scripture, and the ineftimable concurrence of Ptolemy's Aftronomical Canon.

626.

and him

Jelf.

CHA P. X.

The Hiftory of the Babylonians.

SECT. I.

The Defcription of the Country of Babylon, or Chaldea.

HIS country was known, in the moft ancient times,

THIS

by the names of Shinar and Shinaar. The appella- Names. tion of Shinar it seems to have retained even in Daniel's

e Polyhift. apud Syncel. Chron. p. 210, & in Græc, Eufeb. Scal.. P. 38, 39. f Id. ibid.

(R) We have taken notice that there are two Sardanapalufes in profane writers; and these two can have been no other than the great Affer-Haddon, king of Affyria, who may have been the fecond of the name; as the contraction of the prefent, which is all we have of it, feems to imply. The profane accounts reprefent the one to have been a great magnificent prince, and to have built even two cities in one

day, as Tarfus and Anchiale, and to have died peaceably and quietly in his bed; the other is reprefented as a fluggard, who perished in the flames that confumed his palace, his fervants, and his treasure. The former then must have been the great Affer-Haddon, or Sardan-Pul, of Scripture; and the latter must have been this obfcure prince Sarac, Sarchedon, or Sardon-Pul.

Divifion.

Cities of note in Babylonia.

time. As for the name of Babylon, it is univerfally fup-
posed to have been borrowed from that of the tower of
Babel, as the name of Chaldæa arose from the Chaldæans,
or Chafdim . These two names fometimes extend to the
whole country, being indifferently taken for each other,
and sometimes are limited to certain parts. By Babylon,
or Babylonia, is meant the country more immediately in
the neighbourhood of the city of Babylon; and by Chal-
dæa, that which extends fouthward to the Perfian gulph.
Chaldæa is used by the writers of the Old Testament for
the whole country h; and Babylonia, generally fpeaking,
by the profane. It lies between 30 and 35 degrees of
north latitude; and was bounded, according to Ptolemy,
on the north by Mefopotamia, on the east by the Tigris,
on the weft by Arabia Deferta, and on the fouth by the
Perfian gulph, and part of Arabia Felix. In Babylonia,
properly fo called, or as a diftinct province from Chal-
dæa, were the following cities: Babylon, the metropolis
of that kingdom, which we shall defcribe in the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar, to whom, in 'great measure, it owed its
grandeur; Vologefia, or Vologefocerta, built on the Eu-
phrates, by Vologefis, king of the Parthians, in the time
of Vefpafian; Barfita', probably Strabo's Borfippa ",
m, fa-
cred to Diana and Apollo, famous in Strabo's time for a
woollen manufacture, and being the feat of a certain fect
of Chaldæans, thence called Borifippeni; Idiccara, on the
Euphrates, and the borders of Arabia Deferta; Coche, in
the ifland Mefene, formed by the Tigris, Sura, and Pom-
beditha, of which the fituation is very uncertain.

In Chaldæa Ptolemy places the cities Spunda, Batracharta, Shalatha, Altha, and Teridon, all on the Tigris: in the inland country were, according to the fame geographer, Chuduca, Chumana, Bethana, Orchoe, Biramba, and deveral others, equally unknown. Some will have Orchoe to be the Ur of the Chaldæans, where Abraham was born; but others, perhaps upon better grounds, fuppofe the Ur mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, and placed by him between the Tigris and the city of Nifibis, to have been the birth-place of that patriarch. It is true, that the Ur, mentioned by Ammianus, ftood in Mefopotamia; but, that part of Mefopotamia, which lay on the Tigris,

g Jofeph. Antiq. lib. i. cap. 7.

h Jerem. xxiv. 5. XXV. 12.

1. 8, &c. Ezek. xii. 13. i Diodor. lib. ii. cap. 11, 12. Strabo,

lib. xvi. fub init. Colin. lib. v. cap. 12.

26. Ammian. lib. xxiii. cap. 20.

Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 509.

k Pliny, lib. v. cap. I Ptol. lib. v. cap. ult.

was

was anciently comprised under the name of Chaldæa, appears plain, not only from profane writers, but from Scripture ". In ancient times the Babylonian name, extending far beyond the limits both of Babylonia and Chaldæa, comprised all, or the greater part, of the provinces subject to the Babylonian empire (S). But as we have already A Acts vii. 2. 4. '

on Euphrates, and a large region on this fide the Euphrates, inhabited by the Arabians and Syrians, properly fo called, as far as Cilicia, and Phoenicia, and Libya, and the fea of Egypt, and the Sinus Ifficus.” And a little after, defcribing the extent of the Babylonian region, he "bounds it on the north with the Armenians and Medes, unto the mountain Zagrus; on the weft fide, with Sufa, and Elymais, and Parætacene, inclufively; on the fouth with the Perfian gulf, and Chaldæa; and on the west, with the Arabes Scenitæ, as far as Adiabene and Gordyæa." Afterwards, fpeaking of Sufiana and Sittacene, a region between Babylon and Sufa, and of Parætacene and Coffea, and Elymais, and of the Sagapeni and Siloceni, two little adjoining provinces, he concludes (lib. xvi. p. 745): "And these are the nations which inhabit Babylonia eaftward; to the north are Media and Armenia, exclufively; and weftward are Adiabene and Mefopotamia, inclufively. The greatest part of Adiabene is plain, the fame being part of Babylonia: in fome places it borders on Armenia; for the Medes, Armenians, and Babylonians warred frequently on one another (1)."

(U) The limits of the Babylonian empire were much the fame with those of the Affyrian empire, after the revolt of the Medes; and hence the Babylonian name was almost as widely extended as the Affyrian; and indeed they are frequently ufed the one for the other, though this latter feems the most generally to have had the afcendant and pre-eminence, as being prior, and, as it were, fuperior to the former. "Berofus fays, that Nebuchadnezzar held Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia; and Strabo adds Arbela to the territories of Babylon; after faying that Babylon was anciently the metropo. lis of Affyria, he thus defcribes the limits of the Affyrian empire (or more properly the Babylonian) contiguous, faith he, (lib. xvi.) to Perfia and Sufiana are the Affyrians; for fo they call Babylonia, and the greatest part of the region about it; part of which is Atturia, wherein is Ninus (or Nineveh), and Apolloniatis, and the Elymeans, and the Parætaca, and Chalonitis by the mountain Zagrus, and the fields near Ninus, and Dolomene, and Chalachene, and Chazene, and Adiabene, and the nations of Mefopotamia near the Gordyæans, and the Migdones about Nifilis, unto Zeugma up(1) Sir Ifaac Newton's Chron. of Ant. Kingd. amended, p. 324, 325.

:

VOL. III.

Bb

defcribed

defcribed fome of those countries, and shall speak of the others in their proper places, we confine ourselves here to Babylonia and Chaldæa, properly fo called.

This country enjoys an air very temperate and wholfome for the most part, though at certain feasons of the year no climate can be poffibly more dangerous. The heats are fo extraordinary, that the richer fort were used to fleep in tubs and cifterns of water; nor could they bear to live without this pernicious practice, which still continues, as is well known to all who have travelled into thofe parts. At certain feafons this country is expofed to a peftilential wind, much talked of by modern travellers. It feldom or never rains here for certain months of the year; fo that the inhabitants in the northern parts, and generally all over it, are at great labour and trouble in watering their lands, the engines and wheels which they make ufe of for that purpose being fo numerous, especially along the banks of the Euphrates, as fometimes to hurt the navigation of the river P. This drought continues commonly eight months of the year; nay, it has been fometimes known not to have rained here for two years and a half together; and the inhabitants reckon, that, if it does but rain twice or thrice in the year, it is enough for their purpose. Herodotus fays, that in the land of the Affyrians it feldom rained; and that, though the country was like Egypt, its fertility was not caused by the inundations of the river, as in that kingdom, but by the painful labour of the inhabitants, who either actually watered it by hand, or dug trenches, and other conveyances of that kind, for its refreshment and fecundation; however, the fame fort of labour is neceffary even in Egypt. The foil being rich, the climate in general excellent, and the inhabitants induftrious, this country for fertility used to vie with any other fpot on the face of the earth. We have feen it compared to Egypt, as above; and the fouthern parts of it, between the rivers, may be particularly com pared with the Delta of that country, it being made up of iflands, fome formed by nature, and fome by art; and is befides almoft under the fame parallel of latitude: nor is the other part of it, Chaldæa properly fo called, between the Euphrates and the mountains of Babylon, as they are commonly termed, much lefs watered by rivers and ca

• Plutarch Sympos. lib. iii. p. 640. P Leon. Rauwolf's Tr. into the Eastern Country, part ii. chap. 6. p. 160. 9 Vide Purch. Pilgr. vol. i. chap. 12. p. 62. Rauwolf, ubi fupra, p. 152. Strabo, lib. xv. p. 692.

nals

nals conducted from the Euphrates, and large refervoirs of lakes borrowed from the fame river. Hence Herodotus compares this country with Egypt; and obferves the excellence of its foil, mentioning it was fo fruitful, that what he could fay on that fubject would appear incredible to such as had not, like himself, been eye-witnesses of its fertility; he adds, that, for the plenty of its productions, it was reckoned to be equal to a third part of Afia, that is, of the Perfian empire; and that, in the fame year, it yielded three hundred fold, but generally two hundred.

Produc

Being a country well watered, for the most part low and flat, it may have abounded with willows; whence it tions. came to be called the Valley of Willows, as Prideaux * would, after Bochart, mend the text. The palm alfo flourished naturally all over this land, and chiefly that of the date-kind, which afforded meat, wine, and honey; though the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree, were what this otherwise happy country could not boaft of, no more than her fifter Egypt. But, for grain, it exceeded every other land; the millet and the fefame fhot up here to the fize of trees; and the leaves of the barley and wheat were ufually four fingers broad ". The fefame afforded them oil, instead of the olive; and the palm yielded wine inftead of the grape. In fhort, for vegetable productions, it may be justly compared with Egypt; and to dwell on them would be little better than repeating what we have already faid. This fertility must have been greatly owing Rivers, to the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which in the months of canals. June, July, and Auguft, overflowing their banks, laid the country under water; the fnow in thofe months melting in great quantities on the mountains of Armenia. But thefe inundations proving very detrimental, the inhabitants guarded against them by numbers of artificial rivers and canals, whereby the waters were diftributed, the country in general was benefited, and an eafy communication effected among the inhabitants. The Euphrates, according to Ptolemy, above Babylon, near a town in Mefopotamia called Sipphara, divides itself into two branches, one running to Babylon, and the other to Seleucia, where it falls into the Tigris. The latter was, if we believe Pliny, partly artificial; for he places Seleucia at the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates, adding, that the