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Euphrates was conveyed to it by a canal. Prideaux, upor his authority, fuppofes that branch to have been wholly artificial, and ranks it among the ftupendous works of Nebuchadnezzar 2. Between these two branches an artificial canal was cut from the Euphrates, above Babylon, to the Tigris at Apamea, fixty miles below Seleucia. As this canal, being fo large as to be navigable by great vessels, it was thence called, in the Chaldæan language, Naarmalcha, which anfwers Ptolemy's Bafileios Potamos, or reyal river. Inftead of Naarmalcha, we read, in Ifidorus Characenus, Narmacha; in Zofimus, Narmalaches; in Abydenus, Armacales; and in Pliny, Armalachar. But Ammianus Marcellinus calls it by its true name Naarmalcha, which he rightly interprets the royal river b. From the Naarmalcha the emperors Trajan and Severus, in their wars with the Parthians, dug a new canal to the Tigris near Coche on the weft, and Ctefiphon on the east fide of that river. As thefe canals were all dug by kings or emperors, they all justly claimed the title of Naarmalcha; but most authors agree in beftowing it, by way of pre-eminence, on one only. Pliny, Ammianus, and Polybius, by the Naarmalcha feem to understand the branch of the Euphrates, that fell into the Tigris at Seleucia. But Ptolemy's Naarmalcha, or Bafileios Potamos, extended from the Euphrates to the Tigris at Apamea; and with him Bochart and most of the modern geographers agree. This canal was dug by Nebuchadnezzar, as Abydenus informs us, to convey the waters of the Euphrates, when it overflowed, into the Tigris before they reached Babylon. One of these canals is mentioned by Ezekiel under the name of Chebar, or, as the Greek verfions have it, Chobar, which most interpreters fuppofe to have been borrowed from Gobaris or Gobryas, the name of the governor, who was appointed, as Pliny informs us, to overlook the work, and probably the fame Gobryas, who afterwards revolted from the Babylonians to Cyrus, as will be related in a more proper place; which of the above mentioned canals the prophet fpoke of under that name, we will not take upon us to determine. At fome diftance to the weftward of Sipphara was another river, called by Ptolemy the Naarfares, but by Ammianus the Marfes or Marfias. This too was, according to Ptolemy, a branch of the Euphrates,

a Ifid. Charac. in Præp.

z Prid. Connec. book ii. part. 1. p. 103. Stath. Parth. Zof. lib. iii. cap. 24. Abyd. apud. Eufeb. lib. ix. cap. 41. Plin. lib. vi. cap. 6.

Ammian. lib. xxiv. cap. 21. running

unning weft of Babylon, and mixing again with it near Vologefia. Bochart supposes this river to be the Narraga, mentioned by Pliny, among the ftreams that watered the country of Babylon. At the distance of eight hundred furlongs from Babylon to the fouth was another canal, called by Arrian Pallacopas, and by Appian Pallacotta, derived from the branch of the Euphrates that paffed through Babylon, and conveyed to certain lakes or marfhes in Chaldæa. On this canal, or river, as Arrian calls it, Alexander failed from the Euphrates to the above mentioned lakes. Strabo defcribes the courfe of this canal, though he does not name it, as will plainly appear, if we compare what he writes of one of thefe canals, with what we read of this in Appian and Arrian. But it would be labour in vain to attempt the tracing out, even with the best helps, these and the other numerous branches and canals, which watered the ancient country of Babylon. Many of them that have been formerly confiderable, are now no more; and others have been formed fince, that were not in ancient days; for a country fo prodigiously watered, fo low in fituation, and fo fubject to the violence of extraordinary inundations from those two great rivers the Tigris and Euphrates, and fo neglected, as it has been for feveral ages, must have often and confiderably changed its face fince the time of Ptolemy; and it is next to impoffible to defcribe it, fuch as it was while the feat of empire, when the inhabitants had riches fufficient to take care of its numerous banks, and to keep them in repair.

The Euphrates fprings from the mountains of Arme- Euphrates. nia, continues its courfe fouthward, wafhing the eastern fkirts of Syria, fouth-eastward, dividing Arabia from Mefopotamia, and north-eastward, feparating likewise Chaldæa and Babylonia from Mefopotamia, till, mixing with its fellow-traveller the Tigris, it falls at length into the Perfian gulph. This great river is flow, for the most part, in its courfe, and not well adapted throughout for navigation, fome parts of it being fhoal, and fome rocky. It is not navigable, by the larger fort of barks, lower than a place called Roufvaine, but the fmaller craft may go down quite to Balfora. Beyond Roufvaine there are rocks which are dangerous for the larger veffels, but easily avoided by the fmaller. Thevenot is of opinion, that the

d Appian. Bell. Civil. • Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 510.

e Arrian. Exped. Alex. lib. vii. lib. ii. fub. fin.

Bb 3

Euphrates

Euphrates might, with very little trouble, be made navigable, even by great barks, quite to the Tigris, only by clearing the channel of the ftones with which it is choked up in fome places. At Rousvaine, a village at a small distance from the Euphrates, the merchandize is put afhore, and carried upon camels to Bagdad, a day's journey diftant, where it is embarked on the Tigris, and conveyed to Balfora. The Euphrates, in fome places, divides itself into fo many broad branches, that the pilots are at a lofs which way to fteer. Though it is not rapid in its courfe, its water is fo foul, that there is no drinking it till it has fettled for a time, or been paffed through a cloth or a strainer f; and then it is lighter, and preferable to any other in these parts: whence the river is known to the neighbouring people, by a name which fignifies the water of defires. The fish of the Euphrates are also reported to be excellent in their kind; and particular notice is taken of one resembling a carp, which sometimes weighs feventeen or eighteen pounds ".

The ancient way of navigating this river, was very fingular and extraordinary.. The veffels were round, without diftinction of head or stern, and no better than great wicker-bafkets coated over with hides, guided by two oars, or paddles. Thefe veffels were of different fizes, and fome of them capable of carrying a burden of palmwine, or other merchandize, to the weight of five thoufand talents. When they had thus fallen down the river to Babylon, and unloaded their cargo, they fold the vessel; but kept the hides, and, loading their affes with them, returned home by land, the rapidity of the ftream not allowing them to return by water1.

The Euphrates now difembogues itself into the Tigris, below Bagdad; and is called by the Arabs, Schat-al-Aarab, that is, the river of the Arabs. It is highly probable, that the Euphrates at firft emptied itself into the sea by a mouth of its own; and that its waters were afterwards conveyed, by art, partly into the Tigris, and partly into the marfhes of Chaldæa. Of this opinion, among the ancients, was Pliny, who speaking of the Euphrates and Tigris, tells us, that the mouths of thefe two rivers were, according to fome, twenty-feven, according to others, only feven miles diftant; that they were both navigable;

f Rauwolf, part ii. chap. 1. page 126. Thev. Voyage au Lev. part i. chap. 9. p. 40. Thevenot, ubi fupra.

wolf.

i Herodot. lib. i. cap. 194.

h Rau

but

but that the Orchenians, and other neigbouring people, had long ago ftopped the courfe of the Euphrates, to water their lands; fo that it was no longer conveyed into the fea by a mouth of its own, but by that of the Pafitigris. But of this river, before it was branched out by art into the several channels we have mentioned, we can give no tolerable account, having been left quite in the dark, as to its primitive ftate, by the facred as well as profane writers. The former only tell us, that there were several rivers at Babylon'; and that one of them was called Chebar, as we have obferved above; an account of that river, in the more early times, being foreign to their purpose. As for the profane writers, fome of thofe channels were more ancient than the most early among them, who confequently must have been no lefs in the dark than we are.

This country is particularly remarkable for having inclofed, according to the moft rational opinion, within its limits, great part of Paradise. Here alfo was the great plain of Shinar, now Senjâr, where the whole race of mankind were gathered together in one body after the flood, and whence they difperfed themselves over the face of the earth. The ruins of Babylon, and what remains of the tower, as supposed, of Babel, might here claim a place, had not another more proper occurred in the former part of this work.

SE C T. II.

The Antiquity, Government, Laws, Religion, Customs,
Arts, Learning, and Trade, of the Babylonians.

BABEL is the first kingdom we find mentioned in Scrip- Antiquity.

ture, and, in point of antiquity, was prior to that of Affur, though, according to the common courfe of hiftory, it must appear after it. Nimrod was the founder of it; but, for many ages, it evidently appears to have remained a petty royalty, till the Affyrians paved the way to the empire it attained. Should it be allowed, that, even under Nimrod, it rose to any height of power, nothing feems more natural than to conclude, that it suddenly funk to a level with its neighbours, and even below fome of them, and particularly the famous and an1 Pfalm, cxxxvii.

* Pliny, lib. vi. cap. 27.

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cient kingdom of Elam or Perfia; for, fo early as the days of Abraham, we meet with a king of Sennaar, the ancient Babylon, in the army of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam ", as a vaffal, feemingly, and a tributary. The arguments we have used to deftroy the boasted antiquity of Affyria, might be alleged here to deftroy that of this empire; but, not to repeat what we have fo fully urged, and which muft of courfe affect this empire, as it confeffedly rose upon the ruins of the former, we fhall only obferve, that the Scripture makes no mention of any king of Babylon from the king of Shinaar above mentioned in the army of Elam, till the days of Merodach-Baladan, who was contemporary with Hezekiah; as alfo that, by the feveral hiftories of the nations already spoken of in this work, it is plain, that no Babylonian prince awed any of them, till many years after Merodach-Baladan. So that though we confefs this to have been the most ancient kingdom of the world, yet we cannot allow it to have attained the imperial dignity till what we may call very lately, in comparison of what has been vainly boasted, and unwarily believed.

The Babylonians, or Chaldæans, however, laid claim to a most extravagant antiquity, unwilling to be inferior to the Egyptians, or any other nation. They pretended to have registered the tranfactions of one hundred and fifty thousand years, according to fome, or four hundred and feventy-three thoufand years, according to others P, reckoning down to Alexander, from the time they firft began to obferve the ftars; a monftrous fable, which needs no refutation.

The government of this nation, if the character which vernment. generally prevails concerning its founder Nimrod may be relied on, was, in its very infancy, tyrannical and defpotic; but that it continued fo, is not to be fuppofed, except at the fame time it be conceived, that its first prince was fucceeded by kings exactly of his own character. After him it certainly was on a level with the petty kingdoms of thefe parts, till the Affyrians, in procefs of time, laid the foundation whereon it afterwards exalted itself as the " queen of the eaft." And, as from the former it derived its luftre and majefty, nothing is more likely, or indeed more certain, than that it adhered to the practices of its founder; and the rather, as thofe Babylonians themselves were Affyrians, defcended from Pul the great n 2 Kings xx. 12. • Vide Syncell. Chronogr. P Diod. Sic. Bibl. Hist. lib. ii. p. 81.

m Genef. xiv. 9.

Affyrian,

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