soners in the course of this fatal war with Rome, amounts to one million four hundred and sixtytwo thousand, of whom ninety-seven thousand were doomed to be exposed in public, to fight like gladiators, or to be devoured by wild beasts, and eleven thousand perished for want, either through the neglect of their keepers, or their own sullen despair; and what tends to aggravate the calamity is that the greatest part of them were strangers invited from foreign countries, even from beyond the Euphrates, to assist their brethren at Judea, in defence of their laws and religious liberties.

While the soldiers were employed in burning the poor remains of the city, and massacreing such unhappy creatures as fell into their hands, John and Simon, the two grand rebels, were discovered and brought to Titus, who ordered them to be reserved for his triumph.

When the sword had returned to its scabbard for want of other objects on whom to exercise its fury, and the troops were satisfied with plunder, Titus gave orders for the total demolition of the remaining part of the city, with its fortifications, palaces, towers, and sumptuous edifices, excepting a part of the western wall, and the three towers of Hipprus, Phasael, and Mariamne, which might prove to future ages the astonishing strength of the city, and the valour of its conqueror.

The castles of Herodion, Massada, and Machaeron, were left untaken by Titus, but two of them, viz. Herodion and Machaeron, were soon afterwards reduced by Lucilius Bassus: and that of Massada was attacked with such resolution by Flavius Silva that Eleazar, the commander of

the

the Sicarii, persuaded the inhabitants, in a kind of despair, to kill all their wives and children; next to choose ten men by lot, who should slaughter all the rest; and lastly, pitch upon one out of the ten to kill them and himself. This horrid tragedy was accordingly acted; and the Romans, preparing next morning to scale the walls, received information of the particulars from two females, who had eluded the massacre, by concealing themselves in an aqueduct,

The war being now completely terminated, Vespasian ordered all the Jewish lands to be sold for his own use, commanded all the Jews within his empire to pay the tribute of half a shekel into the imperial treasury, which they had for merly paid for the use of the sanctuary, and caused all the branches of the house of Judah to be cut off, to obviate their vain hopes of a future Messiah.

THE

THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

HE most ancient of the four great empires

TH was that of Assyria, the name of which

country was derived from Ashur, the first settler of it after the flood. Assyria proper was bounded on the north by Armenia, on the west by the Tigris, on the south by Susiana, and on the east by Media. The internal division of it has been accurately described by Ptolemy; but we shall only mention its principal province Adiaben, because this was so considerable as sometimes to give its name to the whole country. Here also stood the famous city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire.

name;

The kingdom of Assyria, as founded by Ashur, was widely different from the magnificent monarchy which many ages afterward bore that but of its early history we have very imperfect accounts. The Assyrian chronology is exceedingly perplexed, and the only certain light we have respecting the Assyrian history is in the sacred writings.

What Ctesias has related in his Assyrian history, though adopted as genuine by many learned writers, is so contradictory to the scripture, and so highly romantic, as to deserve no credit. He represents Ninus, the founder of this empir as a prince of the most extraordinary endow, ments and prowess; but the account which he gives of Semiramis, the wife of that monarch, is totally incredible. Ninus, after conquering almost all Asia, between Tanais and the Nile,

built the city of Nineveh on the river Tigris, the circumference of which was sixty miles.

But Semiramis, his widow, being determined to eclipse the glory of her husband, founded Babylon, in which she employed two millions of labourers. When this enormous city was completed, she put herself at the head of a prodigious army, and marched into Media; after conquering which, she proceeded to visit Persia, and the Asiatic provinces, where she erected many magnificent palaces, laid out extensive gardens and built a number of stately cities. At length ambition prompted her to attempt the conquest of India; and, to supply the want of elephants in her army, she is said to have had recourse to a singular invention: having caused three hundred thousand black oxen to be slain, their hides were stuffed in the form of elephants, each carried by a camel within, and led by a man. The army which she conducted on this expedition amounted, according to the same authority, to three millions of foot, two hundred thousand horse, one hundred thousand chariots, and one hundred thousand men on camels.

Stabrobates, king of India, was not intimidated on hearing of this invasion, but prepared to meet Semiramis, at the head of a prodigious army.

For some time the Assyrian heroine had the advantage, but at last the real elephants of India threw her army into confusion, and she was ob. liged to sue for peace, and return into her own country, where she shortly after died.

That such a woman never existed we will not assert, but it is evident that there is more fable than truth in the wonderful relations which even

grave

grave historians have recorded of her extraordi. nary endowments and exploits.

Semiramis was succeeded by her son Ninyas, a pusillanimous lascivious monarch, who shut himself up in his palace, that his subjects might regard him as a God. In this course he was followed by all his successors, all of whom we shall pass over in silence, and content ourselves with noticing only Sardanapalus, the last and most vicious of the Assyrian monarchs.

This wretch descended to such a pitch of depravity as to assume the dress and manners of a prostitute. In his time the Medes, Babylonians, and Persians, assisted by the Arabians, shook off the Assyrian yoke. On hearing of this revolt and confederacy, the effeminate monarch was roused from his sloth, and marched at the head of his army against the rebels, whom he defeated in three different engagements. But the coalition being strengthened by the accession of the Bactrians, the imperial army was beaten, the camp taken by surprise, and Sardanapalus escaped with difficulty to the city of Nineveh. Here he was closely besieged above two years, but finding at last that the place could hold out no longer, and knowing that no favour would be shewn him by the enemy, he set fire to his palace and destroyed himself with all his concubines and eunuchs. Thus ended the Assyrian empire, after subsisting, according to Ctesias, whose account we have here given, one thousand four hundred years.

We now proceed to relate that which appears to be the only genuine history of Assyria.

Pul, or Phul, the first king of this country mentioned in scripture, subdued Israel in the