rl THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EUROPE. LETTER IX. THE REVOLUTIONS IN ASIA AND AFRICA, FROM THE SUB- IX. AFTER the subversion of the Assyrian em- LETTER pire, Cyaxares and Nabocolassar, or Nebuchadnezzar, the warlike kings of Media and Babylon, who had destroyed Nineveh, threatened the whole earth with subjection. The exulting victors immediately reduced to obedience, either conjunctly or separately, all the nations that had, at any time, owned the sway of the haughty monarchs of Assyria'; and extended their 1. The greatness and fall of the Assyrian empire are finely described by the prophet Ezekiel, under the similitude of a tree. "Behold, the 'Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a "shadowing PART I. their dominion from the borders of Egypt, t the frontiers of India. " In the prosecution of these conquests, Nebuchadnezzar directed his arms chiefly against the nations to the west of the Euphrates, and Cyaxares against those to the east of the Tygris; where, after having subdued all the countries in the neighbourhood of the Caspian sea, he chased the Scythians into the wilds of Sarmatia2. Concerning the state of the vast regions to the east of the Tygris, at this early period, we have little information, that can be depended on. But the case is very different, in regard to the countries to the west of the Euphrates. There the most interesting spectacles are presented to our view, by historians both sacred and civil, during the century that preceded the destruction of Nineveh. The Assyrian monarchs, from the foundation of their empire, appear to have claimed dominion, and "shadowing shroud, and of an high stature, and his top was among "the thick boughs. The waters made him great; the deep set him upon high, with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent "out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his "height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs "were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of the multi"tude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made "their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the "beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow "dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the "length of his branches; for his root was by great waters" (Ezek. "chap. xxxi. ver. 3-7.). "But, because his heart is lifted up in his "height," adds the prophet, in the name of the LORD, "I have de"livered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen. And "strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off. Upon the "mountains, and in all the valleys, his branches are fallen, and his "boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people "of the earth are gone from under his shadow, and have left him. "In the day when he went down to the grave, I caused a mourning; "when I cast him into the pit, I made the nations shake at the sound of his fall." Ezekiel, chap. xxxi. ver. 10-16. 2. Ancient Unia. Hist. vol. iv. et auct. cit. latterly IX. latterly had rigorously maintained it, over all the LETTER countries between the Euphrates and Nile. These claims descended to Nebuchadnezzar, on the subversion of the Assyrian empire, and the rise of the Babylonian grandeur on its ruins. And he did not fail to assert them, or to punish such nations as attempted to dispute his sway. But before I relate the future progress of the arms of this mighty conqueror, whose sword smote so many kingdoms, and the terror of whose name was so great upon the face of the earth, it will be proper to take a retrospective survey of the state of Syria and Egypt. Under the name of Syria I comprehend, for the sake of perspicuity, the whole country from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean sea, and from the foot of mount Taurus to Arabia Pétrea, and the frontiers of Egypt3. From the southern part of this fine country, as I have formerly had occasion to observe, the Israelites or Hebrews, under Joshua, drove the Canaanites of the inland country to the maritime district, afterward known by the name of Phoenicia; while they gave to the Land of Promise, or the territory in which they settled, the name of Judea, and the Greeks, that of Palestine. The northern part, or Syria Proper, was chiefly subject to the kings of Damascus; who, like all the other Syrian princes and states, were in some measure dependent on the Assyrian emperors. 747. Nabonass. The supine successors of Ninus and Semerimis, Ant. Chr. however, until roused to exertion by the revolt of the Medes and Babylonians (after the lapse of five hundred years), had but imperfectly maintained their 3. Strabo (Geog. lib. xvi.) gives nearly the same extent to Syria; and Herodotus, in more ancient times, talks familiarly of the Syrian Palestine (Historiar. lib. i.), of Azotus in Syria, and of the boundaries between Syria and Egypt. Herodot. lib. ii. 4. Lett. I. æra 1. sovereignty PART I. Sovereignty over the western provinces of their em pire. Of the exercise of such sovereignty, before this memorable æra, we have accordingly but one instance on good authority. When Pul, emperor of Assyria, appeared on the confines of Palestine, Menahem king of Israel gave that prince a thousand talents of silver, exacted from his own subjects, to confirm him in the kingdom, which he had usurped. This circumstance happily brings under our observation the state of the people of God. During the long period of Assyrian indolence, and before the Egyptian monarchs attempted to extend their dominion beyond the bottom of the Arabian gulf, the Syrian princes acted as independent sovereigns, and waged continual wars with each other". In the course of those wars the Israelites, after having been often subjected to servitude by the neighbouring nations, rose to a distinguished height in wealth and power, under their two celebrated kings, David and Solomon. David, who was a profound politician, and a great captain, rendered many of the Syrian princes tributary to him, at the same time that he extended the bounds of the kingdom of Palestine; and Solomon, his son and successor, still renowned for his wisdom and splendour, beautified the city and built the temple of Jerusalem, while he civilized his subjects, by introducing among them the arts of peace". Solomon, however, was not supplied merely by his territorial revenues with that wealth which has appeared incredible; which enabled him to live in such 5. 2 Kings, chap. xv. ver. 19, 20. And the power of the Assyrian emperors, in more ancient times, to " set up and pull down, whom. "soever they thought proper," we also learn from scripture, had been great in Syria. 2 Kings, chap. xix. ver. 25, 26. 6. See the books of Judges and Samuel throughout. 9. Id. ibid. pomp, |