Dúra.* Toward the close of his reign, the impiety of Nebuchadnezzar was punished by a fit of lunacy; during which "he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws."t

Evil-Mérodach succeeded, and after a short reign was murdered by his sister's husband, Neriglis'sar. But the young prince Belshazzar, was saved from the conspirators. He continued several years in obscurity, but did not profit by the stern lessons of adversity. At this time the power of the Medes had reached a formidable height, and the Babylonians summoned the kings of western Asia to aid in preventing is further extension. The Medes were commanded by Cyax'ares and his nephew Cy'rus. After a fierce engagement, the Babylonians were totally defeated, and their sovereign slain.

Labosoar chad succeeded his father Neriglis'sar (B. c. 555); but on account of his tyranny was dethroned, after a reign of only a few months, and the legitimate line restored in the person of Nébo-an-dal, called also Nabonádius and Labynétus, who took the surname of Belshazʼzar, that is, the "mighty prince of Bel." As he was a youth, the regency was intrusted to Queen Nitoc'ris. She completed the works which Nebuchadnezzar had commenced, and is said to have connected the eastern and western banks of the Euphrátes both by a bridge and a tunnel. To complete the last work, it was necessary to turn the river for a time into a new channel; and for this purpose a lake and canal were constructed to the north of Bab'ylon. When Belshaz'zar assumed the reins of government, he deserted the prudent line of policy by which Nitoc'ris had delayed the fate of the tottering empire; not only abandoning himself to licentious pleasures, but provoking the hostility of the warlike Medes. Cyax'ares, the "Darawe'sh" (Dari'us), that is, king of the Medes, accompanied by his nephew Cy'rus, invaded Babylónia, and soon laid siege to the metropolis. Confiding in the strength of the walls, Belshaz'zar laughed his enemies to scorn; and while the enemy was still before the walls, gave a great feast in honor of his expected success. Cy'rus, on the same evening, sent a detachment to open the canal leading to the lake that had been dug by Nitoc'ris, ordering his soldiers, as soon as the water should be drawn from the bed of the river, to enter the city through the deserted channel.

Meantime the revelry of the feast was disturbed by the supernatural handwriting interpreted by Daniel, announcing the impending destruction of the empire. Guided by the lights that gleamed from the chambers of revelry, the Medes penetrated into the very heart of the city, and attacked the guards before the palace. The guests within, startled by the clash of arms, flung the gates open to ascertain the cause of the tumult, and thus gave admission to the enemy. Belshazʼzar, in this hour of despair, behaved in a manner worthy of his illustrious descent: he drew his sword, and at the head of a few friends attempted to drive back the enemy; but, "flushed with success, and drunk with gore, whole multitudes poured in:" he fell in his own hall; and with him fell the empire of Bab'ylon (B. c. 538).

• Daniel iii. 1, &c.

†Daniel iv. 33.

Daniel v. 1, &c.

SECTION IV.-Description of Nineveh and Babylon.

THE city of Nin'eveh, probably so named from Nínus, its founder, stood on the east bank of the Tígris, nearly three hundred miles north of Bab'ylon. Like all the ancient cities of Asia, it was of a rectangular form, and retained the traces of the nomad encampment in which it originated. It was of enormous dimensions, being fifteen miles in length, nine in breadth, and forty-eight in circumference. Nor will this great extent seem incredible, when we reflect that the houses were not built in continuous streets, but stood apart, as the tents formerly did, each surrounded by gardens, parks, and farms, whose size varied according to the rank and wealth of the respective proprietors. Nin'eveh, in short, was less a city, according to the modern European notions, than a collection of villages, hamlets, and noblemen's seats, enclosed within one wall as a common defence. The fortifications, according to the historians, were constructed on a stupendous scale. The walls were two hundred feet in height, and so wide that three chariots might drive on them abreast, and they were further secured by fifteen hundred lofty towers: After the destruction of the city by the Medes, Nin'eveh appears to have long remained desolate; several villages were subsequently erected from its ruins, the largest of which preserved the name of the ancient metropolis. It is now a desert waste: even the wild vegetation that usually veils the ruins of fallen greatness has disappeared, and desolation is spread over the entire landscape.

BABYLON stood in a plain, and was perfectly square; the river Euphrátes ran through the centre of the town, and also supplied water to the ditches, which were dug in front of the walls. The streets were perfectly straight, and crossed each other at right angles.

On the western bank of the river, stood the tower of Bélus, which was probably built on the foundations of Babel. When completed by Nebuchadnezzar, each of the sides of the city was about fifteen miles in length, and consequently the whole circumference was sixty miles. The eastern division was the most recent: it was built by the Kasdím, or Chaldeans; and there Nebuchadnez'zar erected the great palace whose circuit was equal to that of a moderate-sized city. Like the generality of steppe regions, the country between the Tígris and Euphrátes produced neither stone nor wood fit for building; but the vicinity of Babylon furnished an inexhaustible supply of clay, which, dried in the sun or burnt in kilns, became so firm and durable, that the remains of ancient walls, which have been thrown down for centuries, have withstood the action of the atmosphere to the present day; and, as may be seen by the specimens in the British Museum, retain the arrow-headed inscriptions with which they were impressed. Nature also provided a plentiful supply of naphtha or bitumen, which served instead of lime. Layers of rushes and palm-leaves were laid between the strata of brick; and the traveller Niebuhr found specimens of these in the ruins of Babylon, so perfect that it might have been supposed that they had not been placed together longer than a few months.

The walls of Bab'ylon were made of brick, cemented by bitumen, eighty-seven feet thick, and more than three hundred high: they were

surrounded by a deep ditch, and pierced by a hundred gates, all made of solid brass. Towers were erected for the defence of the gates and the corners of the walls, except where a morass protected the walls, and prevented the approach of an enemy. Wide, straight streets, or rather roads, from each of the gates, crossed each other at right angles, which, with the four half-streets that fronted to the walls, divided the city into six hundred and seventy-six squares, each of four furlongs and a half on each side, or two miles and a quarter in circumference. These squares were, in fact, separate villages, and many of them were wholly untenanted, being used as parks or pleasure-grounds by the king and his nobles.

A bridge passed over the Euphrátes between the two palaces on the opposite banks, which, we are assured, were further connected by means of a tunnel. The length of the bridge was about a furlong, but its breadth only thirty feet; a long causeway on both sides of the river made the bridge appear of much greater extent than it really was.

The temple of Bélus was the most wondrous structure of the city. It was at its foundation a furlong in length, and about the same in breadth its height is said to have exceeded six hundred feet, which is more than that of the Egyptian pyramids. It was built in eight stories, gradually diminishing in size as they ascended. Instead of stairs, there was a sloping terrace on the outside, sufficiently wide for carriages and beasts of burden to ascend. Nebuchadnezzar made great additions to this tower, and surrounded it with smaller edifices, enclosed by a wall somewhat more than two miles in circumference. The whole was sacred to Bel or Bélus, whose temple was adorned with idols of gold, and all the wealth that the Babylonians had acquired by the plunder of the East. Next to the temple was the old palace, strongly fortified; and on the opposite side of the river was the new palace, whose enclosures and pleasure-grounds covered a space of eight miles round. Within its precincts were the celebrated hanging gardens, consisting of terraces one above another, raised upon pillars higher than the walls of the city, well floored with cement and lead, and covered with earth, in which the most beautiful trees and shrubs were planted.

From the time of its conquest, Bab'ylon gradually declined. Alexanʼder the Great designed Bab'ylon to be the capital of his empire, and was preparing to restore its ancient splendor when he was prematurely cut off. Thenceforward, its decay was rapid; and it is now a vast heap of ruins, tenanted only by the beasts and birds that love to haunt solitary places. Thus literally has the prediction of the prophet been fulfilled: "Bab'ylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and ostriches shall fill their houses, and the daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the howlers [jackals] shall cry in their desolate houses, and wild hounds in their pleasant palaces."

Isaiah xiii. 19-22. (GESENIUS's Translation.)

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SECTION V.-Commerce and Manufactures of the Babylonians. WEAVING of cotton, woollen stuffs, and carpets, were the principal manufactures established in Bab'ylon; and the cotton robes called sindónes, probably a species of muslins, were so highly esteemed for their delicacy of texture and brilliancy of color, that they were appropriated to royal use. We read in the book of Joshua, that a Babylonish garment" formed part of the sacrilegious spoil which A'chan hid in his tent after the conquest of Jer'icho. Articles of luxury, such as perfumed waters, carved walking-canes, engraved stones, and seal rings, were made in the city; and the art of cutting precious stones was carried to a perfection not exceeded by our modern lapidaries, as is manifest from the collection of Babylonian gems in the British Museum.

The Babylonians had an extensive commerce eastward with Persia and northern India, whence they obtained gold, precious stones, rich dye-stuffs, and the best hounds. From Kandahar and Kashmir they procured fine wool, and the shawls which are still so highly valued. Emeralds, jaspers, and other precious stones, procured from the desert of Bac'tria, the modern Cobi, were brought in great abundance to Bab'ylon, and thence transmitted to western Asia and Europe. Cochineal, or rather the Indian lac, was imported in considerable quantities; indeed, the Greeks confess that they derived their knowledge of the insect which produces this dye from the Babylonians. Gold and golddust were also obtained from northern India, but more as articles of tribute than of commerce. It is uncertain whether any commerce was opened with China before the latter ages of the Persian empire; but the Babylonians had certainly intercourse with Tibet and the countries round the Hindú Kúsh.

It was chiefly through their commercial allies, the Phoenicians, that the Babylonians had any trade in the Indian seas, though Isaiah plainly states that they had a navy of their own; for he mentions "the Chaldeans, whose cry [exultation] is in their ships."* The trade by sea was between the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrátes, and the western coasts of India and the island of Ceylon. From these countries they imported timber of various kinds, sugar-canes, spices, cinnamon, and pearls. This trade was completely destroyed by the Persians, through fear of the pirates who infested those seas, and who, by a sudden dash up the great rivers, like the Normans and Danes of Europe, might surprise and plunder the chief cities of the empire. To prevent this misfortune, they blocked up the Tígris with immense dams, which effectually put an end to all navigation on the river, and to the intercourse between Bab'ylon and southern India.

At a very early period the Babylonians formed commercial establishments on the Bahrein islands in the Persian gulf, whence they obtained large quantities of the finest pearls. Pearl-oysters are found on almost all the coasts in this gulf, but the most considerable bank is that which extends along the western coast, from the Bahrein. islands, nearly as far as Cape Dsiulfar. The pearls are both white and yellow, they are also as hard as rock, and are therefore preferred to

Isaiah xlii. 14.

the pearls of Ceylon, which shiver to pieces when struck with a hammer. The cotton plantations on these islands were very extensive, and the staple of the cotton wool they produced was remarkable for its length and fineness, surpassing in this respect the cotton of India. From these islands the Babylonians, and after them the Phoenicians, obtained the best timber for ship-building, probably some species of the Indian teak-wood, which continues to be highly valued for this purpose. They also imported various kinds of ornamental timber, used in the manufacture of walking-canes and inlaid work, for which the Babylonians were deservedly celebrated.