204 Analyses of Books. [March, 



XVIII. On the Possibilily of reconciliug the scripfinal and 

 profane Accounts oj' the Assyrian Monarch//. By the Rev. Joha 

 Kenrick, A.M. — From the Old Testament, it appears that the 

 monarchies which existed in that part of Asia, which was after- 

 wards the seat of the A^ssyrian monarchy, were originally very 

 small ; for a king of Shinar, confederated v/i'.h a ;:ing of Elam 

 -and two (ilhers, came and attacked some petty sovereigns of 

 Palestine ; and Abraham, arming his own household, v\ as able 

 to defeat the invaders. David had a war v/ith the King of 

 Tobah, which was at so short a distance from Nineveh, that had 

 that city been the seat of a great monarchy, Tobah could not 

 possibly have been independent, nor could David have attacked 

 it without comino- into hostilities with the sovereign of Nineveh. 

 The first mention of conquering monarchs at Nineveh in the 

 Jewish annals is in the reign of Pul, 771 years before the Chris- 

 tian era, by whom and his successors, Syria and Palestine were 

 invaded, and the two branches of the Jewish people reduced to 

 dependence and captivity (2 Kings, xv. ID). Such is the anti- 

 quity and uninterrupted series of the Jewish annals, and such 

 the position of the Jewish nation relatively to a power on the 

 banks of the Tigris, extending its dominion westward, that we 

 may safely say that had any such power existed previously to the 

 eighth century before Christ, it must have come into collision 

 •with the Jewish nation, and that collision would have been 

 recorded in Jewish history. 



From Herodotus (whose Assyrian history is lost) we Ie:>rn 

 little more than that the Assyrians had been masters of Upper 

 Asia (Asia beyond the Halys) 520 years, when the Medes shook 

 off the yoke; which (reckoning backv/ards from 710 years 

 before Christ) brings us to 12'60 years before Christ. But this 

 account, though improbable, is not inconsistent with the scrip- 

 tural history; since the Assyrians migiit be masters of Upper 

 Asia without holding the sea coast. 



It is from Diodorus Siculus that the usual account of the early 

 Assyrian monarchs is obtained. Ctesias is his authority. He 

 was a Greek, and posterior to Herodotus, and even by many of 

 the ancients his history is looked upon as fabulous. According 

 to him, Ninus, a prince of boundless arnbition, engaged the 

 Arabians under his standard, subdued Babylonia, Armenia, and 

 Media, and proceeded thence to remoter countries of Asia, 

 which he reduced, with the exception of Bactna and India. 

 Thence, turning his arms towards ihe west, he overran all the 

 countries from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and from 

 the banks of the Tanais to the cataracts of the Nile. Alter 

 these exploits, he builds Nineveh, which he names from him- 

 self. He then returned to his former unsuccessful attempt on 

 Baciria, and deprived Menon, the chief oflicer of his army, of 

 his wife, Semiramis, making her his own queen. Semiramis 

 fiucceeded Nmus. She founded Babylon, and spent the rest of 



