60 BY THE RIVERS OP BABYLON 



studies its life and ideals, instead of dissipating his 

 attention over the uncouth names of its kings and 

 their battles (which is usually given as history), is 

 that four thousand years later the world had made 

 so little progress. If we take the end of the 

 eighteenth century of the Christian Era, before 

 modern science and the democratic movement had 

 begun to change the face of the world, we should 

 have to say that the advance, in most respects, 

 beyond the Babylonian civilization was astonishingly 

 poor for so prolonged a period. 



The explanation lies, of course, in the inevitable 

 price of imperial expansion — war, exhaustion, and 

 then the revenge of the conquered. It is the usual 

 story in every case. Ambitious kings extended their 

 frontiers further and further. Up to a point this 

 was — apart from its moral aspect — useful to the 

 race. It meant a concentration of wealth, which led 

 to great advances of culture ; and this culture was 

 then conveyed over the world by the Babylonian 

 armies and merchants. From Persia to Syria back- 

 ward peoples were awakened from barbarism, and 

 entered upon the paths of civilization. But a few 

 centuries of this sort of " civilizing " bring a reaction. 

 The conquering power exhausts its people; the 

 subject races unite and rend it. As early as 1,900 b.c. 

 the Hittites took and plundered Babylon. It was, 

 however, still strong enough to recover, and it 

 dragged out its story of advancing culture (parti- 

 cularly ethical and religious) and decaying power 

 (through war) to 689 b.c, when the Assyrians destroyed 

 the great city and its empire. As we have said, the 

 city was superbly rebuilt by the Assyrian king 

 Nebuchadnezzar — the fine monarch who is known to 



