170 



BABYLON. 



Babylon. 



tor. As soon as Darius was in possession of Baby- 

 lon, he o r der ed its hundred gates and its impregnable 

 walls to be demolished ; put to death 3000 of those 

 who had boon principally concerned in the revolt ; 

 and sent 50,000 women from different parts of his 

 empire, to supply the place of those who had been so 

 cruelly destroyed at the commencement of the siege. 

 In the year B. C. 478, Xerxes, the successor of 

 Darius, returning from his inglorious invasion of 

 Greece, passed through the city of Babylon ; and, 

 partly from hatred ot the Sabian worship, partly 

 with a view to recruit his treasures, plundered the 

 temple of Belus of its immense wealth, and then laid 

 its lofty tower in ruins. In this state it continued 

 till the year B. C. 324, when Alexander the Great 

 made an attempt to rebuild this sacred edifice, and to 

 restore its former magnificence. But, though he 

 employed about 10,000 men in this work for the 

 space of two months, his sudden death put an end to 

 the undertaking before the ground was cleared of its 

 rubbish. This mighty city declined very rapidly 

 under the successors of Alexander ; and, in the year 

 294-, A. C. was almost exhausted of its inhabitants 

 by Seleucus Nicator, who built in its neighbourhood 

 the city of Seleucia, or New Babylon. It suffered 

 greatly from the neglect and violence of the Parthian 

 princes before the Christian xra ; and every succeed- 

 ing writer bears testimony to its increasing desolation. 

 Diodorus Siculus, B. C. 44. ; Strabo, B. C. 30. ; 

 Pliny, A. D. 66. ; Pausanias, A. D. 150. ; Maximus 

 Tyrius, and Constantine the Great, as recorded by 

 Eusebius, all concur in describing its ruined condi- 

 tion; and Jerome at length informs us, that, about the 

 end of the 4th century, its walls were employed by 

 the Persian princes as an inclosure for wild beasts, 

 preserved there for the pleasures of the chase. It 

 was visited about the end of the 12th century by 

 Benjamin of Tudela in Navarre, who observed only a 

 few ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace remaining, but 

 so full of serpents and other venomous reptiles, that 

 it was dangerous to inspect them nearly. A similar 

 account is given by other travellers ; by Texeira, a 

 Portuguese ; by Rauwolf, a German traveller in 1574 ; 

 by Petrus Vallensis in 1616 ; by Tavernier, and by 

 Hanway ; but 60 very slight are the vestiges now to 

 be found of ancient Babylon, that it is difficult to as- 

 certain exactly the spot on which it once stood, so 

 completely has been fulfilled the prediction of Isaiah : 

 " Babylon, 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 genera- 

 tion ; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; 

 neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 

 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their 

 houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls 

 shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there ; and 

 the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their deso- 

 late houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces." 

 The striking accomplishment of scripture prophecies, 

 in the conquest, decline, and desolation of Babylon, is 

 very fully illustrated in Rollin's Ancient History, 

 vol.ii. p. 140 154. ; Newton's Dissertations, \o\. vii. 

 p. 285. ; and Prideaux's Connect, vol. i. passim. See 

 M the general subject of this article, Ancient Un. 



; vol. 

 p. 16. 



i. p. 332, notes. Babylonian 

 iii. p. 45. Pri- Empire. 



Hilt. vol. iv. p. 403, &c 



Rollin's Anc. Hist. vol. ii. 



deaux's Conned, vol. i. p. 95, IfiO, 1ST, 212, 567. 



Gillies' Hut. of World, vol. i. p. 48. &c. \q) 



BABYLON, Empiiik of, may be considered as 

 the first great monarchy of which any records arc to 

 be found in history. It appears to have been found- 

 ed a short time after the flood ; and (according to 

 the astronomical tables sent by Alexander to Aris- 

 totle) about 2234 years before Christ. Of this first 

 Babylonian kingdom there is very little to be known, 

 except what is related in sacred scripture ; that, about 

 2000 years B. C, it consisted, under Nimrod, of four 

 cities, Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh ; that, about 

 100 years afterwards, it was enlarged by Ashur, who 

 built several other cities, and particularly the first 

 Nineveh, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, 300 miles 

 above Babylon ; and that it continued till the year 

 B. C. 1230, when Ninus, having overrun the greater 

 part of Asia, founded a second Nineveh, between the 

 rivers Tigris and Euphrates, about 50 miles from 

 Babylon, and thus established what is called the As- 

 syrian monarchy. But what is generally understood 

 by the Babylonian empire, began about 606 years 

 before Christ, when Belesis, or Nebopolassar, here- 

 ditary satrap of Babylon, revolted against the Assy- 

 rian monarch Sardaiiapalus ; and having destroyed 

 that prince and his capital Nineveh, transferred the 

 seat of power to his own city. Thus there may be 

 said to have been two distinct kingdoms in Babylon ; 

 one preceding, and the other following, the Assyrian 

 empire. Or, rather, more properly speaking, there 

 were three great asras of the same monarchy in the 

 country of Assyria. The first of these commences 

 with Nimrod, in the year B. C. 2000, when Babylon 

 was the seat of power ; the second with Ninus, in 

 the year 1230, when Nineveh became the metropolis 

 of the empire ; and the third with Belesis, in the 

 year 606, when Babylon once more beheld the so- 

 vereigns of the East residing in her palaces. Thk 

 subject indeed is beset with inextricable difficulties, 

 and involved in impenetrable darkness ; but the above 

 statement, which is founded upon the observations 

 of the learned and ingenious Dr Gillies, in his History 

 of the World, (vol. i. p. 50, 130,) seems much more 

 simple in itself, as well as more consistent with. his- 

 tory, than either the common account, which makes 

 the Assyrian monarchy almost coeval, but altogether 

 unconnected with the first kingdom in Babylon ; or 

 that of Sir Isaac Newton, who dates its origin so 

 late as the year B. C. 770. 



Leaving our readers to decide this point for them- 

 selves, we proceed to the proper subject of this ar- 

 ticle, namely, to give a .short sketch of the second 

 Babylonian empire, established by Belesis, or Nebo- 

 polassar, upon the ruins of the Assyrian monarchy, 

 about 606 years B. C. 



Nebopolassau, or, as he is also called, Nebu- Nebucfisd 

 chadnezzak, continued in close alliance with Cyax- nezzar. 

 ares the Mode, by whose assistance he had acquired 

 the sovereignty, and by whose friendship he became 

 so powerful as to excite the apprehensions of the 

 neighbouring princes. While he was employed in 

 resisting the Scythians, who had made themselves 

 masters of Upper Asia, Necho, king of Egypt, ii>- 



