CHAP. I. 



SYRIA AND PERSIA. 11 



large masses of gold and silver had been collected 

 together by Ninus, the founder of Nineveh, 

 " who possessed himself of all the treasures of 

 Bactriana, among which was abundance of gold 

 and silver 1 ." From the same writer we learn 

 that Semiramis, the wife of Belus, and the suc- 

 cessor to his dominion, who built the city of 

 Babylon, among other stupendous and almost 

 incredibly magnificent works erected in that city, 

 a temple to Jupiter or Belus ; " upon which 

 were placed the statues of Jupiter, of Juno, and 

 of Rhea, all of beaten gold. That of Jupiter 

 was standing upright, was forty feet in height, 

 and weighed a thousand Babylonian talents. 

 That of Rhea was of the same height, sitting on 

 a throne of gold, having a lion on each side of 

 her, and one at her knees, and near them two 

 vastly large serpents of silver, weighing thirty 

 talents. The statue of Juno was in an erect 

 posture, and weighed eight hundred talents. An 

 altar was erected for these deities of beaten gold, 

 forty feet long and fifteen broad, weighing five 

 hundred talents, upon which were two cups, each 

 of them weighing thirty talents, and near to 

 them as many censers weighing three hundred 

 talents. There were also three drinking vases 

 of gold, the largest of which was dedicated to 



1 Diodorus, book ii. cap. 1. 



