186 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.E.A.S., ON 



special pride, and their successful construction, needful for the 

 defence of his capital and its people, was a matter upon which 

 he believed he could congratulate himself. And with regard 

 to this, it is noteworthy that we seem to have something of the 

 real Nebuchadrezzar — the intelligent reflective man freed from 

 the burden of State afiairs and the business which claimed 

 his attention every day. In this portion, as an introduction 

 to the section of which he was about to treat, he speaks of 

 Nabopolassar, his father, and the many kings preceding him, 

 whom God (or the god) had summoned by name to the sovereignty. 

 These rulers had built themselves palaces in the places upon which 

 they had decided, and there they had founded their seats — there 

 they had heaped up goods (or wealth) and piled up their sub- 

 stance. At Zagmuku, the festival of the lord of the gods, Mero- 

 dach, he says, they entered within Su-anna, the inner city with 

 the high defences, to take (as we learn from other records, both 

 Babylonian and Assyrian) the hand of Bel. In other words, 

 they neglected the city except when it was needful to visit it 

 and take part in this important religious ceremony, when 

 Merodach's triumph over Tiawath, the Dragon, was celebrated, 

 and glory given to the god for his great and sacrificing victory, 

 as well as for the creation of mankind. But in the case of 

 Nebuchadrezzar, from the time when Merodach created him 

 for sovereignty, and Nebo, his veritable son, committed (to 

 him) his subjects, like dear life he loved to build their cities, 

 so, besides Babylon and Borsippa, Nebuchadrezzar did not 

 beautify a city of the land. In Babylon, therefore, the cynosure 

 of his eyes, the city which he loved, there was situated the 

 palace, the house which was the admiration of men, the bond 

 of the land, the brilliant mansion, the abode of his royalty in 

 the territory of Babylon. This was the palace which, within 

 Babylon, extended from Imgur-Bel, the great wall surrounding 

 Su-anna, as far as Libil-hengala, the eastern brook (" the water- 

 channel of the sun rising "), and from the bank of the Euphrates 

 to Aya-ibur-sabu. This palace the father his begetter, Nabo- 

 polassar, had built with brick and dwelt therein, but owing 

 to the flooding of the place by water, its foundation had become 

 weak, and by the filling -up of the causeway of Babylon, its gates 

 had become too low. Nebuchadrezzar therefore demolished its 

 wall of brick, and laid bare its substructure ; and then, having 

 reached the lowest depth of its waters, he there firmly relaid 

 its foundation, and with asphalt and burnt brick built it up like 



