KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA, AND THE MEDES. 
95 
suing their different destinations, the first disturber we hear of, 
is Nimrod, “ the rebel of the Lord.” His son Aslmr, inheriting 
the countries of Babel and Nineveh, gave them h is name; 
whence arose the Assyrian empire, which, in the course 
of time, gradually extended itself by conquest and alliance over 
the whole of the East; and so remained, till about 747 years 
before the Christian era, when it was broken up at the death of 
Sardanapalus, after having held the supreme sceptre for more 
than thirteen centuries. The relics of ancient Persian his¬ 
tories unite with Grecian testimony in many of these accounts, 
only a little clouding the facts with something of fable; excepting 
this air of the marvellous, which exaggerates its objects, their 
description of the empire and dynasty of Zohawk, the dragon 
chief, agrees precisely in time and place with our scripture no¬ 
tices of Nimrod, and the old Assyrian tyranny. 
At the death of Sardanapalus, who held his court at Nineveh, 
two of his late viceroys, Arbaces governor of Media, and Belesis 
governor of Babylon, partitioned the empire between them : 
Arbaces receiving Media, with its dependencies, and Nineveh, 
for his portion, removed from the seat of his late government to 
that great city of Assyria, and hence took the title of King of 
Assyria. Meanwhile, Belesis remained at Babylon, in the midst 
of the wide territories of Chaldea, &c., and began the race of 
Babylonish kings. Arbaces, king of Assyria and the Medes, 
was the Feridoon of the Persian writers, and the Tiglath-pileser 
of Holy Writ, who, in his war with Pekah king of Israel, carried 
away the first captives of that nation who were brought to the 
East. This event happened about 739 years before Christ; and 
in less than twenty years afterwards, his son Salmaneser (the 
Enemessar of the Book of Tobit) completed the captivity of the 
