Post by Lee on May 31, 2014 14:37:35 GMT
Babylon (the modern Hillah) is the Greek form of Babel or Bab-ili, “the gate of God” (or, as it is sometimes written, “of the gods”) … It is doubtful whether the god meant was Merodach or Anu, Merodach being the patron divinity of Babylon in the Semitic period, and Su-Anna, “the valley of Anu” (Annammelech), being one of its oldest names … Babylon figures in the antediluvian history of Berosus, the first of his mythical monarchs, Alorus, being a native of it. The national epic of the Babylonians, which grouped various old myths around the adventures of a solar hero, knows of four cities only—Babylon, Erech, Nipur (Niffer), or Calneh, and Surripac or Larankha; and according to Gen. 10, Babylon was a member of the tetrapolis of Shinar or Sumir, where the Semite invaders of the Accadians first obtained permanent settlement and power. It seems, however, to have ranked below its three sister cities, among which Erech took the lead until conquered by the Accadian sovereigns of Ur.
It was not until the conquest of Khammuragas that Babylon became a capital, a position, however, which it never afterwards lost, except during the Assyrian supremacy. But it suffered severely at the hands of its northern neighbours Tiglath Adar drove the Cassi from it, and established an Assyrian dynasty in their place, and after being captured by Tiglath Pileser I. (1130 B.C.) and Shalmaneser (851 B.C.), it became a dependency of the Assyrian Empire in the reign of the son of the latter. The decline of the first Assyrian Empire restored Babylon to independence; but it had soon afterwards to submit to the Caldai, and from the reign of Tiglath Pileser II. to the death of Assur-bani-pal, it was a mere provincial town of Assyria, breaking now and then into fierce revolt under the leadership of the Caldai and repeatedly taken and plundered by Sargon, Sennacherib, and Assur-bani-pal. Sennacherib indeed rased the city to its foundations. After the defeat of Suzub (690 B.C.) he tells us that he “pulled down, dug up, and burned with fire the town and the palaces, root and branch, destroyed the fortress and the double wall, the temples of the gods and the towers of brick, and threw the rubbish into the Araxes,” the river of Babylon.
It was under Nebuchadnezzar and his successors that Babylon became the huge metropolis whose ruins still astonish the traveller, and which was described by Greek writers. Of the older city we can know but little. The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar and his father, Nabopolassar, must have suffered when taken by Cyrus, but two sieges in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, and one in the reign of Xerxes, brought about the destruction of the defences, while the monotheistic rule of Persia allowed the temples to fall into decay. Alexander found the great temple of Bel a shapeless ruin, and the rise of Selucia in its neighbourhood drew away its population and completed its material decay. The buildings became a quarry, first for Selucia, and then for Ctesiphon, Al Modain, Baghdad, Kafa, Kerbelah, Hillah, and other towns, and our only cause for wonder is that the remains of the great capital of Babylonia are still so extensive.
Our two chief authorities for the ancient topography of the city are Herodotus and Ctesias, and though both were eye-witnesses, their statements differ considerably. The city was built, we are told, on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and enclosed within a double row of high walls, Ctesias adds a third wall, but the inscriptions refer only to two, the inner enciente; called Imgur-Bel, and its salkhu, or outwork; called Nimitti-Bel. Ctesias makes the outmost wall 360 stades (42 miles) in circumference, while according to Herodotus, it measured 480 stades (56 miles), which would include an area of about 200 square miles! Pliny follows Herodotus in his figures, but Strabo with his 385 stades, Qu. Curtius with his 368 stades, and Clitarchus with 365 stades, agree sufficiently closely with Ctesias. Even the estimate of Ctesias, however, would make Babylon cover a space of about 100 square miles, nearly five times the size of London.
Such an area could not have been occupied by houses, especially as these were three or four stories high. Indeed Q. Curtius asserts that even in the most flourishing times nine-tenths of it consisted of gardens, parks, fields, and orchards. According to Herodotus the height of the walls was about 335 feet, and their width 85 feet; while Ctesias makes the height about 300 feet. Later writers give smaller dimensions, but it is clear they have merely tried to soften down the estimates of Herodotus (and Ctesias); and we seem bound, therefore, to accept the statement of the two oldest eye-witnesses, astonishing as it is.
But we may remember that the ruined wall of Nineveh was 150 feet high even in Xenophon’s time, while the spaces between the 250 towers irregularly disposed along the wall of Babylon were broad enough to allow a four-horse chariot to turn. The clay dug from the moat had served for the bricks of the wall, which was pierced with 100 gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels and posts. The two inner enclosures were faced with coloured brick, and represented hunting scenes. Two other walls ran along the banks of the Euphrates and the quays with which it was lined, each containing twenty-five gates, which answered to the number of the streets they led into. Ferry-boats plied between the landing places of the gates; and a movable drawbridge (30 feet broad), supported on stone piers, joined the two parts of the city together.
At each end of the bridge was a palace; the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar on the eastern side (the modern Kasr), which Herodotus incorrectly transfers to the western bank, being the most magnificent of the two. It was surrounded, according to Diodorus, by three walls, the outermost being 60 stades (7 miles) in circuit. The inner walls were decorated with hunting scenes painted on brick, fragments of which have been discovered by modern explorers. Two of its gates were of brass, and had to opened and shut by a machine; and Mr. Smith has found traces of two libraries among its ruins. The palace, called “The Admiration of Mankind,” by Nebuchadnezzar, and commenced by Nabopolassar, overlooked the Ai-ipursabu, the great reservoir of Babylon, and stretched from this to the Euphrates on the one side, and from the Imgur-Bel (or inner wall) to the Libil (or eastern canal) on the other Within its precincts rose the Hanging Gardens, consisting of a garden of trees and flowers on the topmost of a series of arches at least 75 feet high, and built in the form of a square, each side measuring 400 Greek feet. Water was raised from the Euphrates by means, it is said, of a screw.… The lesser palace in the western division of the city belonged to Neriglissar, and contained a number of bronze statues.
The most remarkable edifice in Babylon was the temple of Bel, now marked by the Babil, on the north-east, as Professor Rawlinson has shown. It was a pyramid of eight square stages, the basement stage being over 200 yards each way. A winding ascent led to the summit, and the shrine in which stood a golden image of Bel, 40 feet high, two other statues of gold, a golden table 40 feet long and 15 feet broad, and many other colossal objects of the same precious material. At the base of the tower was a second shrine, with a table and two images of solid gold. Two altars were placed outside the chapel, the smaller one being of the same metal.
A similar temple represented by the modern Birs Nimrud stood at Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon. It consisted of seven stages, each ornamented with one of the seven planetary colours, the azure tint of the sixth, the sphere of Mercury, being produced by the vitrifaction of the bricks after the stage had been completed. The lowest stage was a square 272 feet each way, its four corners exactly corresponding to the four cardinal points as in all other Chaldean temples, and each of the square stages raised upon it being placed nearer the south-western than the north-western edge of the underlying one. It had been partly built by an ancient monarch, but, after lying unfinished for many years, like the Biblical tower of Babel, was finally completed by Nebuchadnezzar.
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From this description, we may conjure up some kind of vision of the surprising magnificence and beauty of Babylon in the zenith of its glory about a century after the date of Isaiah’s prophecy, and can the better appreciate many of the details in the prophetic allusions to the judgments by which at length it should fall.
Robert Roberts, & Walker, C. C. (1907). The Ministry of the Prophets: Isaiah (248–252). The Publishing Commitee, Christadelphian Old Paths Ecclesia.
It was not until the conquest of Khammuragas that Babylon became a capital, a position, however, which it never afterwards lost, except during the Assyrian supremacy. But it suffered severely at the hands of its northern neighbours Tiglath Adar drove the Cassi from it, and established an Assyrian dynasty in their place, and after being captured by Tiglath Pileser I. (1130 B.C.) and Shalmaneser (851 B.C.), it became a dependency of the Assyrian Empire in the reign of the son of the latter. The decline of the first Assyrian Empire restored Babylon to independence; but it had soon afterwards to submit to the Caldai, and from the reign of Tiglath Pileser II. to the death of Assur-bani-pal, it was a mere provincial town of Assyria, breaking now and then into fierce revolt under the leadership of the Caldai and repeatedly taken and plundered by Sargon, Sennacherib, and Assur-bani-pal. Sennacherib indeed rased the city to its foundations. After the defeat of Suzub (690 B.C.) he tells us that he “pulled down, dug up, and burned with fire the town and the palaces, root and branch, destroyed the fortress and the double wall, the temples of the gods and the towers of brick, and threw the rubbish into the Araxes,” the river of Babylon.
It was under Nebuchadnezzar and his successors that Babylon became the huge metropolis whose ruins still astonish the traveller, and which was described by Greek writers. Of the older city we can know but little. The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar and his father, Nabopolassar, must have suffered when taken by Cyrus, but two sieges in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, and one in the reign of Xerxes, brought about the destruction of the defences, while the monotheistic rule of Persia allowed the temples to fall into decay. Alexander found the great temple of Bel a shapeless ruin, and the rise of Selucia in its neighbourhood drew away its population and completed its material decay. The buildings became a quarry, first for Selucia, and then for Ctesiphon, Al Modain, Baghdad, Kafa, Kerbelah, Hillah, and other towns, and our only cause for wonder is that the remains of the great capital of Babylonia are still so extensive.
Our two chief authorities for the ancient topography of the city are Herodotus and Ctesias, and though both were eye-witnesses, their statements differ considerably. The city was built, we are told, on both sides of the river in the form of a square, and enclosed within a double row of high walls, Ctesias adds a third wall, but the inscriptions refer only to two, the inner enciente; called Imgur-Bel, and its salkhu, or outwork; called Nimitti-Bel. Ctesias makes the outmost wall 360 stades (42 miles) in circumference, while according to Herodotus, it measured 480 stades (56 miles), which would include an area of about 200 square miles! Pliny follows Herodotus in his figures, but Strabo with his 385 stades, Qu. Curtius with his 368 stades, and Clitarchus with 365 stades, agree sufficiently closely with Ctesias. Even the estimate of Ctesias, however, would make Babylon cover a space of about 100 square miles, nearly five times the size of London.
Such an area could not have been occupied by houses, especially as these were three or four stories high. Indeed Q. Curtius asserts that even in the most flourishing times nine-tenths of it consisted of gardens, parks, fields, and orchards. According to Herodotus the height of the walls was about 335 feet, and their width 85 feet; while Ctesias makes the height about 300 feet. Later writers give smaller dimensions, but it is clear they have merely tried to soften down the estimates of Herodotus (and Ctesias); and we seem bound, therefore, to accept the statement of the two oldest eye-witnesses, astonishing as it is.
But we may remember that the ruined wall of Nineveh was 150 feet high even in Xenophon’s time, while the spaces between the 250 towers irregularly disposed along the wall of Babylon were broad enough to allow a four-horse chariot to turn. The clay dug from the moat had served for the bricks of the wall, which was pierced with 100 gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels and posts. The two inner enclosures were faced with coloured brick, and represented hunting scenes. Two other walls ran along the banks of the Euphrates and the quays with which it was lined, each containing twenty-five gates, which answered to the number of the streets they led into. Ferry-boats plied between the landing places of the gates; and a movable drawbridge (30 feet broad), supported on stone piers, joined the two parts of the city together.
At each end of the bridge was a palace; the great palace of Nebuchadnezzar on the eastern side (the modern Kasr), which Herodotus incorrectly transfers to the western bank, being the most magnificent of the two. It was surrounded, according to Diodorus, by three walls, the outermost being 60 stades (7 miles) in circuit. The inner walls were decorated with hunting scenes painted on brick, fragments of which have been discovered by modern explorers. Two of its gates were of brass, and had to opened and shut by a machine; and Mr. Smith has found traces of two libraries among its ruins. The palace, called “The Admiration of Mankind,” by Nebuchadnezzar, and commenced by Nabopolassar, overlooked the Ai-ipursabu, the great reservoir of Babylon, and stretched from this to the Euphrates on the one side, and from the Imgur-Bel (or inner wall) to the Libil (or eastern canal) on the other Within its precincts rose the Hanging Gardens, consisting of a garden of trees and flowers on the topmost of a series of arches at least 75 feet high, and built in the form of a square, each side measuring 400 Greek feet. Water was raised from the Euphrates by means, it is said, of a screw.… The lesser palace in the western division of the city belonged to Neriglissar, and contained a number of bronze statues.
The most remarkable edifice in Babylon was the temple of Bel, now marked by the Babil, on the north-east, as Professor Rawlinson has shown. It was a pyramid of eight square stages, the basement stage being over 200 yards each way. A winding ascent led to the summit, and the shrine in which stood a golden image of Bel, 40 feet high, two other statues of gold, a golden table 40 feet long and 15 feet broad, and many other colossal objects of the same precious material. At the base of the tower was a second shrine, with a table and two images of solid gold. Two altars were placed outside the chapel, the smaller one being of the same metal.
A similar temple represented by the modern Birs Nimrud stood at Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon. It consisted of seven stages, each ornamented with one of the seven planetary colours, the azure tint of the sixth, the sphere of Mercury, being produced by the vitrifaction of the bricks after the stage had been completed. The lowest stage was a square 272 feet each way, its four corners exactly corresponding to the four cardinal points as in all other Chaldean temples, and each of the square stages raised upon it being placed nearer the south-western than the north-western edge of the underlying one. It had been partly built by an ancient monarch, but, after lying unfinished for many years, like the Biblical tower of Babel, was finally completed by Nebuchadnezzar.
—————
From this description, we may conjure up some kind of vision of the surprising magnificence and beauty of Babylon in the zenith of its glory about a century after the date of Isaiah’s prophecy, and can the better appreciate many of the details in the prophetic allusions to the judgments by which at length it should fall.
Robert Roberts, & Walker, C. C. (1907). The Ministry of the Prophets: Isaiah (248–252). The Publishing Commitee, Christadelphian Old Paths Ecclesia.
