Josephus relates,[965] upon the testimony of a Sibyl, (who must have been very ancient, and whose fictions cannot be imputed to the indiscreet zeal of any Christians,) that the gods threw down the tower by an impetuous wind, or a violent hurricane. Had this been the case, Nimrod's temerity must have been still greater, to rebuild a city and a tower which God himself had overthrown with such marks of his displeasure. But the Scripture says no such thing; and it is very probable, the building remained in the condition it was, when God put an end to the work by the confusion of languages; and that the tower consecrated to Belus, which is described by Herodotus,[966] was this very tower, which the sons of men pretended to raise to the clouds.
It is further probable, that this ridiculous design having been defeated by such an astonishing prodigy, as none could be the author of but God himself, every body abandoned the place, which had given Him offence; and that Nimrod was the first who encompassed it afterwards with walls, settled therein his friends and confederates, and subdued those that lived round about it, beginning his empire in that place, but not confining it to so narrow a compass: Fuit principium regni ejus Babylon. The other cities, which the Scripture speaks of in the same place, were in the land of Shinar, which was certainly the province of which Babylon became the metropolis.
From this country he went into that which has the name of Assyria, and there built Nineveh: De terrâ illâ egressus est Assur, et ædificavit Nineven.[967] This is the sense in which many learned men understand the word Assur, looking upon it as the name of a province, and not of the first man who possessed [pg 316] it, as if it were, egressus est in Assur, in Assyriam. And this seems to be the most natural construction, for many reasons not necessary to be recited in this place. The country of Assyria is described, in one of the prophets,[968] by the particular character of being the land of Nimrod: Et pascent terram Assur in gladio, et terram, Nimrod in lanceis ejus; et liberabit ab Assur, cùm venerit in terram nostram. It derived its name from Assur the son of Shem, who, without doubt, had settled himself and family there, and was probably driven out, or brought under subjection, by the usurper Nimrod.
This conqueror having possessed himself of the provinces of Assur,[969] did not ravage them like a tyrant, but filled them with cities, and made himself as much beloved by his new subjects as he was by his old ones; so that the historians,[970] who have not examined into the bottom of this affair, have thought that he made use of the Assyrians to conquer the Babylonians. Among other cities, he built one more large and magnificent than the rest, which he called Nineveh, from the name of his son Ninus, in order to immortalize his memory. The son, in his turn, out of veneration for his father, was willing that they who had served him as their king should adore him as their god, and induce other nations to render him the same worship. For it appears evident, that Nimrod is the famous Belus of the Babylonians, the first king whom the people deified for his great actions, and who showed others the way to that sort of immortality which human acquirements are supposed capable of bestowing.
I intend to speak of the mighty strength and greatness of the cities of Babylon and Nineveh, under the kings to whom their building is ascribed by profane authors, because the Scripture says little or nothing on that subject. This silence of Scripture, so little satisfactory to our curiosity, may become an instructive lesson to our piety. The holy penman has placed Nimrod and Abraham, as it were, in one view before us; and seems to have put them so near together on purpose, that we should see an example in the former of what is admired and coveted by men, and in the latter of what is acceptable and [pg 317] well-pleasing to God. These two persons,[971] so unlike one another, are the first two and chief citizens of two different cities, built on different motives, and with different principles; the one, self-love, and a desire of temporal advantages, carried even to the contemning of the Deity; the other, the love of God, even to the contemning of one's self.
Ninus.
Ninus. I have already observed, that most of the profane authors look upon him as the first founder of the Assyrian empire, and for that reason ascribe to him a great part of his father Nimrod's or Belus's actions.
Having a design to enlarge his conquests, the first thing he did was to prepare troops and officers capable of promoting his designs.[972] And having received powerful succours from the Arabians his neighbours, he took the field, and in the space of seventeen years conquered a vast extent of country, from Egypt as far as India and Bactriana, which he did not then venture to attack.
At his return, before he entered upon any new conquests, he conceived the design of immortalizing his name by the building of a city answerable to the greatness of his power; he called it Nineveh, and built it on the eastern banks of the Tigris.[973] Possibly he did no more than finish the work his father had begun. His design, says Diodorus, was to make Nineveh the largest and noblest city in the world, and to put it out of the power of those that came after him ever to build or hope to build such another. Nor was he deceived in his view; for never did any city come up to the greatness and magnificence of this: it was one hundred and fifty stadia (or eighteen miles three quarters) in length, and ninety stadia (or eleven miles and one quarter) in breadth; and consequently was an oblong square. Its circumference was four hundred and eighty stadia, or sixty miles. For this reason we find it said in the prophet Jonah, “That Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days' journey;”[974] which is to be understood of the [pg 318] whole circuit, or compass of the city.[975] The walls of it were a hundred feet high, and of so considerable a thickness, that three chariots might go abreast upon them with ease. They were fortified, and adorned with fifteen hundred towers two hundred feet high.
After he had finished this prodigious work, he resumed his expedition against the Bactrians. His army, according to the relation of Ctesias, consisted of seventeen hundred thousand foot, two hundred thousand horse, and about sixteen thousand chariots armed with scythes. Diodorus adds, that this ought not to appear incredible, since, not to mention the innumerable armies of Darius and Xerxes, the city of Syracuse alone, in the time of Dionysius the Tyrant, furnished one hundred and twenty thousand foot and twelve thousand horse, besides four hundred vessels well equipped and provided. And a little before Hannibal's time, Italy, including the citizens and allies, was able to send into the field near a million of men. Ninus made himself master of a great number of cities, and at last laid siege to Bactria, the capital of the country. Here he would probably have seen all his attempts miscarry, had it not been for the diligence and assistance of Semiramis, wife to one of his chief officers, a woman of an uncommon courage, and peculiarly exempt from the weakness of her sex. She was born at Ascalon, a city of Syria. I think it needless to recite the account Diodorus gives of her birth, and of the miraculous manner of her being nursed and brought up by pigeons, since that historian himself looks upon it only as a fabulous story. It was Semiramis that directed Ninus how to attack the citadel, and by her means he took it, and thus became master of the city, in which he found an immense treasure. The husband of Semiramis having killed himself, to prevent the effects of the king's threats and indignation, who had conceived a violent passion for his wife, Ninus married her.