Little is known of ancient Assyria, and of Babylonia, which was at first a part of Assyria. Being a wealthy and luxurious nation, their women were of course treated with a degree of consideration unknown among savage tribes. The manner in which Babylonish women are spoken of in the Bible implies great magnificence of apparel; and as there is always a correspondence between the moral and intellectual condition of the sexes, it is not probable that women were universally and totally ignorant in a country where the sciences made such advancement, and written laws were used.
The Babylonians manufactured rich embroidery, tapestry, fine linen, and magnificent carpets. They were distinguished for elegance and refinement of manners; were very fond of music, and had a great variety of instruments. Singing and dancing girls were selected from the most beautiful to entertain the wealthy at their meals; but we have no means of knowing whether ladies of high rank considered it a degradation to dance and sing before strangers. It is generally supposed that the Babylonian women were admitted to social and convivial meetings with men; and it is on record that they sometimes drank too freely of the wine. Weaving and embroidery were no doubt generally practised by women, either for amusement or profit. With regard to marriages, they had a yearly custom of a peculiar kind. In every district three men, respectable for their virtue, were chosen to conduct all the marriageable girls to the public assembly. Here they were put up at auction by the public crier, while the magistrates presided over the sales. The most beautiful were sold first, and the rich contended eagerly for a choice. The most ugly or deformed girl was sold next in succession to the handsomest, and assigned to any person who would take her with the least sum of money. The price given for the beautiful was divided into dowries for the homely. Poor people, who cared less for personal endowments, were well content to receive a plain wife for the sake of a moderate portion. No man was allowed to provide a husband for his daughter; and no man was permitted to take away the woman he had purchased, until he had given security to make her his wife. The feasts by which wealthy Babylonians commemorated their marriages became at last so extravagant that laws were made to restrain them. The Assyrians worshipped Venus under the name of Mylitta. Some of the ceremonies observed in her temple are unsuitable to be described in these pages.
When the Babylonians were besieged by the Persians, they strangled all the women except their mothers, and one other in each family, to bake their bread. This was done to prevent famine; and the lot fell upon women probably because they were of less importance in carrying on the war.
It is not known whether females were admitted into the priesthood; but a woman always slept in the temple of Jupiter Belus, whom the Chaldean priests declared to have been chosen by the deity as his especial favorite from among all the nation.
Two remarkable women are mentioned in the brief records we have of Assyria and Babylon. Their names are Semiramis and Nitocris.
When Ninus, king of Assyria, besieged Bactria, it is said the attempt would not have been successful, had it not been for the assistance of Semiramis, who was at that time the wife of one of his principal officers. She planned so skilful a method of attack, that victory was insured. Ninus became a passionate lover of the sagacious lady, and her husband committed suicide. Soon after this she became queen. Some say she requested the monarch to invest her with uncontrolled power merely for the space of five days; and as soon as a decree to this effect had been made public, she caused him to be put to death; but other authors deny this. She succeeded Ninus in the government of the Assyrian empire, and to render her name immortal, she built the great city of Babylon in one year. Two millions of men were constantly employed upon it. Certain dykes built by order of the queen, to defend the city from inundations, are spoken of as admirable.
Altars were built and divine honors paid to the memory of Semiramis.
The other celebrated queen was Nitocris, wife of Nabonadius, who in the Scripture is called Evil Merodach. She was a woman of great endowments. While her voluptuous husband gave himself up to what the world calls pleasure, she managed the affairs of state with extraordinary judgment and sagacity. She was particularly famous for the canals and bridges which she caused to be made for the improvement of Babylon.
Such instances as these do not indicate a degraded condition of women. Yet the Assyrian monarchs had seraglios, at least in times later than Nitocris; for we are told that the effeminate Sardanapalus spent his chief time in the apartments of his women, learning to handle the distaff, and imitating their voice and manners. This fact proves that spinning was not unusual with women of high rank. The exceeding love of perfumes which prevails in the East characterized Assyria. When Babylon was conquered, all the evils arose which might have been expected among a voluptuous people so long accustomed to luxurious living. Fathers and husbands, rather than relinquish their own expensive habits, were not unfrequently willing to receive the shameful price of a wife or daughter’s beauty.