"The history becomes complicated, and is a record of the achievements of the Assyrian kings, Tiglath-Pileser, Sargon, Sennacherib, and others. It would not be profitable to go over them. The Babylonian monarchy was before Assyria was founded. The government was a despotism with nothing to soften it, and the religion was the worship of many gods. Its history dates back from 913 to 659 years before the birth of Christ, though there are tablets which carry it back to 2330 a.d. The empire began to decay in the reign of Sardanapalus, when the governor of Babylon and the king of Media conspired against it; and Nineveh was captured and destroyed a little more than 600 years before Christ."
The commander announced another recess at this time, though the party appeared to be very much interested in the story of these ancient countries, closely connected with Bible history. Half an hour was spent in walking the deck and gazing at the shores, which were still the same, for the ship was yet in the Gulf of Suez. After this rest the professor resumed his place on the rostrum.
"This is Babylonia, as it is now called to distinguish it from Babylon, the city," said the instructor, as he pointed to the region along the shores of the southern Euphrates, and to the city on both sides of it. "In the Scripture it is called Shinar, Babel, and 'the Land of the Chaldees.' It was and is a very rich and fertile country, extensively irrigated in modern times. Susiana is now a part of Persia, and the rest of the territory represented on the map is included in Turkey in Asia.
"The people were of the Semitic race; in other words, they were descended from Shem, the son of Noah; but Babylonia in the past and present is a land of many races and languages, and the readers of the inscriptions have been bothered by the variety of tongues. The British and the New York Museum have figures and tablets revealing the history of Babylonia. But it takes an archæologist to translate their discoveries. The relations of the monuments indicate that the antiquity of Babylonia reaches back about as far as that of Egypt. A stone in the British Museum brought from this locality has the name of Sargon I., king of Akkad, is reliably vouched for as coming down from the year 3800 b.c.
"The ancient tablets inform us that Narbonassar ascended his throne in 747 (all these dates are b.c.). He reigned fourteen years, which were taken up in wars with Assyria, in which the latter got the best of it in the end. Then, in 625, invasions from the east afforded the Babylonians the opportunity of throwing off the yoke of Assyria, and Nabopolassar became king. In 604 he was succeeded by his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was accounted one of the greatest monarchs that ever ruled the empire.
"In the forty-three years of his reign he recovered the lost provinces of the kingdom, and made his country the queen of the nations of his time. He rebuilt the city of Babylon, and restored all the temples and public edifices. It is said that not a single mound has been opened in this territory in which were not found bricks, cylinders, or tablets on which his name was inscribed. He captured Jerusalem, and a year later destroyed it, sending most of its people to Chaldea. He died in 561, and was succeeded by his son.
"This son was murdered; and there was confusion again till 556, when the throne was usurped by Nabonidus, the son of a soothsayer, who became a wise and active prince, and his reign ranks next in importance to that of Nebuchadnezzar. His name is found in almost all the temples unearthed. After he had ruled seventeen years, all Babylonia revolted against him because he neglected his religious duties, as well as those of the court, leaving all the business to be done by his son Belshazzar.
"At this point the historians get mixed again. Some say that Belshazzar was the last king of Babylonia. In Daniel v. 30, we read: 'In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom.' Xenophon informs us that Babylon was taken in the night while the inhabitants were engaged in feasting and revelry, and that the king was killed. To this extent sacred and profane history agree. The country became a Persian province. Then it was conquered by Alexander the Great, who died in Babylon in 323. It was also a part of the Roman Empire at two different times.
"In 650 the successors of Mohammed overthrew the Persian monarchy, and the province was the seat of the caliphs till a.d. 1258. On the Tigris in this region is the city of Bagdad, the capital of a province of the same name. Here lived and reigned the Caliph Haroun al-Raschid, or Haroun 'the Orthodox,' who is more famous in story than in history, though he was a wise ruler, a poet, and a scholar, and built up his domain. I have disposed of the two principal empires of this region, pictured on the map; and the next in order is Persia."
"You haven't told us about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, said to be one of the great wonders of the world," suggested Mrs. Belgrave.