The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01

by Unknown

It is pure supposition to say that civilisation in Babylonia started out from the shores of the Persian Gulf and spread from there towards the north, but it is a supposition which has a high degree of probability. In this direction points the old legend of the Babylonians, as Berossus relates it, which describes the origin of civilisation—the legend of the divine fish-man Oannes, who came up in the morning from the Erythræan Sea, instructed the inhabitants of Chaldea, who were still living like animals, in the arts and sciences, and then in the evening disappeared again under the waves. This fish-god has long since been recognised as the god who is so frequently depicted on Babylonian and Assyrian monuments, and it can now hardly be longer doubted that he, the god of the waters, or rather the source of light and fire in the waters, is the god Ea. This god with his circle is without doubt indigenous to southern Chaldea. The oldest and most important centre of his cult is Eridu, situated close to the sea. His son Marduk, and the god connected with him whom the Semites call Nabu, is especially honoured on the islands and coast of the Persian Gulf. Thus if legend traces the culture of the Chaldeans from the instruction of this god, this is the origin of the tradition that his worshippers, who must have been mariners and dwellers on the sea coast, introduced this civilisation into Chaldea.

In agreement with this is the fact that the decrees of Ea and the magic formulæ of Eridu, his chief city situated near the sea, are repeatedly designated as being very holy and powerful, and as very ancient; also that the oldest sayings and traditions which are known to us in the Gisdubas (Gilgamesh) epic, are located precisely in places on the sea coast or not far distant from it. These were also the centres of powerful states, as also of the kingdom of Ur, and the oldest monuments of Chaldean civilisation which have yet become known to us were found in southern Babylonia at Telloh.

However, wherever its origin may have been, the great age of Babylonian culture, of which the Assyrian is only a later branch, stands beyond doubt. The cylinders of Sargon I as well as the statues found at Telloh show a high grade of development and presuppose an art which already has a long past behind it. That the Egyptian culture is younger and even derived from the Babylonian, and that the latter is thus the oldest in the world, and at the same time was the mother of all other civilisations of antiquity, as has been claimed (Hommel), can naturally not be proved and is still doubtful; but it is not impossible. And the most remarkable fact is, that at least the plastic art could never again reach the heights it had already attained in such a gray antiquity.

This does not mean to imply that the Babylonians did not further develop the civilisation, the elements of which they had received from their predecessors. They assimilated it and developed it independently; it may even be assumed that they improved on it in more than one respect, and applied it to higher ends. They also introduced into it much that was peculiar to them. How far this was the case—what with them was borrowed and what original, cannot yet be determined in detail. At any rate we are not justified in attributing to their non-Semitic teachers, as often happens, everything barbaric, cruel, and repulsive that still characterises their customs, nor all the superstitions still connected with their religion.

The original inhabitants excelled the Semites in artistic spirit and ability, perhaps also as traders and mariners, and the latter probably imitated the former, but seldom reached them and never surpassed them. The Semites, on the other hand, put more depth and earnestness into their religious life; energetically carried out the monarchic principle in this, as also in the life of the state; simplified the writing; enriched the literature, which was thus rendered more practical, by highly remarkable epic narrations, especially with epic poems, and even made an attempt to write history. Furthermore, by the organisation of a capable army, by the warlike talents of their kings and generals, as also by their unbending character and persevering will, they established states which endured the most violent upheavals and changes, and ruled all their neighbours for centuries. If they were behind their predecessors in some points, they far surpassed them in others. The conception that one people takes on the culture of another, quite as one puts on a borrowed dress, is just as foolish as the conception that a nation relinquishes its own individuality and originality as soon as it learns something from another. The Greeks of whom it has now been proved that they owed much to oriental peoples, the Persians of whom everyone knows that they borrowed most of their civilisation from Babylon, prove the contrary. The people who brought its culture to the southern coasts of Babylonia and probably also to the coasts of Elan and communicated it to the still uncultured races living there, seems to have belonged to that peaceful, commercial race which the Hebrews designated as the “sons of Kush,” which was not unlike the Phœnicians and was placed in the same category; a race which, while jealous of its independence, was not aggressive, although inclined to colonisation and to making distant journeys. These dwellers on the coasts, together with the inland tribes, were then conquered by the Semites, perhaps after long battles. If, however, they became in this way, as always, the teachers of their conquerors, the culture which grew under their influence was none the less a creation, and thus the inalienable property of the Babylonians.

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE

How high a state of civilisation the Babylonians had reached is shown by the fact that the invention of writing was a long-accomplished fact with them. The oldest inscriptions known to us, and which certainly date as far back as 4000 B.C., are already written in a species of character which from similarity to the second Egyptian style of writing has been called hieratic, and it has been proved that this hieratic style of writing has been evolved from older hieroglyphics, long since fallen into disuse.

It is not known whether any other material than stone or clay was used to write upon, and whether in such case syllabic writing was used or not. It has been surmised that the Babylonians and Assyrians also used, and perhaps exclusively at first, papyrus, leather, and other soft materials to write upon, and engraved upon stone or clay only such matter as they wished to preserve. This is not improbable, even though we do not possess any such manuscripts. For as a matter of course the first named materials could not withstand the Babylonian climate as well as the Egyptian, and only the last named are proof against fire and water. It is a fact, however, that the bas-reliefs show the scribes recording the number of the slain on soft material, probably leather, as well as upon hard tablets. Whether they also wrote books or letters on papyrus or leather has not been definitely established.

However much the writing of the Babylonians and Assyrians may have been an inheritance from very ancient times, and how much they may be indebted to the early Chaldeans for the single form and the structure of the whole system, the cuneiform writing in which they represented their language was their own invention in more than one respect, since they did not thoughtlessly use what was ready to hand, but modified and altered it with deliberation.

Writing was also used by the Babylonians and Assyrians for purely literary purposes. The narratives, legends, or poems were inscribed on tablets of clay, and if in case of a work of greater size, the two sides covered with microscopic characters did not suffice, a series of such was used, which were clearly designated and numbered, so that they were in fact leaves of a book. Generally the title of the whole, as usual with the Hebrews, the first words and the first words of the following tablet were inscribed on every tablet. This literature even if limited to the productions of the imagination, is comparatively abundant. Although in this respect it may not equal the literature of some races still living, such as the Chinese, Arabian, Persian, and Indian, nor that of the ancient times of Greece and India, which in the last named country grows as luxuriantly as its vegetation, yet on the other hand, it excels in this respect that of the other Semitic races, the Hebrews not excepted. This is proved not only by the writings so far discovered but also by the catalogues of books in Babylonian libraries or of similar works elsewhere. However, enough has been brought to light, and in a fair state of preservation, to enable us to form an opinion of the literary talent of the Babylonians, and to prove to us what great varieties of it they cultivated.