losing the images of his gods which he kept in his camp for protection and assistance in his enterprises; and they were carried to Babylon, remaining there, it is said, 400 years. A long period of apparent quiet was followed, after more than two hundred years, by another warlike king who pushed his conquests to the Mediterranean sea. His public works were larger and more magnificent than those of any of his predecessors. He has recorded ten successtui campaigns.

7. His son, Shalmaneser II., increased the number, extent and thoroughness of the conquests of his father. Still, most of the countries conquered retained their laws and government, simply paying an annual tribute, and the conquest set lightly on them. Babylon seems to have retained comparative independence. In the following reign, Babylon was captured and remained some time tributary to Assyria and the Ninus, or Iva-lush IV., whose wife was the celebrated Semiramis, still further extended Assyrian power. The wonderful tales related by Grecian historians of Semiramis are not confirmed by the monuments. She appears to have been an energetic Babylonian princess, the principal queen of Ninus, who ruled conjointly with him. The novelty of a female ruler in that rude age, and the splendor of the empire at the time, seem to have originated the fabulous tales related of her.

8. At this time the development of the people of all the western parts of Asia was so great, and the wars as well as peaceful intercourse of different nations had so stimulated them all, that improvement kept a tolerably even step. Multitudes of populous cities and kingdoms existed in all directions. The magnificence of Solomon belongs to this period, the Jewish monarchy having reached the height of its glory and power, too high to be long endured by the proud and enterprising Assyrians. Commerce filled the east with activity and manufactures flourished, in some directions reaching high degree of excellence. A true progress marked the general course of human effort. The psalms of David show to what a lofty point the religious ideas of that age were

capable of being carried. Industrial pursuits and agriculture reached, in the next hundred and fifty years, the highest development they ever attained in some regions.

9. In the midst of this busy industry Nineveh rose, peerless in grandeur, enriching herself with the tribute and spoils of all countries, beautified by the master race, which was wise enough not to dry up the sources of their prosperity by the destruction of cities and kingdoms. The common policy, up to nearly the close of her splendid career, was to leave the real resources of all conquered nations untouched. After defeating her opposer in a battle, she received the submission of the king, imposed a heavy tax, or forced contribution, and an engagement to pay a definite annual tribute, and went on her way to subdue another nation to a like formal control. With misfortune, or a change of rulers in the dominant kingdom, the subject-kings would withhold tribute, raise an army, and the whole work of conquest had to be repeated.

Thus the empire consisted of a stable nucleus, Assyria, and a vast floating mass of half independent kingdoms, states and cities which were now submissive and now in revolt. We may easily conceive how this comparatively mild mode of warfare would contribute to the general advance of the whole population. This mingling and clash of armies, surging to and fro of vast bodies of men, and the knowledge and culture received from the great and wealthy capital made the school of that period for the education of humanity.

10. The Assyrian annals show a continued growth in splendor and power and extent of dominion until the very eve of its fall. In the course of that time Egypt was invaded and partially subdued for the first time; and, in the impatience of frequent revolt, the practice commenced of removing whole nations from their original homes, supplying their place by others. Thus the Ten Tribes were transported from their homes in Samaria, and other nations brought to occupy their places.

The last king of Assyria inherited an authority that

extended farther and over larger numbers than had ever before been known. The vigorous governing race were perhaps corrupted and weakened by a thousand years of power and success; but various extraordinary circumstances united to bring on a sudden catastrophe. A considerable part of the central kingdom was devastated by an irresistible host of Scythians, immediately after which the Medians, who were as fierce and warlike as the Assyrians in their best days, attacked Assyria. A large army, sent by the king to meet the invaders, went over to the enemy by the treachery of its general, Nabopolassar, and the combined armies laid siege to Nineveh, which fell, the king burning himself and his family in his palace. Nineveh was destroyed, and Nabopolassar received as his reward the kingdom of Babylonia, and the Assyrian conquests in the south and west. He founded the

11. Babylonian Empire, which has made a greater impression on posterity than Nineveh. He was a man of great energy and resources. The treasures and captives of that mighty city, that fell to his share, were employed in rebuilding and improving Babylon. During his reign of twentyone years, and the forty-three years of his still more illustrious son and successor, Nebuchadnezzar, that city was made the wonder of the world. Each side of it was fifteen miles in length, the river Euphrates passing through its center. They repaired the wall, which was eighty-seven feet thick and more than three hundred feet high. This wall was so immense as to contain more than twice the cubic contents of the great wall of China, which is 1,400 miles in length, and the vast enclosed space was filled with palaces, temples, hanging gardens, and all the impressive evidences of boundless power and resources in which the gross ambition of that period delighted. A second wall was built within the first, the river was, for a time, turned out of its bed and its bottom and sides paved with masonry, and huge walls erected on either bank; canals and aqueducts, for agricultural purposes, of the most stupendous character, were constructed all over the broad valley. The

wealth and energies of the richest and most populous part of Asia, as then known, were employed to build up the great capital and improve the central province.

12. The Jews were kept there, as captives, for seventy years, all the treasures of their city and temple, and the accumulated wealth of their nation, were poured into the Babylonian treasury, and their people employed, with other countless multitudes, in the construction of its walls and buildings, and the cultivation of its fields. Tyre, the most renowned commercial city of ancient times, was taken, after a siege of thirteen years, and much of Egypt was reduced.

It was the culmination of the centralizing system of the Assyrians and Chaldeans which had lasted for two thousand years.

13. A dominion so resting on physical force, and gorged with booty wrested from others, with no moral power or national spirit underlying it, could not last long. A more vigorous and warlike power rose by the union of the Persians and Medes under the Persian warrior, Cyrus, who, after a series of conquests farther north and west, in Asia Minor, turned his arms against Babylon. The walls were impregnable, but the river proved a source of weakness. It had been once diverted from its course to pave its bed within the city; the hint was accepted, and, on a night of feasting and carelessness, it was again turned aside to give free entrance to the beseigers, and the Babylonian Empire fell in the very height of its pomp and glory. We find a regular progress in organization, in most institutions, from the first Chaldean to the last Babylonian Empire. In popular religion alone was there an increasing grossness, which reached its limit about this time by the fall of the Chaldean priesthood, purer practices and ideas were circulated by the Jews in their captivity, and the Magian religion was reformed by Zoroaster.

14. The Medo-Persian Empire lasted for 200 years. Those nationalities were both of the Aryan or indo-European race. They had long been maturing on the highlands bordering the

north and east of Chaldea and Assyria, with which their connection was close enough to communicate the general value of the growing organization, but too slight to drag them down to its level. They brought now, to the common stock of progress, the freshness of youth and the healthy habits and pure blood of the mountaineer. They had a higher capacity for organization, by which the experience and progress of the older nations, for more than two thousand years, was prepared to profit. They had already subdued Asia Minor and their vast Empire soon extended from India to the sea that washed the shores of Greece. A complicated civil and military organization consolidated this extensive region more perfectly than before by armies and governors located in each nation and principal city; a system of easy communication was introduced; and the preparation for the higher Greek models of thought, and the severe regularity of Roman institutions went on apace.

15. Babylon fell gradually into decay, being only occasionally the capital of the Persian Empire; the love of the sovereigns of that race for their native highlands leading them to build splendid capitals in the borders of their own country. A reform of great significance occurred about this time in the Persian national religion, which gradually displaced the debasing superstitions and gross idolatry of all the nations of the Empire.

The government was still despotic, somewhat relieved by the more humane and independent habits and traditions of a hardier race. A number of changes of dynasty by violence occurred, but they were merely revolutions of the palace. The vast wealth and power inherited from the subject empires gradually corrupted the conquerors. Their armies became vast crowds of comparatively undisciplined troops, who were accustomed to bear everything before them by their irresistible weight. Their conquests on the northern and eastern coasts of Asia Minor brought them in conflict with the Greeks, who had many colonies long settled in that region, and the Persians