A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318, A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. This seems to be the only method of reconciling the | to provide for such as would become their servants, difference between the Septuagint version and the and submit to their directions: and thus, in continuance Hebrew text, in point of chronology; and now to proceed of time, heads of families became kings; their houses, to what we find recorded in profane history, during this together with the near habitations of their domestics, period. became cities; their servants, in their several occupations and employments, became wealthy and considerable subjects; and the inspectors and overseers of them, became ministers of state, and managers of the public affairs of the kingdom.

A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x.; AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. tower only, called the tower of Daniel, from whence may be seen all the ruins of this once vast and splendid city.

parallel with the river, and others from east to west. a The compass of the wall, which was surrounded with a vast ditch filled with water, was 480 furlongs, that is, about sixty miles; the height of it, 350 feet, and the breadth so vastly great, that carts and carriages might meet on the top of it, and pass one another without danger. Over the Euphrates (which cut the city into two equal parts, from north to south) there was a stately bridge, and at each end of the bridge, a magnificent palace, the one of four and the other of eight miles' circumference; and belonging to the larger palace, were those hanging gardens, which had so celebrated a name among the Greeks. They were made in form of a square of 400 feet on every side, and. were carried up aloft into the air, in the manner of several large terraces, one above another, till they came up to the height of the walls of the city. They were sustained by vast arches built upon arches, one above another, and strengthened by a wall on every side, that was twenty-two feet thick; and as they wanted no plants or flowers fit for a garden of pleasure, so there are said to have grown in them trees, which were no less than eight cubits thick in the body, and fifty feet in height. But this among other pompous things appertaining to this city, was the work of ages, subsequent to Nimrod, and built by Nebuchadnezzar, to gratify his wife Amytis, who, being the daughter of Astyages, king of Media, and much pleased with the mountainous and woody parts of her own country, was desirous of having something like it in Babylon.

It can hardly be imagined that the first kings were able either to make or execute laws with that strictness and rigour which is necessary in a body of men so large as to afford numerous offenders: and for this reason it seems to have been a prudent institution in Nimrod, when his city of Babylon began to be too populous to be regulated by his inspection, or governed by his influence, to lay the foundation of other cities; by which means he disposed of great numbers of his people, and, putting them under the direction of such deputies as he might appoint, brought their minds by degrees to a sense of government, until the beneficial use of it came to be experienced, and the force and power of laws settled and confirmed. He is supposed to have begun his reign A. M. 1757, to have reigned about 148 years, and to have died A. M. 1905. e

About the beginning of Nimrod's reign, Ashur, ƒ one of the descendants of Shem, being driven from Babel, as most suppose, by the invasion of Nimrod, led his company on the Tigris, and so settling in Assyria, laid the first foundation of Nineveh, which in process of time exceeded even Babylon itself in size. For, whereas we observed of Babylon, that it was in circuit 488

ruins of its fortifications are still visible, though demolished, Behind, and some little way beyond, is the tower of Babylon, which is half a league diameter, but so ruinous, so low, and so full of venomous creatures, which lodge in the holes they make in the rubbish, that no one durst approach nearer to it than when these animals never stir out of their holes.-Calmet's Dicwithin half a league, except during two months in the winter, tionary.

From the Assyrians, this great and noble city came into the hands of the Persians, and from them into the hands of the Macedonians. Here it was that Alexander the Great died; but not long after his death the city began to decline apace, by the building of Selucia, about forty miles above it, by Seleucus Nicanor, who is said to have erected this new city in spleen to the Babylonians, and to have drawn out of Babylon 500,000 persons to people it; so that the ancient city was, in the time of Curtius the historian, lessened a fourth part; in the time of Pliny, reduced to desolation; in the days of St Jerom, turned into a park, wherein the the capital city of the Parthians; for that it was the same with kings of Persia used to hunt; and, according to the rela-Ctesiphon, seems to be confirmed by the country which lies tione of some late travellers, is now reduced to one

• It must be observed, however, that all this compass of ground was not really built upon, for the houses stood at a considerable distance, with gardens and fields interspersed; so that it was a large city in scheme, rather than in reality.-Prideaux's Connection, part 1. b. 2.

6 The old palace (which was probably built by Nimrod) stood on the east side of the river, and the new one (which was built by Nebuchadnezzar) exactly over against it, on the west side.

Ibid.

e Mr Reuwolf, who, in 1574, passed through the place where this once famous city stood, speaks of the ruins of it in the following manner:-"The village of Elugo is now situate where heretofore Babylon of Chaldea stood. The harbour, where people go ashore in order to proceed by land to the city of Bagdad, is a quarter of a league distant from it. The soil is so dry and barren, that they cannot till it; and so naked, that I could never have believed that this powerful city, once the most stately and renowned in all the world, and situated in the fruitful country of Shinar, could have stood there, had I not seen, by the situation of the place, by many antiquities of great beauty, which are to be seen round about, and especially by the old bridge over the Euphrates, whereof some piles and arches, of incredible strength are still remaining, that it certainly did stand there. The whole front of the village Elugo is the hill upon which the castle stood, and the

d The cities which he founded are said to be Erec, Accad, and Calne. Erec was the same that occurs in Ptolemy, under the southern turning of the common channel of the Tigris and name of Arecca, and which is placed by him at the last, or most Euphrates. Accad lay northward of Erec, and very probably at the common joining of the Tigris and Euphrates, And Calne (which is said to be the same with Ctesiphon) upon the Tigris, about three miles distant from Seleucia, and was for some time

about it being called Chalonitis, which is evidently derived from Chalne, or Chalno, whereby we find it called in different parts of Scripture.-Wells' Geography, vol. 1. c. 5.

e According to Dr Hales, Nimrod began his reign A. M. 2857, reigned about 98 years, and died A. M. 2955.-Ed.

f Many authors have imagined that Nineveh was not built by Ashur, but by Nimrod himself, because they think it not likely that Moses should give an account of the settlement of one of the sons of Shem, where he is expressly discoursing of Ham's family; and therefore they interpret (as the marginal note directs) Gen. x. 11, out of that land went forth Ashur,' he, that is, Nimrod, went forth into Assyria, which is the explanation that I have in some measure followed; but others imagine that Moses is not so exactly methodical, but that, upon mentioning Nimrod and his people, he might hint at a colony which departed from under his government, though it happened to be led by a person of another family; that the land of Ashur and the land of Nimrod are mentioned as two distinct countries in Micah v. 6, and that if Nimrod had built Nineveh, and planted Assyria, Babylon and Assyria would have been but one empire, nor could the one be said to have conquered the other with any propriety: whereas we are expressly told by Diodorus, that the Assyrians conquered the Babylonians; and may thence infer, that before Ninus united them, Babylonia and Assyria were two distinct kingdoms, and not the plantation of one and the same founder.-Shuckford's Connection, vol. 1. b. 4.

A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. furlongs,' the description which Diodorus gives us of | Menes, seated himself at first near the entrance of Egypt. Nineveh is, that it was 150 furlongs, that is, near nineteen and there perhaps built the city of Zoan, which was miles in length; ninety furlongs, that is, somewhat anciently the habitation of the kings of Egypt; but from above eleven miles in breadth; and 480 furlongs, that is, Zoan he removed farther into the country, and took posjust sixty miles in circumference; and for this reason it session of those parts, which were afterwards called is called an exceeding great city of three days' jour- Thebais, where he built the city of Thebes, and, as Heroney,' according to the common estimation of twenty dotus will have it, the city of Memphis likewise. He miles to a day's journey. And equal to the greatness reigned sixty-two years, and died A. M. 1943. c was the strength of this city: for its walls were 100 feet high, and so very broad, that three carts might go abreast on the top of them; whereon were raised 1500 turrets, and each of them 200 feet high, and so very strong, that the place was deemed impregnable, 3 till Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, having made an affinity with Astyages, king of Media, entered into a confederacy with him against the Assyrians, and hereupon joining their forces together, they besieged Nineveh, and after having taken the place, and slain the king thereof, to gratify the Medes, they utterly destroyed that ancient city, and from that time Babylon became the metropolis of the Assyrian empire.

Such was the rise and fall of this great city, where Ashur governed his subjects much in the same manner as Nimrod did his in Babylon; for as they increased he dispersed them in the country, and a having built some other cities along the Tigris, he there settled them under the government of deputies or viceroys.

Whilst Nimrod and Ashur were settling their people in their respective countries, Mizraim, the second son of Ham, and who, by heathen writers, is constantly called

Wells' Geography.

3

2 Jonah iii. 3.

* Prideaux's Connection, vol. 1. a The cities which Ashur is said to have built were Rehoboth, Resen, and Calah. The word Rehoboth, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies streets; and the sacred historian seems to have added the word city, on purpose to show that it was here to be taken as a proper name. Now, as there are no footsteps of this name in these parts, but a town there is, by Ptolemy called Birtha, which in the Chaldee tongue denotes the same as does Rehoboth in the Hebrew, in an appellative or common acceptation; it is hence probably conjectured, that Rehoboth and Birtha are only two dif

ferent names of one and the same city, which was seated on the Tigris, about the mouth of the river Lycus. Resen is supposed by most learned men to be the same city which Xenophon mentions under the name of Larissa, and that not only because the situation of this Larissa well enough agrees with the situation of Resen, as it is described by Moses, lying between Nineveh and Calah; but because Moses observes in the same text, that Resen was a great city; in like manner, as Xenophon tells us, that Larissa, though then ruinated, had been a large city, of eight miles' circumference, with walls 100 feet high and twenty-five feet broad. And whereas Larissa is a Greek name, and in the days of Xenophon there were no Greek cities in Assyria; for this they account by supposing, that when the Greeks might ask, What city those were the ruins of? the Assyrians might answer Laresen, or of Resen, which Xenophon expressed by Larissa, a name not unlike several cities in Greece. And, lastly, as to Calah, or Calach, since we find in Strabo a country about the head of the river Lycus called Calachene, it is very probable that the said country took this name from Calach, which was one of the capital cities of it. Ptolemy makes mention likewise of a country called Calacine in these parts: and whereas Pliny mentions a people called Classitæ, through whose country the Lycus runs, there is some reason to suppose, that Classita is a corruption of Calachitæ. -Wells' Geography, vol. 1.

The person whom Moses calls Mizraim, is, by Diodorus and other heathen writers, commonly called Menes, by Syncellus, Mestraim. Menes is supposed to be the first king of Egypt by Herodotus, b. 2. by Diodorus b. 1. by Eratosthenes and Afri

Belus succeeded Nimrod, and was the second king of Babylon; but whether he was related to his predecessor or not, is a thing uncertain. It seems most likely, that as Nimrod, though a young man in comparison of many then alive, was advanced, for some merit or other, to the regal dignity; so when he died, Belus might appear to be the most proper person, and for that reason was appointed to succeed him: for he is represented a prince of study, the inventor of the Chaldean astronomy, and one who spent his time in cultivating his country and improving his people. He reigned sixty years, and died A. M. 1969, d

Ashur, king of Nineveh, dying much about this time, Ninus became the second king of Assyria, and proved a man of an ambitious and enterprising spirit. Babylonia lay too near him not to become the object of his desire; and, therefore, making all military preparations for that purpose, he invaded it, and as its inhabitants had no great skill in war, soon vanquished them, and laid them under tribute. His success in this attempt made him begin to think of subjecting other nations; and, as one conquest paved the way for another, in a few years he overran many of the infant states of Asia, and so, by uniting kingdom to kingdom, made a great accession to the Assyrian empire. His last attempt was upon Oxyartes, or Zoroastres, king of Bactria, where he met with a brisker opposition than he had hitherto experienced; but at length, by the contrivance and conduct of Semiramis, the wife of one Memmon, a captain in his army, he took the capital, and reduced the kingdom; but being hereupon charmed with the spirit and bravery of the woman, he fell in love with her, and prevailed with her husband (by giving him his own daughter in lieu of Semiramis in marriage) to consent to his having her for his wife. By her he had a son named Ninyas; and after a reign of fifty-two years he died A. M. 2017. e

Ninyas was but a minor when his father died; and therefore his mother, who all along had a great sway in the administration of public affairs during her husband's

canus from Manetho; by Eusebius and Syncellus in Chro Euseb.; and the time of Menes coincides very well with those of Moses' Mizraim, as Sir John Marsham [in his Can. Chron. p. 2.] has pretty clearly evinced.-Shuckford's Connection,

vol. 1. b. 4.

e According to Hales's chronology, Mizraim settled in Egypt A. M. 2798; but whether Mizraim the son of Noah was the same person with Menes, called by the Greek writers the first king of Egypt, is uncertain. According to the same chronologist, Menes began his reign, B. C. 2412; that is, A. M. 2999.

d Dr Hales, and Bishop Gleig following him, think that Belus and Nimrod were the same person; this, however, is doubtful. See Bell's Dissertation on the Origin of the Assyrian Empire, Rollin, vol. 1. pp. 117-122.-ED.

e The Ninus of whom all this is said, was not the son of either Ashur or Nimrod, but Ninus II. who succeeded to the Assyrian throne B. C. 1252, and A. M. according to Hales's chronology, 4159.

A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END.

lifetime, continued in the government, with the consent | only his name and the time of his death: for after he and approbation of her subjects. She removed her court had reigned sixty-three years, according to Syncellus, from Nineveh to Babylon, which she encompassed with he died A. M. 2006. the wall we mentioned before, and adorned with many public and magnificent buildings; and, having thus finished the seat of her empire, and settled all the neighbouring kingdoms under her authority, she raised an army, with an intent to conquer India: but after a long and dangerous war, being tired out with defeats, she was obliged, with the small remainder of her forces, to return home, where, finding herself in disgrace with her people, she resigned the crown and authority to her son, after she had reigned forty-two years, and soon after died, A, M. 2059.

1

Her son Ninyas began his reign full of a sense of the errors of his mother's administration, and engaged in none of the wars and dangerous expeditions wherein she had harassed and fatigued her people: but though he was not ambitious to enlarge his empire, yet he took all due care to regulate and settle upon a good foundation the extensive dominions which his parents had left him. By a wise contrivance of annual deputies over his provinces, he prevented many revolts of distant countries, which might otherwise have happened, and his taking up that state of being difficult of access (which was afterwards much improved by eastern monarchs) might perhaps procure him a greater veneration from his subjects. However this be, it is certain that most authors have represented him as a weak and effeminate prince, which might naturally arise, without any other foundation, from his succeeding a father and mother, who were rather too active to enlarge their dominions; as well as from the disposition in most writers to think a turbulent and warlike reign, if victorious, a glorious one, and to overlook an administration that is employed in the silent but more happy arts of peace and good government.

In Egypt, Mizraim had three sons, who, after his death, became the kings of the several parts thereof. Ananim, or rather Anan, was king of the Lower Egypt, or Delta; Naphtuhim, or Naph, of Middle Egypt, or the country about Memphis ; and Pathrusim, or Patrus, of the Upper Egypt, or the country of Thebais; and agreeably hereunto, from these three kings did these several countries take their ancient denominations. Of the first of these, namely, Ananim, we have nothing remaining but

1 Diodorus Siculus, b. 2.

a Justin, in his history of this woman, informs us, that upon the death of her husband, she made use of the stratagem of personating her son to obtain the empire to herself; but Diodorus, with more probability, ascribes her advancement to her conduct, travery, and magnanimous behaviour. When she took upon her to be queen, the public affairs were put in the hands to which Ninus, when alive, used generally to commit them; and it is not likely that the people should be uneasy at her governing, who had for several years together, by a series of actions, gained herself a great credit and ascendant over them; especially if we consider, that when she took up the sovereignty, she still pressed forward in a course of action which continually exceeded the expectations of her people, and left no room for any to be willing to dispute her authority.-Shuckford's Connection, vol. 1. b. 4.

Of the second, namely, Naphtuhim, we are told that he was the author of the architecture of those ages, had some useful knowledge of physic and anatomy, and taught his subjects (as he learned it from his brother Pathrusim) the use of letters; for to this Pathrusim (whom they call Thyoth) the Egyptians indeed ascribe the invention of all arts and sciences whatever. The Greeks called him Hermes, and the Latins, Mercurius; and while his father Mizraim lived, he is supposed to have been his secretary, and greatly assistant to him in all his undertakings. When his father died, he instructed his brothers in all the knowledge he was master of; and as for his own people, he made wholesome laws for their government; settled their religion and form of worship; and enriched their language by the addition of several words, to express several things which before they had no names for. c

There is no reason to believe that the Semiramis, who enlarged and beautified the city of Babylon, was the wife of Ninus II. Ctesias and Justin, from whom this story is taken, are authors of no credit. It is probable that the great Semiramis was either the mother or the wife of Nabonassar, who really walled Babylon, about B. C. 747, as we learn from Herodotus. Hales, vol. 4. p. 51, second edition.

2

This is the best account that we can give of the Babylonian or Assyrian empires, and of the kings that ruled Egypt, for some ages next after the dispersion of mankind. Other nations, no doubt, were settled into regular governments in these times : Canaan was inhabited rather sooner than Egypt; and, according to Moses, Hebron, in Canaan, was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt; but as none of those nations made any considerable figure in the first ages, their actions lie in obscurity, and must be buried in oblivion. The few men of extraordinary note that were then in the world lived in Egypt and Assyria; and for this reason we find little or no mention of any other countries until one of these two nations came to send out colonies, which by degrees polished the people they travelled to, and instructed them in such arts and sciences as made them appear with credit in their own age, and (as soon as the use of letters was made public) transmitted their names with honour to posterity.

The knowledge of letters cannot have been of any long standing among us Europeans, who are settled far from the first seats of mankind, and far from the places which the descendants of Noah first planted. "None of the ancient Thracians,' says Elian," knew any thing of letters; nay, the Europeans in general thought it disreputable to learn them, though in Asia they were held in greater request." The Goths, according to the express testimony of Socrates, had their letters and writings

4

Numb. xiii. 11.

Universal History, b. 8. c. 6. Hist. Eccles, b. 4. c. 33.

c It is well observed by Dr Hales, that the Egyptian chronology, at this early period, is a labyrinth, in which the most eminent scholars and antiquaries have lost their way and misled their readers. Unquestionably the best account of it that has fallen in my way, is that which he has furnished himself; but to give, in a note on this work, any abridgment of the discussions by which he endeavours to render it consistent with the chronology of Scripture, or indeed with itself, is impossible. Suffice it to say here, that if Pathrusim be the same with Thoth or Thyoth, he was the son and minister, not of Mizraim the son of Ham, but of Menes, whom our laborious chronologer has proved to have begun his reign, B. C. 2412, and A. M. 2999; that is, at a period earlier, by 990 years, than that at which our author fixes the death of Pathrusim's elder brother. See Hales' Analysis, second edition, vol. 4. pp. 400 et seq. as quoted by Bishop Gleig.

A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. To the end.

from Ulphilas their bishop, A. D. 370. The Sclavonians | placed, so as to form syllables and words; that the wit received theirs from Methodius, a philosopher, about of man, I say, could immediately and directly fall A. D. 856. The people of Dalmatia had theirs not till upon a project of this nature, is what exceeds the most St Jerom's, and those of Illyria, not till St Cyril's days, exalted notions we can possibly form of his capacity, towards the end of the fourth century. and must therefore remit us to God (in whom are hid all the treasures of infinite wisdom) for the first invention and contrivance of it.