CHAPTER XXIX.

NINEVEH-THE ASSYRIANS-SEMIRAMIS.

N

INEVEH, the capital of Assyria, was founded shortly

after Babel or Babylon, about two hundred and eighty miles north of that city, on the east bank of the river Tigris. The Bible account is, "Out of that land (Shinar) went forth Asshur (one of the sons of Shem) and builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, 1" etc. In the margin it reads, Nimrod after building Babylon and Calneh in the land of Shinar, went out into Assyria and builded Nineveh and Rehoboth, the streets of the city or the great public or market places. A tradition declares that Nineveh took its name from Ninus; and that Ninus was the son of Nimrod: this, however, could not well have been, as Micah speaks of the land of Asshur and the land of Nimrod as two distinct countries; and besides, according to received history, Ninus, the second king of Assyria, conquered the Babylonians and united the two kingdoms.

2

The Assyrians were the descendants of Asshur, the second son of Shem. His territory in Shinar appears to have been invaded by Nimrod the giant hunter of his brethren before (or in the face of) the Lord. Nineveh was probably first built as a fortress. The kingdom of Assyria was inconsiderable when Ninus began to reign. He soon enlarged it by his conquests and laid the foundations of a mighty empire. He was ever restless and ambitious, and, according to Justin, began the first general wars, and thus broke the peace of the world. He died B. C. 1987, after reigning fifty-two years.

The Assyrian empire was founded, B. C. 2059, and lasted till the reign of Sardanapalus, the thirty-first sovereign, B. C. 747, a period of about 1300 years. Little is known of Nineveh or Assyria during nearly the whole of that period. The first king of Assyria mentioned by name in Scripture is Pul, supposed to have been the father of Sardanapalus. Pul invaded Israel in the days of Menahem, B. C. 769 having been "stirred up by the God of Israel" to do this, because Israel had forsaken the God of their fathers.2 Before this we have a partial history of Nineveh in the book of Jonah, B. C. 862; in which it appears that "Nineveh believed God," when He sent a prophet with a message threatening its destruction. As the result of that faith, we behold all the inhabitants of a great heathen city humbling themselves before God: proclaiming a fast; and, from the king down, the greatest to the least, putting on sackcloth; sitting in ashes; repenting of sin; and crying mightily unto God. It is not strange that God heard them.

It was by the king of Assyria that the Lord removed. Israel out of his sight for their sins. From that time the ten tribes disappeared. It was a king of Assyria that sent the blasphemous message to Hezekiah; and it was to his dwelling at Nineveh that he returned, after the angel of the Lord had smitten in one night, in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred and fourscore and five thousand."

Of Assyrian history, written by natives, nothing remains excepting some fragments of Berosus the Babylonian, who wrote in the fourth century before Christ, and is quoted by Josephus. The history of Assyria, said to have been written by Herodotus, is lost. Outside of the Bible, little dependence can be placed on any history, written by the ancients, of occurrences which took place before their day. When they speak of such events, they not only do not agree one.

2 Kings xv. 19.
42 Kings xvii. 5, 23.

21 Chron. v. 25, 26.

3 Jonah iii. 5. 6 Isaiah xxxvii. 37.

with another, but they also blend truth and fiction, tradition and superstition, so together, as to make the sifting difficult, and at times impossible. For instance, few names are more celebrated than that of Semiramis, described by some as queen of Babylon, and by others as queen of Nineveh: while there are some who, on account of the difficulty of ascertaining who she was, when she lived, and what she accomplished, go so far as to doubt whether there ever was such a queen at all; and suppose that it was the name of a tribe. As to the age in which she lived, Syncellus, a Byzantine historian, gives the date 2177 B. C., while Herodotus places her about B. C. 713; and Dr. Usher, B. C. 1215. Different authors make her the wife, daughter, mother, and some the step-mother of Ninus. There may have been several queens by the name of Semiramis, each adding to the celebrity of the name, and also tending to add to the obscurity of ancient history. Semiramis removed her court from Nineveh to Babylon: and her name may be associated thus with both cities.

The vast works attributed to this ancient queen are the great walls of Babylon, and the first bridge over the Euphrates. She is described as leading her armies to battle, and as a conqueror penetrating India and Bactria. The accounts of her death are as various as those of her life. According to one, she was turned into a dove, and worshipped under that form in Assyria; another tells us that she burned herself, at Babylon, in a fit of grief at the loss of a favorite horse ; a third states that she was murdered by the command of her step-son Ninyas. She is said to have come into notice in this way: Ninus was unsuccessful in an attack on some fortress; Semiramis, the wife of one of his soldiers, promised to gain it for him. Being allowed to take the command, by her skill and courage she not only took the fortress, but so gained for herself the admiration of Ninus, that he took her from her husband, and made her the partner of his empire; and when he died, he left the whole, with