The Historians' History of the World 01

The liquid asphaltus, which is called naphtha, is found in Susiana; the dry kind, which can be made solid, in Babylonia. There is a spring of it near the Euphrates. When this river overflows at the time of the melting of the snow, the spring also of asphaltus is filled and overflows into the river, where large clods are consolidated, fit for buildings constructed of baked bricks. Others say that the liquid kind also is found in Babylonia. With respect to the solid kind, I have described its great utility in the construction of buildings. They say that boats (of reeds) are woven, which, when besmeared with asphaltus, are firmly compacted. The liquid kind, called naphtha, is of a singular nature. When it is brought near the fire, the fire catches it; and if a body smeared over with it is brought near the fire, it burns with a flame, which it is impossible to extinguish, except with a large quantity of water; with a small quantity it burns more violently, but it may be smothered and extinguished by mud, vinegar, alum, and glue. It is said that Alexander, as an experiment, ordered naphtha to be poured over a boy in a bath, and a lamp to be brought near his body. The boy became enveloped in flames, and would have perished if the bystanders had not mastered the fire by pouring upon him a great quantity of water, and thus saved his life.

Poseidonius says that there are springs of naphtha in Babylonia, some of which produce white, others black, naphtha; the first of these, I mean the white naphtha, which attracts flame, is liquid sulphur; the second, or black naphtha, is liquid asphaltus, and is burnt in lamps instead of oil.

In former times the capital of Assyria was Babylon; it is now called Seleucia upon the Tigris. Near it is a large village called Ctesiphon. This the Parthian kings usually made their winter residence, with a view to spare the Seleucians the burden of furnishing quarters for the Scythian soldiery. In consequence of the power of Parthia, Ctesiphon may be considered as a city rather than a village; from its size it is capable of lodging a great multitude of people; it has been adorned with public buildings by the Parthians, and has furnished merchandise, and given rise to arts profitable to its masters.

The kings usually passed the winter there, on account of the salubrity of the air, and the summer at Ecbatana and in Hyrcania, induced by the ancient renown of these places.

As we call the country Babylonia, so we call the people Babylonians, not from the name of the city, but of the country; the case is not precisely the same, however, as regards even natives of Seleucia, as, for instance, Diogenes, the stoic philosopher [who had the appellation of the Babylonian, and not the Seleucian].d

We turn now from the classical accounts having to do with the manners and customs of the Mesopotamians to more modern interpretations. The account of the commercial relations of the Babylonians given in the succeeding section still has full authority, notwithstanding it was written before modern excavations had created the new science of Assyriology. No later writer has so profoundly studied the conditions of commerce and trade in antiquity as Heeren, and his accounts are still the most illuminative accessible. The monumental pictures and inscriptions, much as they have told us of the political history, and of the art, literature, and science of the Mesopotamians, have added singularly little to our knowledge of the peaceful relations of oriental nations as evidenced by their commercial dealings. The chance references of classical writers still furnish us the foundation of our knowledge of this subject, and the Assyrian monuments, where they have thrown any light on the subject at all, have chiefly served to substantiate our previous inferences. Thus, to cite a single example, the pictures on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser II show us such beasts as apes and elephants being brought as tribute to the conqueror, confirming in the most unequivocal way the belief, based on Ctesias and Strabo, that the Assyrians held commercial relations with India.

The narrative of Heeren will be supplemented, however, by accounts of the manners and customs of the people in question based upon a more recent study of the monuments, both pictorial and documentary. We have already noted that the sculptures rather than the written documents furnish us a view of the everyday life of the people. Certain matters, however, such as those pertaining to legal transactions, could not possibly be known to us except through the medium of inscriptions.a

THE COMMERCE OF THE BABYLONIANS