The Historians' History of the World 01

Abydenus, in his history of the Assyrians, has preserved the following fragment of Megasthenes, who says: That Nabucodrosorus [Nebuchadrezzar], having become more powerful than Hercules, invaded Libya and Iberia [Spain], and when he had rendered them tributary, he extended his conquests over the inhabitants of the shores upon the right of the sea. It is, moreover, related by the Chaldeans that as he went up into his palace he was possessed by some god; and he cried out and said:

“Oh! Babylonians, I, Nabucodrosorus, foretell unto you a calamity which must shortly come to pass, which neither Belus, my ancestor, nor his queen Beltis, have power to persuade the Fates to turn away. A Persian mule shall come, and by the assistance of your gods shall impose upon you the yoke of slavery; the author of which shall be a Mede, the vainglory of Assyria. Before he should thus betray my subjects, O! that some sea or whirlpool might receive him, and his memory be blotted out forever; or that he might be cast out to wander through some desert where there are neither cities nor the trace of men, a solitary exile among rocks and caverns, where beasts and birds alone abide. But for me, before he shall have conceived these mischiefs in his mind a happier end will be provided.”

When he had thus prophesied, he expired, and was succeeded by his son Evilmaruchus [Evil-merodach], who was slain by his kinsman Neriglisares; and Neriglisares left Labassoarascus his son; and when he also had suffered death by violence, they crowned Nabannidochus [Nabonidus], who had no connection with the royal family; and in his reign Cyrus took Babylon, and granted him a principality in Carmania.

And concerning the rebuilding of Babylon by Nabuchodonosor, he [Megasthenes] writes thus: It is said that from the beginning all things were water, called the sea; that Belus caused this state of things to cease, and appointed to each its proper place; and he surrounded Babylon with a wall; but in process of time this wall disappeared; and Nabuchodonosor walled it in again, and it remained so with its brazen gates until the time of the Macedonian conquest. And after other things he [Megasthenes] says: Nabuchodonosor having succeeded to the kingdom, built the walls of Babylon in a triple circuit in fifteen days; and he turned the river Armacale, a branch of the Euphrates, and the Acracanus; and above the city of Sippara he dug a receptacle for the waters, whose perimeter was forty parasangs and whose depth was twenty cubits; and he placed gates at the entrance thereof, by opening which they irrigated the plains, and these they called echetognomones (sluices); and he constructed dikes against the eruptions of the Erythræan Sea, and built the city of Teredon to check the incursions of the Arabs; and he adorned the palaces with trees, calling them hanging gardens. [From Abydenus.]b

NINUS AND SEMIRAMIS

The reader, having already passed in review the chief events of Mesopotamian history, is aware that the modern historian knows nothing of a King Ninus, or of any warlike female ruler of Assyria. Nevertheless this story of Diodorus—the only long account of Assyrian affairs that has come down to us from antiquity—has true historical value, as showing the manner of tradition that may be woven about the half-remembered facts of history. The account has interest for yet another reason: it is a record that passed current as the authentic history of Assyria for some eighteen hundred years—from classical times till after the middle of the nineteenth century.a

Asia was anciently govern’d, says Diodorus, by its own Native Kings, of whom there’s no History extant, either as to any memorable Actions they perform’d, or so much as to their Names.

Ninus is the First King of Assyria that is recorded in History; he perform’d many great and noble Actions; of whom we have design’d to set forth something particularly.

He was naturally of a Warlike Disposition, and very ambitious of Honour and Glory, and therefore caus’d the strongest of his Young Men to be train’d up in Martial Discipline, and by long and continual Exercise inur’d them readily to undergo all the Toyls and Hazards of War.

Having therefore rais’d a gallant Army, he made a League with Arieus King of Arabia, that was at that time full of strong and valiant Men. For that Nation are constant Lovers of Liberty, never upon any Terms admitting of any Foreign Prince: And therefore neither the Persian, nor the Macedonian Kings after them, (though they were most powerful in Arms) were ever able to conquer them. For Arabia being partly Desert, and partly parcht up for want of Water (unless it be in some secret Wells and Pits known only to the Inhabitants) cannot be subdu’d by any Foreign Force.