I. "made war upon the Persians," and "first reduced LETTER "them under the Median sway75;" that with "the "united forces of these two nations, he subdued all the "neighbouring countries, attacking one people after "another;" that, at length, "he turned his arms "against the Assyrians;" and on "those Assyrians “who inhabited the city of Nineveh"; formerly the go❝verning people in Asia, and still formidable, though ❝ deserted by their confederates," so that in this expedition "Phraortes perished with the greater part of "his army" And to say nothing of the wars of the Assyrians to the west of the Euphrates, immediately after the revolt of the Medes and Babylonians79 (the particulars of which I shall afterward have occasion to relate from the Hebrew records), it appears from the agreement of sacred history with Ptolemy's Astronomical Canon, that Esarhaddon, or Assaradon, the son and successor of Senacherib, sovereign of Assyria, had reunited the kingdom of Babylon to that ancient monarchy in the sixty-seventh year of the Nabonassarean ærao. The glory of the Assyrian empire, however, after this reunion, was of short duration, notwithstanding the defeat of the Medes. Cyaxares I. the son of Phraortes, a brave and warlike prince, having resolved to take vengeance upon the Assyrians for the death of his father, assembled his numerous and disciplined forces, and marched into the heart of their country81; defeated 75. Herodot. lib. i. cii. cap. 76. Id. ib. 77. Herodot. ubi sup. 78. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. cii. This event happened in the twentysecond year of the reign of Phraortes. Id. ibid. 79. See ii. Kings, chap. xvi.-xix. and ii. Chron. chap. xxxii. xxxiii. 80. Compare ii. Kings, chap. xix. ver. 35, 36. and ii. Chron. chap. xxxiii. ver. 11. with Ptolemy's Canon. Astronom. 81. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. ciii. This venerable historian says that Cyaxares had united under his standard, when he invaded Assyria, all the nations of Upper Asia as far as the river Halys; and that he had 1 greatly 635. Ant. Chr. Nabonass. æra 112. PART I. defeated the army that attempted to obstruct his progress, and invested Nineveh82. But before he could make any impression upon the fortifications83, he was obliged to raise the siege, in order to defend his own dominions against an irruption of the European Scythians84; who had entered Asia under their king MaNabonass. dyes, after having driven before them the Cimmerians, from the Chersonesus Tauricas, now known by the name of the Crimea. Ant. Chr. 633. raæ 114. This is the first occasion on which history makes mention of the Scythians; whose mode of life, and manner of making war, appeared to have been nearly the same in all ages85. Those fierce barbarians broke, in a great battle, the power of the victorious Medes, and over-ran all the countries between the Caspian sea and coast of Syria. Of Upper Asia they remained masters twenty-eight years; and so long did they con greatly improved their military discipline, by forming them into dis- 83. The fortifications of Nineveh, according to Diodorus Siculus, the only author who describes them, were of amazing strength; the walls being one hundred feet high, and so thick that three carriages might drive abreast upon them; and the towers, with which they were flanked, two hundred feet in height. (Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 92.) Whence Diodorus had his information, he has not told us. 84. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. ciii. 85. Id. ibid. et seq. The Cimmerians, an enemy scarcely less terrible than the Scythian horde that had expelled them, directed their course to the west, along the coast of the Euxine sea; over-ran Asia-Minor, and pillaged the kingdom of Lydia. (Herodotus, lib. i. cap. vi. xv.) The citadel of Sardis alone withstood their fury. Herodot. lib. i. cap. xv. 86. See Gibbon's Hist. of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. chap. xxvi. xxxiv. 87. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. civ.-cvi. 88, Ibid. lib. i. cap cvi. tinue to ravage with their inroads the most fertile pro- LETTER vinces of Lower Asia89. I. Ant. Chr. 625. æra 122. During this period of violence and calamity, in which barbarian force reigned triumphant, and when strong cities only can be supposed to have resisted the shock of the ferocious invaders, Nabopollassar, viceroy of Babylon, revolted from Chyniladan, emperor of Assyria, and assumed independent sove- Nabonass. reignty. He had been encouraged in his rebellion by the hostile Cyaxares, who still meditated the destruction of Nineveh9. And no sooner did the king of the Medes find himself freed from the domination of the Scythians, whose chieftains he had invited to a feast, and slain while drunk92; and from a war, in which Ant. Chr. some Scythian fugitives involved him, with Alvattes, king of Lydia, that lasted five years 93, then he renewed hostilities against Assyria94. Cyaxares again entered that rich country, in conjunction with Nabocolassar, or Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the son and successor of Nabopollassar; and these two powerful monarchs, who were knit in close alliance, finally subverted the empire of the first 89. Id. ibid. 90. Alex. Polyhist. ap. Cyncel. Chronograph. p. 110. 91. Id. ibid. 92. Herodotus, lib. i. cap. cvi. 93. Herodot. lib. i. cap. Ixxiv. That war was terminated in consequence of a solar eclipse, which had been predicted by Thales the Milesian; (Id. ibid.) who to his own natural sagacity had added the learning of Egypt. When the Medes and Lydians had joined battle, in the sixth campaign, says Herodotus, the day was suddenly changed into night; an appearance which so affected them, that they desisted from action. (Herodot. ubi sup.) A suspension of hostilities took place; and peace was concluded between the contending monarchs, through the mediation of the kings of Babylon and Cilicia. (Id. ibid.) This peace was ratified with the oath of the contracting parties; and, as a farther tie, Alyattes gave his daughter Aryenis, in marriage to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares. Herodot. lib. i. cap. lxxiv. 94. Ibid. lib. i. chap. cvi. Assyrians, 605. Nabonass. æra 142 Ant. Chr. 600. PART I. Assyrians95. Nineveh, the famous capital of this ancient people, was utterly destroyed: and the remaining provinces of their monarchy (as I shall afterward Nabonass. have occasion to relate) were divided between the kings of Media and Babylon. æra 147. The taking of Nineveh, my lord, is one of the greatest events in the history of ancient nations; but we are left totally in the dark by historians, both civil and sacred, in regard to the circumstances with which it was attended. The prophet Nahum is the only writer that has entered into particulars on the subject; and as he is supposed to have been divinely inspired, if he had not the advantage of historical information (for ecclesiastical writers have not been able to fix the time when he lived), I shall copy the most marking strokes in his sublime description; which gives us a very high idea of the grandeur of the old Assyrians, and of the power of the Medes. "Woe to the bloody city!"-exclaims the prophet; "because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the "well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts; "that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and "royal families through her witchcrafts. Keep watch! "make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily; "for he that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy "face. The shield of his warriors is made red, the 95. Compare Herodotus, lib. i. cap. cvi. with Alex. Polyhist. ap. Syncel. Chronograph. p. 110. et ap. Euseb. Chronicon. p. 46. Herodotus declines entering into the particulars of this expedition, saying he shall have occasion to relate them in another place; (Herodot. ubi. sup.) alluding, no doubt, to the history of Assyria, which he proposed to write. But he observes, that the Medes conquered all the Assyrian territories, except what belonged to the king of Babylon. (Id. ibid.) We have, therefore, great reason to believe, independent of the authority of Polyhistor, that Cyaxares and Nabocolassar were joint adventurers in this enterprize, and that Nineveh was taken immediately after the close of the Lydian war. 96. Strabo, lib. xvi. init. "valiant I. ❝valiant are in scarlet. Behold, thy people in the LETTER "midst of thee are women!-the gates of thy land "shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire "shall devour thy bars. I hear the noise of a whip; "and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, of the "prancing of horses; and of the jumping of chariots : "they rage like a tempest, in the streets; they blaze "like torches; they run like lightnings! The horse"man lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering 66 spear; there is a multitude slain, yet no end of the "slaughter; they stumble upon the corpses, because "of their great number!-The victors take the spoil "of silver, they take the spoil of gold; the store is "beyond computation; and above all, the spoil of "splendid and rich furniture. Nineveh is empty, de"solate, and waste!-Where is the dwelling of the "lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions ?— "There the lion, even the old lion walked, and the "lion's whelp, and none made them afraid. The lion "did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and "strangled for his lionesses; and filled his holes with 66 prey, and his dens with ravin. Nineveh, which was "established of old, is like a pool of water. Her 66 princes were as the locusts, and her captains as the 66 great grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges "during the cool of the morning; but, when the sun "ariseth, they fly away, and their place is not known. "Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria! thy no"bles dwell in the dust: thy people are scattered upon "the mountains, and no man gathereth them. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF EGYPT TO THE REIGN OF BEFORE the foundation of the Assyrian empire, Egypt was a populous and powerful kingdom, under 97. Nahum, chap. ii.iii. passim. a regular |