luxury and magnificence, Babylon would necessarily have some connection with Greeks. We hear of a Greek having served in Nebuchadnezzar's army, and won glory and reward under his banners.1 Direct intercourse with Hellenes may thus have brought Hellenic instruments to Babylon. Or the intercourse may have been indirect.

The Phoenicians were engaged in a carrying trade between Europe and Asia from a time. anterior to Solomon; and their caravans were continually passing from Tyre and Sidon, by way of Tadmor and Thapsacus, to the Chaldæan capital. Nothing would be more natural than the importation into that city, at any time between B. C. 605 and B.C. 538, of articles manufactured in Greece, which the Babylonians were likely to appreciate.

The position of the king in the Babylonian court, as absolute lord and master of the lives and liberties even of the greatest of his subjects, able to condemn to death, not only individuals (ch. iii. 19), but a whole class, and that class the highest in the state (ch. ii. 12– 14), is thoroughly in accordance with all that profane history tells us of the Babylonian governmental system. In Oriental monarchies it was not always so. The writer of the Book of Daniel shows a just appreciation of the difference between the Babylonian and the Medo-Persian systems, when he makes Darius the Mede influenced by his nobles, and compelled to do things against his will by a "law of the Medes and Persians, which altered not" (ch. vi. 14-17); while 1 Strab. xiii. 3, 8 2.

Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian is wholly untrammeled, and does not seem even to consult his lords on matters where the highest interests of the state are concerned. Babylonian and Assyrian monarchs were absolute in the fullest sense of the word. No traditional "law" restrained them. Their nobility was an official nobility, like that of Turkey at the present day. They themselves raised it to power; and it lay with them to degrade its members at their pleasure. Officers such as the tartan, or "commander-in-chief," the rabshakeh, or “chief cup-bearer," and the rab-saris, or "chief eunuch," held the highest positions (2 Kings xviii. 17)—mere creatures of the king, whom a "breath had made," and a breath could as easily "unmake.” The kings, moreover, claimed to be of Divine origin, and received Divine honours. "Merodach," says Nebuchadnezzar, "deposited my germ in my mother's womb." 1

Khammurabi claims to be the son of Merodach and Ri. He was joined in inscriptions with the great gods, Sin, Shamas, and Merodach, during his lifetime, and people swore by his name. Amaragu and Naram-sin are also said to have been deified while still living. It was natural that those who claimed, and were thought to hold so exalted a position, should exercise a despotic authority, and be unresisted, even when they were most tyrannical.

1" Records of the Past," vol. v., p. 113.

2 Ibid., vol. i., p.

8.

3 3 Ibid., vol. v., p. 109.

4 See note on Dan. vi. 7, in the "Speakers' Commentary."

CHAPTER V.

FURTHER NOTICES OF BABYLON IN DANIEL.

THE character of Nebuchadnezzar, as depicted in the Book of Daniel, is confirmed as fully as could be expected, considering the nature of the materials that have come down to us from profane sources. These materials are scanty, and of a peculiar character. They consist of a very few brief notices in classical writers, and of some half-dozen inscriptions belonging to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar himself, and apparently either composed by him or, at least, put forth under his authority. These inscriptions are in some cases of considerable length,' and, so far, might seem ample for the purpose whereto we propose to apply them; but, unfortunately, they present scarcely any variety. With the exception of one, which is historical, but very short and much mutilated,2 they are accounts of buildings, accompanied by religious invocations. It is evident that such records do not afford

1 One of them consists of ten columns, with an average of sixty-two lines in each, and in the "Records of the Past" occupies twenty-three pages (vol. iii., pp. 113-135).

2 See the "Transactions of the Society of Bibl. Archæology," vol. vii., pp. 218-222.

much opportunity for the display of more than a few points of character. They can tell us nothing of those qualities which are called forth in action, in the dealings of man with man, in war, in government, in domestic intercourse. Thus the confirmation which it is possible to adduce from this source can only be partial; and it is supplemented only to a very small extent from the notices of the classical writers.

The most striking features of Nebuchadnezzar's character, as portrayed for us in Scripture, and especially in the Book of Daniel, will probably be allowed to be the following: 1. His cruelty. Not only is he harsh and relentless in his treatment of the foreign enemies who have resisted him in arms, tearing thousands from their homes, and carrying them off into a miserable and hopeless captivity, massacring the chief men by scores (2 Kings xxv. 18-21), blinding rebel kings (ver. 7), or else condemning them to perpetual imprisonment (ver. 27), and even slaying their sons before their eyes (ver 7); but at home among his subjects he can condemn to death a whole class of persons for no fault but inability to do what no one had ever been even asked to do before (Dan. ii. 10–13), and can actually cast into a furnace of fire three of his best officers, because they decline to worship an image (iii. 20-23). 2. His pride and boastfulness. The pride of Nebuchadnezzar first shows itself in Scripture in the contemptuous inquiry addressed to the "three children" (Dan. iii. 15), “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" Evidently

he believes that this is beyond the power of any god. He speaks, as Sennacherib spoke by the mouth of Rab-shakeh: "Hearken not to Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad ? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? Who are they among the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?" (2 Kings xviii. 32-35.) The event shows him that he is mistaken, and that there is a God who can deliver His servants, and "change the king's word" (Dan. iii. 38), and then for a time he humbles himself; but, later on, the besetting sin breaks out afresh; "his heart is lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride (ch. v. 20), and he makes the boast which brings upon him so signal a punishment: "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of my kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" The punishment inflicted once more humbled him, and he confessed finally that there was one, "the King of heaven, all whose works were truth, and His ways judgment;" and that "those who walk in pride He was able to abase" (ch. iv. 37). 3. His religiousness. The spoils which Nebuchadnezzar carried off from the Temple at Jerusalem he did not convert to his own use, nor even bring into the national