sharp angle that passed gradually into a gentle curve. The stones were massive, and fastened together by clamps of iron and lead.1 From pier to pier was stretched a platform of wood, composed of cedar and cypress beams, together with the stems of palms, each platform being thirty feet in width. The length of the bridge, like that of the tunnel, was a thousand yards.3

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We have now to consider to what extent these various constructions may be regarded as the work of Nebuchadnezzar, and how far therefore he may be viewed as justified in his famous boast. First, then, we have it distinctly stated, both by Berosus and by himself,5 that the new palace, which adjoined the old, was completely and entirely built by him. The same is declared, both by Berosus and Abydenus,' of the "hanging gardens." The former of these statements is confirmed by the fact that the bricks of the Kasr are, one and all of them, stamped with his name. The old palace he did not build; but, as he tells us, carefully repaired. The Yapur-Shapu was also an ancient construction; but he seems to have excavated it afresh, and to have executed the entire lining of its banks." With respect to the great Temple of Bel-Merodach, if we may believe his own account, it had gone com

8 Sir H. Rawlinson in the author's "Herodotus," vol. ii., p. 588.

9 Ibid., p. 587.

pletely to ruin before his day, and required a restoration that was equivalent to a rebuilding.' Here, again, we have the confirmation of actual fact, since the inscribed bricks from the Babil mound bear in every instance the name and titles of Nebuchadnezzar. Eight other Babylonian temples are also declared in his inscriptions to have been built or rebuilt by him. But his greatest work was the reconstruction of the walls. We have seen their enormous length, breadth, and thickness, even according to the lowest estimates. Nebuchadnezzar found them dismantled and decayed-probably mere lines of earthen rampart, such as enclose great part of the ruins to-day. He gave them the dimensions that they attained-dimensions that made them one of the world's wonders. It is this which is his great boast in his standard inscription: "Imgar-Bel and NimitiBel, the great double wall of Babylon, I built. Buttresses for the embankment of its ditch I completed. Two long embankments with cement and brick I made, and with the embankment which my father had made I joined them. I strengthened the city. Across the river, westward, I built the wall of Babylon with brick." And again, "The walls of the fortress of Babylon, its defence in war, I raised; and the circuit of the city of Babylon I have strengthened skillfully."4

Nebuchadnezzar, it may be further remarked, did not confine his constructive efforts to Babylon. Aby

1" Records of the Past," vol. v., p. 119. 2 Ibid., pp. 122, 123. Ibid., p. 125. Compare the author's "Herodotus," vol. ii., p. 587. 4" Records of the Past," vol. v., pp. 133, 134.

denus tells us, that, besides his great works at the capital, he excavated two large canals, the Nahr-Agane and the Nahr-Malcha;1 the latter of which is known from later writers to have been a broad and deep channel connecting the Tigris with the Euphrates. He also, according to Abydenus, dug a huge reservoir near Sippara, which was one hundred and forty miles in circumference, and one hundred and eighty feet deep, furnishing it with flood-gates, through which the water could be drawn off for purposes of irrigation. Abydenus adds, that he built quays and break-waters along the shores of the Persian Gulf, and at the same time founded the city of Teredon, on the sea coast, as a defence against the incursions of the Arabs.

The inscribed bricks of this great monarch show a still more inexhaustible activity. They indicate him as the complete restorer of the temple of Nebo at Borsippa,2 the mightiest of all the ruins in Mesopotamia, by some identified with the biblical "tower of Babel." They are widely spread over the entire country, occurring at Sippara, at Cutha, at Kal-wadha (Chilmad ?), in the vicinity of Baghdad, and at scores of other sites. It is a calculation of Sir Henry Rawlinson's, that nine-tenths of the bricks brought from Mesopotamia are inscribed with the name of Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar. "At least a hundred sites," says the same writer, "in the tract immediately about Babylon, give 1 Abydenus, 1. s. c.

2 Compare his inscription, "Records of the Past," vol. vii., pp. 75–78.

evidence, by bricks bearing his legend, of the marvellous activity and energy of this king."1

His inscriptions add, that, besides the great temple of Nebo, or of the Seven Spheres, at Borsippa, he built there at least five others,2 together with a temple to the Moon-god at Beth-Ziba,3 and one to the Sungod at Larsa, or Senkareh.* Altogether there is

reason to believe that he was one of the most indefatigable of all the builders that have left their mark upon the world in which we live. He covered Babylonia with great works. He was the Augustus of Babylon. He found it a perishing city of unbaked clay; he left it one of durable burnt brick, unless it had been for human violence, capable of continuing, as the fragment of the Kasr has continued, to the present day.

1 "Commentary on the Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria," p. 76. 2" Records of the Past," vol. v., p. 123.

Ibid., p. 124.

6

Ibid., vol. vii., pp. 71, 72.

CHAPTER VII.

NOTICES OF BABYLON IN JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL.

THE Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel contain numerous allusions, some prophetic, others historic, to the wars in which Nebuchadnezzar was engaged, or was to be engaged. A certain number of these notices refer to wars, which are also mentioned in Chronicles or Kings, and which have consequently already engaged our attention. But others touch upon campaigns which Kings and Chronicles ignore, either on account of their lying outside the geographic range of the writer's vision, or from their being subsequent in point of time to the event which they view as constituting the close of their narratives. The campaigns in question are especially those against Tyre and Egypt, which are touched by both writers, but most emphatically dwelt upon by Ezekiel.

I. The war against Tyre. Ezekiel's description of this war is as follows:

"Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much 1 See above, ch. iii.