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Show 14.0 THE NATIONS OF TilE The Ohaldeans of Babylonia, with their mao-ni:ficent robes, riding on high-spirited horses, and wearing high tiaras, as described L>y Ezekiel, 122 arc Lh reforc, for Ronan, not Shemitcs, but a branch of the ruling race of .Assyria; which, according to him, was Arian. As to tho names of tho kings: Tiglatlt-Pilesar, Sennacl!erib, Sargon, Evil-Merodach, Markodempal, &c.-they are contrary to tho fund~ monLallaws of the Syro-Arabic languages, and cannot be reduceu to Shomitic roots. But again, most of tho towns and rivers in As yria and Babylonia have Shemitic names; whence he infers that tho bulk of the population in Mesopotamia must have been Sl1emitic, but subject to a conquering race of Ariana, which form d a military aristocracy and a religious caste, both summed up in the person of the absolute king. We cannot but admit the force of Ronan's reasoning; and his conclusion about the two nationalities in Assyria and Dabylonia123 (that is to say, about tho Shomitic character of tho bulk of the people with a ruling race of Iranians), is supported by the Shemitic and bilingual inscriptions on some Assyrian monuments already noticed. This view of a mixed population inhabiting Mesopotamia, su:fficicnLly explains the semi-Shemitic peculiarities of the languages of tho cuneiform inscriptions on the monuments of Nineveh and Babylon: and the reasoning of the learned author of "the Genesis of the Earth and of Man," leads to the same result when he observes,-" a mixed language obtaining in one country indicates a mixture of races; and the g1·ammar of that language, by its being unmixed or mixed, is an index to the number and power of one race in comparison with tho other at the period of the formation of the mixed language. "121 According to this rule, the Assyrian aud Babylonian, instead of forming the "transition between auto-historical and historical Shomitism " must be considered as the result of the mixture of Shemitic a~d Arian clements, at any rate not anterior to historical ShomiLism. Tho monuments of art discovered in Assyria and Babylonia l ad to tho same conclusion, viz: that tho ruling classes were Arian, since all the sculptures connected with cuneiform inscriptions bear tho same Ariau character a.t Nineveh as well as at Persepo1is. In fi.tct tho civilization and the fundamental ideas about political govorn~ent and provincial administration are identical amono- all the nations k . 0 ma mg use of the cuneiform character, though we must admit dif-m Chapter XXUI. 1211 a~1S11NI~8 hnd, l~ng before Ronan, insisted upon tho northern origin of the Chaldco.ns as a conquermg rnee 10 Bo.bylonio., different from the bulk of the population. m Edited by lt. STEW AUT PoOLE, Edinburgh, 1856, p. 155: -oompo.ro Types of Matlkincl 1854, voce "Elo.m," pp. 588-4. ' CUNEIFORM WRITING. 141 forcnt degrees of development. The Babylonian inscriptions abound with ideographic gronps reminding us of the hieroglyphics of Egypt, whilst the Ariana of Persia borrowed the phonetic system from the Shemitcs, but retained tho form of tho wedge. As to their arLisLic capacities, the Assyrians occupy the highest rank, in some of the basreliefs of Sardanapal us second only to the Greeks. Some of the Pcrsepolitan seals arc likewise of a high, chaste, and sober style of art, peculiarly charming by tho introduction of picturesque folds into Lhe heavy Assyrian garments. 'Tho Babylonians, with whom the Shemitic clement always prcpond rated, were little artistic; inscriptions were more copious with them than rolic.£8, and their sculptures are without exception rude in execution, and monotonous in conception. It is difficult to speak about the origin or the early history of Assyrian art. 'l'he earliest mention of the empire occtu·s in the hieroglyphic annals of TuuTMosrs ill, tho groat conquering Pharaoh of the XVIIth dynasty, about tho seventeenth century, D. o., who caused his victories to be recorded on a slab dcci phered by Mr. Bircb.125 Wo hear of the defeat of the king of Naliaraina (Mesopotamia); or of the chief of Saenlcar, (Shinar) bringing as tribute blue~ stone of Babilu, (lapis-lazuli feom Babylon). Under AMENOPIIIS Ill, we :find Asuru, Naharaina and Saenkar, again among tho conquered countries.126 And, as corroborative of the truth of the bieroglyphical records, Egyptian scarabs with the coo-raved names of these two kings have been found in various parts of Mcsopotamia.127 At a somewhat later period, under the XXth dynasty of the RAMJTISSIDES, tho chief of Balclttan 128 offers his daughter to H,AMESSES XIV, who marries her; and soon after, about the time when the Ark of the Covenant was taken from the Israelites by tho Philistines, sent the Ark of tho Eo-yptiau God, KnoNs, from Thebes to Bashan, as a remedy to his siste1·-in-law, who was possessed by an evil spirit.129 The intercourse between Egypt and Mesopotamia became soon still more close and intimate.130 We :find Pharaoh PmEM, tho head of the XXIst dynasty, journeying on a friendly visit to Mesopotamia: 1 ~1 moreover, his successors and their descendants,-to judge by thc1r names,- 126 Bmorr, The Annals of Tllotmes III, vol. v. of the Tro.usaotions of the ltoy, Soo. Liter. -Now series, p. 116. 126 LF;!'SJUS, .Denlrrnliler III. BJ. 88. 121 LA YARD, Nineveh and Babylo11, p. 281:- Ty~es of Afankind, P;, ~33, fig. 82. . , us ]~gyptologists identify Bakhtan with the scr1pturnl Bashan m upper lllesopotamaa, as they co.ll it, though it is rather bold to call Mesopotamia the country bordering on the tribe of Mo.nassQh.- In oonscquonce, some favor Ecbatana. 1211 BmoH, Transactions R. Soc. Lit. IV. p. 16 & f. 180 L1'.1'81UR, Deukmiilcr nr, 131. 2411. m 13mou, 11ransactio11s R. Soc. Lit. 1848, p. 1()4 & f. |