and licentiousness. It is evident from the character of the Chaldeans, that they did not originate the commerce and manufactures of Babylon; war was their trade, and conquest their object: on the contrary, the original Babylonians were an unwarlike timid race, fond of show, and accustomed to a multitude of artificial wants, which could only be gratified by commercial intercourse with distant countries. These considerations remove many of the inconsistencies which at first sight appear in the early accounts of Babylon; the discrepancy between the attributes of a warlike and of a commercial nation, is at once explained by the fact, that two distinct races, the military Chaldeans and the trading Babylonians, possessed the city when its history began to be important. The process of amalgamation between these races would probably have been very slow, had not the ascendency of the Chaldeans been subverted by the Persian conquest. In large commercial cities, where multitudes of individuals are aggregated in a limited district, the relations between the sexes cannot be regulated by the same institutions as those of an agricultural population. There are temptations and opportunities for illicit and promiscuous intercourse, which must produce the most demoralizing results, unless they are carefully watched by the ruling powers, and unless remedial measures be devised by the legislator. This tendency to immorality is immeasurably increased, if the commercial population be subjected to a foreign or despotic power; self-respect, one of the greatest safeguards of virtue, is then removed, and profligacy, no longer shrouded in darkness, stalks forth boldly in noon-day. The moral condition of Venice, under the yoke of Austria, and of Babylon after its conquest by the Chaldeans, equally prove that freedom and self-government are the only efficient checks to the corrupting influences of commercial wealth and a crowded population. The luxury and licentiousness of Babylon were not less remarkable than the pomp and magnificence of the city. In no place were female manners more ostentatiously depraved; there was even a religious enactment for licentiousness. Herodotus informs us, that every woman was obliged by law to prostitute herself to strangers, in the temple of Mylitta, once in her life, and was not allowed to reject any stranger who presented himself. The debauchery at their banquets almost surpassed credibility; women appeared at these orgies, divested of their garments, and of every sense of shame; nor were these hired nautch-girls, but the wives and daughters of the guests. * At the impious feast of Belshazzar, not only his princes, but his wives and his concubines, were present, though the city was at that very moment beleaguered by the Persian hosts. It was in the midst, not merely of festivity, but of debauchery, that the hand appeared on the walls of the banqueting-house, and traced the letters of a doom. * Nihil urbis ejus corruptius moribus; nec ad irritandas inliciendasque immodicas voluptates instructius. Liberos conjugesque cum hospitibus stupro coire, modo pretium flagitii detur, parentes maritique patiuntur. Conviviales ludi tota Perside regibus purpuratisque cordi sunt; Babylonii maxime in vinum et quæ ebrietatem sequuntur perfusi sunt. Feminarum convivia ineuntium principis modestus est habitus, dein summa quæque amicula exuunt: paulatimque pudorem profanant: ad ultimum (horror auribus sit) una corporum velamenta projiciunt. Nec meretricum hoc dedecus est, sed matronarum virginumque, apud quas comitas habetur corporis vilitas.-CURTIUS V. which was consummated ere the fumes of the surrounding intoxication had been dissipated.* The form of government established by the Chaldeans in Babylon did not differ very much from the ordinary oriental despotism. The monarch was absolute; the court was composed of his creatures, whose rank depended entirely on the royal will, but still had a regular gradation of title; the empire was divided into provinces or satrapies, in which the governors usually possessed both the civil and military authority; finally, there was a sacerdotal caste, the members of which must have possessed considerable influence from their supposed power of predicting future events. But in what relation the priests stood to the other orders of the state is unknown, and how they acquired the name of Chaldeans, which properly belonged to a people, is still matter of conjecture. It appears from these circumstances that the real amount of civilization in Babylon was not very great, and that it was probably in extent and kind very similar to that of Bagdad under the Khaliphs. Commerce appears to have flowed to it, at least as much on account of its geographical position as from either the skill or enterprise of its inhabitants. Commerce brought wealth, but it also brought a dense population, and no adequate means were employed to check the abuses which necessarily arise from the accumulation of human From Xenophon's account, it appears that the very guards were intoxicated. We may remark that this circumstance was predicted by the prophet Isaiah, in his denunciation of divine wrath against Babylon. The table is prepared, the watch is set; they eat, they drink. beings within the circuit of a wall. The rude but warlike Chaldeans soon became enervated by the corrupting influences of the luxurious race they had vanquished, and when the enthusiasm of conquest had faded away, they fell an easy prey to the Persians. The utter ruin of the city followed the decline of its trade; there were no stone buildings, and when the walls of sundried brick were once allowed to fall into disrepair, they were gradually washed away and reduced to their original earth. Hence unsightly mounds alone remain. to shew where "the Queen of the East" once stood, and the terrible denunciation of the prophet has been fulfilled to the letter. Babylon shall become-she that was the beauty of kingdoms, As the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by the hand of God. Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation, Neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there; Neither shall the shepherds make their folds there. And there shall the satyrs hold their revels, And wolves shall howl to one another in their palaces, From the few particulars recorded of the Assyrian empire, it appears to have been lower in the scale of civilization than the Babylonian. Nineveh, according to the description of the prophet Nahum, was an encampment rather than a commercial mart; its destruction therefore produced very little effect on surrounding nations, and its very name soon sunk into oblivion. Isaiah xiii. 19-22. CHAPTER III. PERSIAN CIVILIZATION. "THE Persian Empire," says Professor Heeren, "owed its origin to one of those great political revolutions which are of such frequent occurrence in Asia. A rude mountain tribe of nomade habits rushed with impetuous rapidity from its fastnesses, and overwhelmed all the nations of Southern Asia (the Arabians excepted), from the Mediterranean to the Indus and Jaxartes. Even the nearest parts of Europe and Asia were shaken by their onset, and to a certain extent subdued; and in spite of frequent insurrections which broke out in these and other portions of their empire, and were not always completely repressed, the Persians continued to maintain their general supremacy for a period of full two centuries."* Few nations of antiquity seem to have taken more pains to transmit an account of their early history, policy, and government, to posterity. We find in the Book of Esther that a record was kept in the royal chronicles of every important event connected with the administration. When the conspiracy of the eunuchs against Ahasuerus was discovered by Mordecai, "inquisition was made of the matter, and when it was found out, they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written Heeren's Asiatic Nations, i. 92. |