2 34 ASIA. daean The Chaldaeans, who were the priests of this deity,' said that no mortal was allowed to pass the CHAP. III. night there excepting a native female, whom the god Statements selected for himself, and who was kept from all in- of the Chaltercourse with men. They also stated what Hero- priests. dotus does not credit, namely, that the deity himself visited the temple and reclined the couch.3 upon Beneath this sanctuary there was another temple, and in it a large golden statue of Zeus in a sitting posture, and also a large table of gold near the statue. The throne and step were also of gold, and the Chaldaeans said that the whole weighed 800 talents, or 22 English tons of metal. Outside the temple stood a golden altar, to which sucklings only were allowed to be brought, whilst upon another large altar full-grown sheep were sacrificed, and a thousand talents of frankincense were also consumed upon it every year at the festival of the god. In this sacred locality there was formerly a massive golden statue 12 cubits high. Herodotus did not 1 Herodotus here expressly asserts that the Chaldaeans were a priestly caste, and Mr. Grote, resting upon this positive statement, which indeed is confirmed by Strabo, can only regard them as priests. In another place, however, (vii. 63,) the Chaldaeans are mentioned as fighting in the army of Xerxes, which seems more in keeping with the Scripture accounts of the Chaldees as a warlike race from the north. 2 i. 181. 3 This circumstance, which puzzled Herodotus, is at once explained by the following extract from the travels of Bernier. Speaking of the Brahmins, Bernier says, "These impostors take a maid to be the bride (as they speak and bear the besotted people in hand) of Juggernaut, and they leave her all night in the temple (whither they have carried her) with the idol, making her believe that Juggernaut will visit her, and appointing her to ask him, whether it will be a fruitful year, what kind of processions, feasts, prayers, and alms he demands to be made for it. In the mean time one of these priests enters at night by a little back door into the temple and personates the god, and makes her believe anything he pleases; and the next day, being transported from this temple into another with the same magnificence, she is carried before upon the chariot of triumph, by the side of Juggernaut her bridegroom: these Brahmins make her say aloud, before all the people, whatsoever she has been taught of these cheats, as if she had learnt it from the very mouth of Juggernaut." Similar delusions seem to have been carried on in the temple of Isis at Rome, and Josephus relates a deceit which was practised on a virtuous matron named Paulina, in favour of Decius Mundus, a Roman knight. A full disclosure of this outrage was laid before the emperor Tiberius, who thereupon ordered the priests to be crucified and the temple to be demolished. 4 i. 182. ASIA. see it, but relates what was told him by the ChalCHAP. III. daeans. Darius formed the design of taking it away, but was afraid; his son Xerxes, however, took it, and killed the priest who forbade him to remove it. Many other consecrated gifts were also exhibited in this temple.1 Bridge over the Euphrates. The only communication in ancient times between the two divisions of the city was by means of a ferry across the Euphrates. At length Nitocris had the river turned into a reservoir,' and built a bridge (or rather piers) in the centre of the city, composed of large blocks of stone clamped together with iron and lead. During the day square planks of timber were laid upon these stone piers, in order that the people might pass over; but at night these planks were removed, to prevent thieves from gliding about to different parts of the city. Nitocris caused the banks of the river to be lined throughout the city Sepulchre with burnt brick like the city walls.3 She also prepared a sepulchre for herself above the most frequented gate of the city, and bearing the following inscription: of Nitocris. Names of the city gates. "If any one of my successors, kings of Babylon, shall happen to want money, let him open this sepulchre, and take what he requires; but if he wants it not, let him not open it." This sepulchre remained undisturbed until the time of Darius, who considered it to be hard that money should be lying there unused, and that the gate also should be unused, because a dead body was lying over the heads of all who passed through it. He therefore opened the tomb, but found no money, and only the body and these words: "Were thou not insatiably covetous and greedy of the most sordid gain, thou wouldst not have opened the resting-place of the dead." Five of the city gates are mentioned to us by name, namely, the gates of Semiramis, the Nineveh gate, the Chaldaean gate, the Belidae gate, and the Cissian gate. It was the last two that Zopyrus 1 i. 183. 2 See page 263. 5 3 i. 186. • i. 187. 5 iii. 155. ASIA. fication by opened to the Persians.' Darius demolished the walls and carried away all the gates, and as the Ba- CHAP. III. bylonians had strangled their wives during the siege Destruction to prevent the consumption of their provisions, he of the fortitaxed the neighbouring provinces to send a certain Darius. number of women to Babylon, so that a total of fifty thousand women were assembled, from whom the Babylonians of the time of Herodotus were descended.2 Eight days' journey from Babylon lay the town of Town of Is. Is, upon a small stream of the same name, which discharged itself into the Euphrates, and brought with it a great many lumps of asphalt, which were used as mortar in building the Babylonian walls." the Eu phrates. overflowed Dams raised tocris. The Euphrates, which divided the city, took its Account of rise in Armenia, and flowed with a broad, deep, and rapid current until at length it discharged itself into the Erythraean. In former times it used to over- Anciently flow the whole plain like a sea, but Semiramis, and the country, afterwards Nitocris, kept it within its banks by raising by Semiramounds or dams along the plain." Nitocris also used mis and Nievery means to protect Babylon against the newly risen Median power, which was growing formidable and restless, and had already captured Nineveh. She dug channels above the Euphrates, and render- Course of ed its stream, which formerly ran in a straight line, rendered so winding that in its course it touched three times winding by at the single village of Ardericca; and in the time of Herodotus, those who went to Babylon by the Euphrates came to this village three times on three successive days.67 Nitocris also excavated at some Immense distance from the river a large basin or reservoir for lake. a lake, 420 stadia (or at least 50 English miles) in circumference, and dug down to the water, and this reservoir she cased all round with stones. The excavated earth was afterwards heaped up on the 1 iii. 158. 5 i. 184. 2 iii. 159. 6 i. 185. 3 i. 179. 4 i. 180. 7 The royal station named Ardericca, (vi. 119,) which was 210 stadia from Susa, was evidently a different site. the river Nitocris. artificial ASIA. CHAP. III. Towns of Babylo nians. banks of the river, and formed the mounds or dams already mentioned.1 2 In this satrapy must probably also be included the two places Opis and Ampe, which last was situated on the Tigris near the coast of the Erythracan, and was afterwards a settlement for the Milesians transplanted by Darius.3 Dress of the The dress of the Babylonians consisted of a linen gown, which fell down to the feet; next, a woollen garment; and lastly, over all a short white mantle. Their sandals were peculiar to the country, but very like the Boeotian clogs. They wore long hair, and kept it together by their head-bands or turbans, and the whole of the body they anointed with perfumes. Every man had a signet ring and a curiously wrought staff; and on every staff was carved either an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something else of the same kind, for it was not allowable to carry a stick without a device. In the army of Xerxes they wore linen cuirasses, and helmets of brass plaited in a peculiar fashion, which Herodotus tells us is not easy to be described; and they carried shields, and spears, and swords similar to those of the Aegyptians, together with wooden clubs knotted with iron.5 Manners and customs. 4 Amongst the Babylonian customs was one which was also practised by the Eneti of Illyria, and which in the opinion of our author was the wisest with Annual sale which he was acquainted. Once a year in every of maidens. village all the marriageable girls were collected together, and put up to auction. A crier directed them to stand up one after the other, beginning with the handsomest, and each one was then knocked down to the highest bidder, who however was not allowed to carry off a maiden without giving security that he would marry her. The more beautiful girls were of course purchased by the rich Babylonians, who strove eagerly to outbid each other. When these were all disposed of, the crier directed the plainer 1 i. 185. 2 i. 189. 3 vi. 20. 4i. 195. 5 vii. 63. ASIA. damsels to stand up in a similar manner, but offered to give a sum of money with each. Accordingly the CHAP. III. poorer Babylonians began to bid against each other to see who would marry an ill-favoured wife for the smallest sum, the money having been already obtained by the sale of the more beautiful. Thus the handsome girls helped the plainer ones to husbands, and fathers were not allowed to give away their daughters in marriage to whom they pleased. If a purchaser and his newly bought partner could not agree, the money was repaid. Men were permitted to come from one village to another to this matrimonial auction; but in the time of Herodotus the custom was discontinued, for after the Persians had taken the city, the people had been harshly treated and ruined in fortune, and the lower classes were driven to prostitute their daughters for a livelihood.' cians. Sick market for The Babylonians also had another custom, which No physiHerodotus considered to be only inferior in wisdom persons carto the foregoing. They had no physicians, but used ried into the to bring their sick people into the market-place, and advice. every passer-by was obliged to ask the nature of the disease; and then, if the latter had ever had it himself or seen it in others, he advised the patient to follow the treatment which he knew to have effected a cure." The Babylonians embalmed their dead in honey, and Embalming performed their funeral lamentations in a similar mentations manner to the Aegyptians. Husbands and wives like those of after intercourse sat over burning incense in differ- ians. ent places, and at break of day washed themselves incense after before they touched any vessel. The same practice tercourse. was also observed by the Arabians.3 Funeral la the Aegypt Burning of sexual in practices with the worship of The most disgraceful of all the Babylonian cus- Disgraceful toms was connected with the worship of Aphrodite, connected whom they called Mylitta. Every native woman was obliged once in her life to repair to the precinct Aphrodite. of this goddess, and submit to the embraces of a stranger. Some of the richer sort went in covered carriages, and took up their station in the temenus, 1 i. 196. 2 Ibid. 3 i. 198. Comp. Leviticus xv. 16-18. |