less for personal endowments, were well content to receive a plain wife for the sake of a moderate portion. No man was allowed to provide a husband for his daughter; and no man was permitted to take away the woman he had purchased, until he had given security to make her his wife. The feasts by which wealthy Babylonians commemorated their marriages became at last so extravagant that laws were made to restrain them. The Assyrians worshipped Venus under the name of Mylitta. Some of the ceremonies observed in her temple are unsuitable to be described in these pages.

When the Babylonians were besieged by the Persians, they strangled all the women except their mothers, and one other in each family, to bake their bread. This was done to prevent famine; and the lot fell upon women probably because they were of less importance in carrying on the war.

It is not known whether females were admitted into the priesthood; but a woman always slept in the temple of Jupiter Belus, whom the Chaldean priests declared to have been chosen by the deity as his especial favorite from among all the nation.

Two remarkable women are mentioned in the brief records we have of Assyria and Babylon. Their names are Semiramis and Nitocris.

When Ninus, king of Assyria, besieged Bactria, it is said the attempt would not have been successful, had it not been for the assistance of Semiramis, who was at that time the wife of one of his principal officers. She planned so skilful a method of attack,

that victory was insured. Ninus became a passionate lover of the sagacious lady, and her husband committed suicide. Soon after this she became queen.

Some say she requested the monarch to invest her with uncontrolled power merely for the space of five days; and as soon as a decree to this effect had been made public, she caused him to be put to death; but other authors deny this. She succeeded Ninus in the government of the Assyrian empire, and to render her name immortal, she built the great city of Babylon in one year. Two millions of men were constantly employed upon it. Certain dykes built by order of the queen, to defend the city from inundations, are spoken of as admirable.

Altars were built and divine honors paid to the memory of Semiramis.

The other celebrated queen was Nitocris, wife of Nabonadius, who in the Scripture is called Evil Merodach. She was a woman of great endowments. While her voluptuous husband gave himself up to what the world calls pleasure, she managed the affairs of state with extraordinary judgment and sagacity. She was particularly famous for the canals and bridges which she caused to be made for the improvement of Babylon.

Such instances as these do not indicate a degraded condition of women. Yet the Assyrian monarchs had seraglios, at least in times later than Nitocris ; for we are told that the effeminate Sardanapalus spent his chief time in the apartments of his wonen, learning to handle the distaff, and imitating their

voice and manners. This fact proves that spinning was not unusual with women of high rank. `The exceeding love of perfumes which prevails in the East characterized Assyria. When Babylon was conquered, all the evils arose which might have been expected among a voluptuous people so long accustomed to luxurious living. Fathers and husbands, rather than relinquish their own expensive habits, were not unfrequently willing to receive the shameful price of a wife or daughter's beauty.

The ancient Lycians, supposed to be descendants of the Cretans, always took their names from their mothers, and not from their fathers. When any one was asked to give an account of his ancestors, he mentioned the female branches only. If a free woman married a slave, the children were free; but if a citizen married a concubine or a foreigner, his children could not attain to any political dignity. The inheritance descended to daughters, and sons were excluded. Some say the Lycian women were treated with this remarkable degree of respect, because their prayers to Neptune once removed an extraordinary salt blighting dew from the fields. Others suppose it was because their ancestors, the Cretans, descended from the goddess Thetis. A woman presided over the different companies into which the Cretans were divided, had the entire management of the household, and at table gave the choicest food to those who had most distinguished themselves. The origin of these peculiar customs is obscured by fable, 3

VOL. I.

but they probably arose from some great benefit early conferred upon the state by women. The Lycian men mourned for the dead by assuming female garments.

Artemisia, queen of Caria, so famous for her wisdom and bravery, was descended from the Cretans on the mother's side. By the death of her husband she was left with the government of the kingdom, until her son should be of age. She served with Xerxes in his expedition against Greece, and furnished five of the best ships in the fleet. She endeavored to dissuade the Persian monarch from venturing a naval battle at Salamis; but her judicious advice not being accepted, she commanded her portion of the fleet, and fought with the utmost bravery. When her vessel was pointed out to Xerxes, he exclaimed, "The men on this occasion behave like women, and the women like men." The Athenian conquerors considered themselves so much disgraced by having a female antagonist, that they pursued her with the utmost vengeance, and offered ten thousand drachmæ to whoever would take her alive. But she escaped in safety to her own kingdom by means of an artifice; for having attacked one of her own allies, with whom she was displeased, the Greeks supposed her vessel to be one friendly to their cause. Some other stratagems, which she used to obtain power over her enemies, were entirely unworthy of a generous mind.

Xerxes entertained so high an opinion of Artemisia, that he confided to her care the education of the young princes of Persia. Her statue was erected at Lacedæmon, among those of the Persian generals.

She became in love with a young man of Abydos, who did not return her passion; in consequence of which she caused his eyes to be put out while he slept, and then, in a fit of remorse, jumped from the promontory of Leucas into the sea.

There was another Artemisia, daughter of a Carian king, who married Mausolus, famous for his beauty. She was so much in love with her husband, that after his death she mixed his ashes with her drink. She erected a monument to his memory, so magnificent, that it was called one of the seven wonders of the world; and from this circumstance the word mausoleum is derived. She offered large rewards to the literary men of the age, for the best elegiac panegyric on her husband. Two years after his decease, she died of grief.

Little is known of the Trojan women. Their condition was probably very similar to that of women in other nations of the same period. Andromache, though a princess, and well beloved by her husband, fed and took care of the horses of Hector. It is to be presumed that she had a good deal of skill in embroidery, for we are told that she made a representation of the death of Hector, surrounded by garlands. The dreams and prophecies of Cassandra, daughter of king Priam, betray the usual tendencies to invest women with supernatural powers.

The Asiatic Greeks, particularly those of Ionia, were distinguished for voluptuous refinement, and