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A History of Babylonia and Assyria
A History of
Babylonia and Assyria
Volume I
Robert William Rogers
Published 1900 A.D.
Assyrian International News Agency
Books Online
www.aina.org
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A History of Babylonia and Assyria
CONTENTS
PREFACE............................................................................................................................................................. 3
BOOK I: PROLEGOMENA................................................................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER I.......................................................................................................................................................... 4
EARLY TRAVELERS AND EARLY DECIPHERERS...................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER II ...................................................................................................................................................... 15
GROTEFEND AND RAWLINSON .............................................................................................................. 15
CHAPTER III ..................................................................................................................................................... 26
EARLY EXPLORERS IN BABYLONIA...................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER IV ..................................................................................................................................................... 30
EXPLORATIONS IN ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, 1734-1820 .................................................................. 30
CHAPTER V ...................................................................................................................................................... 36
EXCAVATIONS IN ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, 1843-1854................................................................ 36
CHAPTER VI ..................................................................................................................................................... 48
THE DECIPHERMENT OF ASSYRIAN ...................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER VII.................................................................................................................................................... 54
THE DECIPHERMENT OF SUMERIAN AND OF VANNIC ..................................................................... 54
CHAPTER VIII .................................................................................................................................................. 60
EXPLORATIONS IN ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, 1872-1900 .................................................................. 60
CHAPTER IX ..................................................................................................................................................... 67
THE SOURCES.................................................................................................................................................. 67
CHAPTER X ...................................................................................................................................................... 70
THE LANDS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA ............................................................................................ 70
CHAPTER XI ..................................................................................................................................................... 79
THE PEOPLES OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA........................................................................................ 79
CHAPTER XII.................................................................................................................................................... 82
THE CHRONOLOGY........................................................................................................................................ 82
BOOK II: THE HISTORY OF BABYLONIA ................................................................................................... 94
CHAPTER I........................................................................................................................................................ 94
THE HISTORY OF BABYLONIA TO THE FALL OF LARSA...................................................................... 94
CHAPTER II .................................................................................................................................................... 102
THE FIRST AND SECOND DYNASTIES OF BABYLON ........................................................................... 102
CHAPTER III ................................................................................................................................................... 105
THE KASSITE DYNASTY ............................................................................................................................. 105
CHAPTER IV ................................................................................................................................................... 112
THE DYNASTY OF ISIN................................................................................................................................ 112
FOOTNOTES ................................................................................................................................................... 114
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A History of Babylonia and Assyria
PREFACE
During the past ten years, when not absorbed in the duties of a busy professorship, I have given my time to the
preparation of this work. In its interest I have made repeated journeys to Europe, and also to the East, and the greater
part of the text has been written in the University Library at Leipzig, the British Museum in London, and the Bodleian
Library in Oxford. In the last named I have had especial opportunity to investigate the early history of cuneiform
research in the almost unrivaled collections of early travelers and decipherers. Large parts of the book have been
rewritten twice or thrice as changes in opinion and the discovery of fresh monumental material have modified the
views previously entertained. Whatever may be the judgment of my fellow investigators in this difficult field, it will not
truthfully be said that I have not taken pains.
Every part of the two volumes rests upon original sources, yet I have tried to consider all that modern
Assyriologists have brought forward in elucidation of them, and have sought to give due credit for every explanation
which I have accepted, and to treat with courtesy and respect any that I have ventured to reject. The progress of
Assyriology in the past twenty years has been so rapid that every book on the history of Babylonia and Assyria
published prior to 1880 is hopelessly antiquated, and many issued much later would need extensive revision. The
work of investigation has fallen necessarily into the hands of specialists, and so vast has the field grown that there
are now specialists in even small parts of the subject. The results of all this detailed research are scattered in
scientific journals and monographs in almost all the languages of Europe. To sift, weigh, and decide upon their
merits is no easy task, and I am sadly conscious that it might have been better done; yet am I persuaded that
scholars who know the field intimately will recognize the difficulties and be most ready to pardon the
shortcomings which each may discover in his own province.
I have sought to tell the whole story as scholars now generally understand it, rather being disposed to yield
to the consensus of opinion, when any exists, than eager to set forth novel personal opinions. Yet in parts of the
field at least I may claim to be an independent investigator, and to have made contributions to the knowledge of
the subject.
In travel and in research in the libraries and museums of Paris, Berlin, Cairo, Constantinople, and elsewhere
I have received many courtesies which I should gladly acknowledge here did it not seem disproportionate to
carve great names on so small a structure. The obligations to my friend Professor Sayce are, however, so unusual
that they must be expressed. He has read the entire book in manuscript, and made many suggestions, some of
which led me to change my view, while others showed me wherein I had written obscurely or had failed to defend
my position adequately. I am grateful to him for this new illustration of his unfailing kindness and generosity to
younger men.
I take leave of the book with mingled pleasure, and regret, hoping only that it may prove sufficiently useful
to demand and deserve a revision at no distant day.
ROBERT W. ROGERS.
MADISON, NEW JERSEY, September 18, 1900.
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A History of Babylonia and Assyria
BOOK I: PROLEGOMENA
CHAPTER I
EARLY TRAVELERS AND EARLY DECIPHERERS
Prior to 1820 the only knowledge possessed by the world of the two cities Babylon and Nineveh, and of
the empires which they founded and led, was derived from peoples other than their inhabitants. No single word
had come from the deep stillness of the ruins of Babylon, no voice was heard beneath the mounds of Nineveh.
It would then have seemed a dream of impossible things to hope that some future day would discover buried
libraries in these mounds, filled with books in which these peoples had written not only their history and
chronology, but their science, their operations of building, their manners and customs, their very thoughts and
emotions. That the long-lost languages in which these books were written should be recovered, that men should
read them as readily and as surely as the tongues of which traditional use had never ceased among men-all this
would then have seemed impossible indeed. But this and much more has happened. From these long-lost, even
forgotten materials the history of Babylonia and Assyria has become known. These are now the chief sources of
our knowledge, and before we begin our survey of the long line of the centuries it is well that we should look at
the steps by which our sources were secured.
The story of the rediscovery of Babylonia and Assyria is really twofold. Two lines of research, pursued
separately for a long time, at last formed a union, and from that union has resulted present knowledge. By the one
line the ancient sources were rediscovered, by the other men learned how to read them.
The first clue which led to the rediscovery of the ancient language of Babylonia and of Assyria was not
found in either of these two lands. It was not found by a scholar who set out to search for it. It was not a brilliant
discovery made in a day, to become the wonder of ages. It was rather the natural result of a long, tedious, and
somewhat involved process. It began and long continued to be in the hands of travelers, each learning a little from
his predecessors, and then adding a mite as the result of his own observation. It was found in the most unlikely
place in Persia, far from Babylonia and Assyria. The story of its finding is worth the telling, not only because it is
necessary to any just appreciation of our present knowledge of Assyria and Babylonia, but because it has its own
interest, and is instructive as a history of the progress of knowledge.
In Persia, forty miles northeast of Shiraz, once the capital of the kingdom, there is a range of everlasting
hills, composed of a marble of dark grey limestone, which bears the name of Mount Rachmet. In front of this
ridge, and in a semicircular hollow, there rises above the plain a vast terracelike platform. Nature built this terrace
in part, but man at some time erected a wall in front of it, leveled off the top, and there built great palaces and
temples. In the Middle Ages this land of Persia became full of interest for various reasons. It had an important
commerce with Europe, and that naturally drew men of trade from Europe into its extensive plateaus, that were
reeking with heat in summer, and equally uncomfortable in the bleak cold of winter. The commercial contact of
Persia led, also, most naturally to diplomatic intercourse of various kinds with European states, and this
intercourse gradually made the land known in some measure to the West.
The earliest European, at present known to us, who visited the great terrace at the foot of Mount Rachmet
was a wandering friar, Odoricus, or Odoric, by name. He was going overland to Cathay, and on the way passed
between Yezd and Huz, about 1320 A. D. He had no time to look at ruins, and appears hardly to have seen them at
all. Yet his record is the first word heard in Europe concerning the ruins at Persepolis:
"I came unto a certaine citie called Comum, which was an huge and mightie city in olde time, conteyning well
nigh fiftie miles in circuite, and hath done in times past great damage unto the Romanes. In it there are stately
palaces altogether destitute of inhabitants, notwithstanding it aboundeth with great store of victuals." 1
The passage is disappointing. Odoric was a man of little refinement" 2 and, though possessed of a desire to
wander and see strange sights, cared little for the intellectual or spiritual meaning of great places. It is an oft-
recurring statement with him that he found good "victuals," and with that his simple soul was content. He evidently
did not know what place the ancient ruins marked, and that he cared at all does not appear. So simple is his word
that men have even doubted whether he ever saw the ruins with his own eyes; but there is no real reason to doubt
that he did. But even though he saw little and said less, his narrative was almost a classic before the invention of
printing, and was copied frequently, as the numerous manuscripts still in existence show. 3 Not very long after the
invention of printing his story found expression in type. Then it became a call to others to go and see also. It is only
a first voice in the dark-this word of Odoric-and long would it be ere another wayfarer should see the same relics of
the past.
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A History of Babylonia and Assyria
In the year 1472 the glorious republic of Venice dispatched an envoy to the Court of Uzun Hassan. His name
was Josophat Barbaro, and he passed the same way as Odoric, but saw a little more, which he thus describes:
Near the town of Camara is seen a circular mountain, which on one side appears to have been cut and made
into a terrace six paces high. On the summit of this terrace is a flat space, and around are forty columns, which
are called Cilminar, which means in our tongue Forty Columns, each of which is twenty cubits long, as thick as
the embrace of three men; some of them are ruined; but, to judge from that which can still be seen, this was
formerly a beautiful building. The terrace is all of one piece of rock, and upon it stand sculptured figures of
animals as large as giants, and above them is a figure like those by which, in our country, we represent God the
Father inclosed in a circle, and holding a ring in his hand; underneath are other smaller figures. In front is the
figure of a man leaning on his bow, which is said to be a figure of Solomon. Below are many others which seem
to support those above them, and among these is one who seems to wear on his head a papal miter, and holds up
his open hand, apparently with the intention of giving his benediction to those below, who look up to him, and
seem to stand in a certain expectation of the said benediction. Beyond this there is a tall figure on horseback,
apparently that of a strong man; this they say is Samson, near whom are many other figures, dressed in the French
fashion and wearing long cloaks; all these figures are in half relief. Two days' journey from this place there is a
village called Thimar, and two days further off another village, where there is a tomb in which they say the
mother of Solomon was buried. Over this is built an edifice in the form of a chapel, and there are Arabic letters
upon it, which say, as we understand from the inhabitants of the place, Messer Suleimen 7 which means in our
tongue Temple of Solomon, and its gate looks toward the east." 4
Barbaro had not made much advance upon Odoric, but his account was not altogether fruitless, though soon
to be superseded.
When Shah Abbas the Great, king of Persia, began his long and remarkable reign (1586) Persia was a dark
land to European eyes. It was he who opened it freely to ambassadors from Europe, all of whom he treated with a
magnificent courtesy. The first of these ambassadors to arrive in his kingdom came from the kingdom of
Portugal, sent out by Philip III, king of Spain and Portugal. This man was an Augustinian friar, Antonio de
Gouvea, who came with messages both of peace and of war. It was his aim to endeavor to carry Christianity
among the Persians-a message of peace-but also to induce Abbas to make war on the Osmanli Turks. He was
somewhat more successful in the second than in the first object, though he did establish an Augustinian society
at. the Persian court. After many and sore adventures at the hands of sea pirates he again saw his native land,
and published an account of his adventures. In this story he tells of a visit to Persepolis, and in these terms
"We continued our journey as far as a village called Chelminira, which in their language means Forty
Minarets, because that was the number in the tomb of an ancient king which stood there.... We went to see the
tomb of which I have spoken, and it is my firm belief that the mausoleum which Artemisia erected to her
husband was not more notable, though it is held as one of the wonders of the world; but the mausoleum has
been destroyed by time, which seems to have no power against this monument, which has also resisted the
efforts of human malice.... The place is between two high ridges, and the tomb of which I have made mention
is at the foot of the northern ridge. Those who say that Cyrus rebuilt the city of Shiraz, affirm also that he built
for himself this famous tomb. There are indications that Ahasuerus, or Artaxerxes, erected it for himself,
besides another near it which he made for Queen Vashti; and this opinion is made more probable by the
consideration of the short distance from this site to the city of Suzis, or Shushan, in which he generally re-
sided.... At the foot of the ridge began two staircases facing one another, with many steps made of stones of so
great a size that it will be beyond belief when I affirm that some of them, when they were first hewn, were
more than twenty-five palms in circumference, ten or twelve broad, and six or eight high; and of these, there
were very many throughout the whole structure, for the building was chiefly composed of them; and it was no
small wonder to consider how they could have been placed one upon the other, particularly in the columns,
where the stones were larger than in any other part. That which astonished us most was to see that certain
small chapels were made of a single stone-doorway, pavement, walls, and roof.... The staircases, of which I
have spoken, met on a broad landing, from which the whole plain was visible. The walls of the staircases were
entirely covered with figures in relief, of workmanship so excellent that I doubt v . nether it could be surpassed;
and by ascending the staircases access was gained to an extensive terrace, on which stood the forty columns
which gave their name to the place, each formed, in spite of their great size, of no more than three stones....
The bases might be thirty palms round, and on the columns were beautifully carved figures. The porches
through which the terrace was entered were very high and the walls very thick; at each end stood out figures of
lions and other fierce animals, carved in relief in the same stone; so well executed that they seemed to be
endeavoring to terrify the spectators. The likeness of the king was drawn life-size upon the porches and in
many other parts.
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