of this kingdom (Gen. x. 9, 10). Its capital was Babylon on the river Euphrates. The Chaldean was followed by the Assyrian, the seat of whose empire was at Nineveh on the eastern bank of the Tigris. Asshur is given as the founder of this empire (Gen. x. 11).

The earlier portion of the history of Assyria is enveloped in much obscurity, but from about 909 to 745 B.C. the chronology is more exact and the materials for history more abundant. During this period the Assyrian armies came into contact with the Medes and Persians, pressed into Syria and imposed their yoke upon the Phoenicians, the kingdom of Damascus, and the kingdom of Israel. The names of Benhadad, Hazael, Ahab, and Jehu, are common to the Assyrian and Hebrew records of this period. About B.c. 860 Jonah was sent to Nineveh, which was then an exceeding great city of three days' journey (Jonah iii. 3). "Built in the form of a parallelogram, its longer sides being eighteen miles in length, and its shorter about twelve, its circumference was about sixty miles. London does not occupy more than the half of such an area, but Nineveh had within its boundaries gardens, parks, vineyards, orchards,

corn-fields, and royal demesnes. Its inhabitants probably numbered about half a million. The walls of this royal capital were a hundred feet high, and so broad as to form a pathway for three chariots driven abreast. The city walls had upon them 1,500 towers, all of them 200 feet in height." Nineveh fell, and the Assyrian monarchy ended B.C. 625.

About 1250 B.C. the Assyrians conquered Babylonia, and an Assyrian dynasty was established at Babylon; but on the fall of Nineveh Babylonia became independent, and Nabopolassar, its sovereign, divided the Assyrian dominions between himself and Cyaxares, King of Media, receiving for his share of the spoil Susiana, the Euphrates Valley, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. Nabopolassar died в.c. 604, and was succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar. A brilliant period now followed. Nebuchadnezzar carried his armies victoriously into Phoenicia, Palestine, and Egypt. Jerusalem was taken and destroyed B.c. 588 (2 Kings xxv. 8-11). Tyre, after resisting for thirteen years, was captured B.C. 572, and Nebuchadnezzar was recognised as lord-paramount of Egypt about B.C. 569,

This was the period for the construction of great works, and now Babylon was in the height of its glory. Divided by the river Euphrates into two parts, the eastern and western, it was connected by a bridge of wonderful construction. The wall was at least forty-five miles in circumference. The city was laid out in six hundred and twenty-five squares, formed by the intersection of twenty-five streets at right angles. The walls, which were of brick, were seventy-five feet high and thirty-two broad. The towers and palaces with which the city was adorned, and the pride and luxury of its inhabitants, were proverbial among the surrounding nations. The hanging gardens and the walls of the city were reckoned among the seven wonders of the world. Then did Nebuchadnezzar, in the pride of his heart, say, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. iv. 30.) But a few years afterwards, B.C. 538, Belshazzar was seated in the midst of his lords at an impious feast when the finger of a man's hand is seen writing upon the wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." The

sentence has gone forth. Babylon is doomed, and in that night the kingdom of Babylonia passed into the hands of Darius, King of the Medes and Persians.

Nearly fourteen centuries before these events there dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees a man named Terah, who, with his family, emigrated to Haran (in Mesopotamia), and from thence Abraham, at the command of God, "when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went" (Heb. xi. 8). From Abraham descended the Israelites, who, after a sojourn in Egypt, were brought into the land of Canaan, of which land they afterwards became the possessors. Under David and Solomon the kingdom of Israel became a mighty monarchy. The temple was erected, trade and commerce flourished, and the glory of Solomon was known to the remote parts of the world (1 Kings x. 6, 7). He exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and wisdom. The children of Israel were God's peculiar people, but having forsaken the God of their fathers and turned to idolatry, besides committing other gross sins, He suffered them to be

overcome of their enemies, and first in the year B.C. 721 the tribes of Israel were carried away captive beyond the Euphrates, and, about thirty years later, Nebuchadnezzar besieged and took Jerusalem, and the Jews were taken away captive to Babylon.

A country that had attained to great eminence, and which was contemporaneous for several centuries with those already noticed, was Phoenicia. Notwithstanding the small extent of its territory, which consisted of a mere strip of land between the crest of Lebanon and the sea, it was one of the most important countries of the ancient world. In her the commercial spirit showed itself as the dominant spirit of a nation. She was the carrier between the East and the West--the link that bound them together-in times anterior to the first appearance of the Greeks as navigators.

The chief cities were Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Byblus, Tripolis, and Aradeus. Of these Sidon seems to have been the most ancient, as there is reason to believe that prior to B.C. 1050 she was the most flourishing of all the Phoenician communities. In later times Tyre became the chief city.