or CHALDEA, a kingdom of Asia, and the most ancient in the world, being founded by Nimrod the grandson of Ham, who also, according to the margin of our bibles, founded Nineveh the capital of the kingdom of Assyria. Indeed, these two kingdoms seem to have always continued in such a state of friendship, that we can scarce help thinking they must have been the same, or perhaps Babylonia was for some time a province of Assyria. Nothing certain is known concerning either of them, except what may be gathered from Scripture. From thence we learn, that in the days of Abraham there was a king of Shinar, called Amraphel, who, under the king of Elam or Persia, made war upon the Canaanites. From this time we have nothing that can be depended upon till the days of Nabonassar, the first king of Babylon mentioned in Ptolemy's canon. It is plain indeed, both from Scripture and profane history, that Babylonia subsisted as a distinct kingdom from Assyria even when the latter was in all its glory. The most probable account of the matter is this: The empire of Assyria was founded by Pul, on the ruins of that of Damascus or Syria, in the days of Menahem king of Judah. This king left two sons, Tiglath-Pileser and Nabonassar. To the former he bequeathed the empire of Assyria, and to the latter that of Babylon. Tiglath-Pileser resided at Nineveh, the original seat of the Assyrian empire; while Nabonassar, who was the younger brother, held his residence at Babylon. As the two kingdoms were governed by princes of the same family, we may well suppose a perfect harmony to have reigned between them, the younger branch at Babylon acknowledging a kind of subjection to the elder at Nineveh. That the Babylonian empire was of Assyrian origin, we are assured by the prophet Isaiah in the following words:

"Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwelt in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof; they built the palace thereof." As to the kingdom of Assyria, the Scripture mentions only five kings, viz., Pul, Tiglath-Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon; whose history, as related by the sacred writers, it is needless to mention particularly here. From the days of Nabonassar to Nabopolassar, that is, from the year before Christ 747 to 626, the kings of Babylon made no figure, and were therefore probably in a state of dependence on the kings of Assyria; but at that time, in the reign of Clyniadas, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, Nineveh was taken and destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians, and the seat of the empire transferred to Babylon. This Nabopolassar was the father of the famous Nebuchadnezzar, for whose history we must refer to the sacred writers: and from his time to that of the Belshazzar of Daniel, and Nabonadius of other authors, the history of Babylon is little better than a mere blank. Of the reduction of Babylon by Cyrus, which happened at this time, we have the following account.

War had been begun betwixt the Medes, Persians, and Babylonians, in the reign of Neriglissar the father of Nabonadius, which had been carried on with very bad success on the side of the Babylonians, Cyrus, who commanded the Median and Persian army, having subdued the several nations inhabiting the great continent from the Aegean Sea to the Euphrates, bent his march towards Babylon. Nabonadius, hearing of his march, immediately advanced against him with an army. In the engagement which ensued, the Babylonians were defeated; and the king, retreating to his metropolis, was blocked up and closely besieged by Cyrus. The reduction of this city was no easy enterprise. The walls were of a prodigious height, the number of men to defend them very great, and the place stored with all sorts of provisions for 20 years. Cyrus, despairing of being able to take such a city by storm, caused a line of circumvallation to be drawn quite round it, with a large and deep ditch; reckoning, that if all communication with the country were cut off, the besieged would be obliged to surrender through famine. That his troops might not be too much fatigued, he divided his army into twelve bodies, appointing each body its month to guard the trenches; but the besieged, looking upon themselves to be out of all danger by reason of their high walls and magazines, insulted him from the ramparts, and looked upon all the trouble he gave himself as so much unprofitable labour.

After Cyrus had spent two whole years before Babylon, without making any progress in the siege, he at last thought of the following stratagem, which put him in possession of it. He was informed, that a great annual solemnity was to be held at Babylon; and that the inhabitants on that occasion were accustomed to spend the whole night in drinking and debauchery. This he therefore thought a proper time for surprising them; and accordingly sent a strong detachment to the head of the canal leading to the great lake, with orders, at a certain time, to break down the great bank which was between the lake and the canal, and to turn the whole whole current into the lake. At the same time he appointed one body of troops at the place where the river entered the city, and another where it came out; ordering them to march in by the bed of the river as soon as they should find it fordable. Towards the evening he opened the head of the trenches on both sides the river above the city, that the water might discharge itself into them; by which means, and the breaking down of the great dam, the river was soon drained. Then the two abovementioned bodies of troops, according to their orders, entered the channel; the one commanded by Gobryas and the other by Gadatas: and finding the gates all left open by reason of the disorders of that riotous night, they penetrated into the very heart of the city without opposition; and meeting, according to agreement, at the palace, they surprized the guards, and cut them in pieces. Those who were in the palace opening the gates to know the cause of this confusion, the Persians rushed in, took the palace, and killed the king, who came out to meet them sword in hand. Thus an end was put to the Babylonian empire; and Cyrus took possession of Babylon for one called in Scripture Darius the Mede, most probably Cyaxares II., uncle to Cyrus. From this time Babylon never was erected into a distinct kingdom, but hath always followed the fortune of those great conquerors who at different times have appeared in Asia. It is now frequently the object of contention between the Turks and Persians. See Assyria.

Concerning the nature of the country, manners, customs, &c. of the ancient Babylonians, the following account is collected by M. Sabbathier.

"As all the nations under the dominion of Cyrus, beside the ordinary tributes, were obliged to maintain him and his army, the monarch and his troops were supported by all Asia. The country of Babylon alone was obliged to maintain him four months of the year; its fertility, therefore, yielded a third of the produce of Asia. The government of this country, which the Persians termed satrapy, was richer and more extensive than any of the rest. It maintained for the king, besides the war-horses, a stud of 800 stallions and 16,000 mares. So great a number of Indian dogs were likewise bred in this province for the king, that four of its cities kept these animals; and in return, they were exempted from all taxes and tributes.

"It rained very seldom in this country, according to Herodotus. The earth was watered by the river, which was here diffused by human industry, as the Nile is over Egypt by nature: for all the country of Babylon was divided by canals, the greatest of which was navigable, and flowed from south to north, from the Euphrates to the Tigris. In short, it was one of the finest countries for corn in the world; but for producing trees, the fig-tree, the vine, and the olive, it was not famous. It was so luxuriant in grain, that it commonly yielded a hundred times more than what was sown; and in its good years it yielded three hundred times more than it received. The leaves of its wheat and barley were four inches broad. 'Though I know,' says Herodotus, 'that the millet and the fame of that country grow to the size of trees, I will not describe them particularly; lest those who have not been in Babylonia should think my account fabulous.'

"They had no oil but what they made from Indian corn. The country abounded with palm-trees, which grew spontaneously; and most of them bore fruit, of which the inhabitants made bread, wine, and honey. They cultivated these trees and their fig-trees in the same manner. Some of them, as of other trees, the Greeks called male ones. They tied the fruit of the male to the trees which bore dates; that the mosquito, leaving the male, might cause the date to ripen, by penetrating it; for without that affluence it came not to maturity. Mosquitos bred in the male palms as in the wild fig-trees.

"But we must not here omit to give an account of the peculiar and surprising construction of their boats of skins, in which they sailed along the river to Babylon. These boats were invented by the Armenians, whose country lay north from Babylonia. They made them with poles of willow, which they bent and covered with skins. The bare side of the skins they put outwards; and they made them so tight that they resembled boards. The boats had neither prow nor stern, but were of a round form like a buckler. They put straw on the bottom. Two men, each with an oar, rowed them down the river, laden with different wares, but chiefly with palm-wine. Of these boats some were very large and some very small. The largest carried the weight of 500 talents. There was room for an ass in one of their small boats; they put many into a large one. When they had unloaded, after their arrival at Babylon, they sold the poles of their boats and the straw; and loading their asses with the skins, returned to Armenia: for they could not fail up the river its current was so rapid. For this reason they made their boats of skins instead of wood; and on their return to Armenia with their asses, they applied the skins to their former use.

"As to their dress, they wore a linen shirt, which came down to their feet. Over it they wore a woollen robe; their outer garment was a white vest. Their shoes resembled those of the Thebans. They let their hair grow. On their heads they wore a turban. They rubbed their bodies all over with fragrant liquors. Each man had a ring on his finger, and an elegant cane in his hand, with an apple at the top, or a rose, a lily, or an eagle, or some other figure; for they were not suffered to use canes without devices.

"With regard to their policy, Herodotus thinks that their best law was one which the Heneti, an Illyrian people, likewise observed in every town and village. When the girls were marriageable, they were ordered to meet in a certain place, where the young men likewise assembled. They were then sold by the public crier; but he first sold the most beautiful one. When he had sold her at an immense price, he put up others to sale, according to their degrees of beauty. The rich Babylonians were emulous to carry off the finest women, who were sold to the highest bidders. But as the young men who were poor could not aspire to have fine women, they were content to take the ugliest with the money which was given them: for when the crier had sold the handsomest, he ordered the ugliest of all the women to be brought, and asked if any one was willing to take her with a small sum of money. Thus she became the wife of him who was most easily satisfied; and thus the finest women were sold; and from the money..."