still its age of glory can scarcely be dated earlier than the Chaldean conquest. The history of Ninus, Semiramis, and their descendants, is so involved in fable that it scarcely offers a single fact on which reliance can be placed; but from the Scripture we learn, that Babylon was celebrated for its manufactures so early as the age of Joshua, for it was the superior excellence of a Babylonish garment that tempted the cupidity of Achan. The prophet Isaiah, in a remarkable passage, describes the sudden rise of the Chasdim, or Chaldeans, and their success in wresting Babylonia from the Assyrians: Behold the land of the Chaldeans; This people was of no account: The Assyrians founded it for the inhabitants of the desert. They raised the watch-towers, they set up the palaces thereof.* It appears from this statement, that the Chaldeans were a warlike nomade race, who invaded and subdued a country which had previously made a considerable advance in civilization; and from the boast of Nebuchadnezzar, "Is not this Babylon which I have built ?" the conquerors seem to have adopted the arts of the vanquished. It is probable that caste existed in Babylon before the conquest, at least so far as the priesthood was concerned. The victorious race necessarily formed an aristocracy, or ascendency, and if the Chaldeans imparted their right of precedence to the sacerdotal caste, we have some explanation of the perplexing confusion between the Magians, or priests, and the Chaldeans, which meets us both in sacred and profane his *Isaiah xxiii. 13. Lowth's Translation. The passage is thus rendered by Michaelis: "Behold the land of the Chaldeans; that nation which a little time since was not. The Assyrians subdued it, and gave it to the inhabitants of the desert; they transformed the wandering hordes of nations into settled residents, and built up the palaces of the land." tory. The best description of the Chasdim, or Chaldeans, when they invaded Babylon, is that given by the prophet Habakkuk : Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, A bitter and a hasty nation, Which marches far and wide in the earth, To possess the dwellings which are not theirs! They are terrible and dreadful, Their decrees and their judgments proceed only from themselves. And fiercer than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall come from afar; They shall fly like the eagle pouncing on his prey. They all shall come for violence in hordes; Their glance is ever FORWARD! They gather captives as the sand! And they scoff at kings, And princes are a scorn unto them. They divide every stronghold; They cast up mounds of earth and take it. This graphic description of a rude, warlike race, will at once remind the reader of the character of the hordes Saracens which overthrew the Roman empire. The barbarians entered into possession of cities abounding in wealth and luxury, and were soon corrupted by debauchery and licentiousness. It is evident from the character of the Chaldeans, that they did not originate the commerce and manufactures of Babylon; war was their trade, and conquest their object on the contrary, the original Babylonians were an unwarlike timid race, fond of show, and accustomed to a multitude of artificial wants, which could only be gratified by commercial intercourse with distant countries. These considerations remove many of the inconsistencies which at first sight appear in the early accounts of Babylon; the discrepancy between the attributes of a war : 1 like and of a commercial nation, is at once explained by the fact, that two distinct races, the military Chaldeans and the trading Babylonians, possessed the city when its history began to be important. The process of amalgamation between these races would probably have been very slow, had not the ascendency of the Chaldeans been subverted by the Persian conquest. In large commercial cities, where multitudes of individuals are aggregated in a limited district, the relations between the sexes cannot be regulated by the same institutions as those of an agricultural population. There are temptations and opportunities for illicit and promiscuous intercourse, which must produce the most demoralizing results, unless they are carefully watched by the ruling powers, and unless remedial measures be devised by the legislator. This tendency to immorality is immeasurably increased, if the commercial population be subjected to a foreign or despotic power; self-respect, one of the greatest safeguards of virtue, is then removed, and profligacy, no longer shrouded in darkness, stalks forth boldly in noonday. The moral condition of Venice, under the yoke of Austria, and of Babylon after its conquest by the Chaldeans, equally prove that freedom and self-government are the only efficient checks to the corrupting influences of commercial wealth and a crowded population. The luxury and licentiousness of Babylon were not less remarkable than the pomp and magnificence of the city. In no place were female manners more ostentatiously depraved; there was even a religious enactment for licentiousness. Herodotus informs us, that every woman was obliged by law to prostitute herself to strangers, in the temple of Mylitta, once in her life, and was not allowed to reject any stranger who presented himself. The debauch ery at their banquets almost surpassed credibility; women appeared at these orgies, divested of their garments, and of every sense of shame; nor were these hired nautch-girls, but the wives and daughters of the guests.* At the impious feast of Belshazzar, not only his princes, but his wives and his concubines, were present, though the city was at that very moment beleaguered by the Persian hosts. It was in the midst, not merely of festivity, but of debauchery, that the hand appeared on the walls of the banqueting-house, and traced the letters of a doom which was consummated ere the fumes of the surrounding intoxication had been dissipated.t The form of government established by the Chaldeans in Babylon did not differ very much from the ordinary oriental despotism. The monarch was absolute; the court was composed of his creatures, whose rank depended entirely on the royal will, but still had a regular gradation of title; the empire was divided into provinces or satrapies, in which the governors usually possessed both the civil and * Nihil urbis ejus corruptius moribus; nec ad irritandas inliciendasque immodicas voluptates instructius. Liberos conjugesque cum hospitibus stupro coire, modo pretium flagitii detur, parentes maritique patiuntur. Conviviales ludi tota Perside regibus purpuratisque cordi sunt; Babylonii maxime in vinum et quæ ebrietatem sequuntur perfusi sunt. Feminarum convivia ineuntium principis modestus est habitus, dein summa quæque amicula exuunt: paulatimque pudorem profanant: ad ultimum (horror auribus sit) una coporum velamenta projiciunt. Nec meretricum hoc dedecus est, sed matronarum virginumque, apud quas comitas habetur coporis vilitas.— CURTIUS V. † From Xenophon's account, it appears that the very guards were intoxicated. We may remark that this circumstance was predicted by the prophet Isaiah, in his denunciation of divine wrath against Babylon: The table is prepared, the watch is set; they eat, they drink. military authority; finally, there was a sacerdotal caste, the members of which must have possessed considerable influence from their supposed power of predicting future events. But in what relation the priests stood to the other orders of the state is unknown, and how they acquired the name of Chaldeans, which properly belonged to a people, is still matter of conjecture. It appears from these circumstances that the real amount of civilization in Babylon was not very great, and that it was probably in extent and kind very similar to that of Bagdad under the Khaliphs. Commerce appears to have flowed to it, at least as much on account of its geographical position as from either the skill or enterprise of its inhabitants. Commerce brought wealth, but it also brought a dense population, and no adequate means were employed to check the abuses which necessarily arise from the accumulation of human beings within the circuit of a wall. The rude but warlike Chaldeans soon became enervated by the corrupting influences of the luxurious race they had vanquished, and when the enthusiasm of conquest had faded away, they fell an easy prey to the Persians. The utter ruin of the city followed the decline of its trade; there were no stone buildings, and when the walls of sundried brick were once allowed to fall into disrepair, they were gradually washed away and reduced to their original earth. Hence unsightly mounds alone remain to show where "the Queen of the East" once stood, and the terrible denunciation of the prophet has been fulfilled to the letter: Babylon shall become-she that was the beauty of kingdoms, As the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by the hand of God. Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation, |