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Bv BRO . AVM . CARPKNTKR P . M . \ - P . Z . 71 ; XI . Of what is called the Old Assyrian Empire , we know , as I have already suggested , absolutely nothing . Fables we have , but these will not satisfy the enquiring mind . The accounts handed

down to us by Diodorus , lragus , Justin , Castor , Eusebius , and others , are so absurd and contradictory , that we cannot possibly give them our assent . This is easil y accounted for , as the whole of their information is known to have been

derived from Ctesias , who was noted as an arrant fabulist . AVho can believe that soon after the flood Ninus led to battle millions of men , that Semiramis , at the age of twenty , performed the

exploits he ascribes to her ; could employ two millions of men in building cities , and could procure three hundred thousand skins of black oxen , to dress her camels in the form of elephants ?

JJut these were mere trifles , for , as Strabo savs , nearly every great work in every part of Asia was ascribed to her ; her edifices found their limit only at the bounds of the habitable world , on the

frontiers of Scythia , and there it is said that Alexander saw her own record of her deeds "Nature gave me the form of a woman , but my deeds have equalled those of the bravest of men . I ruled the empire of Ninus , which , on the east ,

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touches the river Hinaman ( Indus ) , on the south , the land of frankincense and myrrh ( Arabia Felix ) , on the north , the Sacae and the Sogdians . Before me no Assyrian beheld the seas . I looked

upon four so remote that none had reached them . I formed rivers to run where I wished , and I only wished it in p laces where they were useful . I made the barren soil fruitful , by watering it with

my rivers . I raised impregnable fortresess . I pierced roads with iron across impracticable rocks . My chariots have rolled in roads where the wild

beasts had formed no path . And in the midst of all my labours I found time for pleasure and for love . "

After having achieved all these wonders , and resigned the crown to her son Ninyas , she disappeared in the form of a dove , and was worshipped as a goddess . She thus maintained her place in the

Babylonian mythology ; for she was the daughter of the great goddess of Ascalon , Dercete , and became the wife of Oannes , who was the fishgod noticed in a former paper .

But apart from these absurd legends , the boundaries which Ctesias assigns to the Assyrian empire are incompatible with the extent of other nations at that period . In the time of Abraham

we find Chedolaomer and his three allies possessing distinct kingdoms on the frontiers of Assyria , without the least indication of dependence on that empire ( Gen . xiv . 1 ) , when ,

according to Ctesias , his country must have formed a part of it . In the days of the Judges we hear of a powerful kingdom in Mesopotamia , on the west of Assyria ( Judges iii . 8—11 ) .

It has to be added , that , so late as the time of David , the Hebrew monarchy extended its conquests over 3 great part of the country on the side of the Euphrates , and that Benhadad and

Hazard governed Syria as an independent State . As Sir Isaac Newton has observed ( " Chron . of Anc . Kingdoms , " ch . iii , ) the kingdom formed b y Nimrod , which was probably extended into

Assyria , was but of small extent , being only within the fertile plains of . Chaldea , Chalonitis , and Assyria , watered b y the Tigris and the Euphrates . After the days of Nimrod , we hear

no more of the Assyrian Empire till the days of Pul ( li . c . 790 ) . The four kings who invaded the southern coast of Canaan came from the

countries where Nimrod had reigned , and were probably some of his posterity , who had shared his conquests .

The Kingdoms of Israel , Moab , Amnion , Edom , Philistria , Zidon , Damascus , and Hamath the Great , continued , subject to other lords than the Assyrians , till the days of Pul and his

successors ; and so did the house of Eden ( Amos i ., 5 ; 3 Ki . xix , 12 ) , and HiMfln ( Gen . xii . j 2 Ki . xix . 12 ) , and SepharVaim in Mesopotamia , and Calneh , near Bagdad ( Gen . x . 10

Isa . x . 9 ; 2 Ki . xvii . 31 ) . AVhile thus adverting to the early history of Assyria and Bab ylon , and the myths and fables in which such writers as Ctesias have indulged , I

cannot help feeling the incomparable value of the sacred writings , as a record of history , independently of their containing a revelation of

Divine truth . As a record of historical facts , they purport to notice foreign states only so far as they are connected in any way with the history of the chosen people ; but these incidental

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notices , even the briefest of them , are of infinite value to the student . They furnish a clue to many facts which could not have been understood without their assistance . They serve to

correct other historians , and in every instance in which the sacred writings and general history come into contact , they are to it what the chronometer is to the common watch—they measure

the same period , but with superior precision ; they relate the same events , but with greater accuracy . Still further , as the floating traditions of the heathen would bear upon the facts

recorded in the Scriptures ; so , by a reaction , sacred history clevelopes the hidden import of many an ancient institution , the intention of which was not comprehended by those who

lived under it , and which could not be otherwise understood . And it gives consistency and reality to the traditions of antiquity . It brings distant occurrences to bear upon each

other ; it discloses political interests , jarring among themselves , all tending to the harmony of the universe , and the amelioration of the human race . It supplies , in short , to time what

gravity is to space—the principle which holds and draws all things together . The proper home of the early Assyrians , then , as Smith observes , is marked by the four cities

which are connected with the name of Asshur , in the Book of Genesis—Nineveh , Rehoboth , Calah , and the " Great City " of Resen , between Nineveh and Calah . " ( Gen . x . 11 , 12 . )

Of these , Rehoboth is unknown , and is thought by some to have been , not a city , but as in the margin of our Bible , the " streets

of the city , " i . e ., of Nineveh . Calah is very probably identified with the large ruins of Nimrod , and Resen with those at Seamiyer ; but the certain identification of Nineveh with the

mounds opposite Mosul is enough to indicate the region , which , down to the latest period qf ancient history , preserved the name of Aturia ; the interchange of t with sh being very common

m those regions . Conversely , Tyrus is now Sur . Sir Isaac Newton and many others , who take the Scripture History as the onl y authentic one of these early times , ascribe the foundation of the

great monarchy of Assyria to Pnl or Phul , about twenty-four years before the ; era of Nabonassar , ' . 179 )' L'ars after the flood , and , according to Blair , 709 , or according to Newton , 790 .

Menahem having taken forcible possession of the throne of Israel , by . the murder of Shallum , ( 2 . Ki . xv . 10 . ) , was attacked by Pul , but prevented the hostilities meditated against him b y

presenting the invader with a thousand talents of silver . Pul , thus gratified , took the Kingdom of Israel under his protection , returned to his own

country , after having received voluntary homage from several nations in his march , as he had clone from Israel , and became the founder of the great

empire . As it was in the days of Pul that the Assyrians began to attack the inhabitants of Palestine . ( , 2 . Ki . xi . 9 , 1 . Chron . ' v . 26 ) , this was the time ,

according to Sir Isaac Newton , when the great Assyrian empire arose . Thus he interprets the words , •' since the time of the Kings of Assyria " ( Neh . is . 32 ); that is , since the time of the Kingdom of Assyria ; or since the rise of the . 'uipire .