relative condition of Media, it could scarcely be supposed that
the once-powerful kingdom of Assyria should have ceased to
exist from the reign of Ninyas to that of Sardanapalus.
The Assyrian I ndeed, it is shown by undoubted authority, that at the time empire, and 1 J J 7 • .
of the commencement of the Median revolt under Deioces, or
Kaikobad, the Assyrians had already been masters of upper
Asia for a period of 520 years.1 And the probability that in
his last work on Assyria, the historian may have distinguished
between the great empire over central Asia, and the previous
state of the Assyrian monarchy, is strengthened by the account
of Trogus Pompeius in Justin, who says8 that the Assyrians
ruled in Asia for the term of 1300 years.
There must, doubtless, have been a line of sovereigns during
its line of the period mentioned by Herodotus, if not the whole of the
probably interval in question; and possibly such as that supposed to have
uninterrupted. peen t^ken from the Persian archives. And as several circumstances
mentioned in connexion with the later, as well as the-
earlier sovereigns, are substantiated from other sources, may
not greater weight be claimed for the historian of Cnidus, than
that which has usually been given to his enumeration of the
earlier kings? It is just possible that the monumental history
and inscriptions now being rescued from the ruins left by time
Remains near on the banks of the Tigris, may, when deciphered, not only
enMghten'the prove that the archives in question existed, but also in some
bistoiy™ degree restore the important link wanting in the early history
of Assyria.3
1 Herod., lib. I., cap. xcv.
3 Lib. I ., cap. ii., compared with Agathias Scholasticus, lib. I I ., p. 63.
3 Considering the vast importance of these discoveries in connexion with
the earliest postdiluvian history, it cannot be uninteresting to give the extract
of a letter addressed by Mr. Hector, an officer of the Euphrates Expedition,
to'Thomas Stirling, Esq., of Sheffield, dated June, 1845, respecting his visit
to Khorsabad, & c .:—“ Khorsabad is eighteen to twenty miles N.N.E. of
Mosul. I examined the excavations over and over again, and the more I
looked at the remaining sculptures, the more was I struck with astonishment
as I thought of the ages and ages that have passed by since they were executed
and buried. There are, I think, fifteen immense chambers or streets
cleared out, all connected with each other at right angles, and all covered
with sculptures and inscriptions of various sizes and sorts, representing processions
of men in state, the same of horses, richly caparisoned, apparently
Whatever doubts may have been justly entertained regarding
the preceding sovereigns do not apply to the so-called Median
dynasty of Ctesias, since it is found that Arbaces, as well as
led as an offering to the k in g ; scenes of battles, and fighting o f all descriptions,
with bows and arrows, spears, daggers, and shields, &c. & c.; armies
marching with horses and chariots, besieging towns, & c .; drinking parties,
with tables and chairs and wine-cups, with servants pouring out the wine;
garden scenes; hunting parties, shooting birds and hares in forests, with
bows and arrows; men impaled before besieged towns; dead men falling olf
ramparts in fighting; prisoners in chains-; sea scenes, with fish swimming
about. There is one scene which would exactly correspond to the taking of
Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel, ch. xxix., v. 18), where the prophet
says, ‘ every man’s head was bald, and every shoulder was peeled.’ There
were a great many large-winged bulls, with men’s heads, about twenty to
thirty tons each, and generally of beautiful execution. They were placed at
the end and corners of the different passages or chambers, and generally in
pairs; these the people seem to have worshipped, and placed there as protecting
deities. The remaining sculptures looked very well and perfect
while standing in their places, but fell to pieces immediately on attempting
to disturb them. I t is evident that the' place was destroyed by fire, from the
quantity of charcoal found in excavating; and in some spots, where the fire
had been strong, the marble sculptures were burnt to lime to a considerable
depth on the face that had been exposed.............. I left Mosul on the
2nd June, travelling by night, on account of the heat, and took the road
along the east or left bank of the Tigris, on purpose to see Tell Nimrud.
“ June 3.—Arrived at Nimrud. The place, as to shape, has somewhat
the appearance of Khorsabad, but is three or four times as large. The
artificial mound, which I suppose to have been the palace, is of an oblong
form, about two miles in circumference, and from 50 to 60 feet high,
perhaps more, with a high conical pyramid raised at the north corner of the
mound, about 120 feet high, which must have been a watch-tower, or something
of that kind. The apparent wall of the city is from six to eight miles
in extent, forming a kind of square, corresponding to the four cardinal
points. The mound is placed at the S.W. corner of the enclosure, where the
Tigris had at one time washed its two sides. A t present, the Tigris has
receded some four miles, and left a large plain between the mound and the
present bed of the river. On the top of the mound I saw the upper end of
some marble slabs above the ground, closely joined together, forming a
chamber or cistern, 22 feet by 12; it was nearly filled with earth. I was
informed its depth was from 8 to 10 feet. No appearance of writing was to
be seen; but had it not been so dreadfully hot, I would have dug it out.
There are quantities of broken bricks, with cuneiform characters upon them,
scattered over the mound; they appeared to be inscribed all over, and the
characters ar,e much larger, and seem to have been cut, not stamped, in the
centre, like those generally brought from Babylon, and those which I saw at