gns which astronomers of all subsequent times have continued
to recognize; and the duodecimal system of counting took precedence with
the Babylonian mathematicians over the more primitive and, as it seems
to us, more satisfactory decimal system.

Another discrepancy between the Babylonian and Egyptian years appears in
the fact that the Babylonian new year dates from about the period of the
vernal equinox and not from the solstice. Lockyer associates this with
the fact that the periodical inundation of the Tigris and Euphrates
occurs about the equinoctial period, whereas, as we have seen, the
Nile flood comes at the time of the solstice. It is but natural that so
important a phenomenon as the Nile flood should make a strong impression
upon the minds of a people living in a valley. The fact that occasional
excessive inundations have led to most disastrous results is evidenced
in the incorporation of stories of the almost total destruction of
mankind by such floods among the myth tales of all peoples who reside in
valley countries. The flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates had not, it
is true, quite the same significance for the Mesopotamians that the
Nile flood had for the Egyptians. Nevertheless it was a most important
phenomenon, and may very readily be imagined to have been the most
tangible index to the seasons. But in recognizing the time of the
inundations and the vernal equinox, the Assyrians did not dethrone
the moon from its accustomed precedence, for the year was reckoned as
commencing not precisely at the vernal equinox, but at the new moon next
before the equinox.

ASTROLOGY

Beyond marking the seasons, the chief interests that actuated the
Babylonian astronomer in his observations were astrological. After
quoting Diodorus to the effect that the Babylonian priests observed the
position of certain stars in order to cast horoscopes, Thompson tells us
that from a very early day the very name Chaldean became synonymous with
magician. He adds that "from Mesopotamia, by way of Greece and Rome, a
certain amount of Babylonian astrology made its way among the nations
of the west, and it is quite probable that many superstitions which we
commonly record as the peculiar product of western civilization took
their origin from those of the early dwellers on the alluvial lands of
Mesopotamia. One Assurbanipal, king of Assyria B.C. 668-626, added to
the royal library at Nineveh his contribution of tablets, which included