reeks and Romans themselves. To refer at length to this would be to
anticipate our purpose; what now concerns us is to recall that all along
there was another nation, or group of nations, that disputed the palm
for scientific attainments. This group of nations found a home in the
valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. Their land was named Mesopotamia by
the Greeks, because a large part of it lay between the two rivers just
mentioned. The peoples themselves are familiar to every one as
the Babylonians and the Assyrians. These peoples were of Semitic
stock--allied, therefore, to the ancient Hebrews and Phoenicians and of
the same racial stem with the Arameans and Arabs.

The great capital of the Babylonians during the later period of their
history was the famed city of Babylon itself; the most famous capital
of the Assyrians was Nineveh, that city to which, as every Bible-student
will recall, the prophet Jonah was journeying when he had a
much-exploited experience, the record of which forms no part of
scientific annals. It was the kings of Assyria, issuing from their
palaces in Nineveh, who dominated the civilization of Western Asia
during the heyday of Hebrew history, and whose deeds are so frequently
mentioned in the Hebrew chronicles. Later on, in the year 606 B.C.,
Nineveh was overthrown by the Medes(1) and Babylonians. The famous city
was completely destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Babylon, however, though
conquered subsequently by Cyrus and held in subjection by Darius,(2) the
Persian kings, continued to hold sway as a great world-capital for some
centuries. The last great historical event that occurred within its
walls was the death of Alexander the Great, which took place there in
the year 322 B.C.

In the time of Herodotus the fame of Babylon was at its height, and the
father of history has left us a most entertaining account of what he saw
when he visited the wonderful capital. Unfortunately, Herodotus was
not a scholar in the proper acceptance of the term. He probably had no
inkling of the Babylonian language, so the voluminous records of its
literature were entirely shut off from his observation. He therefore
enlightens us but little regarding the science of the Babylonians,
though his observations on their practical civilization give us
incidental references of no small importance. Somewhat more detailed
references to the scientific attainments of the Babylonians are found
in the fragments that have come down to