rom several of the
building and conquering sovereigns of Babylon and Nineveh. So, in the case
of Egypt, was forged the image of that great Sesostris who looms so large
in the pages of the Greek historians and combines many Pharaohs of the
chief Theban dynasties in his own person. The romantic tales of Ctesias
were united by Rollin and his emulators with other statements of perhaps
still more doubtful value. The book of Daniel was freely drawn upon, and
yet it is certain that it was not written until the year which saw the
death of Antiochus Epiphanes. The book of Daniel is polemical, not
historical; the Babylon in which its scene is laid is a Babylon of the
imagination; the writer chose it as the best framework for his lessons to
the Israelites, and for the menaces he wished to pour out upon their
enemies.[57] Better materials are to be found in other parts of the Bible,
in _Kings_, in the _Chronicles_, and in the older prophets. But it would be
an ungrateful task for the critic to attempt to work out an harmonious
result from evidence so various both in origin and value. The most skilful
would fail in the endeavour. With such materials it would be impossible to
arrive at any coherent result that would be, we do not say true, but
probable.

The discovery of Nineveh, the exploration of the ruins in Chaldaea, and the
decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, have changed all this, although
much of the detail has yet to be filled in, especially so far as the
earlier periods are concerned. We are now able to trace the leading lines,
to mark the principal divisions, in a word, to put together the skeleton of
a future history. We are no longer ignorant of the origin of Babylonish
civilization nor of the directions in which it spread; we can grasp both
the strong differences and the close bonds of connection between Assyria
and Chaldaea, and understand the swing of the pendulum that in the course of
two thousand years shifted the political centre of the country backwards
and forwards from Babylon to Nineveh, while from the mountains of Armenia
to the Persian Gulf, beliefs, manners, arts, spoken dialects, and written
characters, preserved so many striking resemblances as to put their common
origin beyond a doubt.

Not a year passes but the discovery of fresh documents and the process of
translation allows us to retouch and complete the story. MM. Maspero and
Lenormant have placed it before us as shaped by their most recent st