Rawlinson, Duncker, Oppert, M. von Niebuhr, etc.
The mighty1 empire of the Assyrians, which constitutes one of the first links in the chain of positive history, has hitherto been best known by the great catastrophes2 which finally closed its existence. The Hebrew Scriptures3 testify to the wealth, the luxury, and the military power of the Assyrians; but neither these nor the fragments in other ancient historical writers, dispel4 the obscurity enveloping5 the interior organism of that great antique people. Neither do the outlines of Babylonian history given by Herodotus afford much insight into the details of her social structure.
In that fore-world which history has not yet penetrated6, the region between the Mediterranean7 sea and the head-waters and affluents8 of the Euphrates and the Tigris, formed the theatre of a tumultuous confusion of races, nations and civilizations, which has no parallel in the known history of mankind. Social and ethnic9 structures of the most heterogeneous10 kind covered those regions, with their various creeds11, theocracies12, municipalities monarchies13 and despotisms of every degree.
[Pg 70]
When, about fifteen centuries B.C., history unveils the empire of the Assyrians or Ninevites, their dominion14 extended in a direct line from the head-waters of the Euphrates and Tigris to the mouths of those rivers; on the north-east, also, they ruled over Media (thus touching15 the Caspian), and from thence their dominion stretched across Armenia, southern Caucasus and Georgia, westward16 to the mouth of the river Halys (the modern Kizil-Ermak), in the Black Sea, and embraced also Palestine, Ph?nicia and Kilikia. As the dynasty of Ninus once ruled over Lydia, it is probable that the Ninevite empire at one time extended over at least a part of Asia Minor17, as far as the Egean Sea.
This great Assyrian empire rose on the ruins of Babylon, which was once her master, and which was also far superior to her in antiquity18.
History has preserved the names of some of the races and tribes which may here at one time have dwelt side by side, but which were subsequently conquered and ruled by the more powerful nation. History, we say, has preserved some, and comparative philology19 is constantly disentangling others from the chaos20 of antique Mesopotamian ethnology.[Pg 71][10]
The Assyrian and Babylonian empires stand recorded in the history of humanity as having been the cradles of Eastern despotism and political slavery. How this terrible tyranny arose in Assyria there are no means of ascertaining21. Doubtless there were a number of conspiring22 causes, just as many rills unite to form a powerful stream. In the history of Rome, fortunately we shall be able clearly to seize the genesis of her despotism, and exhibit the germ as well as the wreck23 of her social structure. Reasoning from all historic analogy, however, it may safely be asserted that Assyrian despotism was generated by war, while political bondage24 nursed and fostered domestic chattelhood. Evil ever reproducing its own substance and shadow!
The social and domestic economy of the Assyrians must, in its general features, have been similar to that of the Nabatheans and Hebrews. In the course of[Pg 72] time, domestic slavery may, to some extent, have been developed in both empires; but even in the last stages of their independent existence, it could not have reached that terrible point it attained25 after the loss of their autonomy. Assyria and Babylon fell by the blows of nations who were themselves subdued26 and politically enslaved. To the last, however, neither their lands nor cities were ever devastated27 or desolated28. Their civilization remained in a flourishing condition to the last, and historically it stands as original. But original civilizations are never germinated29 under the influence of domestic chattelhood. The plains of the Euphrates must have been the hive of a rural population whence the imperial armies were supplied, and these supplies could not have been in the form of chattels30. In ancient cities, manufactures and industry were often carried on by slaves; but when domestic slavery established itself in the rural regions, the national forces soon became palsied.
The tribes and countries conquered by Assyria and Babylon were simply made tributary31 to their wealth and power. Prisoners of war were, in all likelihood, disposed of in the same manner as they were in Egypt, and as was the custom all over the ancient world, and indeed, for several centuries in Christendom—employed in the public works, in the cutting of those canals whose traces are still visible, or in raising walls, palaces and public edifices32, all of which are now covered mountain high with the dust of ages. Thus Sargon (or Sargina), for example, employ[Pg 73]ed prisoners of war in constructing the vast palaces of Khorsabad.
Assyrian and Babylonian history records repeated transportations of whole populations from one part of the empire to another. The condition of such captives on becoming colonists33 has already been explained in the section upon the "Hebrews." It would seem that the kings of Assyria and Babylon first inaugurated this mode of wholesale34 transportation, captivity35 and colonization36. Thus Tiglath-Palassar deported37 the inhabitants of Damascus to Kur in Georgia; and Assardan sent off, en masse, Babylonians, Arkeans, Susianians, Elamites, Persians and Daheans (Tartars), some north and others south. All such transplantments begot38 destruction, desolation and the breaking up of homesteads; and thus fostered domestic slavery, facilitated its expansion, and increased its fatal influence over both the conquered and the conquerors39. And finally, they prepared the soil for that poisonously luxuriant growth of slavery by which Mesopotamians and Syrians became the general bondmen of classical antiquity.
After the destruction of the Assyrian capital (Nineveh) by the revolted nations, Babylon became the centre of a new empire. The rule of Nabukudrussur (a Chaldean from Babylon), extended from the mountains of Armenia to the Arabian shores of the Red Sea, and to the Persian Gulf40. This again is a record of perpetual war, and was, in all respects, a continuation of the Ninevitian period of desolation and cap[Pg 74]tivity. Prisoners of war again filled the capital, and worked at the walls and palaces of Babylon. The rich valleys were no longer cultivated by free laborers41, but were in the hands of large slaveholders, and tilled by their gangs of slaves.
Babylon fell, destroyed by war, combined with political and domestic slaveries, and she transmitted both diseases to her destroyers.

点击
收听单词发音

1
mighty
![]() |
|
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2
catastrophes
![]() |
|
n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 );灾难;不幸事件;困难 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3
scriptures
![]() |
|
经文,圣典( scripture的名词复数 ); 经典 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4
dispel
![]() |
|
vt.驱走,驱散,消除 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5
enveloping
![]() |
|
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6
penetrated
![]() |
|
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7
Mediterranean
![]() |
|
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8
affluents
![]() |
|
n.富裕的,富足的( affluent的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9
ethnic
![]() |
|
adj.人种的,种族的,异教徒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10
heterogeneous
![]() |
|
adj.庞杂的;异类的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11
creeds
![]() |
|
(尤指宗教)信条,教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12
theocracies
![]() |
|
n.神权政治(国家)( theocracy的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13
monarchies
![]() |
|
n. 君主政体, 君主国, 君主政治 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14
dominion
![]() |
|
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15
touching
![]() |
|
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16
westward
![]() |
|
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17
minor
![]() |
|
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18
antiquity
![]() |
|
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19
philology
![]() |
|
n.语言学;语文学 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20
chaos
![]() |
|
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21
ascertaining
![]() |
|
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22
conspiring
![]() |
|
密谋( conspire的现在分词 ); 搞阴谋; (事件等)巧合; 共同导致 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23
wreck
![]() |
|
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24
bondage
![]() |
|
n.奴役,束缚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25
attained
![]() |
|
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26
subdued
![]() |
|
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27
devastated
![]() |
|
v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词);摧毁;毁灭;在感情上(精神上、财务上等)压垮adj.毁坏的;极为震惊的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28
desolated
![]() |
|
adj.荒凉的,荒废的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29
germinated
![]() |
|
v.(使)发芽( germinate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30
chattels
![]() |
|
n.动产,奴隶( chattel的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31
tributary
![]() |
|
n.支流;纳贡国;adj.附庸的;辅助的;支流的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32
edifices
![]() |
|
n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33
colonists
![]() |
|
n.殖民地开拓者,移民,殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34
wholesale
![]() |
|
n.批发;adv.以批发方式;vt.批发,成批出售 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35
captivity
![]() |
|
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36
colonization
![]() |
|
殖民地的开拓,殖民,殖民地化; 移殖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37
deported
![]() |
|
v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 );举止 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38
begot
![]() |
|
v.为…之生父( beget的过去式 );产生,引起 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39
conquerors
![]() |
|
征服者,占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40
gulf
![]() |
|
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41
laborers
![]() |
|
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |