2. The kingdom of the Chaldees is found among the four "thrones*' spoken of by Daniel (vii, 8 sq.), and is set forth under the symbol of a lion having eagles* wings. The government was despotic, and the will of the monarch, who bore the title of ** king of kings** (Dan. ii, 87), was supreme law, as may be seen in Dan. iii, 12 ; xiv, 28. The kings lived inaccessible to their Subjects in a well-guarded palace, denominated, as with the ancient Persians (Xenoph. Cyrop. 1), " the gate of the king" (Dan. ii, 49, compared with Esther ii, 19, 21, and iii, 2). The number of court and state servants was not small ; in Dan. vi, 1, Darius is said to have set over the whole kingdom no fewer than ** a hundred and twenty princes.*' The chief ofiicers appear to have been a sort of ^' mayor of the palace,** or prime minister, to which high office Daniel was appointed (Dan. ii, 49), "a master of the eunuchs'* (Dan. i, 8), " a captain of the king's guard" (Dan. ii, 14), and " a mas- ter of the magicians," or president of the magi (Dan. iv, 9). Distinct, probably, from the foregoing, was the chiss termed (Dan. iii, 24, 27) " the king's counsellors," who seem to have formed a kind of "privy council,** or even "cabinet," for advising the monarch and gov- erning the kin^om. The entire empire was divided into several provinces (Don. 11, 48 ; ill, 1), prosidod
CHALDEES
202
CHALMERS
over by officers of varioos ranks. An enameration of several kinds may be found in Dan. iii, 2, 8. The head officers, who united in themselves the highest civil and military power, -were denominated t3*^3AD, "rulers" (Jer. li, 23, 28, 67), or '|'^3D'1?»1^K, "pres- idents" (Dan. vi, 2); those who presided over single provinces or districts bore the title of r^^HQ, "govern- ors" (Hagg. i, 1 ; ii, 2 ; in Chald. K^^HD). The ad- ministration of criminal justice was rigorous and cruel, will being substituted for law, and human life and hu- man suffering being totally disregarded. Nebuchad- nezzar (Dan. ii, 5) declares to the college of the magi : '* If ye»will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dung-hill" (see also Dan. iii, 19 ; vi, 8 ; Jer. xxix, 22). The religion of the Chaldees was, as with the ancient Arabians and Syrians, the worship of the heavenly bodies ; the plan- ets Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus were honored as Bel, Nebo, and Meni, besides Saturn and Mars (Gesenius, Jesa. ii, 332 sq.). The language spoken in Babylon was what is designated Chaldee, which is Shemitic in its origin, belonging to the Aramaic branch. — Kitto, s. V. See Chaldee Laivouaoe.
3. That the Kaldi proper, however, were a Cushite race, is proved by the remains of their language, which closely resembles the GaUa or ancient language of Ethiopia. Now it appears by the inscriptions that while both in Ass3rria and in later Babylonia the She- mitic type of speech prevailed for civil purposes, the an- cient Cushite dialect was retained, as a learned lan- guage, for scientific and religious literature. This is no doubt the '* learning" and the "tongue" to which reference is made in the book of Daniel (i, 4). It be- came gradually inaccessible to the great mass of the people, who were Shemitized by means (chiefly) of As- syrian influence. But it was the Chaldasan learning, in the old Chaldnan or Cushite language. Hence idl who studied it, whatever their origin or race, were, on account of their knowledge, termed Chaldseans. In this sense Daniel himself, the '* master of the Chal- deans" (Dan. V, 11), would no doubt have been reck- oned among them ; and so we find Seleucus, a Greek, called a Chaldsean by Strabo (xvi, 1, § 6)^ It nuiy be doubted whether the Chaldieans at any time were all priests, though no doubt priests were required to be Chaldieans. They were really the learned class, who by their acquaintance with the language of science had become its depositaries. They were priests, magi- cians, or astronomers, as their preference for one or other of those occupations inclined them ; and in the last of the three capacities they probably effected dis- coveries of great importance.
According to Strabo, who well distinguishes (xvi,l, § 6) between the learned Chaldseans and the mere race descended from the ancient Kal^ which continued to predominate in the country bordering upon Arabia and the Gulf, there were two chief seats of Chaldaean learn- ing, Borsippa, and Ur or Orchofi. To these we may add firom Pliny (H. N. vi, 26) two others, Babylon, and Sippara or Sepharvaim. The Chaldieans (it would appear) congregated into bodies, forming what we may perhaps call universities, and pursuing the studies in which they engaged together. They probably mixed up to some extent astrology with their astronomy, even in the earlier times, but' they certainly made great advances in astronomical science, to which their serene sky, transparent atmosphere, and regular hori- zon specially invited them. The observations, cover- ing a space of 1903 years, which Callisthenes sent to Aristotle from Babylon (JSimplic. ad Arist.de CceL ii, p. 123), indicate at once the antiquity of such knowledge in the country, and the care with which it had been preserved by the learned class. In later times they seem certainly to have degenerated into mere fortune- toilers (Cicero, de Dw, i, 1 ; Aul. Gell. i, 9 ; Juv. vi,