NEBUCHADNEZZAR S{
to imitate the varied surface of mountains, and planted ^vith trees and shrubs of every kind. Diodorus, prob- ably following Ctesias, describes this marvel as a square, four pkt/ira (four hundred feet) each way, and lifty cubits (seventy-live feet) high, approached by sloping paths, and sui^ported on a series of arched galleries in- creasing in height from the base to the summit. In these galleries were various pleasant chambers; and one of them contained the engines by which water was raised from the river to the surface of the mound. This curious construction, which the Greek writers reckoned among the seven >vonders of the world, was said to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar for the gratification of his wife, Amuhia, who, having been brought up among the Median mountains, desired something to remind her of them. Possibly, however, one object was to obtain a pleasure-ground at a height above that to which the mosquitoes are accustomed to rise. This complete ren- ovation of Babj-lon by Nebuchadnezzar, which Berosus asserts, is confirmed to us in every possible vvaj% The Standard Inscription of the king relates at length the construction of the whole series of works, and appears to have been the authority from which Berosus drew. The ruins confirm this in the most positive way, for nine tenths of the bricks in situ are stamped with Nebu- chadnezzar's name. Scripture also adds an indirect but important testimony in the exclamation of Nebu- chadnezzar recorded by Daniel, " Is not this great Baby- lon ic/iich I have built?'' (Dan. iv, 30).
But Nebuchadnezzar did not confine his efforts to the ornamentation and improvement of his capital. Tliroughout the empire, at Borsippa, Sippara, Cutha, Chilmad, Duraba, Teredon, and a multitude of other places, he built or rebuilt cities, repaired temples, con- structed quays, reservoirs, canals, and aqueducts, on a scale of grandeur and magnificence surpassing every- thing of the kind recorded in history, unless it be the constructions of one or two of the greatest Egyptian monarchs. "I have examined," says Sir H. Kawlinson, " the bricks in situ, belonging perhaps to a hundred dif- ferent towns and cities in the neighborhood of Bagdad, and I never found any other legend than that of Nebu- chadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon" (Com. on the Inscr. of Assyria and Bahijlonia, p. 7G, 77). "Nebuchadnezzar," says Abydenus, "on succeed- ing to the throne, fortified Babylon with three lines of walls. He dug the Xuhr Malcha, or Royal River, ^vhich was a branch stream derived from the Euphrates, and also the Acracanus. He likewise made the great reservoir above the city of Sippara, which was thirty parasangs (ninety miles) in circumference, and twenty fathoms (one hundred and twenty feet) deep. Here he placed sluices or flood-gates, which enabled him to ir- rigate the low country. He also built a quay along the shore of the Red Sea (Persian Gulf), and founded the city of Teredon on the borders of Arabia." It is reason- ably concluded from these statements that an extensive system of irrigation was devised by this monarch, to whom the Babylonians were probably indebted for the greater portion of that vast network of canals which covered the whole alluvial tract between the two rivers, and extended on the right bank of the Euphrates to the extreme verge of the stony desert. On that side the principal work was a canal of the largest dimensions, still to be traced, which left the Euphrates at Hit, and skirting the desert ran south-east a distance of above four hundred miles to the Persian Gulf, where it emptied itself into the bay of Grane.
The wealth, greatness, and general prosperity of Nebu- chadnezzar are strikingly placed before us in the Book of Daniel. " The God of heaven" gave him, not a king- dom only, but "power, strength, and glory" (Dan. ii, 37). His wealth is evidenced by the image of gold, sixty cubits in height, which he set up in the plain of Dura (Dan. iii, 1). The grandeur and careful organiza- tion of his kingdom appear from the long list of his officers, "princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers,
9 NEBUCHADNEZZAR
counsellors, sheriffs, and rulers of provinces," of whom we have repeated mention (ver. 2, 3, 27). We see the existence of a species of hierarchy in the " magicians, astrologers, sorcerers," over whom Daniel was set (ii, 48). The " tree, whose height was great, which grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto the heavens, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth ; the leaves whereof were fair, and the fruit much, and in which was food for all ; under which the beasts of the field had shadow, and the fowls of heaven dwelt in the branches thereof, and all flesh was fed of it" (iv, 10-12), is the fitting type of a kingdom at once so flourishing and so extensive. It has been thought by some (De Wette, Th. Parker, etc.) that the Book of Daniel represents the satrapial system of government {Satra2}€n-Einrichtung) as established throughout the whole empire; but this conclusion is not justified by a close examination of that document. Nebuchadnezzar, like his Assyrian predecessors (Isa. x, 8), is represented as a " king of kings" (Dan. ii, 37) ; and the officers enu- merated in chap, ii are probably the authorities of Babylonia proper, rather than the governors of remoter regions, who could not be all spared at once from their employments. The instance of Gedaliah (Jer. xl, 5 ; 2 Kings XXV, 22) is not that of a satrap. He was a Jew; and it may be doubted whether he stood reall}"- in any different relation to the Babylonians from Zede- kiah or Jehoiachin ; although, as he was not of the seed of David, the Jews considered him to be "governor" rather than king.