United States or Ecuador ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
That the kings of Chaldæa were quite equal to the task thus laid upon them is proved by the inscriptions of HAMMOURABI, one of the successors of Ismi-Dagan, which have been translated and commented upon by M. Joachim Ménant. The canal to which this king boasts of having given his name, the Nahar-Hammourabi, was called in later days the royal canal, Nahar-Malcha.
Thus, according to Menant, some of the tablets from Nineveh, which are written, as usual, in both the Sumerian and Assyrian languages, and which, therefore, like practically all Assyrian books, draw upon the knowledge of old Babylonia, give lists of animals, making an attempt at classification.
A similar article of food is in extensive use at the present day in the western islands of Scotland, and upon other distant coasts where the soil is poor. M. Ménant makes short work of this forced interpretation and of several similar delusions which were beginning to win some acceptance. Upon the sacred functions of the king, see LAYARD, Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 474. 2 Kings xix. 37.
LENORMANT, Manuel de l'Histoire ancienne, vol. ii. p. 30. J. MÉNANT, Inscriptions de Hammourabi, Roi de Babylone; 1863, Paris. These inscriptions are the oldest documents in phonetic character that have come down to us. See OPPERT, Expédition scientifique, vol. i. p. 267. KER PORTER, Travels in Georgia, Persia, etc., 4to., vol. ii. p. 390.
The disk upon the table is enough by itself to betray the identity of the god, but as if to render assurance doubly sure, the artist has taken the trouble to cut on the bed of the relief under the three small figures, an inscription which has been thus translated by MM. OPPERT and MÉNANT: "Image of the Sun, the Great Lord, who dwells in the temple of Bit-para, in the city of Sippara."
The reader may also consult the small volume contributed by M. J. MÉNANT to the Bibliothèque oriental elzévirienne under the title: La Bibliothèque du Palais de Ninive. 1 vol. 18mo., 1880 Ernest Leroux. HERODOTUS, i. 106.
Word Of The Day