Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)

22

See Herod. i. c. 184; Diodor. Sic. ii.; Pompon. Mela, i. c. 3; Justin. i. c. 1; Val. Max. ix. c. 3.

23

The character of Sardanapalus has been treated more gently by a modern poet. “The Sardanapalus of Lord Byron is pretty nearly such a person as the Sardanapalus of history may be supposed to have been, – young, thoughtless, spoiled by flattery and unbounded self-indulgence; but, with a temper naturally amiable, and abilities of a superior order, he affects to undervalue the sanguinary renown of his ancestors, as an excuse for inattention to the most necessary duties of his rank; and flatters himself, while he is indulging his own sloth, that he is making his people happy. Yet, even in his fondness for pleasure, there lurks a love of contradiction. Of the whole picture, selfishness is the prevailing feature; – selfishness admirably drawn, indeed; apologised for by every palliating circumstance of education and habit, and clothed in the brightest colours of which it is susceptible, from youth, talents, and placidity. But it is selfishness still; and we should have been tempted to quarrel with the art which made vice and frivolity thus amiable, if Lord Byron had not, at the same time, pointed out with much skill the bitterness and weariness of spirit which inevitably wait on such a character; and if he had not given a fine contrast to the picture, in the accompanying portraits of Salamenes and Myrrha.” – Heber.

24

Atherstone’s “Fall of Nineveh.”

25

Ælian calls him Thilgamus.

26

2 Kings.

27

Adrammelech and Sharezer.

28

2 Kings, xix. ver. 37.

29

Tobit, xiv. ver. 5, 13

30

Nahum, chap. iii.

31

Zephaniah, chap. ii.

32

Soon after the great fire of London, the rector of St. Michael, Queenhithe, preached a sermon before the Lord Mayor and corporation of London, in which he instituted a parallel between the cities of London and Nineveh, to show that unless the inhabitants of the former repented of their many public and private vices, and reformed their lives and manners, as did the Ninevites on the preaching of Jonah, they might justly be expected to become the objects of the signal vengeance of Heaven: putting them in mind of the many dreadful calamities that have, from time to time, befallen the English nation in general, and the great City of London in particular; and of the too great reason there was to apprehend some yet more signal vengeance from the hands of Omnipotence, since former judgments had not proved examples sufficient to warn and amend a very wicked people.

33

Diodorus says, that Nineveh stood on the Euphrates: but this is contrary to all evidence.

34

One of these is in the British Museum.

35

Daughter of Sir James Mackintosh, and wife of Mr. Rich.

36

Herodotus; Diodorus Siculus; Ælian; Prideaux; Rollin; Stackhouse; Gibbon; Rees; Brewster; Kinneir; Morier; Rich.

37

Strabo; Plutarch; Brydone; Swinburne; Jose.

38

The computation of time by Olympiads, which began about four hundred years after the destruction of Troy, was used until the reign of Theodosius the Great; when a new mode of reckoning, by indictions, or from the victory of Augustus at Actium, was introduced; the Olympic games, in the general assembly, were abolished; and the image, made by Phidias, was removed to Constantinople. – Chandler.

39

Gen. xxxii. 24.

40

Πᾶν κράτος.

41

There is a fine specimen in the Townley gallery, at the British Museum.

42

Chandler.

43

Chandler.

44

Clarke; Pausanias; Plutarch; Rollin; Chandler; Barthelemy; Dodwell.

45

“This name indicates,” says Mr. Swinburne, “that they pursued, or wished to be thought to pursue, a line of conduct in commercial transactions, which it would be happy for mankind, all maritime powers would adopt.”

46

Pholas dactylus.