From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon

Name: From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon
Author: Zahm, J. A. (John Augustine)

Zahm, J. A. (John Augustine)

Middle East -- Civilization; Middle East -- Description and travel

More interesting far than any of the royal tombs referred to is one
of the stelæ that were uncovered in the same place. According to the
inscription on it the discovery of this monument was really startling
in its import and marked a most notable event in the romance of
archæology. The legend which this stone pillar bears tells us that it
is:

   The stela of Sammuramat

   The woman of the palace (that is, the consort of Shamsi-Adad,)

   The King of the world, King of Assyria,

   The mother of Adadnirari

   The King of the world, King of Assyria,

   The daughter-in-law of Salmanassar

   The king of the four quarters of the earth.[390]

But who was Sammuramat? Surprising as it may seem, she was, as scholars
now concede, none other than Semiramis, the famous legendary queen of
Assyria.

What a marvelous discovery! What a vindication of long suppressed
truth! What an unexpected substitution of reality for fiction, of fact
for fancy, of authentic history for myth and legend!

To no other woman of antiquity have there been attributed so many
brilliant achievements as to Semiramis. Nor has any one of her
sex during the last two thousand years and more, occupied a more
conspicuous position in myth and legend, song and story.

From the time of Ctesias, the physician of Artaxerxes Mnemon, until
the latter part of the last century, there was no question about the
main facts of her marvelous career. During all this time she was
regarded as one of the most notable rulers of antiquity--as a queen of
consummate military ability and exceptional statesmanship; as a ruler
of vaulting ambition and as a conqueror whose dominions embraced the
most flourishing regions of Asia and Africa. So great indeed was her
reputed activity and genius that Strabo tells us tradition attributed
to her all the most stupendous works along the Tigris and the Euphrates
and even those in distant Iran.[391] Alexander the Great, it is said,
found an inscription of hers on the frontier of Scythia, which was then
considered the boundary of the inhabited world. In this inscription the
famous queen declares:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

From Berlin to Bagdad and BabylonZahm, J. A. (John Augustine)

HistoryChristian

From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon

Zahm, J. A. (John Augustine)

Middle East -- Civilization; Middle East -- Description and travel

More interesting far than any of the royal tombs referred to is one
of the stelæ that were uncovered in the same place. According to the
inscription on it the discovery of this monument was really startling
in its import and marked a most notable event in the romance of
archæology. The legend which this stone pillar bears tells us that it
is:

   The stela of Sammuramat

   The woman of the palace (that is, the consort of Shamsi-Adad,)

   The King of the world, King of Assyria,

   The mother of Adadnirari

   The King of the world, King of Assyria,

   The daughter-in-law of Salmanassar

   The king of the four quarters of the earth.[390]

But who was Sammuramat? Surprising as it may seem, she was, as scholars
now concede, none other than Semiramis, the famous legendary queen of
Assyria.

What a marvelous discovery! What a vindication of long suppressed
truth! What an unexpected substitution of reality for fiction, of fact
for fancy, of authentic history for myth and legend!

To no other woman of antiquity have there been attributed so many
brilliant achievements as to Semiramis. Nor has any one of her
sex during the last two thousand years and more, occupied a more
conspicuous position in myth and legend, song and story.

From the time of Ctesias, the physician of Artaxerxes Mnemon, until
the latter part of the last century, there was no question about the
main facts of her marvelous career. During all this time she was
regarded as one of the most notable rulers of antiquity--as a queen of
consummate military ability and exceptional statesmanship; as a ruler
of vaulting ambition and as a conqueror whose dominions embraced the
most flourishing regions of Asia and Africa. So great indeed was her
reputed activity and genius that Strabo tells us tradition attributed
to her all the most stupendous works along the Tigris and the Euphrates
and even those in distant Iran.[391] Alexander the Great, it is said,
found an inscription of hers on the frontier of Scythia, which was then
considered the boundary of the inhabited world. In this inscription the
famous queen declares:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon

From Berlin to Bagdad and Babylon

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