That is, by the _Syrian_ or _Assyrian_ _Belus_; the words _Tyrian_, _Syrian_, and _Assyrian_, being anciently used promiscuously for one another: _Herennius_ [362] tells us, that it was built by the son of _Belus_; and this son might be _Nabonassar_. After the conquest of _Calneh_, _Thelasar_, and _Sippare_, _Belus_ might seize _Chaldæa_, and begin to build _Babylon_, and leave it to his younger son: for all the Kings of _Babylon_ in the Canon of _Ptolemy_ are called _Assyrians_, and _Nabonassar_ is the first of them: and _Nebuchadnezzar_ [363] reckoned himself descended from _Belus_, that is, from the _Assyrian_ _Pul_: and the building of _Babylon_ is ascribed to the _Assyrians_ by [364] _Isaiah_: _Behold_, saith he, _the land of the _Chaldeans_: This people was not 'till the _Assyrian_ founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness, _[that is, for the _Arabians_.]_ They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof_. From all this it seems therefore that _Pul_ founded the walls and the palaces of _Babylon_, and left the city with the province of _Chaldæa_ to his younger son _Nabonassar_; and that _Nabonassar_ finished what his father began, and erected the Temple of _Jupiter Belus_ to his father: and that _Semiramis_ lived in those days, and was the Queen of _Nabonassar_, because one of the gates of _Babylon_ was called the gate of _Semiramis_, as _Herodotus_ affirms: but whether she continued to Reign there after her husband's death may be doubted. _Pul_ therefore was succeeded at _Nineveh_ by his elder son _Tiglath-pileser_, at the same time that he left _Babylon_ to his younger son _Nabonassar_. _Tiglath-pileser_, the second King of _Assyria_, warred in _Phœnicia_, and captivated _Galilee_ with the two Tribes and an half, in the days of _Pekah_ King of _Israel_, and placed them in _Halah_, and _Habor_, and _Hara_, and at the river _Gozan_, places lying on the western borders of _Media_, between _Assyria_ and the _Caspian_ sea, 2 _King._ xv. 29, &: 1 _Chron._ v. 26. and about the fifth or sixth year of _Nabonassar_, he came to the assistance of the King of _Judah_ against the Kings of _Israel_ and _Syria_, and overthrew the Kingdom of _Syria_, which had been seated at _Damascus_ ever since the days of King _David_, and carried away the _Syrians_ to _Kir_ in _Media_, as _Amos_ had prophesied, and placed other nations in the regions of _Damascus_, 2 _King._ xv. 37, & xvi. 5, 9. _Amos_ i. 5. _Joseph. Antiq._ l. 9. c. 13. whence it seems that the _Medes_ were conquered before, and that the Empire of the _Assyrians_ was now grown great: for _the God of _Israel_ stirred up the spirit of _Pul_ King of _Assyria_, and the spirit of _Tiglath-pileser_ King of _Assyria__ to make war, 1 _Chron._ v. 26.