13. We are now to observe this gradual development in the successive history of five monarchies in Asia and the kingdom of Egypt, down to the time when they all fell before the conquering power of Greece, under Alexander the Great, which introduces new and far higher elements of progress among the civilized races, and forms the full opening of a new Era. SECTION IV. ANCIENT MONARCHIES. 1. The Chaldean Monarchy was the first in order of time. It seems very likely that the first settlement which, in the slow development of the earliest races, finally produced an organized kingdom on the lower part of the Euphrates, was made somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 years before the Christian Era. It is, however, a matter of dispute between the best authorities whether it can be placed so far back. The monuments of that age are difficult to decipher, but it seems pretty certain that a Scythian or Turanian government preceded that which the traditions of ancient history, the statements of the Bible, and the indications of the ruins unite in placing at 2234 B. C. The founder appears as Nimrod, or Bilu-Nipur. Many indications render it fairly certain that the early formative stages of a kingdom had already passed, and that Nimrod merely changed the capital. The first people had learned to subdue their soil, had begun to build and to bring language and art to some degree of order, when it appears that a Hamitic race, more advanced than they, and showing strong likeness to the early Egyptians, mingled with them. In the first inscriptions the language is Turanian, but the character Hamitic, or Egyptian. So far as can be judged, the displacement was peaceful and gradual. About the time above named, a man of great genius, Nimrod, a Hamite, or Cushite, as he is termed in the Mosaic record, a “mighty hunter,” as his name implies, founded a kingdom farther up the Euphrates, and on the plain which lay between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. 2. The existence of the first empire is dimly made out, and that is all. Nimrod had clearly a foundation to build on, and he made a great impression on his own times. After his death he was deified under the name of Bel, and became the favorite among the fifteen or sixteen principal deities of the early Chaldeans. These gods and goddesses seem to represent the heavenly bodies; while the earlier Turanian worship was a veneration of the powers of nature. Nimrod’s dynasty appears to have covered a period of about two hundred and fifty years, including the reigns of eleven kings. They made great advancement in draining the marshy valley and regulating the supply of moisture to the growing crops. They became expert in the manufacture of cloths and in building with bricks which are covered with inscriptions. The priesthood acquired a strong development at this time, as appears in the ruins and inscriptions of their temples. The kings do not appear to have been very warlike, or to have extended their dominion far.