The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 4: Babylon: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.Rawlinson, George
History
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 4: Babylon: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.
The Chaldaean females, as represented by the Assyrians, are tall
and large-limbed. Their physiognomy is Assyrian, their hair not very
abundant. The Babylonian cylinders, on the other hand, make the hair
long and conspicuous, while the forms are quite as spare and meagre as
those of the men.
On the whole, it is most probable that the physical type of the later
Babylonians was nearly that of their northern neighbors. A somewhat
sparer form, longer and more flowing hair, and features less stern
and strong, may perhaps have characterized them. They were also, it
is probable, of a darker complexion than the Assyrians, being to some
extent Ethiopians by descent, and inhabiting a region which lies four
degrees nearer to the tropics than Assyria. The Cha’ab Arabs, the
present possessors of the more southern parts of Babylonia, are nearly
black; and the “black Syrians,” of whom Strabo speaks, seem intended to
represent the Babylonians.
Among the moral and mental characteristics of the people, the first
place is due to their intellectual ability. Inheriting a legacy
of scientific knowledge, astronomical and arithmetical, from the
Proto-Chaldaeans, they seem to have not only maintained but considerably
advanced these sciences by their own efforts. Their “wisdom and
learning” are celebrated by the Jewish prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Daniel; the Father of History records their valuable inventions; and an
Aristotle was not ashamed to be beholden to them for scientific data.
They were good observers of astronomical phenomena, careful recorders of
such observations, and mathematicians of no small repute. Unfortunately,
they mixed with their really scientific studies those occult pursuits
which, in ages and countries where the limits of true science are not
known, are always apt to seduce students from the right path, having
attractions against which few men are proof, so long as it is believed
that they can really accomplish the end that they propose to themselves.
The Babylonians were astrologers no less than astronomers; they
professed to cast nativities, to expound dreams, and to foretell events
by means of the stars; and though there were always a certain number
who kept within the legitimate bounds of science, and repudiated the
astrological pretensions of their brethren, yet on the whole it must
be allowed that their astronomy was fatally tinged with a mystic and
unscientific element.
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