The sun., 1916-01-09

organization. With Upton as model.
he completes the work which that
earlier military historian began.
The Tale Of BABY lon.
The predominant characteristic OF
LEONARD W. KINGS A History Of
Babylon (Frederick a. Stokes Com
pany). the sequel to his History OF
Assyria" is the care with which he
holds closely to the ascertained facts
and passes over the ingenious theories
built upon them, whether by Germans
or others. This Is a necessity with all
history based on archaeological evil
dence. for at any moment the eXcava-
ton of a new site, the discovery of a
new inscribed monument or even the
nered in museums. may throw light
on the dark places or may cause
new arrangement and Interpretation
Of what has been ascertained so far.
A striking example of this is fur
nished by Mr.. King in his admirable
exposition of the manner in which the
Babylonian chronology has been es-
tablished. a seemingly dry subject
which he makes entertaining. The
puzzle Of the right arrangement Of the
names and years of the Kings Of
Babylon. which occupies him and other
Investigators, was solved in a large
degree. while he was writing his book;
by the decipherment OF the list OF
Kings OF Larsa by Prof. A. T. Clay
from the tablets in the possession OF
Yale University: this information was
communicated to Mr. King before it
was published. From the evidence OF
the monuments Mr.. King fixes the
date OF the beginning Of the First
Dynasty of kings al Babylon at 1926
! h. &. and OF the dynasties at Nisin
y and al l.arsa a hundred years earlier;
he fortifies this with the agreement ~
astronomical data on record and with
/ that OF Berossus and the Greek
Chronologists OF later days.
OF the earliest dwellers In the lant
between the Euphrates and the Tigr!s
their language. the struggle between
Sumer and Akkad and the early ri
Valry with Assyria Mr.. King has writ
ten in the previous volume. In this ht
begins the story OF Independent Baby
and the coming and supremacy o
West Semitic invaders. These. h,
surmises, may have come original!
from Arabia: he thinks that tribes o
unusual ferocity and violence Inter
mingled with the people in Assyria ant
transmitted these characteristics 4
, the Assyrians of history: those tha
, mixed with the indigenous Baby
. lonians. II We understand Mr.. Kin
rightly, combined the traits Of the no
mad Arabs of the desert and those q
the Jews of later days. He asCribes I
them the faculty OF initiating an
adapting clever.y but not of origi
mating. They adopted the cuneiforn
writing and the language and the,
exploited the commercial advantage
that the situation of the city gave.
Into the detailed history that ha
been patched up from the remain
found not only in the Mesopotamia
ruins. but also at points as far apai
az Tell-el-Amorna in Egypt, the Hit
tite capital Khatti in Asia Minor an
Susa in the land of Elan. We sha
not enter. 1t IL chiefly record ,
. wars between cities for the supremaC
in Mesopotamia. ar of wars aCaln>
+ invaders from the north. east or wes
or Of efforts to enlarge the houndare
Z of the empire. one fortunate acc
g dent has revealed to us the lcg!slat,
{ Hammurabi and given body for
{ time to the dry bones of the records
h inscriptions, too. have shown son
! kings whose names the Jewish Chrol
= icles preserved in u far different ligt
d than they appeared to the people the
= oppre ssed: NebuChadnezzar. for II
= stance Is no devourer of grass but
great and sagacious ruler, More II
: structive are the general conclusion
Mr.. King draws from the history, Il
wide extent Of Bahylonian civilizatic
and the extraordinary continuity Of /
u existence.
a The invention Of the wedge shape
q characters, clumsy as they seem
= us. was a tremendous improveme'
on the hlcroglyphs, the picture cha
II acters, that were used by various PEI
II ples three thousand years befol
" Christ. The new letters We're adopt'
= by the peoples with whom the ear
~ Rabylonians came into contact, "A,
=" with them. sometimes, the langual
:, they expressed Mr.. King believe
~ lthat Babylonian thus became the lal
=" guage of commerce and diplomat
- throughout the civilized world that Il
- inscriptions reveal; it was used by Il
>, Hittites. by the Aryan Mitanni
-, northern Mesopotamia, by the Elan
-, ties. by the Urartians, the later il
"a vaders from Armenia, and by Il
"a EGYPTIAN Kings. When the Ach,
;. menan Kings came in. the Kin
l. familiar to us through Greek histor
they used the cuneiform marks (
N their own Persian language and
= still later days the successors Of Ale
ii ander continued to use II. With Il
n Language and the script went the II
IS erature. the civilization and the art
!, this. Mr.. King asserts. is really tn
" Of the predecessors Of the Babyl
4 mans. for the monuments found
" Babylon cannot compare in beauty n
,f in execution with those found IN old