Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-28

Assurbanipal Greek, Sardanapaus), the
son of this Esar-haddon, is a particularly in
teresting figure from this point of view of
the relationship of priesthood and king. His
fathers reconciliation with the priests Of
Bel-Marduk went SO far that Sardanapalus
given a Babylonian instead of a military
Assyrian education. He became a great col
lectOr Of the clay documents OF the past, and
his library which has been unearthed, is now
the most precious source of historical mate
rial in the world. But for oil his learning
he kept his grip the Assyrian army; ne
made a temporary conquest of Egypt, sup
pressed a rebellion in Babylon, and carried
out number of successful expeditions.
AS we have already told, he was almost
the last of the Assyran monarchs. The
Aryan tribes; who knew more of war than
of priestcraft, and particularly the SCythians,
the Modes and Persians, had long been press
ing upon Assyria from the north and north
east. The Modes and Persians formed an
alliance with the nomadic Semitic Chaldeans
of the south for the joint undoing of Assyria.
Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, fell to these
Aryans in 606 B. G.
Sixty-seven years after the taking of
Nineveh by, the Aryans, which left Baby
lonia to the Semitic Chaldeans, the last
monarch of the Chaldean empire (the second
Babylonian empire), Nabonidus, the faith.
er of Belshazzar, was overthrow by Cyrus,
the Persian.
This Nabonidus again, was a highly
intelligence and ina gination and not enough
of the short range wisdom of this world to
affairs of state. He conducted antiquarian
researches, and to his researches it is that
we owe the date of $3.50 B. c., assigned to
Sargon l. and still accepted by many authori-
ties. He was proud Of this determination
and left inscriptions to record it.
1t is clear he was a religious innovator:
he built and rearranged temples and attempt
ed to centraize religion in Babylon by bring
i,,,r ,1Da,,
Bel-Marduk. No doubt he realized the weak
ness and disuniOn Of his empire due to these
conflicting cults, and had some concep-
ton of unification in his mind
A Priestly Betrayal
Events were marching too rapidly for any
such development. His innovation had
manfiestly raised the suspicion and hostility
of the priesthood of Bel. They sided with
the Persians, The soldiers of Cyrus entered
Babylon without fighting. Nabonidus was
taken prisoner, and Persian sentinels were
set at the gates of the temple of BEL where
the services continued without intermission."
Cyrus did, in fact, set up the Persian
Empire in Babylon with the blessing of Bel
Marduk. He gratified the conservative in
stlncts of the priests by packing off the
local gods back to their ancestral temples
He also restored the Jews to jerusalem
These were merely matters Of immediate
policy to him. But in bringing in the ire
llgious Aryans, the ancient priesthood was
paying too highly for the continual ton of it's
temple services. 1t would have been wiser to
have dealt with the innovations of Naboni-
dus, that earnest hereto, to have listened
TO his IDEAS and to have met the needs of
changing world.
Cyrus entered Babylon $50 B. c.; by sci
B. c. Babylon was in instruction again. and
in $40 B. G. another Persian monarch
Darius, was pulling down her walls Within
zoo years the life had altogether gone out of
h 10 ifIyo1 1 - ID
the temple of Bel-Marduk was being used by
builders as a quarry
Copyright, 1929