Part 7 (1/2)

Three talents ten manehs for the custom-house.

Thirty talents ten manehs on (?) slaves.

Two manehs for wine-presses. The money to be put out at double interest.

For rods: one talent (levied on) the north side (of the city). In all, twenty-two talents to be invested.

Altogether thirty talents twenty-one manehs out of fifty-three talents.

In the presence of the princes the money raised on the slaves to be invested.

[Here follows the endors.e.m.e.nt of the tax-collectors:]

We receive no bribes: we give what we take.'

II. 'Thirty talents (are annually received) from Arpad.

One hundred talents from Carchemish.

Thirty talents from the city of the Kuans.[8]

Fifteen talents from Megiddo.

Fifteen talents from Mannutsuate.

... talents from Zemar (Gen. x. 18).

... talents from Hadrach (Zech. ix. 1).

[8] The Kue or Kuans inhabited the northern and eastern sh.o.r.es of the Gulf of Antioch. M. Francois Lenormant has ingeniously suggested that in 1 Kings x. 28, we ought to read (with a slight change of vowel punctuation), 'And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and out of Kue the king's merchants received a drove at a price.'

... talents to be put out at interest; fifty talents to be melted into bronze.

It is weighed in the presence of the princes.

(The tribute) of Damascus, Arpad, Carchemish, Kue, Tsubud, Zemar, and Meon-Zemar.'

In spite of the fragmentary character of these lists, and the difficulty of understanding them perfectly in consequence of their brevity and the omission of prepositions, we may nevertheless glean from them a fair idea of the method in which the imperial exchequer of a.s.syria was replenished, and the objects to which the taxes and tribute were devoted. A considerable amount must have gone to the great army of officials by whom the Second Empire was administered. 'The great king,'

it was true, was autocratic like the Russian Czar, but like the Russian Czar he was also controlled by a bureaucracy which managed the government under him. In military matters alone he was supreme, though even here two commanders-in-chief stood at his side, ready to take his place in the command of the troops whenever age or disinclination detained him at home. The lists of a.s.syrian officials which we possess are very lengthy, and their t.i.tles seem almost endless. At the head came the two commanders-in-chief, the Turtannu or Tartan of the right, and the Turtannu of the left, doubtless so called from their position on the right and left of the king. Next to them were the Chamberlain or superintendent of the singing men and women, and then after five other officials whose posts are obscure, the 'Rab-sak' or 'Rab-shakeh.' His t.i.tle means literally 'chief of the princes,' and he corresponded to the Vizier or Prime Minister of the Turkish Empire. Among other public offices we may notice that of the astronomer, who was supported by the state like the rest, and who ranked immediately after the 'superintendent of the camel-stables.' The latter again was inferior in rank to the 'captain of the watch,' 'the captain of fifty,' 'the overseer of the vineyards,' and 'the overseer of the quays.'

Such, then, was the const.i.tution of the great a.s.syrian Empire, which first endeavoured to organise Western Asia into a single h.o.m.ogeneous whole, and in effecting its purpose cared neither for justice nor for humanity. Nineveh was 'full of lies and robbery,' but it was G.o.d's instrument in chastising His chosen people, and in preparing the way for the ages that were to come, and for a while, therefore, it was allowed to 'make the earth empty' and 'waste.' But the day came when its work was accomplished, and the measure of its iniquity was full. Nineveh, 'the b.l.o.o.d.y city,' fell, never to rise again and the doom p.r.o.nounced by Nahum was fulfilled. For centuries the very site of the imperial city remained unknown, and the traveller and historian alike put the vain question: 'Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?'

[Ill.u.s.tration]

APPENDIX.

TRANSLATIONS FROM a.s.sYRIAN TEXTS RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOMS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH.

_From the inscription of Shalmaneser II, found at Kurkh, on the right bank of the Tigris, to the south-east of Diarbekr._