out ten or twelve years in the Kingdom of _Israel_: and
the prophet _Hosea_ [355] in the time of that interregnum, or soon after,
mentions the King of _Assyria_ by the name of _Jareb_, and another
conqueror by the name of _Shalman_; and perhaps _Shalman_ might be the
first part of the name of _Shalmaneser_, and _Iareb_, or _Irib_, for it may
be read both ways, the last part of the name of his successor
_Sennacherib_: but whoever these Princes were, it appears not that they
Reigned before _Shalmaneser_. _Pul_, or _Belus_, seems to be the first who
carried on his conquests beyond the province of _Assyria_: he conquered
_Calneh_ with its territories in the Reign of _Jerboam_, _Amos_ i. 1. vi.
2. & _Isa._ x. 8, 9. and invaded _Israel_ in the Reign of _Menahem_, 2
_King._ xv. 19. but stayed not in the land, being bought off by _Menahem_
for a thousand talents of silver: in his Reign therefore the Kingdom of
_Assyria_ was advanced on this side _Tigris_: for he was a great warrior,
and seems to have conquered _Haran_, and _Carchemish_, and _Reseph_, and
_Calneh_, and _Thelasar_, and might found or enlarge the city of _Babylon_,
and build the old palace.

_Herodotus_ tells us, that one of the gates of _Babylon_ was [356] called
the gate of _Semiramis_, and than she adorned the walls of the city, and
the Temple of _Belus_, and that she [357] was five Generations older than
_Nitocris_ the mother of _Labynitus_, or _Nabonnedus_, the last King of
_Babylon_; and therefore she flourished four Generations, or about 134
years, before _Nebuchadnezzar_ , and by consequence in the Reign of
_Tiglath-pileser_ the successor of _Pul_: and the followers of _Ctesias_
tell us, that she built _Babylon_, and was the widow of the son and
successor of _Belus_, the founder of the _Assyrian_ Empire; that is, the
widow of one of the sons of _Pul_: but [358] _Berosus_ a _Chaldaean_ blames
the _Greeks_ for ascribing the building of _Babylon_ to _Semiramis_; and
other authors ascribe the building of this city to _Belus_ himself, that is
to _Pul_; so _Curtius_ [359] tells us; _Semiramis Babylonem condiderat, vel
ut plerique credidere Belus, cujus regia ostenditur_: and _Abydenus_, who
had his history from the ancient monuments of the _Chaldaeans_, writes,
[360] [Greek: Legetai Belon Babylona teichei peribalein; toi chronoi de toi
ikneumenoi aphanisthenai. teichisai de authis Nabouchodonosoron, to mechri
tes Makedonion arches diameinan eon chalkopylon.] _'Tis