but he had neither the critical acumen nor the linguistic
knowledge necessary for the formation of a trust worthy opinion on a
matter belonging to the remote history of a distant people. And the
opinion of Herodotus as to the ethnic identity of the two nations is
certainly not confirmed by other ancient writers. Berosus seems to have
very carefully distinguished between the Assyrians and the Babylonians or
Chaldaeans, as may be seen even through the doubly-distorting medium of
Polyhistor and the Armenian Eusebius. Diodorus Siculus made the two
nations separate and hostile in very early times. Pliny draws a clear
line between the "Chaldaean races," of which Babylon was the head, and
the Assyrians of the region above them. Even Herodotus in one place
admits a certain amount of ethnic difference; for, in his list of the
nations forming the army of Xerxes, he mentions the Chaldaeans as serving
with, but not included among, the Assyrians.

The grounds, then, upon which the supposed Semitic character of the
ancient Chaldaeans has been based, fail, one and all; and it remains to
consider whether we have data sufficient to justify us in determinately
assigning them to any other stock.

Now a large amount of tradition--classical and other--brings Ethiopians
into these parts, and connects, more or less distinctly, the early
dwellers upon the Persian Gulf with the inhabitants of the Nile valley,
especially with those upon its upper course. Homer, speaking of the
Ethiopians, says that they were "divided," and dwelt "at the ends of
earth, towards the setting and the rising sun." This passage has been
variously apprehended. It has been supposed to mean the mere division of
the Ethiopians south of Egypt by the river Nile, whereby some inhabited
its eastern and some its western bank. Again it has been explained as
referring to the east and west coasts of Africa, both found by voyagers
to be in the possession of Ethiopians, who were "divided" by the vast
extent of continent that lay between them. But the most satisfactory
explanation is that which Strabo gives from Ephorus, that the Ethiopians
were considered as occupying all the south coast both of Asia and Africa,
and as "divided" by the Arabian Gulf (which separated the two continents)
into eastern and western-Asiatic and African. This was an "old opinion"
of the Greeks, we are told; and, though Strabo thinks it indicated their
ignorance, we may perhaps be excused for hold