The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient
Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria, by George Rawlinson

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Title: The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria
The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea,
Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian
or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.

Author: George Rawlinson

Illustrator: George Rawlinson

Release Date: July 1, 2005 [EBook #16162]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES ***

Produced by David Widger

THE SEVEN GREAT MONARCHIES

OF THE

ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD;

OR,

THE HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND ANTIQUITIES OF CHALDAEA, ASSYRIA

BABYLON, MEDIA, PERSIA, PARTHIA, AND SASSANIAN,

OR NEW PERSIAN EMPIRE.

BY

GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A.,

CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOLUME I.

With Maps and Illustrations

THE SECOND MONARCHY.

ASSYRIA.

[Illustration: Map1]

CHAPTER I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.

"Greek phrase[--]"--HEROD. i. 192.

The site of the second--or great Assyrian-monarchy was the upper
portion of the Mesopotamian valley. The cities which successively formed
its capitals lay, all of them, upon the middle Tigris; and the heart of
the country was a district on either side that river, enclosed within
the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh parallels. By degrees these limits
were enlarged; and the term Assyria came to be used, in a loose and
vague way, of a vast and ill-defined tract extending on all sides from
this central region. Herodotus considered the whole of Babylonia to be a
mere district of Assyria. Pliny reckoned to it all Mesopotamia. Strabo
gave it, besides these regions, a great portion of Mount Zagros (the
modern Kurdistan), and all Syria as far as Cilicia, Judaea, and
Phoenicia.

If, leaving the conventional, which is thus vague and unsatisfactory, we
seek to find certain natural limits which we may regard as the proper
boundaries of the country, in two directions we seem to per