with needless
violence, and with outrages not unusual in the East, which the
historian must nevertheless regard as at once crimes and follies. The
transplantation of conquered races--a part of the policy of Assyria
which the Chaldaeans adopted--may perhaps have been morally defensible,
notwithstanding the sufferings which it involved. But the mutilations of
prisoners, the weary imprisonments, the massacre of non-combatants, the
refinement of cruelty shown in the execution of children before the eyes
of their fathers--these and similar atrocities, which are recorded of
the Babylonians, are wholly without excuse, since they did not so much
terrify as exasperate the conquered nations, and thus rather endangered
than added strength or security to the empire. A savage and inhuman
temper is betrayed by these harsh punishments--a temper common in
Asiatics, but none the less reprehensible on that account--one that led
its possessors to sacrifice interest to vengeance, and the peace of
a kingdom to a tiger-like thirst for blood. Nor was this cruel temper
shown only towards the subject nations and captives taken in war.
Babylonian nobles trembled for their heads if they incurred by a slight
fault the displeasure of the monarch; and even the most powerful class
in the kingdom, the learned and venerable "Chaldaeans," ran on one
occasion the risk of being exterminated, because they could not expound
a dream which the king had forgotten. If a monarch displeased his court,
and was regarded as having a bad disposition, it was not thought enough
simply to make away with him, but he was put to death by torture. Among
recognized punishments were cutting to pieces and casting into a
heated furnace. The houses of offenders were pulled down and made into
dunghills. These practices imply a "violence" and cruelty beyond the
ordinary Oriental limit; and we cannot be surprised that when final
judgment was denounced against Babylon, it was declared to be sent, in
a great measure, "because of men's blood, and for the violence of the
land-of the city, and all that dwelt therein."

It is scarcely necessary to add that the Babylonians were a proud
people. Pride is unfortunately the invariable accompaniment of success,
in the nation, if not in the individual; and the sudden elevation of
Babylon from a subject to a dominant power must have been peculiarly
trying, more especially to the Oriental temperament. The spirit which
culminated in Nebuchadnezzar