Identifier: fivegreatmonarch011862rawl (find matches)
Title: The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Rawlinson, George, 1812-1902
Subjects: Mauritius Export Development and Investment Authority History, Ancient
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ldefences of the position, which was excellently chosento be the site of a great capital. South of Nineveh, at the distance of about twentymiles by the direct route and thirty by the course of •* See below, cli. iv.. 4 So Strabo, xi. 14, § 8 ; Plia.//. N. vi. 27 ; Q. Curt. iv. 9, § 16, &c.There are, however, some difficultiesattaching to this etjmology. It isArian, not Semitic—tigra, as anarrow, standing connected with theSanscrit tij, to sharpen, Arme-nian t(g, a javelin, Persian tigh, a blade, and tir, an arrow.Yet it was used by the Jews, under the slightly corrupted Ibrm of Deled, « ;i-,j(;_ ,,_ 29s. (?ip.7), as early as Moses (Gen. ii. 14), and by the Assyrians aboutB.C. 1000. (Journal of As. Soc. vol.xiv. p. xcv.) It is conjectured thatthere was a root dik in ancientBabylonian, of cognate origin withthe Sanscrit ti/f, from which theforms Bekel, Digla, or Diglatli werederived. ^ Capt. Jones, in the Journal ofthe As. Soc. vol. xv. p. 299. Chap. I. CALAH, NOW NIMRUD. 251
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Plan of the Ruins at Nimrud (Calah). the Tigris/ stood the second city of the empire, Calah,the site of which is marked by the extensive ruins atNimrud. Broadly, this place may he said to havebeen built at the confluence of the Tigris with theUpper Zab; but in strictness it was on the Tigrisonly, the Zab flowing five or six miles further to thesouth ,^ and entering the Tigris at least nine miles So Colonel Chesuey (^EuphratesExiiedition, vol. i. p, 21). ^ Sir H. Eawlinson and Dr. Hincksagree in reading the ancient nameof this city as Calah. At the same^ime it is not to he denied thatthere are difficulties in the identifi-cation. 1. Nunrud being only 20miles from Nineveh, it is difficultto find room for Resen, a greatcity (Gen. x. 12) between them, not to mention that there are noimi^ortant ruins in this i^osition.2. Calah, moreover, if it gave nameto Ptolemys Calacine, should beaway from the river, for by placingCalacine above Adiabene, he almostcertainly meant further from theriver.

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