flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates had not, it is true, quite
the same significance for the Mesopotamians that the Nile flood
had for the Egyptians. Nevertheless it was a most important
phenomenon, and may very readily be imagined to have been the
most tangible index to the seasons. But in recognizing the time
of the inundations and the vernal equinox, the Assyrians did not
dethrone the moon from its accustomed precedence, for the year
was reckoned as commencing not precisely at the vernal equinox,
but at the new moon next before the equinox.


ASTROLOGY

Beyond marking the seasons, the chief interests that actuated the
Babylonian astronomer in his observations were astrological.
After quoting Diodorus to the effect that the Babylonian priests
observed the position of certain stars in order to cast
horoscopes, Thompson tells us that from a very early day the very
name Chaldean became synonymous with magician. He adds that "from
Mesopotamia, by way of Greece and Rome, a certain amount of
Babylonian astrology made its way among the nations of the west,
and it is quite probable that many superstitions which we
commonly record as the peculiar product of western civilization
took their origin from those of the early dwellers on the
alluvial lands of Mesopotamia. One Assurbanipal, king of Assyria
B.C. 668-626, added to the royal library at Nineveh his
contribution of tablets, which included many series of documents
which related exclusively to the astrology of the ancient
Babylonians, who in turn had borrowed it with modifications from
the Sumerian invaders of the country. Among these must be