* It is only since the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna
tablets that the fact of the dominant influence of Chaldæa
over Syria and of its conquest has been definitely realized.
It is now clear that the state of things of which the
tablets discovered in Egypt give us a picture, could only be
explained by the hypothesis of a Babylonish supremacy of
long duration over the peoples situated between the
Euphrates and the Mediterranean.

Among the most celebrated names in ancient history, that of Babylon is
perhaps the only one which still suggests to our minds a sense of vague
magnificence and undefined dominion. Cities in other parts of the world,
it is true, have rivalled Babylon in magnificence and power: Egypt could
boast of more than one such city, and their ruins to this day present to
our gaze more monuments worthy of admiration than Babylon ever contained
in the days of her greatest prosperity. The pyramids of Memphis and the
colossal statues of Thebes still stand erect, while the ziggurâts and
the palaces of Chaldæa are but mounds of clay crumbling into the plain;
but the Egyptian monuments are visible and tangible objects; we can
calculate to within a few inches the area they cover and the elevation
of their summits, and the very precision with which we can gauge their
enormous size tends to limit and lessen their effect upon us. How is it
possible to give free rein to the imagination when the subject of it is
strictly limited by exact and determined measurements? At Babylon, on
the contrary, there is nothing remaining to check the flight of fancy: a
single hillock, scoured by the rains of centuries, marks the spot where
the temple of Bel stood erect in its splendour; another represents the
hanging gardens, while the ridges running to the right and left were
once the ramparts.