AXUM, kingdom of. See ABYSSINIA: Embraced in ancient Ethiopia; and ARABIA: Sabaeans.

AYACUCHO, a small plain in the valley of the Venda-Mayu streamlet, Peru, midway between Lima and Cuzco, where on December 9, 1824, a victory corresponding to the American victory at Yorktown, was won by the revolutionary army of South America under General Sucré, thereby securing the independence of the SpanishAmerican colonies.-See also BOLIVIA: 1809-1825; PERU: 1820-1826.

AYETTE, a village in France, south of Arras. It was seized by the Germans and recaptured by the British in 1918. See WORLD WAR: 1918: II. Western front: c, 26; c, 28.

AYLESBURY ELECTION CASE. See ENGLAND: 1703.

AYLESFORD, Battle of (455).—The first battle fought and won by the invading Jutes after their landing in Britain under Hengest and Horsa.. It was fought at the lowest ford of the river Medway. See ENGLAND: 449-473

AYLESWORTH, Allen Bristol (1854- ), Chief Justice of England. On Alaskan Boundary question, see ALASKAN BOUNDARY QUESTION: 1869-1908: Basis of dispute.

AYLLON, Lucas Vasquez de (1475-1526), exploration by. See AMERICA: 1519-1525.

AYLMER, Sir Arthur Percy Fitzgerald (1858- ), British general. He was in immediate command of the forces trying to relieve General Townshend, who was besieged in Kut-elAmara. See WORLD WAR: 1916: VI. Turkish theater: 9; a, 1; a, 1, iii.

AYMARAS. See PERU: Paternal despotism of the Incas.

AYMERICH, General, French commander in Cameroons. See WORLD WAR: 1915: VIII. Africa: c, 1; c, 3.

AYOUBITE, or Ayyubite, dynasty. See SALADIN, EMPIRE OF.

1192. Its description. See CRUSADES: Military aspect of the crusades.

AYUB KHAN (1855- ), Afghan prince, youngest son of Shere Ali and brother of Yakub Khan. Besieged Kandahar in 1880; defeated by General Roberts; finally surrendered to the British in 1887.

AYUN KARA, a town of Palestine, south of Jaffa, occupied by the British (1917). See WORLD WAR: 1917: VI. Turkish theater: c, 2, iv.

AYUNTAMIENTO, a Spanish political institution originating in the Middle Ages, resembling the board of aldermen or common council of an American city. The ayuntamientos were municipal legislatures possessing somewhat different authority at different times and places. [See CUBA: 1901 (January).] In modern Spain, every commune has its elected ayuntamiento, which since January, 1918, is charged with the entire municipal government, including taxation.

AYUR VEDA. See MEDICAL SCIENCE: Ancient: Hindu.

AYUTHIA. See SIAM: 1351-1782.

AZEF, Evno (c. 1871- ), Russian politicalpolice agent. See RUSSIQ: 1905 (January); 1909

1911.

AZERBAIJAN, or Aderbaijan, a province of northwestern Persia (anciently called Atropatene), separated from Russia on the north by the Aras river (see Map of Russia and the new border states). The name is also applied to the adjoining part of Transcaucasia which in 1918 was proclaimed an independent republic with the great oil port of Baku on the Caspian as its capital. [See BAKU.] Azerbaijan was recognized by some but not all of the Powers. Part of Persia was also claimed by this

Mohammedan republic. In 1920 the Russian Soviet government gained control.

1050-1063.-Overrun by Turkish army. See TURKEY: 1004-1063.

1604.-Under control of Abbas the Great of Persia. Sce BAGDAD: 1393-1638.

1915.-Operations of Russia against Turks and Persians. See WORLD WAR: 1915: VII. Persia and Germany.

1918-1920.-Republic formed. See CAUCASUS:

1918-1920.

1919-1920.-Relations with Georgian republic. See GEORGIA, REPUBLIC OF: 1919-1920.

1920. Free passage to Black sea granted. See SÈVRES, TREATY OF: 1920: Part XI: Ports, waterways and railways.

1921.-Extent of territory. See EUROPE: Modern: Political map of Europe.

AZEV. See Azov.

AZINCOURT. See AGINCOURT.

AZIZIEH, or Aziziyeh, a village in Mesopotamia in the Tigris valley fifty miles above Kut-alAmara. See WORLD WAR: 1015: VI. Turkey: c; 1917: VI. Turkish theater: a, 1, iii.

AZO DYES. See CHEMISTRY: Practical application: Dyes: Theoretical investigation.

AZOF. See Azov,

AZORES, an archipelago in the Atlantic ocean, an integral part of the republic of Portugal. The name (Portuguese Açores, hawks) comes from the numerous hawks or buzzards once common there. These islands are situated between the 37th and 40th degrees of north latitude. They comprise three groups rather widely separated. At the northwest are Corvo and Flores about 1000 miles southeast of Newfoundland. At the southeast are St. Michaels and St. Mary and the very small island of Formigas. Cape da Roca, Portugal, the nearest point on the continent, is over 800 miles distant, while the nearest part of the African mainland is over 900 miles away. The central group of islands consists of Fayal, Pico, St. George, Terceira and Graciosa. "There is no evidence that the Azores were known to the Greeks and Romans, but many Carthaginian coins have been found in Corvo. Arabian geographers of the 12th and 14th centuries describe islands in the Western Ocean beyond the Canaries. These seem to have been the Azores, for they are the same in number, have a similar climate and possess many hawks. In a map of 1351 these islands [are shown], the western group bearing the name Brazil Island the southern group Goat Islands and the middle group Wind or Dove Islands. In that day the word Brazil meant any red dye stuff. [The Portuguese captain] Gonzalo Velho Cabral reached Santa Maria in 1432 and St. Michaels in 1434 [and laid claim to the islands]. By 1457 the other islands had been found. [Between 14321461, Portuguese] colonization was rather rapid. So many Flemish settlers came in the latter part of the 15th century that the islands became known as the Flemish Islands. The inhabitants of Santa Maria were the first Europeans to receive the news of the discovery of America by Columbus, for he stopped there on his return in 1493. After the discovery of Brazil trading vessels from America and from India frequently stopped in the Azores and many sea-fights for valuable cargoes took place there. During the Elizabethan period many such encounters occurred. One of these was the notable fight off Flores in 1501 between the English ship 'Revenge' commanded by Sir Richard Grenville and a Spanish fleet of over fifty vessels. In the 18th century the British government secured from the Barbary pirates an immunity which enabled her American colonies

to carry on a large trade in fish, lumber and provisions to the Azores, Madeira and the Mediterranean."-Annual report of the American historical association, 1908, v. 1, p. 120.-These islands are in the earthquake belt and have had many severe shocks. The emigration from the Azores has been heavy. There are about 100,000 Azoreans in the United States. Many emigrants return to the Azores. Ponta Delgada on St. Michael's, the largest city, had 17,600 inhabitants in 1919. It was from this harbor that the NC-4 began the final leg of its epochal transatlantic flight [see AVIATION: Important flights since 1900: 1919 (May).] At one time Easter lilies were raised for the export trade. An agronomer's station is maintained by the government to examine all plants brought into St. Michael's. This is because the lilies, orange trees and vineyards were once destroyed. Many pineapples are shipped to England and much wine is exported. Lobsters are exported, and dairy products are important. On Fayal there is considerable pottery and lace-making. The inhabitants of St. Michael's are ambitious to make their island a famous summer and winter resort. The Azores were a naval base in the World War. See also AMERICA: Map showing voyages of discovery.

ALSO IN: C. W. Furlong, Two mid-Atlantic islands (Harper's Magazine, Nov., 1916).—A. T. Halberle, Azores (National Geographic Magazine, June, 1919).-W. F. Brown, Azores (1886).—A. S. Brown, Madeira and the Canary Islands with the Azores (1901).

AZOTUS. See SYRIA: B. C. 64-63.

AZOV, a fortified town on the left bank of the river Don, six miles from the sea of Azov. It is an important Russian sea port serving as the principal outlet for southeastern Russia. The population in 1913 was about 27,000. The Greek colony of Tanais located near the present site of Azov was a flourishing mart of trade.

B. C. 115.-Azov was conquered by Mithradates.

A. D. 10th century. It fell under the rule of successive Asiatic tribes until captured by Vladimir I of Russia in the tenth century.

13th century.-Captured by the Genoese.— During this period it was strongly fortified by the Genoese, and became a place of great importance as the commercial center of Indo-Chinese trade.

1395.-Timur captured and sacked it. 1471.-Turks took the town and by closing the trade routes to the East ruined its prosperity. 1696.-Taken by the Russians. See TURKEY: 1684-1696.

1699.-Controlled by Russia through Peace of Carlowitz. See HUNGARY: 1683-1699.

1711.-Restoration of the Turks. See SWEDEN:

1707-1718.

1736-1739.-Captured by the Russians.-Secured to them by the Treaty of Belgrade. See RUSSIA: 1734-1740.

AZTEC, American vessel sunk April 1, 1917, by German submarine. See U. S. A.: 1917 (FebruaryApril).

AZTEC AND MAYA PICTURE-WRITING. -"No nation ever reduced it [pictography] more to a system. It was in constant use in the daily transactions of life. They [the Aztecs] manufactured for writing purposes a thick coarse paper from the leaves of the agave plant by a process of maceration and pressure. An Aztec book closely resembles one of our quarto volumes. It is made of a single sheet, 12 to 15 inches wide, and often 60 or 70 feet long, and is not rolled, but folded either in squares or zigzags in such a man

ner that on opening there are two pages exposed to view. Thin wooden boards are fastened to each of the outer leaves, so that the whole presents as neat an appearance, remarks Peter Martyr, as if it had come from the shop of a skilful book-binder. They also covered buildings. tapestries and scrolls of parchment with these devices. . . . What is still more astonishing, there is reason to believe, in some instances, their figures were not painted, but actually printed with movable blocks of wood on which the symbols were carved in relief, though this was probably confined to those intended for ornament only. In these records we discern something higher than a mere symbolic notation. They contain the germ of a phonetic alphabet, and represent sounds of spoken language. The symbol is often not connected with the idea, but with the word. The mode in which this is done corresponds precisely to that of the rebus. It is a simple method readily suggesting itself. In the middle ages it was much in vogue in Europe for the same purpose for which it was chiefly employed in Mexice at the same time-the writing of proper names For example, the English family Bolton was known in heraldry by a 'tun' transfixed by a 'bolt." Precisely so the Mexican Emperor Ixcoatl is mentioned in the Aztec manuscripts under the figure of a serpent, 'coatl,' pierced by obsidian knives. 'ixtli.'. As a syllable could be expressed by any object whose name commenced with it, as few words can be given the form of a rebus without some change, as the figures sometimes represent their full phonetic value, sometimes only that of their initial sound, and as universally the attention of the artist was directed less to the sound than to the idea, the didactic painting of the Mexicans, whatever it might have been to them. is a sealed book to us, and must remain so in great part. . . . Immense masses of such documents were stored in the imperial archives of ancient Mexico. Torquemada asserts that five cities alone yielded to the Spanish governor on one requisition no less than 16,000 volumes or scrolls! Every leaf was destroyed. Indeed, so thorough and wholesale was the destruction of these memorials, now so precious in our eyes, that hardly enough remain to whet the wits of antiquaries In the libraries of Paris, Dresden, Pesth, and the Vatican are, however, a sufficient number to make us despair of deciphering them, had we for comparison all which the Spaniards destroyed. Beyond all others the Mayas, resident on the peninsula of Yucatan, would seem to have approached nearest a true phonetic system. They had a regular and well understood alphabet of 27 elementary sounds, the letters of which are totally different from those of any other nation, and evidently originated with themselves. But besides these they used a large number of purely conventiona symbols, and moreover were accustomed constantly to employ the ancient pictographic method in ad dition as a sort of commentary on the sound rep resented. . . . With the aid of this alphabet, which has fortunately been preserved, we are enable to spell out a few words on the Yucatan manuscripts and façades, but thus far with no posi tive results. The loss of the ancient pronuncia tion is especially in the way of such studies. In South America, also, there is said to have been a nation who cultivated the art of picture-writing. the Panos, on the river Ucayale."-D. G. Brinton Myths of the new world, ch. 1.-See also ALPHABET: Early stages; INDIANS, AMERICAN: Cultural area in Mexico and Central America: Maya area

AZTEC INDIANS, a group of semi-civilized tribes of central and southern Mexico. The prin

cipal trible fixed their capital at Tenochtillan (Mexico City) and gradually conquered all of the south, founding the Mexican Empire. This flourished for about two centuries, until it was overthrown by Cortez in the 16th century.-See also AMERICA, PREHISTORIC; INDIANS, AMERICAN: Cultural areas in Mexico and Central America: Aztec area; and MAYAS.

Development of civilization.-Its similarity to Egyptian. See AMERICA: Theory of a land bridge.

Religion. See MYTHOLOGY: Latin-American mythology: Aztec gods.

Writing. See AZTEC AND MAYA PICTURE WRIT

ING.

Empire.-Wars against Cortez and final conquest. See MEXICO: 1325-1502; 1519 (February-April); 1519 (October); 1519-1520; 1520 (June-July); 1520-1521; 1521 (May-July); 1521 (August); 1521-1524.

AZUL, Party of the. See PARAGUAY: 19021915.

BAAL, the supreme deity of the Canaanites. Was known by various names to other peoples; worshiped by some of the Jews in the time of Ahab. [See also JERUSALEM: B. C. 1100-700.] The name was originally a title, signifying lord. -See also BAALBEK.

BAALBAC.-See BAALBEK.

BAALBEK, or Baalbac, "city of Baal," the sun-god; an ancient city in Syria, northwest of Damascus, famous for its ruins which date back to Roman times. During the period of the Seleucids the name was changed to the Greek Heliopolis. In its early history it was one of the most splendid of Syrian cities, while the little

village now on its site had a population in 1914 of only 2000. "The disappointment experienced by some visitors on first approaching Ba'albek is partly owing to the vast proportions of the surrounding region. The valley of Calesyria, now called el Bukâ'a, extends to a great distance northward and southward, and is shut in by the long and lofty range of Lebanon on the north-west, and that of Anti-Lebanon on the south-east. During the many hours of approach along its undulating surface towards Ba'albek the eye grows familiar with such magnitudes as the extreme length of the plain, the great height of the mountains, and the profound depths of the valleys, and in com

parison with them any structure of man's designing, no matter how imposing, is as nothing. . . . The modern traveller, however, does not linger amongst the remains of the old city, nor loiter about the narrow streets and crooked lanes of the present town. The main attractions of Ba'albek are the wonderful ruins of these temples, which surpass even those of Greece and Rome in the vastness and boldness of their design, their symmetrical proportions, and the delicate execution of their elaborate decorations. It has been well said of them that 'these .temples have been the wonder of past centuries, and they will continue to be the wonder of future generations.' As Heliopolis, Ba'albek is mentioned by several writers during the first centuries of the Christian era; but the principal notices of it are derived from the coins of the second and third centuries, which represent it as a Roman colony, styled Julia Augusta Felix. The coins of Septimius Severus show two temples, one a larger and another a smaller, and a coin of Valerian has two temples upon it. The oracle at Ba'albek, or Heliopolis, was consulted by the Emperor Trajan, in the second century, before he undertook his second expedition against the Parthians; but the earliest authentic record of these temples is found in the writings of John of Antioch, surnamed Malalas, about the seventh century. He mentions that 'Elius Antoninus Pius erected at Heliopolis, in Phoenicia of Lebanon, a great temple of Jupiter, one of the wonders of the world.' It is possible that the original design here at Ba'albek was to construct a platform surrounded by cyclopean stones, and to erect upon it an altar consecrated to the worship of Baal. That design appears never to have been fully accomplished, and the Phoenicians probably adopted this site for one of their temples. The Greeks and Romans, in their turn, may have adopted both the site and the ruins of the Phoenician temple for their own purposes; and Antoninus Pius perhaps began to build his temple out of the remains of one more ancient, and it was probably finished by Septimius Severus fifty years later. That may have been the smaller temple, and it was probably consecrated to Jupiter; the great temple of Baal or the sun was apparently never finished. . . The Canaanite and the Hebrew, the Assyrian and Egyptian, the Greek and the Roman, Saracen and Christian, Tartar and Turk-all have been here; and for centuries to come travellers from every nation will visit these ruins with wonder and admiration."-W. M. Thomson, Land and the book, pp. 318-321, 340. 341.

632-639.-Capture by Arabs. See CALIPHATE:

632-639.

890.-Pillaged by Carmathians. See CARMA

THIANS.

1918. Reached by British. See WORLD WAR: 1918: VI. Turkish theater: c, 23.

BAASTARDS. See GRIQUA, GRIQUALAND. "BAB." See BABISM.

BABAR (1483-1530), founder of the Mogul dynasty in India. He became king of Ferghana in 1494 and king of Kabul in 1504. In 1526 and 1527 he conquered the Empire of Delhi and was Mogul Emperor or Padishah of India 15261530. See also INDIA: 1399-1605.

BAB-EL-MANDEB (Gate of Tears), the strait connecting the Red sea and Indian ocean. On the water route to India, this strategic channel is dominated by the British fortified islands of Perim and more substantially by the British outpost of Aden.

BABENBERG DYNASTY. See AUSTRIA:

805-1246.

BABEUF, François Noël, pseudonym Caius Gracchus (1760-1797), a French revolutionary con spirator and journalist, propounder of the first practical socialist policy (named from him, Babouvisme), and father of the socialist movements of 1848 and 1871. He edited several papers, notably Le Tribun du peuple, and, advancing his com munist doctrines, organized a conspiracy agains! the Directory. In April, 1797, he was arrested and guillotined. See also SoCIALISM: 1753-1797BABINGTON'S PLOT. See FNGLAND: 1585

1587.

BABIS: Relations with Persia (1896). Ser PERSIA: 1896.

BABISM, from "Bab," the "gate" or "door." a title given to a young religious reformer, named Mirza Ali Mohammed, who appeared in Persia about 1844, claiming to bring a divine message later and higher than those for which Jesus and Mohammed were sent.-M. F. Wilson, Story of the Bab (Contemporary Review, Dec., 1885).-"Mirza Ali Mohammed, known as The Bab, was born in October, 1819, in the city of Shiraz, in southern Persia. On May 23d, 1844, moved by the Spirit of God, Mirza Ali Mohammed gave H teachings to the world. . . . At that time from various parts of Persia were gathered together in Shiraz eighteen prepared souls, men of wisdom to whom it had been given to understand spiritual realities, and to these chosen disciples Mirza AL Mohammed revealed His mission. He was the door ('Bab') or forerunner of a great prophe and teacher soon to appear. He, The Bab, had been divinely sent as a herald to warn the people of the coming of The Promised One and to exhort them to purify themselves and prepare for His advent. One-whom He entitled 'He whom God shall manifest,' the Latter-Day Me siah, promised in all the revealed writings of the past-was soon to come and establish The Kingdom of God upon earth. . . . Among the mo prominent of The Bab's followers was Kura ul'Ayn, poet, orator and heroine of the cause, who after an eventful career in which she stood fort as a powerful exponent of the new faith, suffered a martyr's death. As a woman many decade ahead of her time, her life and example inspiration to all, and especially to her sisters of the Orient who, through the cause for which sho died, are now being lifted from their former co dition of ignorance and oppression into one knowledge and freedom. . . . At length, His fol lowing having attained to great proportions, th clergy became thoroughly alarmed and instigate a heresy trial or public examination of His doc. trines. This investigation was held in Tabr by the authority of the governor of the province. and before the tribunal The Bab was brought a prisoner. All manner of insults and indignities were heaped upon Him, and finally He was flogged one of the chief mullahs applying the rods with

are an

ari

his own hands. After this The Bab was return to his former prison in the fortress of Chih s About this time began the early persecutions massacres of the Babis in Persia. Aroused by their priests, the fanatical Moslems fell upon the be lievers in many parts of the land, pillaging and burning their homes, and torturing and murder ing men, women and children. . . . Islam is the state religion of Persia, therefore that which shakes its power produces a like effect in the workings of the government. At length, seeing the cause l be steadily on the increase, the prime minister the state ordered that The Bab be killed, hopi thus to put an end to the matter and to pla himself in security with the clergy and the pe ple. Accordingly, The Bab was again removed

from the prison of Chih-rik and taken to Tabriz, the seat of the local government of the province. Here, on the 9th of July, 1850, He suffered martyrdom. . . . By night the body of The Bab was removed by some of the faithful, and after being swathed in silk it was disguised as a bale of merchandise and deposited in a place of safety. As conditions and wisdom demanded, from time to time this hiding place was changed, and finally, on the 21st of March, 1909, in the presence of a notable gathering of pilgrims from various parts of both the Orient and the Occident, the body of The Bab was laid to rest by Abdul-Bahak, in a sarcophagus, in the crypt of the shrine of The Bab in the Holy Land. . . . During the four years of The Bab's imprisonment His numerous letters and epistles were, with the greatest difficulty, smuggled out of the prison and sent to the followers in various parts of the country. These writings contain His injunctions to the believers for their guidance and protection until the coming of 'Him whom God shall manifest.' The Bab's ordinances were given for the people of His time only, and were commensurable with the needs and conditions of the believers during the interim between His manifestation and the manifestation of the greater One to come. The Bab was the 'First Point' of this revelation, the precursor of the greater One. In His teachings He reiterated again and again that, when 'He whom God shall maniiest' appeared, all should turn unto Him, and that He would reveal teachings and ordinances which would replace the Babi sacred literature."-C. M. Remey, Bahai movement, ch. 2.-See also BAHAISM. Relation of Babis with Persia (1896). See PERSIA: 1896.

BABLI (Babylonian) TALMUD. See TALMUD. BABOEUF, a village of France, northeast of Paris near Noyon. It was taken by the British in 1918. See WORLD WAR: 1918: II. Western front: c, 20.

BABOUVISM, the socialistic doctrines propounded by Babeuf during the French Revolution, -namely, state communism or state ownership of property; social equality in rank as well as property; criticism of the solution of the agrarian question. See also BABEUF, FRANÇOIS NOËL.

BABU, a Hindu title of respect, but commonly applied to a native clerk able to write English, with a disparaging implication of superficial education.

BA-BUMANTSU. See BUSHMEN.

BABUNA PASS, a locality near Prilep, Macedonia, where the French army during the World War attempted (1916) to give aid to the retreating Serbian army which was forced to abandon its line along the Vardar river. See WORLD WAR: 1015: V. Balkans: b, 5.

BABYLON: The city. "The city stands on a broad plain, and is an exact square, a hundred and twenty furlongs [fifteen miles] in length each way, so that the entire circuit is four hundred and eighty furlongs. While such is its size, in magnificence there is no other city that approaches it. See also BABYLONIA: Position and importance of Babylon.] It is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a wall fifty royal cubits [a cubit was about 18 inches] in width and two hundred in height... On the top, along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazer lintels and side posts. The bitumen used in the work was brought to Babylon from the Is, a small stream which flows into the Euphrates

at the point where the city of the same name stands, eight days' journey from Babylon. Lumps of bitumen are found in great abundance in this river. The city is divided into two portions by the river which runs through the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates. . . . The city wall is brought down on both sides to the edge of the stream; thence, from the corners of the wall, there is carried along each bank of the river a fence of burnt bricks. The houses are mostly three and four stories high; the streets all run in straight lines; not only those parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which lead down to the water side. At the river end of these cross streets are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream, which are, like the great gates in the outer wall, of brass, and open on the water. The outer wall is the main defence of the city. There is, however, a second inner wall, of less thickness than the first, but very little inferior to it in strength. The centre of each division of the town was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength and size: in the other was the sacred precinct of Jupiter Belus, a square enclosure, two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass; which was also remaining in my time. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple." -Herodotus, History (translated by G. Rawlinson), bk. 1, ch. 178-181.

Origin and influence.-Added historical knowledge through excavations.-"The origin of the city of Babylon is veiled in impenetrable obscurity. The first city built upon the site must have been founded fully four thousand years before Christ, and it may have been much earlier. The city is named in the Omen tablet of Sargon, and, though this is no proof that the city was actually in existence more than three thousand years before Christ, it does prove that a later tradition assigned to it this great antiquity. At this early date, however, it seems not to have been a city of importance. During the long period of the rise of the kingdom of Sumer (q. v.) and Accad few kings in the south find Babylon worthy of mention, though Babylon must have been developing into a city of influence during the later centuries of the dominion of Isin and Larsa. From about 2200 B. C. the influence of this city extends almost without a break to the period of the Seleucides. [See also SELEUCIDAE.] No capital in the world has ever been the center of so much power, wealth, and culture for a period so vast. It is indeed a brilliant cycle of centuries upon which we enter. The rise of Babylon to supremacy over the more ancient cities both of northern and of southern Babylonia, is associated with the development of a new strain of blood and life among the Semites. The Semites, who had poured in successive streams of migration from Arabia, had found homes in many and diverse places, and in each of these the originally homogeneous race had developed civilizations differing in some points from each other."-R. W. Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 75.-See also SEMITES: Primitive Babylonia-During the past three years, namely from 1898 to 1001 "a party of German explorers has been busy excavating from two to five miles north of the village of Hillah,-about forty miles to the south of Bagdad. These moundcover the remains of the famous city of Baby! *