Listed 3 sub titles with search on: The inhabitants for destination: "BABYLON Ancient city MESSOPOTAMIA".
A priestly caste at Babylon, dwell round sanctuary of Bel, first people to assert immortality of soul.
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 24/7/2001: 54 for Chaldaeans, 142 for Chaldeans, 1 for Chaldaians.
Chaldaei (Chaldaioi), a people who dwelt in Babylonia, taken in the
most extensive sense, as extending from above Babylon to the Persian Gulf, who
appear before on the stage of history under different and not always reconcileable
aspects.
1. The Chaldaeans would seem to be the inhabitants of Chaldaea Proper,
a district in the S. of Babylonia, extending along the Persian Gulf to Arabia
Deserta. They were a people apparently in character much akin to the Arabs of
the adjoining districts, and living, like them, a wandering and predatory life.
As such they are described in Job (i. 17), and if Orchoe represent the Ur from
which Abraham migrated (now probably Warka), it would be rightly termed Ur of
the Chaldees; while it is not impossible that the passage in Isaiah (xxiii. 13),
Behold the land of the Chaldees: this people was not till the Assyrian founded
it for them that dwell in the wilderness, may have reference to a period when
their habits became more settled, and they ceased to be a mere roving tribe.
2. The name came to be applied without
distinction, or at least with little real difference, to the inhabitants of Babylon
and the subjects of the Babylonian empire. So in 2 Kings (xxv. 1-4), Nebuchadnezzar
is called King of Babylon, but his army are called Chaldees; in Isaiah (xvii.
19) Babylon is termed the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency;
in Isaiah (xxiii. 13), the country is called the land of the Chaldaeans; and in
Dan. (ix. i.), Dareius is king over the realm of the Chaldaeans. Agreeably with
this view Pliny calls Babylon, Chaldaicarum gentium caput. It has been a great
question whence the Chaldaeans came, who about the time of Nebuchadnezzar play
so important a part in the history of the world: and it has been urged by many
modern writers, that some time previous to the reign of that prince, there must
have been a conquest of Babylonia by some of the northern tribes, who, under the
various names of Carduchi, Chalybes, and Chaldaei, occupied the mountainous region
between Assyria and the Euxine. We cannot, however, say that we have been convinced
by these arguments, which, as the advocates of these views admit, are not based
upon any authentic history. No Chaldaean immigration is anywhere mentioned or
alluded to; while, if there was, as seems most likely, a considerable tribe bearing
the name of Chaldaeans at a very early period in S. Babylonia, it is much more
natural to suppose that they gradually became the ruling tribe over the whole
of Babylonia. The language of Cicero is definite as to his belief in a separate
and distinct nation: Chaldaei non ex artis sed ex gentis vocabulo nominati (de
Div. i. 1).
3. They were the name of a particular sect among
the Babylonians, and a branch of the order of Babylonian Magi. (Chaldaioi genos
Magon, Hesych.) In Dan. (ii. 2) they appear among the magicians, sorcerers, and
astrologers, and speak in the name of the rest (Dan. ii. 10). They are described
in Dan. (v. 8) as the king's wise men. From the pursuit of astronomy and astrology
and magical arts, which are ever in early times nearly connected, it came to pass
that with many ancient writers, and especially with those of a later period, the
name Chaldaeans was applied, not only to the learned men of Babylon (as in Cic.
de Div. l. c.; Strab. xv. p. 508; Diod. ii. 29), but to all impostors and magicians
who, professing to interpret dreams, &c., played upon the credulity of mankind.
(Joseph. B. J. ii. 7. § 3; Appian. Syr. c. 58; Curt. i. 10, v. 1; Juv. vi. 553;
Cat. R. R. v. 4, &c.) There were two principal schools at Borsippa and Orchoe
for the study of astronomy, whence the learned Chaldaeans of those places were
termed Borsippeni and Orchoeni. (Strab. xvi. p. 739.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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