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Jon_3:3
He reached Nineveh, which, we are told, was “an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.” This may be reckoned at about sixty miles. And that it must be understood of the circumference and not of the length, is clear, not only from the coincidences of the statements of ancient writers with modern discoveries, but from the necessities of the case, and from the inferences deducible from the assigned population. Those who, from this text, talk of the city as sixty miles long, cannot really have formed a practical idea of such a city. London, whose vast extent astonishes the world, and which contains a population twice or thrice that of Nineveh, cannot be reckoned as more than eight miles in length. If a population of not more than one third or one half that of London, or even equal thereto, were expanded over a surface equal to eight times that of London, it would cease to be a city for any of the purposes of a concentrated community, but would be a country sparsely dotted with human habitations. Even to give it a circumference of sixty miles, with an area twice the extent of London, for certainly not more, and probably much less, than half the population, needs an explanation as to the loose mode in which ancient oriental cities were constructed. But it will be urged that Jonah went “a day’s journey into the city” delivering the message entrusted to him. This is, indeed, the principal argument for understanding the previous passage to refer to the diameter. But it seems to us to prove just the reverse. If the city were in length three days’ journey, why should he go only one day’s journey into it delivering the denunciations entrusted to him, leaving two thirds of the city unvisited? The meaning clearly is, that he began to give his declaration as he entered the city, and continued to deliver it through the entire day’s journey, which it took him to traverse its whole extent. In fact, the two statements coincide with and support each other—for a city three days’ journey in circumference, will be about one day’s journey in diameter. Diodorus, the principal ancient authority, moreover, gives to the circumference a measurement which, reduced from stadia (480), makes just sixty miles; and Dr. Layard and Mr. Bonomi, though they differ in drawing the boundary line, bring the result to the same circumference.
The population, which forms an element in this calculation, is stated in the book before us to comprise “six score thousand persons, who cannot discern between their right hand and their left.” Some think that this latter phrase denotes a condition of spiritual ignorance, and expresses the entire population. But as a population not exceeding 120,000 persons would be inordinately out of proportion to the most limited extent that can be assigned to the city, we take the phrase to indicate young children, as is, indeed, commonly understood. These are usually one fifth of the entire population of any place, so that this would make the population of Nineveh about 600,000, not more than one third that of London—so that the area of Nineveh being, twice as great, the population of the British metropolis is six times more dense than was that of the Assyrian capital. This needs some explanation. A learned German writer Note: Heeren, Historical Researches, ii. 150. affords some valuable ideas with regard to the origination of such cities as those of Nineveh and Babylon. He shows that the great cities of Asia were constituted in a manner quite different from those of Europe. They generally grew out of the settlements of nomad conquerors, who fixed their abode in a subjugated country, and changed their old mode of life for one more settled and peaceful. The encampment of a chieftain, near the walls of some already existing capital, was speedily converted into a new city which eclipsed the splendor of the old one. The vanquished people were employed in its erection; the plan of the camp, which it followed in every particular, ensured its symmetry, and enables us to account for its square form, and the straight lines in which its streets extended and intersected each other at right angles, as well as for their great extent and loose construction. The extent of these cities forms but little guide to the European in estimating their population. The compact close streets of Europe, and especially of the walled towns on the Continent, form a striking contrast to the scattered mansions of the East surrounded with their extensive courts and gardens, occupying a very large proportion of the whole area. An equal space, therefore, was far from containing the same number of men as in the cities of Europe.
How far this applies to Nineveh we can judge from the statements already made with regard to its extent as compared with its population, and still more, from what we know historically respecting Babylon, which was of about the same extent as Nineveh, and was, without doubt, laid out on the same general plan. Of this city Quintus Curtius states, that the buildings do not reach to the walls, but are at the distance of an acre (jugerum) from them. Neither is the whole city covered with houses, but only ninety furlongs (stadia); nor do the houses stand in rows by each other, but the intervals which separate them are sown and cultivated that they may furnish subsistence in case of siege.” This was the more important, as in the absence, in these regions, of any other defenses than such as the great cities supplied, it was usual for the inhabitants of the open country, for a considerable distance round, to abandon their several towns and villages, and flock into the metropolis on the approach of an enemy; and this was a contingency that needed a special provision, from the frequency of its occurrence in these ancient states, with whom war was the great business of life, and peace the rare exception.
There were also pasture grounds in such cities for the subsistence of cattle in case of siege. In prospect of a long siege, we should probably slay our cattle and salt them down, from the inability to provide pasture for them, and to save the consumption which their keep involves. This is a resource not thought of by the Orientals formerly or now, as they do not use salted meats. Their only resource was to keep the animals alive till they were wanted for food, and this was effected by providing pasture for them within the walls, necessitating a large appropriation of space unoccupied by buildings.
The probability also is, that the majority of the houses of Nineveh, like those of many eastern cities of the present day; consisted but of one story, spread therefore over a large extent of ground. We have always observed the Orientals to be exceedingly averse to ascending stairs; and where ground is no object, as it seldom is, they consider it absurd to build habitations in which they must be continually going up stairs and down, when they are at liberty to spread out their dwellings over the ground as widely as they like. Hence the accommodation which we secure by piling story upon story, they think that they realize with much more advantage by placing these stories separately upon the ground, connecting them together by doors, galleries, courts, and passages. This is their idea of comfort; and we must confess to being considerably of their opinion. The result is, however, that the houses of an eastern gentleman in a town will generally occupy four or five times as much ground, as that of an English gentleman in the corresponding condition of life.