No More Learning

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? NILUS
NILUS.
Brans were admitted to How into the Arabian Gulf,
it would, in the course of 20,000 years, convey into it
such a quantity of earth as would raise its bed to the
level of the surrounding coast. I am of opinion, he
subjoins, that this might take place even within 10,000
vears; why then might not a bay still more spacious
than this be choked up with mud, in the time which
passed before our age, by a stream so great and pow-
erful as the Nile! (2, 11. )--The men of science who
accompanied the French expedition into Egypt under-
took to measure the depth of alluvial matter which has
been actually deposited by the river. By sinking pits
at different intervals, both on the banks of the current
and on the outer edge of the stratum, they ascertained
satisfactorily, first, that the surface of the soil de-
clines from the margin of the stream towards the foot
of the hills; secondly, that the thickness of the dc-
positc is generally about ten feet near the river, and
decreases gradually as it recedes from it; and, thirdly,
that beneath the mud there is a bed of sand analogous
to the substance which has at all times been brought
iown by the flood of the Nile. This convex form as-
lumed by the surface of the valley is not peculiar to
Egypt, being common to the banks of all great rivers,
where the quantity of soil transported by tire current
is greater than that which is washed down by rain
from the neighbouring mountains. The plains which
skirt the Mississippi and the Ganges present in many
parts an example of the same phenomenon. --An at-
tempt has likewise been made to ascertain the rale of
the annual deposition of alluvial substance, and there-
by to measure the elevation which has been conferred
upon the valley of Egypt by the action of its river.
But on no point are travellers less agreed than in re-
gard to the change of level and the increase of land
on the seacoast. Dr. Shaw and M. Savary take their
Kii-nd on the one side, and are resolutely opposed by
lit ice and Volney on the other. Herodotus informs
us, that in the reign of Moeris, if the Nile rose to the
height of eight cubits, all the lands of Egypt were suf-
ficiently watered; but that in his own lime--not quite
W)0 years afterward--the country was not covered
? vilh less than fifteen or sixteen cubits of water. The
addition of soil, therefore, was equal to seven cubits
at the least, or 126 inches in the course of 900 years.
"But at present," says Dr. Shaw, "the river must
rise to the height of twenty cubits--and it usually
rises to 24 cubits--before the whole country is over-
flowed. Since the lime, therefore, of Herodotus,
Egypt has gained new soil to the depth of 230 inches.
And if we look back from the reign of Mceris to the
time of the Deluge, and reckon that interval by the
same proportion, we shall find that the whole perpen-
dicular accession of the soil, from the Deluge to A. D.
1721, must be 500 inches; that is, the land of Egypt has
gained 41 feet 8 inches of soil in 4072 years. Thus,
in process of time, the country may be raised to such
a height that the river will not be able to overflow its
banks; and Egypt, consequently, from being the most
fertile, will, for want of the annual inundation, become
one of the most barren parts of the universe. " (Shaw's
Travels, vol. 2, p. 235. )--We shall see presently that
this fear on the part of the learned traveller is entirely
without foundation. Were it possible to determine
the mean rate of accumulation, a species of chronome-
ter would be thereby obtained for measuring the lapse
of time which has passed since any monument, or oth-
? ? er work of art in the neighbourhood of the river, was
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? NILUS.
NIN
that the mud of Ethiopia has been detected by sound-
ings at the distance of not less than twenty leagues
from the coast of the Delta. Nor yet is there any sub-
stantial ground for apprehending, with the author just
named, that, in process of time, the whole country
may be raised to such a height that the river will not
be able to overflow its banks; and, consequently, that
Egypt, from being the most fertile, will, for want of
the annual inundation, become one of the most barren
parts of the universe. "According to an approximate
calculation," observes Wilkinson, " the land about the
first or lowest cataract has been raised nine feet in
1700 years, at Thebes about seven feet, and at Cairo
about five feet ten inches; while at Rosetta and the
mouths of the Nile, where the perpendicular thickness
of the depnsitc is much less than in the valley of Cen-
tral and Upper Egypt, owing to the great extent, east
and west, over which the inundation spreads, the rise
of the soil has been comparatively imperceptible. " As
the bed of the Nile always keeps pace with the eleva-
tion of the soil, and the proportion of water brought
down by the river continues to be the same, it follows
that the Nile now overflows a greater extent of land,
both east and west, than in former times; and that the
superficies of cultivable land in the plains of Thebes
and of Central Egypt continues to increase. All fears,
therefore, about the stoppage of the overflowing of the
Nile are unfounded. (Russell's Egypt, p. 37, scqq. --
Encycl. Us. Knoicl. , vol. 16, p. 234. )
4. Change in the course of the ATi/c.
The Nile is said by Hcrodutus (2, 99) to have flow-
ed, previously to the time of Menes, on the side of
Libya. This prince, by constructing a mound at the
distance of 100 stadia from Memphis, towards tho
south, diverted its course. The ancient course is not
unknown at present, and may be traced across the
desert, passing west of the Natron Lakes. It is call-
ed by the Arabs Bahr-bela-Match, "Tho river with-
out water," and presents itself to the view in a valley
which runs parallel to that containing the lakes just
mentioned. In the sand with which its channel is ev-
erywhere covered, trunks of trees have been found in
a state of complete petrifaction, and also the vertebral
bone of a large fish. Jasper, quartz, and petrosilex
hare likewise been observed scattered over the sur-
face. "That the Nile originally flowed through the
'alley of the Dry River," observes Russell (Egypt, p.
102. scqq. ), "is admitted by the most intelligent among
modem travellers. M. Denon, for example, regards
as proofs of this fact the physical conformation of the
adjoining country; the existence of the bed of a river
eitending to the sea, but now dry ; its depositions and
incrustations ; its extent; its bearing towards the north
on a chain of hills which run east and west, and turn
off towards the northwest, sloping down to follow the
coarse of the valley of the dry channel, and likewise
the Natron Lakes. And, more than all the other proofs,
the form of the chain of mountains at the north of the
Pyramid, which shuts the entrance of the valley, and
appears to be cut perpendicularly, like almost all the
mountains at the foot of which the Nile flows at the
present day; all these offer to the view a channel left
dry. and its several remains. (Denon, vol. 1, p. 163 )
The opinion that the river of Egypt penetrated into
the Libyan desert, even to the westward of Fayoum,
is rendered probable by some observations recorded in
the second volume of Belzoni's Researches. In his
? ? journey to the Oasis of Ammon, he reached, one even-
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? NINUS.
by Assur, or, if we adopt the marginal translation, by
Nimrod. (ViA. Assyria. ) Possibly Nimrod and Ni-
nus were the same. --Nineveh was the residence of
the Assyrian monarchs (2 Kings, 19, 36. --Isa(ah,
37, 37. --Compare Strabo, 84, 737), and it is men-
tioned as a place of great commercial importance;
whence Nahum speaks of its merchants as more than
the stars of heaven (3, 16). But, as in the ease of
most large and wealthy cities, the greatest corruption
and licentiousness prevailed, on account of which Na-
hum and Zephaniah foretold its destruction. --Nineveh,
which for 1450 years had been mistress of the East,
to whom even Babylon itself was subject, was first
taken in the reign of Sardanapalus, B. C. 747, by the
Medes and Babylonians, who had revolted under thpir
governors Arbaces and Belesis. This event put an
end to the first Assyrian empire, and divided its im-
mense territory into two lesser kingdoms, those of
Assyria and Babylon. But Nineveh itself suffered
little change from this event; it was still a great city;
and, soon after, in the reign of Esarhaddon, who took
Babylon, it became again the capital of both empires,
which continued 54 years; when Nabopolassar, a gen-
eral in the Assyrian army, and father of the famous
Nebuchadnezzar, seized on Babylon and proclaimed
himself king: after which Nineveh was no more the
seat of government of both kingdoms. It was, in fact,
now on the decline, and was soon to yield to the rising
power of its great rival. The Mcdes had again revolt-
ed, and in the year 633 B. C. , their king, Cyaxarcs,
having defeated the Assyrians in a great battle, laid
siege to Nineveh; but its time was not yet come, and
it was delivered on this occasion by an invasion of
Media by the Scythians, which obliged Cyaxares to
withdraw his army to repel them. But in the year
612, having formed an alliance with Nabopolassar, king
of Babylon, he returned, accompanied by that monarch,
to the siege of Nineveh, and finally took the city.
The prophecy made by Zephaniah, of its utter destruc-
tion, must refer to this latter event. Strabo says that
it fell into decay immediately after the dissolution of
the Assyrian monarchy; and this account is confirmed
by the fact, that, in the history of A lexander the Great,
the place is not mentioned, although in his march
along the Tigris, previous to the battle of Arbela, he
must have been very near the spot where it is supposed
to have stood. Under the Roman emperors, however,
we read of a city named Ninus (Tacit. , Ann. , 12, 13)
or Ninivc (Amm. Marccll. , 18, 7); and Abulpharagi,
in the 13th century, mentions a castle called Niniri.
--Little doubt can arise that Nineveh was situate
near the Tigris, and yet the exact site of that once
mighty city has never been clearly ascertained. On
the eastern bank of the Tigris, opposite the town of
Mosul, and partly on the site of the modern village of
Nunia or Ncbtri Yumts, arc some considerable ruins,
which have been described at different periods by
Benjamin of Tudcla, Thcvenot, Tavernier, &c. , as
those of ancient Nineveh. But it is thought by others,
from the dimensions of the ruins, that these travellers
must have been mistaken; and that the remains de-
? scribcd by them were those of some city of much
smaller extent and more recent date than the Scripture
Nineveh. Mr. Kinneir, who visited this spot in the
year 1808, says, that " On the opposite bank of the
Tigris {that is, over against Mosul), and about three
quarters of a mile from that stream, the village of Nu-
nia and sepulchre of the prophet Jonas seem to point
? ? out the position of Nineveh. "--" A city being after-
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? NIOBE.
N1S
numerous offspring was so great, that she is said to
have insulted Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana,
by refusing to offer at the altars raised in her honour,
declaring that she herself had a better claim to worship
and sacrifices than one who was the mother of only
two children. Latona, indignant at this insolence and
presumption, called upon her children for revenge.
Apollo and Diana heard her prayer, and obeyed the
entreaty of their outraged parent. All the sons of
Niobe fell by the arrows of Apollo, while the daugh-
ters, in like manner, met their death from the hands
of Diana. Clitoris alone escaped the common fate.
She was the wife of Ncleus, king of Pylos. This ter-
rible judgment of the gods so affected the now heart-
stricken and humiliated Niobe, that she was changed
by her excessive grief into a stone on Mount Sipyius,
in Lydia. Amphion also, in attempting, in retalki-
tion, to destroy the temple of Apollo, perished by the
shafts of that deity. (Ovid, Met. , 6, 146, seqq--Hy-
gm. , fab. , 9. --Apollod. , 3, 5, 6-- Soph. , Anttg. , 823,
scqq. ) Pausanias says, that the rock on Sipyius,
which went by the name of Niobe, and which he had
visited, " was merely a rock and precipice when one
came close up to it, and bore no resemblance at all to
a woman; but at a distance you might imagine it to
be a woman weeping with downcast countenance. "
(Pausan. , 1, 21. 3. )--The myth of Niobe has been
explained by Volcker and others in a physical sense.
According to these writers, the name Nwbc (Ntobn, i.
e. , NcoOn) denotes Youth or Newness. She is the
diughter of the Flourishing-one (Tantalus), and the
mother of the Green-one (Chloris). In her, then, we
may view the young, verdant, fruitful earth, the bride
of the sun (Amphion), beneath the influence of whose
fecundating beams she pours forth vegetation with
lavish profusion. The revolution of the year, howev-
er, denoted by Apollo and Diana (other forms of the
sun and moon), withers up and destroys her progeny;
she weeps and stiffens to stone (the torrents and frosts
of winter); but Chloris, the Green-one, remains, and
spring clothes the earth anew with its smiling verdure.
(Volcker, Myth, der Jap. , p. 359. -- KeighlUy's My-
thAogy, p. 333. )--The legend of Niobe and her chil-
dren has afforded a subject for art, which has been fine-
ly treated by one of the greatest ancient masters of
sculpture. It consists of a series, rather than a group,
of figures of both sexes, in all the disorder and agony
of expected or present suffering; while one, the moth-
er, the hapless Niobe, in the most affecting attitude of
supplication, and with an expression of deep grief, her
eyes turned upward, implores the justly-offended gods
to moderate their anger and spare her offspring, one
of whom, the youngest girl, she strains fondly to her
bosom. It is difficult, however, by description, to do
justice to the various excellence exhibited in this ad-
mirable work. The arrangement of the composition
is supposed to have been adapted to a tympanum or
pediment. The figure of Niobe, of colossal dimen-
sions compared with the other figures, forms, with her
youngest daughter pressed to her, the centre. The
execution of this interesting monument of Greek art
is attributed by some to Scopas, while others think it
the production of Praxiteles. Pliny says it was a
question which of the two was the author of it. The
group was in the temple of Apollo Sosianus at Rome.
(Ptin. , 36, 10. --SUlig, DkI. Art. , s. >>. ) This beau-
tiful piece of sculpture is now in the gallery of the
? ? Grand-duke of Tuscany at Florence, though some re-
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? NIT
NIT
fit. Gordian. tert. , c. 26. --Trebellti. Vit. Odcnat. , c.
15. ) After the death of Julian, Nisibis was ceded to
Sapor, king of Persia, by Jovian, and remained hence-
forth for the Persians, what it had thus far been to the
Romans, a strong frontier town. The latter could
never regain possession of it. --The modem Kisibin
or Nissaoin, which occupies the site of the ancient
city, is represented as being little better than a mere
village. {Manncrl, Geogr. , vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 297, seqq. )
Nisus, I. a son of Hyrtaeus, bom on Mount Ida,
near Troy. He came to Italy with . Eneas, and was
united by ties of the closest attachment to Euryalus,
? on of Opheltes.
During the prosecution of the war
with Turnus, Nisus, to whom the defence of one of
the entrances of the camp was entrusted, determined
to sally forth in search of tidings of . Eneas. Eury-
alus accompanied him in this perilous undertaking.
Fortune at first seconded their efforts, but they were
at length surprised by a Latin detachment. Euryalus
was cut down by Volscens; the latter was as imme-
diately despatched by the avenging hand of Nisus;
who, however, overpowered by numbers, soon shared
the fate of his friend. (Virg. , Mn. , 9, 176, seqq. --
Compare Mn. , 5, 334, seqq. )--II. A king of Megara.
In the war waged by Minos, king of Crete, against
the Athenians, on account of the death of Androgeus
(vid. Androgeus), Megara was besieged, and it was
taken through the treachery of Scylla, the daughter of
Nisus. This prince had a golden or purple lock of
hair growing on his head; and as long as it remained
uncut, so long was his life to last. Scylla, having
seen Minos, fell in love with him, and resolved to give
him the victory. She cut off her father's precious
lock as he slept, and he immediately died; the town
was then taken by the Cretans. But Minos, instead
of rewarding the maiden, disgusted with her unnatural
treachery, tied her by the feet to the stern of his ves-
sel, and thus dragged her along until she was drowned.
(Apollod. , 3, 15, 1-- Schol. ad Eurip. , Hippol. , 1195. )
Another legend adds, that Nisus was changed into the
bird called the Sea-eagle (ukiueroc), and Scylla into
that named Ciris (aeipic), and that the father continu-
ally pursues the daughter to punish her for her crime.
(Ovid, Mctam. , 8, 145. --Virg. , Ctr. --Id. , Gcorg. , 1,
403. ) According to . Eschylus (Cho'eph. , 609, seqq. ),
Minos bribed Scylla with a golden collar. (Keight-
la/s Mythology, p. 385. )
Nisyros, I. an island in the . Egean, one of the
Sporadcs, about sixty stadia north of Tclos. Strabo
describes it as a lofty and rocky isle, with a town of
the same name. Mythologists pretended that this isl-
and had been separated from Cos by Neptune, in or-
der that he might hurl it against the giant Polvboetes.
(Strabo, US. --Apollod. , I. , 6, Z. --Pausan. , "l, 2--
Stcph. By:. , s. v. ) Herodotus informs us that the Ni-
synans were subject at one time to Artemisia, queen of
Caria (7, 99). The modern name is Ntsart. From
this island is procured a large number of good mill-
stones. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 418. )--II
The chief town in the island of Carpathus. (Strabo,
489. )
Nitetis, a daughter of Apries, king of Egypt, mar-
ried by his successor Amasis to Cambyses. Herodo-
tus states (3, 1), that Cambyses was instigated to ask
in marriage the daughter of Amasis, by a certain phy-
sician, whom Amasis had compelled to go to Persia
when Cyrus, the father of Cambyses, was suffering
? ? from weak eyes, and requested the Egyptian king to
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? NOM
NON
receiving its own from the adjacent Natron likes'.
Many Christians were accustomed to flee hither for
refuge during the early persecutions of the church.
(Sozom. , 6, 31. --Socrai. , Ecclcs. , 4, 23 --Plin. , 5, 9.
--Id, 81, 10. )
Niv. iBii, I. one of the Fortunate Insula;, off the
western coast of Mauritania Tingitana. It is now the
island of Tcnerifc. The name Nivaria has reference
to the snows which cover the summits of the island
for a great part of the year. It was also called Con-
vallis. (I'lm. , 4, 32. )--II. A city of Hispania Tar-
raconensis, in the territory of the Vaccffii, and to the
north of Cauca. (Jim. Ant. , 435. )
Noctiluca, a surname of Diana, as indicating the
goddess that shines during the night season. The ep-
ithet would also appear to have reference to her tem-
ple's being adorned with lights during the same period.
This temple was on the Palatine Hill. Compare the
remark of Varro: "Luna, quod sola lucet noclu:
itaquc ca dicta Noctiluca in Palatio, nam ibi noctu
iucel tempium" (L. L. , 4, 10).
Nola, ono of the most ancient and important cities
of Campania, situate to the northeast of Neapolis. The
earliest record wo have of it is from Hecataeus, who is
cited by Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. Nii/ln). That
ancient historian, in one of his works, described it as
a city of the Ausones. According to some accounts,
Nola was said to have been founded by the Etrurians.
(Veil. Paterc, 1, 6--Polyb. , 2, 17. ) Others, again,
represented it as a colony of the Chalcidians. (Jus-
tin, 20, 1,13. ) If this latter account be correct, the
Chalcidians of Cumie and Neapolis are doubtless
meant. All these conflicting statements, however,
may be reconciled by admitting that it successively
fell into the hands of these different people. Nola af-
terward appears to have been occupied by the Sam-
nites, together with other Campanian towns, until they
were expelled by the Romans. (Lit). , 9, 28. --Strab. ,
249. ) Though situated in an open plain, it was capa-
ble of being easily defended, from the strength of its
walls and towers; and we know it resisted all the ef-
forts of Hannibal after the battle of Cannffi, under the
able direction of Marcellus. (Lie. , 23, 14, seqq. --
Cic, Brut. , 3. ) In the Social war, this city fell into
the hands of the confederates, and remained in their
possession nearly to the conclusion of the war. It
was then retaken by Sylla, and, having been set on fire
by the Samnitc garrison, was burned to the ground
(Ln. , Epit. , 89. --Appian, Bell. Civ. , 1, 42. --Veil.
Paterc, 2, 18. ) It must have risen, however, from
its ruins, since subsequent writers reckon it among
the cities of Campania, and Frontinus reports that it
was colonized by Vespasian. (Phn. , 3, 5. --Front. ,
dc Col) Here Augustus breathed his last, as Taci-
tus and Suetonius remark, in the same house and
chamber in which his father -Octavius had ended his
days. (Tacit. , Ann. , 1, o, ct 9. --Suet. , Aug. , 99. )
The modem name of the place is the same as the an-
cient, Aola. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 2, p. 210. )
Aulus Gcllius relates a foolish story, that Virgil had
introduced the name of Nola into his Georgics (2,
225), but that, when he was refused permission by the
inhabitants to lead off a stream of water into his
grounds adjacent to the place (aquam uti duceret in
propinquum rus), he obliterated the namo of the city
from his poem, and substituted the word uru. (Aul.
Gcll. , 7, 20. --Compare Sen). , ad Mn. , 7, 740-- Phi-
? ? larg. , ad Georg. , I. c. ) Ambrose Leo, a native of
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? NON
NONNUS.
ans, who had written on the difference between words,
extracts published by Gothofredus (Godcfroi), among
others, we find fragments of the writings of Marcelius
(p 1335). Some modem critics have formed rather
an unfavourable opinion of Nonius Marrcllus. G. J.
Vossius says that he is deficient in learning and judg-
ment; and Justus Lipsius treats him as a man of very
weak mind. (Voss, de Philolol. , 5, 13. --Lips. , An-
Uq Led. , 2, 4. ) On the other hand, Isaac Vossius
laments the hard fate of this grammarian, whom, ac-
cording to him, modem scholars have been accustomed
to insult because unable to understand his -writings
(ad Catull. , p. 212). It is certain, that no ancient
grammarian is so rich in his citations from previous
writers, which he often gives without passing any
opinion upon them. It is sufficient, however, for
modern scholars to obtain these citations; nor need
they, in fact, regret that the compiler has not append-
ed to them his individual sentiments. (Scholl, Hist.
Lit. Rom. , vol. 3, p. 310, scqq. )
Nonnus, I. a native of Panopolis in Egypt, and
distinguished for his poetical abilities. ' The precise
period when he flourished is involved in great un-
certainty, nor is anything known with accuracy re-
specting the circumstances of his life. Conjecture
has been called in to supply the place of positive infor-
mation Nonnus was, as appears from his produc-
tions, a man of great erudition, and we cannot doubt
that ho was cither educated at Alcxandrea, or had
lived in that city, where all the Greek erudition cen-
tred during the first ages of the Christian era. --Was
he bom a Christian, or did he embrace Christianity
after he had reached a certain age? We have here a
question about which the ancients have left us in com-
plete uncertainty. The author of the Dwnysiaca must
have been a pagan; for it is difficult to believe that
any Christian, even supposing that he had made the
Greek mythology a subject of deep study, would have
felt inclined to turn his attention to a theme, in treat-
ing of which he must inevitably shock the feelings and
incur the censure of his fellow-Christians. And yet
Nonnus composed also a Christian poem. --It is prob-
able, then, that he was at first a pagan, and embraced
She new religion at a subsequent period of his life.
I hit here a new difficulty presents itself How comes
it that no Christian writer of the time makes mention
>f the conversion of a man who must have acquired a
high reputation for learning? To explain this Bilence,
it has been supposed that Nonnus was one of those
pagan philosophers and sophists, who were a party in
the tumult at Alexandrea, which had been excited by
the intolerance of the bishop Thcophilus. To escape
the vengeance of their opponents, some of these phi-
1 )sophers expatriated themselves, others submitted to
baptism. If Nonnus was in the number of the latter,
it may easily bo conceived that the ecclesiastical wri-
ters of the day could derive no advantage to their
cause from his conversion. ( Wctchert, de Nonno Pa-
nopolitano, Vtteb. , 1810. ) This hypothesis fixes the
period when Nonnus flourished at the end of the fourth,
and the commencement of the fifth century.