It is proposed therefore, in the present volumes, to accept the general scheme of Berosus as, in all probability, not seriously in error; and to arrange the Chaldaean, Assyrian, and Babylonian history on the framework which it furnishes.
Chaldaean history may therefore be regarded as opening upon us at a time anterior, at any rate by a century or two, to B.C.2286.

It was then that Nimrod, the son or descendant of Cush, set up a kingdom in Lower Mesopotamia, which attracted the attention of surrounding nations.

The people, whom he led, came probably by sea; at any rate, their earliest settlements were on the coast; and Ur or Hur, on the right bank of the Euphrates, at a very short distance from its embouchure, was the primitive capital.

The "mighty hunter" rapidly spread his dominion inland, subduing or expelling the various tribes by which the country was previously occupied.

His kingdom extended northwards, at least as far as Babylon,--which (as well as Erech or Huruk, Accad, and Calneh) was first founded by this monarch.