SEMIQUAVER 334 SEMITES 3, 529, established the Augustinian doc- trines in opposition to those of the Pela- gians and Semi-Pelagians, as did that of Valencia, in July or August, 530; and Pope Boniface II. confirmed the decree in 530. SEMIQUAVER, in music, a note half the length of the quaver. SEMIRAMIS, a queen of Assyria, whose history is enveloped in fable. As the story goes, she was a daughter of the fish goddess Derceto of Ascalon, in Syria, by a Syrian youth. Being ex- posed by her mother, she was miracu- lously fed by doves till discovered by the chief of the royal shepherds, who adopted her. Attracted by her beauty, Onnes, governor of Nineveh, married her. She accompanied him to the siege of Bactria, where, by her advice, she assisted the king's operations. She became endeared to Ninus, the founder of Nineveh (about 2182 B. a), but Onnes refused to yield her, and being threatened by Ninus, hanged himself. Ninus resigned the crown of Semiramis, and had her pro- claimed Queen of Assyria. She built Babylon, and rendered it the mightiest city in the world. She was distinguished as a warrior, and conquered many of the adjacent countries. Having been com- pletely defeated on the Indus, she was either killed or compelled to abdicate by her son Ninyas, after reigning 42 years. According to popular legend, she disap- peared or was changed into a dove, and was worshiped as a divinity. Her whole history resembles an Oriental tale, and even her existence has been questioned. She is probably a mythological being cor- responding to Astarte, or the Greek Aphrodite. SEMITES, a name given by J. G. Eichhorn in 1787 to a group of nations closely allied in language, religion, man- ners, and physical features, who are rep- resented in Gen. x. as descended chiefly from Shem, a son of Noah. Their habitat was Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Phoeni- cia, Syria, and the countries of the Eu- phrates and Tigris. Into those lands, according to one theory which is sup- ported by Lenormant and others, there had preceded them an immigration of Cushites of the Hamitic race, who, pro- ceeding from Central Asia, occupied not only the lands that afterward became Semitic, but also the Nile valley. Their Hamitic language and civilization, the Semites are said to have adopted. In language the Semites do show some af- finity with the Berbers and the inhabi- tants of the Nile valley. The increasingly prevalent theory is that not less than 4000 B. c. the Semites migrated as no- madic tribes, probably from Arabia, inta Mesopotamia. There they found a Tu- ranian population dwelling in cities built of brick, under the regular government of priest kings, skilled in the use of metals, using the cuneiform mode of writing, and comparatively far advanced in literature and culture. In 3800 B. c. the Semitic adventurer Sharrukin usurped the kingdom of Accad. In Elam also the Turanian population was early over^ powered by the intruding Semites, who came to form the upper strata of society. In 2280 B. c. the Semite Khudur-Nank- hundi of Elam invaded and conquered Shumir and Accad, founding the Elamite line of princes; and about 2200 B. c. one of his successors, Khudur-Lagamar (Chedorlaomer), carried his conquests as far as Palestine (Gen. xiv.). These painful and oppressive impulses seem to have occasioned emigrations of many Semites. Some proceeded toward the N. W., reached the Mediterranean Sea, founded Sidon, Tyre, and other cities? and became known afterward as Canaan- ites or Phoenicians. Later, from Ur went others in the same direction, settled be- hind the Phoenicians, and were afterward known as Israel. Others went N. and built cities which developed into the em- pire of Assyria. While the Semites were in Mesopotamia they used the Turanian language in their public documents till they attained the ascendant in political power; and when afterward they used their own language they continued to use the Turanian cuneiform mode of writ- ing. The Turanian religion also was adopted by the Semites, and mixed with what religion their own primeval tribal religion or totemism had developed into. This amalgamation was consummated by Sharrukin II. of Accad about 2000 B. c. The Semites as a race have a fine physi- cal organization, are mentally quick, clever, but not inclined to change, and not persistent in progress. Their litera- ture has neither epic nor dramatic poetry worth notice. Almost their only arts are the sculpture of Assyria, the exquisite glass and pottery, and the textile fabrics and embroidery of the Phoenicians. They have made their mark on the world in the Phoenician commerce, which visited even the Atlantic shores of Spain and France and drew tin from Britain; in the Phoenician colonies, which, dotting all the coasts and many islands of the Medi- terranean Sea as far as Cadiz, and the coast of Asia as far as India, dispensed manufactures in the Carthaginian em- pire within Europe and Africa; in the exploits of Hannibal; in the dissemina- tion of alphabetic writing, whereof the Phoenician form was the mother of the
