While this is the evident meaning of the poet, this also, in a strictly historical point of view, is the conclusion of the historian Apollodorus; for he states that "Ninus is Nimrod." And then, in conformity with this identity of Ninus and Nimrod, we find, in one of the most celebrated sculptures of ancient Babylon, Ninus and his wife Semiramis represented as actively engaged in the pursuits of the chase,--"the quiver-bearing Semiramis" being a fit companion for "the mighty Hunter before the Lord."

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Ala-Mahozim
The name "Ala-Mahozim" is never, as far as I know, found in any ancient uninspired author, and in the Scripture itself it is found only in a prophecy. Considering that the design of prophecy is always to leave a certain obscurity before the event, though giving enough of light for the practical guidance of the upright, it is not to be wondered at that an unusual word should be employed to describe the divinity in question. But, though this precise name be not found, we have a synonym that can be traced home to Nimrod. In Sanchuniathon, "Astarte, traveling about the habitable world," is said to have found "a star falling through the air, which she took up and consecrated in the holy island Tyre." Now what is this story of the falling star but just another version of the fall of Mulciber from heaven, or of Nimrod from his high estate? for as we have already seen, Macrobius shows (Saturn.) that the story of Adonis--the lamented one--so favourite a theme in Phoenicia, originally came from Assyria. The name of the great god in the holy island of Tyre, as is well known, was Melkart (KITTO'S Illus. Comment.), but this name, as brought from Tyre to Carthage, and from thence to Malta (which was colonised from Carthage), where it is found on a monument at this day, cast no little light on the subject. The name Melkart is thought by some to have been derived from Melek-eretz, or "king of the earth" (WILKINSON); but the way in which it is sculptured in Malta shows that it was really Melek-kart, "king of the walled city." Kir, the same as the Welsh Caer, found in Caer-narvon, &c., signifies "an encompassing wall," or a "city completely walled round"; and Kart was the feminine form of the same word, as may be seen in the different forms of the name of Carthage, which is sometimes Car-chedon, and sometimes Cart-hada or Cart-hago. In the Book of Proverbs we find a slight variety of the feminine form of Kart, which seems evidently used in the sense of a bulwark or a fortification. Thus (Prov 10:15) we read: "A rich man's wealth is his strong city (Karit), that is, his strong bulwark or defence." Melk-kart, then, "king of the walled city," conveys the very same idea as Ala-Mahozim. In GRUTER'S Inscriptions, as quoted by Bryant, we find a title also given to Mars, the Roman war-god, exactly coincident in meaning with that of Melkart. We have elsewhere seen abundant reason to conclude that the original of Mars was Nimrod. The title to which I refer confirms this conclusion, and is contained in a Roman inscription on an ancient temple in Spain.