CLXXVI. When Harpagus led his army towards Xanthus, the Lycians boldly advanced to meet him, and, though inferior in number, behaved with the greatest bravery. Being defeated, and pursued into their city, they collected their wives, children, and valuable effects, into the citadel, and there consumed the whole, in one immense fire 25. They afterwards uniting themselves under the most solemn curses, made a private sally upon the enemy, and were every man put to death. Of those who now inhabit Lycia, calling themselves Xanthians, the whole are foreigners, eighty families excepted: these survived the calamity of their country, being at that time absent on some foreign expedition. Thus Xanthus fell into the hands of Harpagus;

225 One immense fire.]-The following anecdote from Plutarch, describes a similar emotion of despair.-The Xanthians made a sally in the night, and seizing many of the enemy's battering engines, set them on fire. Being soon perceived by the Romans, they were beaten back. A violent wind forced the flames against the battlements of the city with such violence, that the adjoining houses took fire. Brutus, on this, commanded his soldiers to assist the citizens in quenching the fire: but they were seized with so sudden a frenzy and despair, that women and children, bond and free, all ages and conditions, strove to repel those who came to their assistance, and, gathering whatever combustible matter they could, spread the fire over the whole city. Not only men and women, but even boys and little children, leaped into the fire; others threw themselves from the walls; others fell upon their parents swords, opening their breasts, and desiring to be slain.-T.

VOL. I.

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as

as also did Caunus, whose people imitated, almost every respect, the example of the Lycians.

in

CLXXVII. Whilst Harpagus was thus engaged in the conquest of the Lower Asia, Cyrus himself conducted an army against the upper regions, of every part of which he became master. The particulars of his victories I shall omit; expatiating only upon those which are most memorable in themselves, and which Cyrus found the most difficult to accomplish. When he had reduced the whole of the continent, he commenced his march against the Assyrians.

CLXXVIII. The Assyrians are masters of many capital towns; but their place of greatest strength and fame is Babylon 226, which, after the destruction

226 Babylon.The greatest cities of Europe give but a faint idea of that grandeur which all historians unanimously ascribe to the famous city of Babylon.-Dutens.

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency.-Isaiah. The latest accounts of Babylon are from Ranwolf, 1574, Ray's Travels, and P. de la Valle, 1616. The latter describes what D'Anville believes to be the tower or temple of Belus, and P. St. Albert, in his MS. account of his mission, describes immense walls said to be those of the palace. (D'Anville l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 110. 117.) D'Anville treats Otter as an illiterate traveller, who never thought about Babylon for want of having been told of it; yet Gibbon ranks him with Tavernier and Niebuhr, the most useful of modern travellers in these tracts. But to be thoroughly acquainted with the situation and remains

of

destruction of Nineveh, was the royal residence. It is situated on a large plain, and is a perfect square each side, by every approach, is one hundred and twenty furlongs in length; the space, therefore, occupied by the whole is four hundred and eighty furlongs *. So extensive is the ground which Babylon occupies; its internal beauty and magnificence exceeds whatever has come within my knowledge. It is surrounded by a trench, very wide, deep, and full of water: the wall beyond this, is two hundred royal cubits 227 high, and fifty wide: the royal exceeds the common cubit by three digits.

of this vast and interesting city, the reader will do well to peruse with serious attention the elaborate publication of Rennel, who has dedicated not less than sixty pages to this important subject. It is certainly surprising that Herodotus says nothing of its founder, but is satisfied with telling us who extended and improved it.

* The different reports of the extent of the walls of Babylon are given as follows:

By Herodotus at 120 stadia each side, or 480 in circumference.

By Pliny and Solinus at 60 Roman miles, which, at eight stadia to a mile, agrees with Herodotus.

By Strabo at 385 stadia.

By Diodorus, from Ctesias, 360, but from Clitarchus, who accompanied Alexander, 365: and, lastly, by Curtius, 368. It appears highly probable that 360 or 365 was the true statement of the circumference.-Rennel.

227 Cubits.]-It must be confessed, indeed, that in the comparison of ancient and modern measures, nothing certain has been concluded. According to vulgar compu

CLXXIX. I here think it right to describe the use, to which the earth dug out of the trench was converted, as well as the particular manner in which they constructed the wall. The earth of the trench was first of all laid in heaps, and, when a sufficient quantity was obtained, made into square bricks, and baked in a furnace. They used as cement, a composition of heated bitumen, which, mixed with the tops of reeds, was placed betwixt every thirtieth course of bricks. Having thus lined the sides of the trench, they proceeded to build the wall in the same manner; on the summit of which, and fronting each other, they erected small watch-towers of one story, leaving a space betwixt them, through which a chariot and four horses might pass and turn. In the circumference of the wall, at different distances, were an hundred massy gates of brass 28, whose hinges and frames were of the same metal. Within

tation, a cubit is a foot and a half; and thus the ancients also reckoned it: but then we are not certainly agreed about the length of their foot.-Montfaucon.

The doubt expressed by Montfaucon appears unnecessary: these measures, being taken from the proportions of the human body, are more permanent than any other. The foot of a moderate-sized man, and the cubit, that is the space from the end of the fingers to the elbow, have always been near twelve and eighteen inches respectively.-T.

228 Gates of brass.]-Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus: I will go before thee; I will break in pieces the gates of brass.-Isaiah,

Within an eight days journey from Babylon is a city called Is*; near which flows a river of the same name, which empties itself into the Euphrates. With the current of this river, particles of bitumen descend towards Babylon, by the means of which its walls were constructed.

CLXXX. The great river Euphrates, which, with its deep and rapid streams, rises in the Armenian mountains, and pours itself into the Red Sea 229, divides Babylon into two parts. The walls meet and form an angle with the river at each extremity of the town, where a breast-work of burnt bricks begins, and is continued along each bank. The city, which abounds in houses from three to four stories in height, is regularly divided into streets. Through these, which are parallel, there are transverse avenues to the river, opened through the wall and breast-work, and

* Is.]—There are some curious fountains of this kind near HIT, a town on the Euphrates, at 128 miles above Hillah, reckoning the distance along the banks of the Euphrates. This distance answers to eight ordinary journies of a caravan, of 16 miles direct, and is at the same rate as the six journies at which HIT is reported to be from Bagdad, according to M. Niebuhr. There can be no doubt, therefore, this HIT is the place intended by Is, and which should have been written IT.-Rennel.

229 Red Sea.]-The original Erythrean or Red Sea was that part of the Indian ocean which forms the peninsula of Arabia; the Persian and Arabian gulphs being only branches of it.-T.