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of cities, and among them Nineveh,* and expecting to be attacked in her turn, made all possible exertions to increase the defenses of her empire. And first, whereas the river Euphrates, which traverses the city, ran formerly with a straight course to Babylon, she, by certain excavations, which she made at some distance up the stream, rendered it so winding that it comes three several times in sight of the same village, a village in Assyria, which is called Ardericca; and to this day, they who would go from, over sea to Babylon, on descending the river touch three times, and on three different days, at this very place.

3. She also made an embankment along each side of the Euphrates, wonderful both for breadth and height, and dug a basin for a lake a great way above Babylon, close alongside of the stream, which was sunk everywhere to the point where they came to water, and was of such breadth that the whole circuit measured four hundred and twenty furlongs. The soil dug out of this basin was made use of in the embankments along the water-side. When the excavation was finished she had stones brought, and bordered with them the entire margin of the reservoir. These two things were done, the river made to wind, and the lake excavated, that the stream might be slacker by reason

* Nineveh, situated on the Tigris River, was at one time perhaps the most splended city in the world. It was taken and destroyed by the Medes under their king, Cyax'ares (606 B.C). In the time of Herodotus, therefore, it had ceased to exist.

of the number of curves, and the voyage be rendered circuitous; and that at the end of the voyage it might be necessary to skirt the lake and so make a long round. All these works were on that side of Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads into Media were the straitest; and the aim of the queen in making them was to prevent the Medes from holding intercourse with the Babylonians, and so to keep them in ignorance of her affairs.

4. The expedition of Cyrus was undertaken against the son of this princess, who bore the same name as her father Labynetus, and was King of the Assyrians. The Great King when he goes to the wars, is always supplied with provisions carefully prepared at home, and with cattle of his own. Water too from the river (ko-aspees), which flows by Susa, is taken with him for his drink, as that is the only water which the kings of Persia taste. Wherever he travels he is attended by a number of four-wheeled cars drawn by mules, in which the Choaspes water, ready boiled for use, and stored in flagons of silver, is moved with him from place to place.

5. Cyrus, on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes (jin-deez'), a stream which, rising in the Matienian (ma-she-e'ne-an) Mountains, runs through the country of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris. The Tigris, after receiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of Opis, and discharges

its waters into the Erythæan Sea. When Cyrus reached this stream, which could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred white horses accompanying his march, full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the water and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him, swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths.

6. Cyrus enraged at the insolence of the river, threatened so to break its strength that in future even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees. Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions, and setting his army to dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid of so great a number of hands, but not without losing thereby the whole summer

season.

7. Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes, by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with the first approach of the ensuing spring, marched forward against Babylon. The Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming, A battle was fought at a short distance from the city, in which the Babylonians were defeated by the Persian king; whereupon they withdrew within their defenses. Here they shut themselves

up, and made light of his siege, having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after nation, they were convinced that he would never stop, and that their time would come at last.

8. Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity, as time went on, and he made no progress against the place. In this distress either some one made the suggestion to him, or he bethought himself of a plan which he proceeded to put in execution, He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth, with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the waters became shallow enough. He then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of his host, and made for the place where Nitocris dug the basin for the river, where he did exactly what she had done formerly; he turned the Euphrates by a canal into a basin, which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable.

9. Hereupon the Persians, who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the river-side, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town. Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus

was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would not have allowed the entrance of the Persians within the city, which was what ruined them utterly; but would have made fast all the street-gates which gave upon the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream, would so have caught the enemy as it were in a trap. But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise, and so took the city. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central part (as the residents at Babylon declare), long after the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had chanced; but as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and reveling until they learned the capture but too certainly.

In the account given in the Book of Daniel of this event, the king is called Belshazzar; and we are told that, neglecting the duty of watching the enemy, he gave himself up to feasting and revelry. The incident which produced so startling an interruption to his festivity, and foretold the doom of the city and the king, is familiar to all. The following lines of Lord Byron afford a poetic description of the event.

LV.-VISION OF BELSHAZZAR.

BYRON.

1. The king was on his throne,
The satraps thronged the hal? :
A thousand bright lamps shone
O'er that high festival.

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