star above her head, standing in a chariot drawn by winged horses, while in one hand she holds a torch, and with the other scatters roses, as illustrative of the flowers springing from the dew, which the poets describe as diffused from the eyes of the goddess in liquid pearls. (Compare Inghirami, Mon. Etrusc., 1, 5.Millin, Vases de Canosa, 5. Vases, 1, 15.-Id. ibid., 2, 37-Eckhel, Syll., 7, 3.-Müller, Archeol. der Kunst, p. 611.)

AURUNCI, a people of Latium, on the coast towards Campania, southeast of the Volsci. They were, in fact, identical with the Ausonians. The Italian form of the name Ausones can have been no other than Aurim, for from this Aurunci is manifestly derived. Auruncus is Aurunicus; the termination belongs to the number of adjective-forms in which the old Latin luxuriated, so as even to form Tuscanicus from Tuscus. (Niebuhr's Rom. Hist., vol. 1, p. 56, 2d ed., Cambridge transl.)

he obtained A.D. 379. The question has been often started, whether Ausonius was a Christian or not. Some have doubted the circumstance on account of the extreme licentiousness of certain of his productions. It is difficult, however, to deny the affirmative of this question without attacking the authenticity of some of his pieces, such as, for example, his first Idyl: besides, how can we imagine that so zealous a Christian as Valentinian would have confided to a pagan the education of his son? As to the licentious character of some of his poetry, it may be remarked, that, in professing the prevailing religion of the day, he omitted, perhaps, to follow its purer precepts, and hence indulged in effusions revolting to morality and decency. The frequent use which he makes of the pagan mythology in his writings does not prove anything against his observance of Christianity, since the spirit of the times allowed this absurd mixture of fable with truth.-The exact time when Ausonius died AUSAR, a river of Etruria, which formerly joined is uncertain; he was alive in 392.-The poetry of the Arnus, not far from the mouth of the latter. At Ausonius, on the whole, like that of Avienus, is markpresent they both flow into the sea by separate chan- ed by poverty of argument, profusion of mechanical nels. Some indication of the junction of these rivers ingenuity, and imitation of, or, rather, compilation from, seems preserved by the name of Osari, attached to a the ancients. It is valuable, however, to the literary little stream or ditch which lies between them. (Cra- historian: its variety alone affords us a considerable mer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 174.) insight into the state of poetry in that age; and the station and pursuits of the author allowed him that familiarity with contemporary poets which has imparted to his works the character of poetical memoirs.Of the editions of Ausonius, the best, although a very rare one, is that of Tollius, Amst., 1671, 8vo. It contains the learned commentary of Joseph Scaliger, together with selected notes from Accursius, Barthius, Gronovius, Grævius, and others. The Delphin edition is also held in considerable estimation. The Bipont edition, published in 1783, 8vo, is a useful and correct one. (Bahr, Gesch. Rom. Lit., vol. 1, p. 304, seqq.-Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 3, p. 52.-Encyclop. Metropol., Div. 3, vol. 2, p. 576, seq.)

AUSCHISE, a people of Libya. (Herodot., 4, 171.) They extended from above Barca to the neighbourhood of the Hesperides. (Compare Rennell's Geography of Herodotus, vol. 2, p. 266.)

Ausci, a people of Gallia Aquitania. Their capital was Ausci, now Ausch, on the Ger, one of the southern branches of the Garumna or Garonne. Its earlier name was Climberris or Climberrum. (Cæs., B. G., 3, 27.-Mela, 3, 2.-Amm. Marc., 15, 28.)

AUSON, a son of Ulysses and Calypso, from whom the Ausones, a people of Italy, were fabled to have been descended. (Vid. Ausonia.)

AUSONIA, a name properly applied to the whole southern part of Italy, through which the Ausones, one of the ancient races of Italy, had spread themselves. Its derivation from Auson, son of Ulysses and Calypso, is a mere fable. The sea on the southeast coast was for a long time called from them Mare Ausonium. Niebuhr makes the Ausonians a portion of the great Oscan nation. (Rom. Hist., vol. 1, p. 56, 2d ed., Cambridge transl.)

AUSONIUS (Decius, or, more correctly, Decimus, Magnus), a Roman poet of the fourth century. The most authentic particulars respecting him are to be found in his own writings, and more especially in the second volume of his Præfatiuncula, wherein he treats the subject professedly. He was born at Burdigala (Bourdeaux), where his father, Julius Ausonius, was an eminent physician, and also a Roman senator and member of the Municipal Council. Had his education been solely confided to paternal attentions, it is probable that no record of him would have been necessary among the Latin poets, since the elder Ausonius, although well read in Greek, was but indifferently acquainted with the Latin tongue. By the exertions, however, of his maternal uncle, Æmilius Magnus Arborius, himself a poet, and the reputed author of an elegy still extant, "Ad nympham nimis cultam," and those of the grammarians Minervius, Nepotian, and Staphylus, the disadvantages of our poet's circumstances were abundantly removed. From these eminent men he acquired the principles of grammar and rhetoric. His success in the latter of these studies induced him to make trial of the bar; but the former was his choice, and in A.D. 367 he was appointed by the Emperor Valentinian tutor to the young prince Gratian, whom he accompanied into Germany the following year. He became successively Count of the empire, quæstor, governor of Gaul, Libya, and Latium, and first consul. The last of these dignities

AUSPICES, a sacerdotal order at Rome, nearly the same as the augurs. Auspex (the nom. sing.) denoted a person who observed and interpreted omens, especially those connected with the flight, the sounds, and the feeding of birds; and hence the term is said to be derived from avis, "a bird," and specio, "to behold" or

observe," the earlier form of the word having been avispex. In later times, when the custom of consulting the auspices on every occasion lost much of its strictness, the term auspex acquired a more general signification. Before this, the name was particularly applied to the priest who officiated at marriages; but now, those employed to witness the signing of the marriage contract, and to see that everything was rightly performed, were called auspices nuptiarum, otherwise proxenete, conciliatores, and pronubi, in Greek maрavúμoio. (Valerius Maximus, 2, 1, 1.— Cicero, de Divin., 1, 16.. Suetonius, Claud., 26.Servius, ad Æn., 1, 350, et 4, 45.-Buleng., de Aug. et Ausp., 3, 13.) Hence auspex is put for a favourer or director; thus, auspex legis, "one who advocates a law;" diis auspicibus, "under the guidance of the gods;" auspice musa, "under the inspiration of the muse," &c. (Consult remarks under the article AuGURES.)

AUSTER, the South wind, the same with the Notos of the Greeks. Pliny (2, 48) speaks of it as a drying, withering wind, identifying it, therefore, with the Sirocco of modern times. Aristotle (Probl, 1, 23) ascribes to its influence burning fevers. Horace (Serm., 2, 6, 18) calls it "plumbeus Auster," thus characterizing it as unhealthy; and, on another occasion, he speaks of it in plainer language, as “nocens corporibus." (Od., 2, 14, 15.) Statius describes the roses as dying at its first approach, " Pubentesve rosa primos moriuntur_ad_Austros." (Sylv., 3, 3, 129.– Compare Virg., Eclog., 2, 58.) Pliny recommends

66

BAB

of the original became more and more obscured, until a single apologue alone, that of the swallow and nightingale, bore marks of a versified fable. This piece found its way into a collection of fables attributed to Ignatius Magister, a priest of Constantinople, who, being in possession of a copy of the original fables of Babrius, in choliambic verse, as that author had written them, resolved to change them into iambic tertrastics. With this view he abridged and tortured each apologue until he succeeded in reducing them Fifty-three fables were individually to four verses. thus strangled; but as if Ignatius had wished, by means of a comparison, to augment our regrets for those which he had altered, he preserved entire and unchanged a single fable, the one to which we have alluded. At the period when the Greek authors began to be printed, the true collection of Babrius no longer existed it was thought, however, that the collection of Ignatius was the original one, and hence it was published under the name of Babrius, or rather Gabrias, the B in the manuscripts being confounded with a Tyviai), or 300 feet, for the height. An anonymous The error of the name was only perceived about the close of the sixteenth century. Two English scholars, the celebrated Bentley, in his dissertation on Esop, and, at a later period, Tyrwhitt, in his dissertation on Babrius (Lond., 1776, 8vo), have avenged the memory of the poet, and dissipated much of the obscurity which hung over this portion of literary history. The latter of these two scholars reunited all the fragments of Babrius to be found in Suidas, as well as all those which were to be met with in other works. In this way he succeeded in recomposing four of the fables of Babrius, so that their number now amounted in all to five. Thirty-three years afterward (1809) De Furia published many fables of Æsop, up to that time inedited. In the number of these were thirty-six, which he believed to be written in prose like the rest, and which he printed as prose compositions; they were, in reality, however, versified fables, and a few corrections sufficed to restore them to their primitive form. This service has been rendered by Coray, in his collection of Esop's Fables; by J. G. Schneider, at the end of his edition of Esop, from the Augustan MS.; by Berger, in an edition of the remains of Babrius, published at Munich in 1816; by Mr. G. Burges, in the Classical Journal (whose collection, however, is unfinished); by the present Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield), in the third number of the Museum Criticum; and by an anonymous writer in the second number of the Cambridge Philological Museum. (Schöll, Hist. Lat. Gr., vol. 4, p. 61, seq.-Cambridge Philol. Mus., n. 2, p. 282, seq.)

BABYLON, I. a celebrated city, the capital of the Babylonian empire, situate on the Euphrates, in 32° 25' north latitude, and 44° east longitude, as is supposed. Its origin is lost in the obscurity of early times. It is remarkable enough that Herodotus should have given us no intimation respecting its founder; he merely informs us that Semiramis and Nitocris, two of its queens, strengthened the fortifications, and guarded the city against inundations of the river, as well as improved and adorned it. May we not conclude from this, asks Rennell (Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 442), that its antiquity was very great; and ascended so high that Herodotus could not satisfy himself concerning it! At the same time, adds this intelligent writer, the improvements that took place in the city in the reign of Semiramis, might occasion the original foundation to be ascribed to her; the like having happened in the history of other cities. Herodotus informs us (1, 178), that Babylon became the capital of Assyria after the destruction of Nineveh. Perhaps, then, we ought to date the foundation of those works which appear so stupendous in history from that period only: for, wonderful as these works appear, even when ascribed to the capital of an em

pire, the wonder increases when ascribed to the capital
of a province only. If, then, with the ancient authors
generally, we allow Semiramis to have been the found-
ress of that Babylon described by Herodotus, we can-
not fix the date of the improved foundation beyond the
eighth century before the Christian era: so that the
duration of this city, in its improved form, was less
than 800 years, reckoning to the time of Pliny. (Ren-
nell, Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 443, seqq.)—
The shape of the city of Babylon was that of a square,
traversed each way by twenty-five principal streets,
which, of course, intersected each other, dividing the
city into 625 squares. These streets were terminated
at each end by gates of brass, of prodigious size and
strength, with a smaller one opening towards the river.
Respecting the height and thickness of the walls of
Babylon, there are great variations among the ancient
writers. Herodotus makes them 200 royal cubits, or
337 feet 8 inches high, and 50 royal cubits, or 84
feet 6 inches broad. Ctesias gives 50 fathoms (op-
writer in Diodorus Siculus makes the height 50 com-
mon cubits, or 75 feet, and this estimate is followed
by Strabo and Quintus Curtius. Pliny gives 200
feet, and Orosius 200 common cubits, or 300 feet
Curtius, 5, 1. Pliny
(Herod., 1, 178.- Ctesias, p. 402, rd. Baehr. - Diod
In this statement, Ctesia:
Sic., 2, 7.- Strabo, 738.
6, 26. Orosius, 2, 6.)
evidently copies from Herodotus, since fifty fathoms
make exactly 200 cubits; only he appears not to have
perceived that royal cubits were meant by the latter
It is also clear, that the anonymous writer mentioned
by Diodorus Siculus, as well as Strabo and Quintus
Curtius, had Ctesias respectively in view, but that,
startled at the number of 50 fathoms, they have re-
duced it to the number of 50 cubits. The number
200, employed by Pliny, proves that he had consulted
Herodotus merely; but that, through inadvertence on
Orosius follows Herodotus,
his part, or through the fault of later copyists, feet are
substituted for cubits.
but, forgetting that the latter speaks of royal cubits,
he contents himself with giving 200 common cubits.
(Larcher, ad Herodot., 1, 178.) But are we to receive
the estimate of Herodotus as correct, and entitled to
full belief? Evidently not: the measurement is in
credible, and bears on its very front the impress of
gross exaggeration. A difficulty also presents itself
with regard to the extent of the walls of Babylon.
Herodotus makes them 120 stadia each side, or 480 in
circumference. Pliny and Solinus give the circuit at
60 Roman miles; which, reckoning eight stadia to a
mile, agrees with the account of Herodotus. Strabo
makes it 385 stadia. Diodorus, from Ctesias, assigns
360, but from Clitarchus, who accompanied Alexander,
Curtius gives 368. It appears highly probable,
365.
remarks Rennell (Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p.
447), that 360 or 365 was the true statement of the
circumference, since one of these numbers was report-
ed by Ctesias, the other (which differs so little) by
Clitarchus, both of them eyewitnesses. Taking the
circumference of Babylon at 365 stadia, and these at
491 feet, each side of the square (which is equal to
914 stadia) will be 8.485 British miles, or nearly 8.
This gives an area of 72 miles and an inconsiderable
And, finally,
fraction. If the same number of stadia be taken at
500 feet each, the area will be 74.8.
the 385 stadia of Strabo, at 491 feet, about 80. The
But that
480 stadia of Herodotus would give about 126 square
miles, or eight times the area of London!
even 72 contiguous square miles should have been in
any degree covered with buildings, is on every account
too improbable for belief. This famous city, in all
likelihood, occupied a part only of the vast space en-
closed by its walls. It is a question that no one can
positively answer, "what proportion of the space was
occupied?" It is possible, however, that nearly two

245

thirds of it might have been occupied in the mode in curious hunting-piece, in which Semiramis on horse which the large cities of Asia are built; that is, in the back was throwing her javelin at a leopard, and her style of some of those of India at the present day, hav- husband Ninus piercing a lion. In this last palace ing gardens, reservoirs of water, and large open places were the hanging gardens, so celebrated among the within them. Moreover, the houses of the common Greeks. They contained a square of 400 feet on people consist of one floor only; so that, of course, every side, and were carried up in the manner of sevfewer people can be accommodated in the same com- eral large terraces, one above another, till the height pass of ground in an Indian than in a European city. equalled that of the walls of the city. The ascent was This accounts at once for the erroneous dimensions from terrace to terrace by stairs ten feet wide. The of some of the Asiatic cities; and perhaps we cannot whole pile was sustained by vast arches raised upon allow much less than double the space to accommo- other arches, one above another, and strengthened by date the same number of Asiatics that Europeans a wall, surrounding it on every side, of twenty-two would require That the area enclosed by the walls feet in thickness. On the top of the arches were first of Babylon was only partly built on, is proved by the laid large flat stones, sixteen feet long and four broad; words of Quintus Curtius (5, 4), who says, that "the over these was a layer of reeds, mixed with a great buildings in Babylon are not contiguous to the walls, quantity of bitumen, upon which were two rows of but some considerable space was left all around." bricks closely cemented together. The whole was Diodorus, moreover, describes a vast space taken up covered with thick sheets of lead, upon which lay the by the palaces and public buildings. The enclosure mould of the garden. And all this floorage was conof one of the palaces was a square of 15 stadia, or trived to keep the moisture of the mould from running near a mile and a half; the other of five stadia: here away through the arches. The earth laid thereon was are more than 24 square miles occupied by the palaces so deep that large trees might take root in it; and with alone. Besides these, there were the temple and such the terraces were covered, as well as with all tower of Belus, of vast extent; the hanging gardens, other plants and flowers that were proper to adorn a &c. From all this, and much more that might be ad- pleasure-garden. In the upper terrace there was an duced, we may collect most clearly, that much vacant engine, or kind of pump, by which water was drawn space remained within the walls of Babylon: and this up out of the river, and from thence the whole garden would seem to do away, in some degree, the great dif- was watered. In the spaces between the several ficulty respecting the magnitude of the city itself. arches upon which this whole structure rested, were Nor is it stated as the effect of the subsequent decline large and magnificent apartments, that were very light, of Babylon, but as the actual state of it, when Alex- and had the advantage of a beautiful prospect. Amyitis, ander first entered the place: for Curtius leaves us the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, having been bred in Meto understand, that the system of cultivating a large dia (for she was the daughter of Astyages, the king of proportion of the enclosed space originated with the that country), desired to have something in imitation foundation itself; and the history of its two sicges, by of her native hills and forests; and the monarch, in Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis, seems to show it. (Ren- order to gratify her, is said to have raised this prodinell's Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 447.)-The gious structure.-Babylon was probably in the zenith walls of Babylon were built of brick baked in the sun, of its glory and dominion just before the death of Nebcemented with bitumen instead of mortar, and were uchadnezzar. The spoils of Nineveh, Jerusalem, and encompassed by a broad and deep ditch, lined with Egypt had enriched it; its armies had swept like a the same materials, as were also the banks of the river torrent over the finest countries of the East, and had in its course through the city, the inhabitants descend- at this time no longer an enemy to contend with; the ing to the water by steps through the smaller brass arts and sciences, driven from Phoenicia and Egypt, gates already mentioned. Over the river was a bridge, were centred here; and hither the philosophers of the connecting the two halves of the city, which stood, West came to imbibe instruction. The fall of Babylon, the one on its eastern, the other on its western bank; before the victorious arms of Cyrus, occurred B.C. the river running nearly north and south. The bridge 538. The height and strength of the walls had long was five furlongs in length, and thirty feet in breadth, baffled every effort of the invader. Having underand had a palace at each end, with, it is said, a sub- stood at length, that on a certain day, then near apterranean passage beneath the river from one to the proaching, a great annual festival was to be kept at other, the work of Semiramis. Within the city was Babylon, when it was customary for the Babylonians the temple of Belus, or Jupiter, which Herodotus de- to spend the night in revelling and drunkenness, he scribes as a square of two stadia: in the midst of this thought this a fit opportunity for executing a scheme arose the celebrated tower, to which both the same which he had planned. This was no other than to writer and Strabo give an elevation of one stadium, surprise the city by turning the course of the river; a and the same measure at its base. The whole was di- mode of capture of which the Babylonians, who lookvided into eight separate towers, one above another, ed upon the river as one of their greatest protections, of decreasing dimensions to the summit; where stood had not the smallest apprehension. Accordingly, on a chapel, containing a couch, table, and other things, the night of the feast, he sent a party of his men to of gold. Here the principal devotions were perform- the head of the canal, which led to the great lake made ed; and over this, on the highest platform of all, was by Nebuchadnezzar to receive the waters of the Euthe observatory, by the help of which the Babylonians phrates while he was facing the banks of the river with are said to have attained to great skill in astronomy. walls of brick and bitumen. This party had directions, A winding staircase on the outside formed the ascent as soon as it was dark, to commerce breaking down to this stupendous edifice-The two palaces, at the the great bank or dam which kept the waters of the two ends of the bridge, have already been alluded to. river in their place, and separated them from the canal The old palace, which stood on the cast side of the above mentioned; while Cyrus, in the mean time, diriver, was 30 furlongs (or three miles and three quar-viding the rest of his army, stationed one part at the ters) in compass. The new palace, which stood on the west side of the river, opposite to the other, was 60 furlongs (or seven miles and a half) in compass. It was surrounded with three walls, one within another, with considerable spaces between them. These walls, as also those of the other palace, were embellished with an infinite variety of sculptures, representing all kinds of animals to the life. Among the rest was a

place where the river entered the city, and the other where it came out, with orders to enter the channel of the river as soon as they should find it fordable. This happened by midnight; for, by cutting down the bank leading to the great lake, and making besides openings into the trenches, which, in the course of the two years' siege, had been dug round the city, the river was so drained of its water that it became nearly dry. When

BABYLON.

the army of Cyrus entered the channel from their re- | his rivals to pay much attention to Babylon; which, But what completed its downfall was the spective stations on each side of the city, they rushed still labouring under accumulated evils, continued to onward towards the centre of the place; and finding the decline. gates leading towards the river left open, in the drunk- building of Seleucia by Seleucus, about 40 miles disenness and negligence of the night, they entered them, tant, on a spot more favourable for commercial interand met by concert at the palace before any alarm had course; the restoration of Babylon to its ancient natbeen given: here the guards, partaking, no doubt, in ural advantages appearing perhaps hopeless. This, the negligence and disorder of the night, were sur- together with the removal of the court, soon exprised and killed. While all this was going on with- hausted Babylon of the little that remained of its out, a remarkable scene of widely different character ancient trade and population. It never after reviwas transacting within. Daniel was deciphering the ved, but continued, through each succeeding age, to writing on the wall; and, soon after, the soldiers of make farther advances in its progress of depopulation It will be interesting Cyrus, having killed the guard, and meeting with no re- and decay, until nothing but the ruins of this once sistance, advanced towards the banqueting-hall, where famous city were to be found. they encountered Belshazzar, the ill-fated monarch, to trace the successive accounts of those who have and slew him, with his armed followers.-Babylon had made mention of Babylon during this latter period: The first of these is Diodorus Siculus, suffered much when carried by the troops of Cyrus; that is, from the building of Seleucia to its entire debut other sufferings were to come. Cyrus having es- struction. tablished his court at Susa, Babylon, formerly the seat who wrote about 45 years before the Christian era. of empire, was thus reduced to the rank of a provin- He relates, that Babylon having fallen into the hands cial city; and the inhabitants, who, grown wealthy of the Parthians, the temples were burned; much of and proud during their empire over the East, could ill the remaining part of the city demolished; and many brook this change of fortune, resolved to make an ef- of the inhabitants sold into slavery. This was about fort towards regaining their former power and gran- 130 B.C.: and, in his own time, 85 years after, he deur. Accordingly, in the fifth year of Darius Hys- says, that the public buildings were destroyed or falltaspis, and twelve years after the death of Cyrus, hav-en to decay; that a very small part of the city was ing for several years covertly laid in great stores of inhabited; and that the greater part of the space withprovisions, and every necessary, they openly revolted; in the walls was tilled. Strabo, who wrote about 70 which, as they might have expected, soon brought years after Diodorus, says, that the city was nearupon them the armies of Darius. The city a second ly deserted; and that the same might be applied to it Quintus time was taken by stratagem (vid. Zopyrus), and Da- which was said of Megalopolis in Arcadia, that the rius, when he again became possessed of it, gave it great city was becoming a great desert. He impaled 3000 Curtius, the next in order, and who wrote about 60 up to the plunder of his soldiers. of those who were supposed to have been most active A.D., is cited by Dr. Wells to show that Babylon "was lessened a fourth part in his time;" who imin the revolt; took away the gates, and pulled down the walls to the height of fifty cubits. During the re- mediately after says, that it was reduced to desolation mainder of the reign of Darius, Babylon continued in in the time of Pliny. Now, besides that this account much the same state in which it was left after the of Quintus Curtius is perfectly inconsistent with presiege. But in the succeeding reign another blow was ceding ones, the city must have undergone a prodistruck towards her downfall. Xerxes, in his return gious decline, and that without any assignable cause, from his Grecian expedition, partly to indemnify him- in the short space of 20 years, which was about the self for his losses, and partly out of zeal for the Ma- time that intervened between Curtius and Pliny. The gian religion, which held every kind of image-worship truth is, that Dr. Wells has mistaken the period rein abhorrence, destroyed the temples and plundered ferred to by Quintus Curtius, which was that of the them of their vast wealth, which appears to have been arrival of Alexander at Babylon, whose history he hitherto spared, and which must have been indeed pro- was writing, for that in which the historian himself digious; that in the temple of Belus alone amounting, lived. Pliny, who lived, as we have seen, about 20 decayed, unaccording to Diodorus, to above 6000 talents of gold, years after Quintus Curtius, and 70 after Christ, deFrom this time may be or about 21 millions sterling. From this period, Bab- clares, that Babylon was at that time ylon, despoiled of her wealth, her strength, and her peopled, and lying waste." various resources, was in no condition for any more said to have commenced the ruin of the ruins; which revolts; and it is reasonable to suppose, that, with has been so complete, that they are with difficulty the decay of her power and local advantages, the pop- traced; and, indeed, their exact position has become a ulation also must decline. We hear, in fact, no more matter of learned dispute. Pausanias, about the midof Babylon until the coming of Alexander, 150 years dle of the second century, says, that of Babylon, the after; when the terror of his name, or the weakness greatest city the sun ever saw, there was remaining of the place, was such, that it made not the slightest but the walls. And Lucian, about the end of the pretensions to resistance. Alexander, after a short same century, says, that in a little time it would be visit to Babylon, proceeded on his expedition to In- sought for, and not be found, like Nineveh. Jerome, dia; and, at his return from thence, finding Babylon in the fourth century, gives the account of a monk, at more suitable in its situation and resources for the that time living in Jerusalem, who had been at Babycapital of his empire than any other place in the East, lon, and who says that the space occupied by the city was converted into a chase for wild beasts, for the he resolved to fix his residence there, and to restore Among more recent travelit to its former strength and magnificence. For this kings of Persia to hunt in; the walls having been repurpose, having examined the breach which Cyrus paired for that purpose. had made in the river, and the possibility of bringing lers, the best accounts of the ruins of Babylon are it back to its former channel through the city, he em- given by Kinneir, Rich, Porter, and Buckingham ployed 10,000 men in the work, and, at the same The ancient city is supposed to have been situated in time, an equal number in rebuilding the temple of Be- what is now the Turkish pachalic of Bagdad, near the lus. An entire stop, however, was put to these great village of Hill or Hella, on the Euphrates. Ruins of undertakings by the death of Alexander, who here various kinds are found for many miles around this Of these, one of the most interesting is that terminated together his mighty projects and his life. place. After the death of Alexander, Babylon and the East which is thought to be the remains of the tower of fell to the lot of Seleucus, one of the generals who Belus. Mr. Rich, after refuting the opinion of RenSeleucus, for sev- nell, who places it on the eastern side of the river, divided his empire among them. 247 eral years, was too much engaged in contention with gives the following account of this stupendous ruin,