star above her head, standing in a chariot drawn by | Latium, and first consul. The last of these dignities winged horses, while in one hand she holds a torch, he obtained A.D. 379 The question has been often and with the other scatters roses, as illustrative of the started, whether Ausonius was a Christian or not. flowers springing from the dew, which the poets de- Some have doubted the circumstance on account of scribe as diffused from the eyes of the goddess in liquid the extreme licentiousness of certain of his producpearls. (Compare Inghirami, Mon. Etrusc., 1, 5.-tions. It is difficult, however, to deny the affirmative Millin, Vases de Canosa, 5. Vases, 1, 15.-Id. ibid., 2, 37.-Eckhel, Syll., 7, 3.-Müller, Archæol. der Kunst, p. 611.) 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 AURUNCI, a people of Latium, on the coast towards Christian as Valentinian would have confided to a Campania, southeast of the Volsci. They were, in pagan the education of his son? As to the licentious fact, identical with the Ausonians. The Italian form character of some of his poetry, it may be remarked, of the name Ausones can have been no other than that, in professing the prevailing religion of the day, he Aurini, for from this Aurunci is manifestly derived. omitted, perhaps, to follow its purer precepts, and Auruncus is Aurunicus; the termination belongs to hence indulged in effusions revolting to morality and the number of adjective-forms in which the old Latin decency. The frequent use which he makes of the luxuriated, so as even to form Tuscanicus from Tuscus. pagan mythology in his writings does not prove any(Niebuhr's Rom. Hist., vol. 1, p. 56, 2d ed., Cam-thing against his observance of Christianity, since the bridge transl.) spirit of the times allowed this absurd mixture of faAUSAR, a river of Etruria, which formerly joined ble with truth.-The exact time when Ausonius died the Arnus, not far from the mouth of the latter. At is uncertain; he was alive in 392.-The poetry of present they both flow into the sea by separate chan- Ausonius, on the whole, like that of Avienus, is marknels. Some indication of the junction of these riversed by poverty of argument, profusion of mechanical seems preserved by the name of Osari, attached to a little stream or ditch which lies between them. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 174.) AUSCHIS, 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.) ingenuity, and imitation of, or, rather, compilation from, the ancients. It is valuable, however, to the literary historian: its variety alone affords us a considerable 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. Ausci, a people of Gallia Aquitania. Their capital Of the editions of Ausonius, the best, although a very was Ausci, now Ausch, on the Ger, one of the south-rare one, is that of Tollius, Amst., 1671, 8vo. It conern 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.) tains 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. (Bähr, Gesch. Röm. Lit., vol. 1, p. 304, seqq.—Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 3, p. 52.—Encyclop. Metropol., Div. 3, vol. 2, p. 576, seq.) 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 them- AUSPICES, a sacerdotal order at Rome, nearly the selves. Its derivation from Auson, son of Ulysses same as the augurs. Auspex (the nom. sing.) denoand Calypso, is a mere fable. The sea on the south-ted a person who observed and interpreted omens, east 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.) 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 havAUSONIUS (Decius, or, more correctly, Decimus, ing been avisper. In later times, when the custom Magnus), a Roman poet of the fourth century. The of consulting the auspices on every occasion lost much most authentic particulars respecting him are to be of its strictness, the term auspex acquired a more genfound in his own writings, and more especially in the eral signification. Before this, the name was particusecond volume of his Præfatiuncula, wherein he treats larly applied to the priest who officiated at marriages; the subject professedly. He was born at Burdigala but now, those employed to witness the signing of (Bourdeaux), where his father, Julius Ausonius, was the marriage contract, and to see that everything was an eminent physician, and also a Roman senator and rightly performed, were called auspices nuptiarum, member of the Municipal Council. Had his educa- otherwise proxeneta, conciliatores, and pronubi, in tion been solely confided to paternal attentions, it is Greek apaviμpio. (Val. Max., 2, 1, 1.-Cic., de probable that no record of him would have been ne- Divin., 1, 16.-Sueton., Claud., 26.-Serv., ad Æn., cessary among the Latin poets, since the elder Auso- 1, 350, et 4, 45.-Buleng., de Aug. et Ausp., 3, 13.) nius, although well read in Greek, was but indiffer- Hence auspex is put for a favourer or director; thus, ently acquainted with the Latin tongue. By the ex-auspex legis, "one who advocates a law;" diis ausertions, however, of his maternal uncle, Emilius 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 picibus, "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 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.- 66 nocens Compare Virg., Eclog., 2, 58.) Pliny recommends AZAN, I. a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Cybele. (Stat., Theb., 4, 292.)-II. A son of Arcas, king of Arcadia, by Erato, one of the Dryades. He divided his father's kingdom with his brothers Aphidas and Elatus, and called his share Azania. There was in Azania a fountain called Clitorius, whose waters gave a dislike for wine to those who drank them. (Vitruv., 8, 3.-Ovid, Met., 15, 322.-Pausan., 8, 4.-Plin., 21, 2.-Etymol. Mag., s. v. Kλiтópiov.)—III. A region on the northeastern coast of Africa, lying south of Aromatum Promontorium and north of Barbaria. It is now Ajan. (Ptol.-Arrian, Peripl. Mar. Erythr. AUTOCHTHONES, an appellation assumed by the Athenians, importing that they sprang from the soil which they inhabited. (Consult remarks under the article ATTICA.) AUTOLŎLE, & people of Africa, on the western or Atlantic coast of Mauritania Tingitana. (Plin., 6, 31.-Lucan, Pharsal., 4, 677.—Sil. Ital., 2, 63.) AUTOLYCUS, Son of Mercury and Philonis, according to the scholiast on Homer (Od., 19, 432), but, according to Pausanias (8, 4), the son of Dædalion, and not of Mercury. He dwelt on Parnassus, and was celebrated as a stealer of cattle, which he carried off in such a way as to render it nearly impossible to recognise them, all the marks being defaced. Among others, he drove off those of Sisyphus, and he defaced the marks as usual; but, when Sisyphus came in quest of them, he, to the great surprise of the thief, selected his own beasts out of the herd, for he had marked the initial letter of his name under their hoofs. (The ancient form of the Σ was C, which is of the shape of a horse's hoof) Autolycus forthwith cultivated the acquaintance of one who had thus proved himself too able for him; and Sisyphus, it is said, seduced or violated his daughter Anticlea (who afterward married Laertes), and thus was the real father of Ulysses. (Pherecyd., ap. Schol. ad Od., 19, 432.-Schol. ad ll., 10, 267. -Tzetz. ad Lycophr., 344.-Keightley's Mythology, p. 400.) AUTOMEDON, a son of Dioreus, who went to the Trojan war with ten ships. He was the charioteer of Achilles, after whose death he served Pyrrhus in the same capacity. (Hom., Il., 9, 16, &c.-Virg., En., 2, 477.) AZIRIS, a place in Libya, surrounded on both sides by delightful hills covered with trees, and watered by a river, where Battus built a town, previous to founding Cyrene. (Herod., 4, 157.) Ptolemy calls the place Axylis. The harbour of Azaris, mentioned by Synesius (c. 4), appears to coincide with this same place. Pacho thinks, that the Aziris of Herodotus coincides with the modern Temminch. (Voyage, &c., |p. 50, seqq.) Azōrus (the Asdod of Scripture), one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, and, at the same time, one of the oldest and most celebrated cities of the land. The god Dagon was worshipped here. It lay on the seacoast, and in the division of the country among the Israelites, it fell to the tribe of Judah, but was not conquered until the reign of Solomon. In the time of King Hezekiah it was taken by the Assyrians, and subsequently by Psammetichus, king of Egypt, after a siege of twenty-nine years. (Herod., 2, 157.) At a later period Azotus became the seat of a Christian bishop. The ruins of the ancient city are near a small village called Esdud. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 6, pt. 1, p. 261, seq.) B. All BABRIUS or BABRIAS (or, as the name is sometimes corrupted, GABRIAS), a Greek poet, who lived, according to Tyrwhitt, either under Augustus or a short time before that emperor; while Coray, on the other hand, makes him a contemporary of Bion and Moschus. The particulars of his life have not reached us. that we know of him is, that, after the example of Socrates, who, while in prison, amused himself with verAUTONOE, a daughter of Cadmus, who married sifying the fables of Esop, Babrius published a colAristaus, by whom she had Acteon, often called Au-lection of fables under the title of poor or pvbíaμboi; toncius heros. The death of her son (vid. Acteon) was so painful to her that she retired from Boeotia to Megara, where she soon after died. (Pausan., 1, 44. -Hygin., fab., 179.—Ovid, Met., 3, 720.) AUTRIGONES, a people of Hispania Tarraconensis, among the Cantabri. They occupied what is now the eastern half of La Montana, the western quarter of Biscay and Alava, and the northeastern part of Burgos. Their capital was Flaviobriga, now Porto Gallete, near Bilboa. (Florez, Esp. S., 24, 10.Ukert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 446.) Mannert, however, makes it to be Santander. (Geogr., vol. 1, p. 373.) AXENUS, the ancient name of the Euxine Sea. The word signifies inhospitable, which was highly applicable to the manners of the ancient inhabitants of the coast. It took the name of Euxinus after the coast was settled by Grecian colonies. (Vid. Pontus Euxinus.) AxIUS, the largest river in Macedonia, rising in the chain of Mount Scardus, and, after a course of eighty miles, forming an extensive lake near its mouth. It falls into the Sinus Thermaicus, after receiving the waters of the Erigonus, Ludias, and Astræus. In the middle ages this river assumed the name of Bardarus (Theophylact., Epist., 55.-Niceph. Greg., vol. 1, p. 230), whence has been derived that of Vardari or Vardar, which it now bears. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 1, p. 235.) from which the fables of Phædrus are closely imitated. They were written in choliambics, and comprised in ten books, according to Suidas, or two volumes, according to Avianus. (Av., Præf. Fab.)-These two accounts are not at variance with each other, as the books were doubtless divisions made by the author, like the books of Phædrus, perhaps with an appropriate introduction to each; while the "volumina" of Avianus were probably rolls of parchment or papyrus, on which the ten books were written. It may be farther observed, that Avianus calls the books of Phædrus libelli, and not volumina. In this manner may be explained the statement of Pliny (8, 16), that Aristotle's writings on Natural History were contained in nearly fifty volumina. (Compare Menage, ad Diog. Laert., 5, 25.) This collection threw all preceding ones into comparative obscurity. It appears to have been still in existence as late as the twelfth century, in the days of Tzetzes: the copyists, however, of succeeding times, little sensible of the charms of the versification which Babrius had adopted, thought they could not do better than convert it into so much prose; and the fragments of verses, which they were unable in this way perfectly to disguise, are all that recalls the original lines which they have spoiled. The collection of Babrius, thus dishonoured, was perpetuated by numerous copies, in which traces of the original became more and more obscured, until | pire, the wonder increases when ascribed to the capital a single apologue alone, that of the swallow and night-of a province only. If, then, with the ancient authors ingale, bore marks of a versified fable. This piece generally, we allow Semiramis to have been the foundfound its way into a collection of fables attributed to ress of that Babylon described by Herodotus, we canIgnatius Magister, a priest of Constantinople, who, not fix the date of the improved foundation beyond the being in possession of a copy of the original fables of eighth century before the Christian era: so that the Babrius, in choliambic verse, as that author had duration of this city, in its improved form, was less written them, resolved to change them into iambic than 800 years, reckoning to the time of Pliny. (Rentertrastics. With this view he abridged and tortured nell, Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 443, seqq.)— each apologue until he succeeded in reducing them The shape of the city of Babylon was that of a square, individually to four verses. Fifty-three fables were traversed each way by twenty-five principal streets, thus strangled; but as if Ignatius had wished, by which, of course, intersected each other, dividing the means of a comparison, to augment our regrets for city into 625 squares. These streets were terminated those which he had altered, he preserved entire and at each end by gates of brass, of prodigious size and unchanged a single fable, the one to which we have al- strength, with a smaller one opening towards the river. luded. At the period when the Greek authors began Respecting the height and thickness of the walls of to be printed, the true collection of Babrius no longer Babylon, there are great variations among the ancient existed it was thought, however, that the collection writers. Herodotus makes them 200 royal cubits, or of Ignatius was the original one, and hence it was pub-337 feet, 8 inches high, and 50 royal cubits, or 84 lished under the name of Babrius, or rather Gabrias, feet, 6 inches broad. Ctesias gives 50 fathoms (opthe B in the manuscripts being confounded with a г.yviai), 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 Æsop, 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 Æsop, 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. Lit. Gr., vol. 4, p. 61, seq.-Cambridge Philol. Mus., n. 2, p. 282, seq.) writer in Diodorus Siculus makes the height 50 common 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. (Herod., 1, 178.-Ctesias, p. 402, ed. Baehr.-Diod. Sic., 2, 7.-Strabo, 738. Curtius, 5, 1.-Pliny, 6, 26.-Orosius, 2, 6.) In this statement, Ctesias evidently copies from Herodotus, since 50 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 reduced 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 his part, or through the fault of later copyists, feet are substituted for cubits. Orosius follows Herodotus, 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 incredible, 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 BABYLON, I. a celebrated city, the capital of the makes it 385 stadia. Diodorus, from Ctesias, assigns Babylonian empire, situate on the Euphrates, in 32° 360, but from Clitarchus, who accompanied Alexander, 25' north latitude, and 44° east longitude, as is sup- 365. Curtius gives 368. It appears highly probable, posed. Its origin is lost in the obscurity of early remarks Rennell (Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. times. It is remarkable enough that Herodotus should 447), that 360 or 365 was the true statement of the have given us no intimation respecting its founder; he circumference, since one of these numbers was reportmerely informs us that Semiramis and Nitocris, two of ed by Ctesias, the other (which differs so little) by its queens, strengthened the fortifications, and guarded Clitarchus, both of them eyewitnesses. Taking the the city against inundations of the river, as well as circumference of Babylon at 365 stadia, and these at improved and adorned it. May we not conclude from 491 feet, each side of the square (which is equal to this, asks Rennell (Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, 914 stadia) will be 8.485 British miles, or nearly 84. P. 442), that its antiquity was very great; and as- This gives an area of 72 miles and an inconsiderable cended so high that Herodotus could not satisfy him-fraction. If the same number of stadia be taken at self 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 500 feet each, the area will be 74.8. And, finally, the 385 stadia of Strabo, at 491 feet, about 80. The 480 stadia of Herodotus would give about 126 square miles, or eight times the area of London! But that 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 enclosed 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 thirds of it might have been occupied in the mode in curious hunting-piece, in which Semiramis on horsewhich 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, morcover, 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 23 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 &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 sieges, 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 to the temple of Belus, or Jupiter, which Herodotus de- 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 commence 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 east 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 furiongs (or seven miles and a half) in compass. It was surrounded with three walls, one within another, with considerable spaces betwen 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 : ex the army of Cyrus entered the channel from their re- his rivals to pay much attention to Babylon; which, 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. But what completed its downfall was the 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 surpri- together with the removal of the court, soon sed and killed. While all this was going on without, hausted Babylon of the little that remained of its a remarkable scene of widely different character was ancient trade and population. It never after revitransacting within. Daniel was deciphering the wri- ved, but continued, through each succeeding age, to ting on the wall; and, soon after, the soldiers of Cy-make farther advances in its progress of depopulation rus, 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. It will be interesting 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: 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. The first of these is Diodorus Siculus, 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 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. Quintus up to the plunder of his soldiers. He impaled 3000 Curtius, the next in order, and who wrote about 60 of those who were supposed to have been most active A.D., is cited by Dr. Wells to show that Babylon in the revolt; took away the gates, and pulled down" was lessened a fourth part in his time;" who imthe 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 according to Diodorus, to above 6000 talents of gold, years after Quintus Curtius, and 70 after Christ, deor about 21 millions sterling. From this period, Bab-clares, that Babylon was at that time decayed, unylon, despoiled of her wealth, her strength, and her peopled, and lying waste." From this time may be 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 he resolved to fix his residence there, and to restore was converted into a chase for wild beasts, for the it 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. Among more recent travelhad 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 terminated together his mighty projects and his life. place. Of these, one of the most interesting is that 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 Rendivided his empire among them. Seleucus, for sev-nell, who places it on the eastern side of the river, eral years, was too much engaged in contention with gives the following account of this stupendous ruin, |