The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [113]
13. The city wall was brought down on both sides to the edge of the stream: thence, from the corners of the wall, there was carried along each bank of the river a fence of burnt bricks.
14. The houses were mostly three and four stories high; the streets all ran in straight lines, not only those parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which led down to the waterside.
15. At the river end of these cross streets were low gates in the fence that skirted the stream, which were, like the great gates in the outer wall, of brass, and opened on the water.
16. The outer wall was the main defence of the city. There was, however, a second, inner wall, of less thickness than the first, but very little inferior to it in strength.
17. The palace of the kings was surrounded by a wall of great strength and size, with gates of solid brass.
18. In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which stood a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight.
19. The ascent to the top was on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. About halfway up one found seats, so that one could rest on one’s way to the summit.
20. Many sovereigns have ruled over Babylon, and lent their aid to the building of its walls and the adornment of its beauties.
21. Among them two were women. Of these, the earlier, called Semiramis, held the throne five generations before the later princess.
22. She raised embankments in the plain near Babylon to control the river, which till then used to overflow and flood the whole country round about.
23. The later of the two queens, whose name was Nitocris, a wiser princess than her predecessor, not only left behind her great works of building which enhanced the city, but also a cunning defence against interference from the Medes.
24. Observing the great power and restless enterprise of the Medes, who had taken so large a number of cities, and among them Nineveh,
25. And expecting to be attacked in her turn, Nitocris made all possible exertions to increase the defences of her empire.
26. And first, whereas the River Euphrates, which traverses the city, formerly ran with a straight course to Babylon,
27. She, by certain excavations at a distance upstream, rendered it so winding that it comes three times within view of the same village in Assyria called Ardericea;
28. And to this day those who go from the Mediterranean coast to Babylon, having reached the Euphrates to sail down it, touch three times on three different days at this very place.
29. Nitocris also made an embankment along each side of the river, wonderful both for breadth and height,
30. And dug a basin for a lake a great way above Babylon, close alongside the stream, which was sunk everywhere to the point where they came to water,
31. And was of such breadth that the whole circuit measured four hundred and twenty furlongs.
32. When the excavation was finished, Nitocris had stones brought, and bordered the entire margin of the reservoir with them.
33. These two things were done, the river made to wind and the lake excavated, so that the stream might be slacker by reason of the number of curves,
34. 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.
35. All these works were on that side of Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads into Media were the straightest,
36. 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 ignorant of her affairs.
Chapter 19
1. The expedition of Cyrus was undertaken against the son of this princess, who bore the same name as his father, Labynetus, and was king of the Assyrians.
2. Cyrus introduced the policy whereby the Persian kings, when they go to war, are always supplied with provisions carefully prepared at home, and with cattle of their own.
3. Water too from the River Choaspes, which flows by Susa, is taken with them for their