[115] Isaiah xiii. 19, 22; xiv. 23, 24.—It has been well observed by Bishop Newton, that it must afford all readers of an exalted taste and generous sentiments, a very sensible pleasure to hear the prophets exulting over such tyrants and oppressors as the kings of Assyria. "In the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah," continues he, "there is an Epinikion, or a triumphant ode upon the fall of Babylon. It represents the infernal mansions as moved, and the ghosts of deceased tyrants as rising to meet the king of Babylon, and congratulate his coming among them."—"It is really admirable for the severest strokes of irony as well as for the sublimest strains of poetry. The Greek poet Alcæus, who is celebrated for his hatred to tyrants, and whose odes were animated with the spirit of liberty no less than with the spirit of poetry, we may presume to say, never wrote any thing comparable to it."
[116] Partly, not entirely. "Herodotus states that Darius Hystaspes, on the taking of Babylon by the stratagem of Zopyrus, 'levelled the walls and took away the gates, neither of which Cyrus had done.' But let it be remarked that Darius lived a century and a half before Alexander, in whose time the walls appear to have been in the original state; or, at least, nothing is said that implies the contrary; and it cannot be believed, if Darius had taken the trouble to level thirty-four miles of so prodigious a rampart as that of Babylon, that ever it would have been rebuilt in the manner described by Ctesias, Clitarchus, and others, who describe it at a much later period. Besides, it would have been quite unnecessary to level more than a part of the wall; and in this way, probably, the historian ought to be understood."—Rennell.
[117] Herod. Thalia. c. v. ch. ix.
[118] Cyrus; Cambyses; Smerdis Magus; Darius the son of Hystaspes; Xerxes I.; Artaxerxes Longimanus; Xerxes II.; Sogdianus; Darius Nothus; Artaxerxes Mnemon; Artaxerxes Ochus; Arses; and Darius Codomanus.
[119] "Babylon was designed by Alexander to be not only the capital of his empire, but also a great port and naval arsenal. To contain his fleet, he ordered a basin to be excavated, capable of admitting a thousand sail, to which were to be added docks and magazines for stores. The ships of Nearchus, as well as others from Phœnicia, were already arrived. They had been taken to pieces on the Mediterranean coast, and conveyed overland to Thapsacus, where they had been put together, and then navigated down the Euphrates." The object of all this was to enable him to invade Arabia.
[120] Sir John Malcolm says, that many traditions still exist in Persia, in regard to this wonderful person. Amongst others, this:—"The astrologers had foretold, that when Alexander's death was near, he would place his throne where the earth was of iron and the sky of gold. When the hero, fatigued with conquest, directed his march towards Greece, he was one day seized with a bleeding at the nose. A general who was near, unlacing his coat of mail, spread it for his prince to sit on; and, to defend him from the sun, held a golden shield over his head. When Alexander saw himself in this situation, he exclaimed, 'The prediction of the astrologers is accomplished, I no longer belong to the living! Alas! that the work of my youth should be finished! Alas! that the plant of the spring should be cut down like the ripened tree of autumn!' He wrote to his mother, saying, he should shortly quit the earth and pass to the regions of the dead. He requested that the alms given at his death should be bestowed on such as had never seen the miseries of the world, and who had never lost those who were dear to them. In conformity to his will, his mother sought, but in vain, for such persons. All had tasted the woes and griefs of life; all had lost those whom they loved. She found in this a consolation which her son had intended, for her great loss. She saw that her own was the common lot of humanity."
[121] In describing the overthrow, the prophet is admirable; rising by a judicious gradation into all the pomp of horror. q. d. "Now, indeed, it is thronged with citizens; but the hour is coming, when it shall be entirely depopulated, and not so much as a single inhabitant left.—Lest you should think, that in process of time it may be re-edified, and again abound with joyful multitudes, it shall never be inhabited more; no, never to be dwelt in any more, from generation to generation; but shall continue a dismal waste, through all succeeding ages.—A waste so dismal, that none of the neighbouring shepherds shall make their fold, or find so much as an occasional shelter for their flocks; where kings, grandees, and crowds of affluent citizens were wont to repose themselves in profound tranquillity. Even the rude and roving Arabian shall not venture to pitch his tent, nor be able to procure for himself the poor accommodation of a night's lodging; where millions of polite people basked in the sunshine of profuse prosperity.—In short; it shall neither be habitable, nor accessible! but a dwelling place for dragons, and a court for owls; an astonishment, and a hissing. What was once the golden city, and the metropolis of the world, shall be an everlasting scene of desolation, a fearful monument of divine vengeance, and an awful admonition to human pride."
[122] About the middle of the second century, when Strabo was there, the walls were reduced to fifty cubits in height, and twenty-one in breadth.
[123] About the year 1169.
[124] The soil of Babylonia, in the time of Herodotus, may be in no small degree judged of by what that historian states:—"Of all countries, which have come under my observation, this is far the most fruitful in corn. Fruit-trees, such as the vine, the olive, and the fig, they do not even attempt to cultivate; but the soil is so particularly well adapted for corn, that it never produces less than two-hundredfold; in seasons which are remarkably favourable it will sometimes produce three hundred; the ear of their wheat as well as barley is four digits in size. The immense height to which millet will grow, although I have witnessed it myself, I know not how to mention. I am well aware that they who have not witnessed the country will deem whatever I may say upon the subject, a violation of probability."—Clio, cxciii.