One morning the king observed one of his courtiers make his appearance before him, bathed in blood, with his ears and nose entirely cut off, and his whole body wounded in many places. When Darius saw this, he started from his throne, advanced to the wounded person, and eagerly inquired of him who had treated him in so terrible a manner? "You, yourself, O king!" answered Zopyrus. "My wish to render you a service has put me in this condition. As I was persuaded that you would never have consented to this method, I have consulted none but the zeal I have for your service." He then told the king that he had formed the plan of going over to the enemy in that condition.
His plan will be explained in the result. He left the camp, and proceeded to the walls of Babylon. When he arrived before the gates, he told the Babylonians who he was. He was immediately admitted and carried before the governor. There he complained of Darius, accusing him of having reduced him to such an unfortunate condition: and that because he had advised him to give up the siege. Saying this, he offered his services to the governor and people of Babylon: stating that his revenge would be a sufficient stimulus and reward for his exertions; and that he would be found fully adequate to cope with the enemy, since he was well acquainted with all the arts, and discipline, and stratagems of the Persians.
When the Babylonians heard all this, and saw the dreadful condition in which Zopyrus was, they gave him the command of as many troops as he desired. With these he made a sally, and cut off more than a thousand of the enemy: Darius having previously concerted with him. In a few days he made another sally, when he cut off double the number. In a third he destroyed not less than four thousand. "Nothing," say the historians, "was now talked of but the condition and success of Zopyrus." This was, indeed, so much the case, that he was at length appointed commander-in-chief. The whole matter, as we have stated before, was a stratagem between Zopyrus and Darius. Now, then, as Zopyrus had become master of the forces, he sent intelligence to the king. The king approached with his army. Zopyrus opened the gates, and the city was delivered into the king's hands.
No sooner did Darius find himself master of the town, than he ordered its hundred gates to be pulled down, and its walls to be partly demolished[116]: but, in order to keep up the population, he caused fifty thousand women to be brought from the several provinces of his empire to supply the place of those the inhabitants had so cruelly destroyed at the beginning of the siege; and for having perpetrated that horrific act, he caused three thousand of the most distinguished of the nobility to be crucified[117].
Babylon remained in the possession of the kings of Persia for several generations[118]. But it soon ceased to be a royal residence, the sovereigns having chosen to reside either at Shusan, Ecbatana, or Persepolis; and, the better to reduce it to ruin, they built Seleucia in its neighbourhood, and caused the chief portion of its inhabitants to remove to Ctesiphon.
The course of our subject now descends to the time, when Darius Codomanus became sovereign of Babylon, in right of being king of Persia. This prince was conquered at the Granicus by Alexander. Not long after, he lost another battle; viz. that of Arbela: after which the conqueror made what is called his "triumphant entry" into Babylon. He entered, we are told, at the head of his army, as if he had been marching to a battle. "The walls," says the historian, "were lined with people, notwithstanding the greatest part of the citizens were gone out before, from the impatient desire they had to see their new sovereign, whose renown had far outstripped his march. The governor and guardian of the treasure strewed the street with flowers, and raised on both sides of the way silver altars, which smoked not only with frankincense, but the most fragrant perfumes of every kind. Last of all, came the presents, which were made to the king; viz. herds of cattle and a great number of horses; also lions and panthers, which were carried in cages. After these the magi walked, singing hymns after the manner of their country; then the Chaldæans, accompanied by the Babylonian soothsayers and musicians. It was customary for the latter to sing the praises of their king to their instruments; and the Chaldæans to observe the motion of the planets and the vicissitudes of seasons." "The rear," continues the author, from whom we quote, "was brought up by the Babylonish cavalry, which, both men and horsemen, were so sumptuous, that imagination can scarce reach their magnificence." The king caused the people to walk after his infantry, and, himself surrounded by his guards, and seated on a chariot, entered the city, and from thence rode to the palace. On the next day he took a survey of all Darius' money and movables. These, however, he did not keep to himself. He distributed a large portion of it to his troops: giving to each Macedonian horseman fifteen pounds; to each mercenary horseman about five pounds; to every Macedonian foot-soldier five pounds; and to every one of the rest two months of their ordinary pay. Nor did he stop there. He gave orders, that all the temples which had been thrown down by the order of Xerxes should be rebuilt; most especially that of Belus.
On his second visit to this city, he was met some miles from the town by a deputation of old men, who told him that the stars had indicated that, if he ventured into the city, some signal misfortune would befal him. At first the king was greatly alarmed and perplexed. But having consulted some Greek philosophers who chanced to be in his army, they threw such contempt on astrology in general, and the Babylonish astrologers in particular, that he resolved to continue his march, and the same day entered the city with all his army.
Soon after this, designing to raise a monument to his friend Hephæstion, he caused nearly six furlongs of the city wall to be beat down; and having got together a vast number of skilful workmen, he built a very magnificent monumental structure over the part he had caused to be levelled.
That the reader may have a distinct idea of the grandeur of this structure, it is necessary to admit a full account of it. It is thus given in Rollin's "History of Alexander":—"It was divided into thirty parts, in each of which was raised a uniform building, the roof of which was covered with great planks of palm-tree wood. The whole formed a perfect square, the circumference of which was adorned with extraordinary magnificence. Each side was a furlong, or an hundred fathoms in length. At the foot of it, and in the first row, there was set two hundred and forty-four prows of ships gilded, on the buttresses or supporters whereof the statues of two archers, four cubits high, with one knee on the ground, were fixed; and two other statues, in an upright posture, completely armed, bigger than the life, being five cubits in height. The spaces between the rows were spread and adorned with scarlet cloth. Over these prows was a colonnade of large flambeaux which, ending at top, terminated towards eagles, which, with their heads turned downwards, and extended wings, served as capitals. Dragons fixed near, or upon the base, turned their heads upwards towards the eagles. Over this colonnade stood a third, in the base of which was represented, in relievo, a party of hunting animals of every kind. On the superior order, that is, the fourth, the combat of Centaurs was represented in gold. Finally, on the fifth, golden figures, representing lions and bulls, were placed alternately. The whole edifice terminated with military trophies after the Macedonian and Babylonian fashion, as so many symbols of the victory of the former, and the defeat of the latter. On the entablatures and roofs were represented Syrens, the hollow bodies of which were filled, but in an imperceptible manner, with musicians, who sang mournful airs and dirges in honour of the deceased. This edifice was upwards of one hundred and thirty cubits high; that is, one hundred and ninety-five feet. The beauty and the design of this structure," concludes our author, "the singularity and magnificence of the decorations, and the several ornaments of it, surpassed the most wonderful productions of fancy, and were all in exquisite taste. The designer and architect of the whole, was Stasicrates; he who offered to cut Mount Athos into the shape of a man. The cost of this monument was no less than twelve thousand talents; that is, more than one million eight hundred thousand pounds!"
Alexander resided at Babylon more than a year. During this time he planned a multitude of things; amongst which, we are told that, finding Babylon to surpass in extent, in conveniency, and in whatever can be wished, either for the necessities or pleasures of life, all the other cities of the East, he resolved to make it the seat of his empire[119]. With this view he planned many improvements, and undertook some; and would have, doubtless, accomplished much that he intended, for he was still but a very young man, when death cut him short in the midst of his career—