312

CAPTURE OF BABYLON BY THE PERSIANS.

Воок І. shallow enough: he then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of his host, and made for the place where Nitocris dug the basin for the river, where he did exactly what she had done formerly: he turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable. Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the river-side, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town. Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have allowed the Persians to enter the city, but would have destroyed them utterly; for they would have made fast all the street-gates which gave upon the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream, would so have caught the enemy as it were in a trap. But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central parts (as the residents at Babylon declare), long after the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had chanced, but as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and revelling until they learnt the capture but too certainly. Such, then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon.5

192. Among many proofs which I shall bring forward of the power and resources of the Babylonians, the following is of special account. The whole country under the dominion of the Persians, besides paying a fixed tribute, is parcelled out

4 Mr. Grote says that Cyrus "caused another reservoir and another canal of communication to be dug, by means of which he drew off the water of the Euphrates" (vol. iv. p. 285). But Herodotus says that he turned the river into the same reservoir-ès Tǹv λίμνην—which was at the time a marsh -ovo av Exos. And indeed, had he done otherwise, he would have expend

ed time and labour very unnecessarily.

5 Herodotus intends to contrast this first capture with the second capture by Darius Hystaspes, of which he speaks in the latter portion of the third Book. We learn, however, by the mode of speech used, that he was not aware of any former occasion on which the city of Babylon had been taken by an enemy.

CHAP. 191, 192, WEALTH AND RESOURCES OF ASSYRIA.

6

313 into divisions, which have to supply food to the Great King and his army during different portions of the year. Now out of the twelve months which go to a year, the district of Babylon furnishes food during four, the other regions of Asia during eight; by which it appears that Assyria, in respect of resources, is one-third of the whole of Asia. Of all the Persian governments, or satrapies as they are called by the natives, this is by far the best. When Tritantæchmes, son of Artabazus,8 held it of the king, it brought him in an artaba of silver every day. The artaba is a Persian measure, and holds three choenixes more than the medimnus of the Athenians. He also had, belonging to his own private stud, besides war-horses,

See the Essay appended to Book iii. On the Persian System of Administration and Government.'

7 The native orthography of the word, which the Greeks wrote σατράπης, is "khshatrapá." It is found twice in the Behistun inscription (Col. iii. 1. 14 and 1. 55). The etymology has been much disputed (see Gesen. Hebr. Lex. p. 41. Eng. ed.); but, as "khshatram is used throughout the inscriptions

for

crown " or "empire," we can scarcely be mistaken in regarding "khshatrapá" as formed of the two roots "khshatram," and "pa." The latter word signifies in Sanskrit "to preserve, uphold," whence it appears that a Satrap is "one who upholds the crown." (Cf. Col. Rawlinson's Vocabulary of the Ancient Persian Language, pp. 116-7.)

8 We hear of a Tritantæchmes, "son of Artabanus, brother of Darius Hystaspes," in Book vii. ch. 82, from which place it might appear that this passage should be corrected. But we cannot be sure that the same person is intended in both instances. Indeed, as Heredotus seems to speak of his own personal knowledge, it is probable that the Tritantæchmes here mentioned was Satrap of Babylon at the time of Herodotus's visit (about B.C. 450), in which case it is scarcely

9

possible that he should have been the same person who 30 years before was one of the six superior generals of the army of Xerxes.

[The name of Tritantæchmes is of considerable interest because it points to the Vedic traditions, which the Persians brought with them from the Indus, and of the currency of which in the time of Xerxes we have thus distinct evidence. The name means "strong as Tritan "-this title, which etymologically means "three-bodied," being the Sanscrit and Zend form of the famous Feridun of Persian romance, who divided the world between his three sons, Selm, Tur, and Erij.-H. C. R.]

9 This is the same name as the ardeb of modern Egypt, and, like the medimnus, is a corn measure. The ardeb is nearly five English bushels, and contains 8 med. This, too, is the Latin modius, which last was equal to one-sixth of the Greek medimnus. But the ardeb differs in quantity from the artaba.

1 medimnus 48 chonices, or 6 Latin modii.

314

STUD OF TRITANTECHMES-RAIN.

BOOK I.

eight hundred stallions and sixteen thousand mares, twenty to each stallion. Besides which he kept so great a number of Indian hounds,' that four large villages of the plain were exempted from all other charges on condition of finding them in food.

193. But little rain falls in Assyria, enough, however, to

CHAP. 192, 193. BABYLONIA INTERSECTED WITH CANALS.

315

make the corn begin to sprout, after which the plant is nourished and the ears formed by means of irrigation from the river. For the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own accord, but is spread over them by the hand, or by the help of engines. The whole of Babylonia is, like Egypt, intersected with canals. The largest of them all, which runs towards the winter sun, and is impassable except in boats, is carried from the Euphrates into another stream, called the Tigris, the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood. Of all the countries that we know there is

5

In ancient times, when irrigation was carried to a far greater extent than it is at present, the meteorology of the country may probably have been different. [H. C. R.]

3 At the present day it is not usual to trust even the first sprouting of the corn to nature. The lands are laid under water for a few days before the corn is sown; the water is then withdrawn, and the seed scattered upon the moistened soil.-[H. C. R.]

4 The engine intended by Herodotus seems to have been the common hand-swipe, to which alone the name of κηλωνήϊον would properly apply. The ordinary method of irrigation at the present day is by the help of oxen, which draw the water from the river to the top of the bank by means of ropes passed over a roller working between two upright posts. Accounts of this process will be found in the works of Col. Chesney (Euphrates Expedition, vol. i. p. 653), and Mr. Layard (Nineveh and its Remains, Part I. ch. x.). Occasionally, however, the hand-swipe is used. Col. Chesney says:-"When the bank is too high to throw up the water in this manner (viz. with a basket) "it is raised by another process equally simple. A wooden lever, from 13 to 15 feet long, is made to revolve freely on the top of a post 3 or 4 feet high, about two-thirds of the length of the lever projecting over the river, with a leather bucket or closely made basket of date-branches suspended from the

extremity: this is balanced when full of water by means of a bucket of earth or stones at the other end, and this simple machine is so well contrived that very slight manual exertion will raise the bucket sufficiently high to empty its contents into a cistern or other kind of receptacle, from whence it is dispersed over the fields by means of numerous small channels." (Compare Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 109).

Representations of hand-swipes have been found on the monuments.

Hand-swipe. (From a slab of Sennacherib.)

5 This probably refers to the original Nahr Malcha, the great work of Nebuchadnezzar, which left the Euphrates at the modern Felugia, and entered the Tigris in the vicinity of the embouchure of the Gyndes (Diyálah). This canal has, however, repeatedly changed its course since its original construction, and the ancient bed cannot be now continuously traced. [H. C. R.]

Beloe translates ἐσέχει ἐς τὸν Τίγριν, παρ' ὃν Νῖνος πόλις οἴκητο, “ is

316

FRUITFULNESS OF BABYLONIA.

Book I.

none which is so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension indeed of growing the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other tree of the kind; but in grain it is so fruitful as to yield commonly two hundred-fold, and when the production is greatest, even three hundred-fold. The blade of the wheat-plant and barleyplant is often four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within my own knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have already written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible to those who have never visited the country.7 The only oil they use is made from the sesame-plant. Palmtrees grow in great numbers over the whole of the flat country,

continued to that part of the Tigris where Nineveh stands;" thus placing the canal in Assyria, above the alluvium, where no canal is possible, and giving the impression that Nineveh was standing in the time of Herodotus!

7 The fertility of Babylonia is celebrated by a number of ancient writers. Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, speaks of it in his History of Plants (viii. 7). Berosus (Fr. 1) says that the land produced naturally wheat, barley, the pulse called ochrys, sesame, edible roots named gongo, palms, apples, and shelled fruits of various kinds. Strabo, apparently following Herodotus, mentions the barley as returning often 300 fold (xvi. p. 1054). Pliny says that the wheat is cut twice, and is afterwards good keep for beasts (Hist. Nat. xviii. 17). Moderns, while bearing testimony to the general fact, go less into details. Rich says:-"The air is salubrious, and the soil extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half the degree of which it is susceptible." (First Memoir, p. 12.) Colonel Chesney (Euphrat. Exp. vol. ii. pp. 602, 603) remarks,-" Although greatly changed by the neglect of man, those portions of Mesopotamia which are still cultivated, as the country about Hillah, show that the region has all the fertility ascribed to

it by Herodotus;" and he anticipates that "the time may not be distant when the date-groves of the Euphrates may be interspersed with flourishing towns, surrounded with fields of the finest wheat, and the most productive plantations of indigo, cotton, and sugarcane."

8 Mr. Layard informs us that this is still the case with respect to the people of the plains (Nineveh, Part ii. ch. vi.). The olive is cultivated on the flanks of Mount Zagros, but Babylonia did not extend so far.

9 "As far as the eye can reach from the town (Hillah)," says Ker Porter, "both up and down the Euphrates the banks appear to be thickly shaded with groves of date trees." (Travels, vol. ii. p. 335.) There is reason to believe that anciently the country was very much more thickly wooded than it is at present. The palm will grow wherever water is brought. In ancient times the whole country between the rivers, and the greater portion of the tract intervening between the Tigris and the mountains, was artificially irrigated. At present cultivation extends but a short distance from the banks of the great streams.

[The sylvan character and beautiful appearance of the country, which afterwards so much excited the ad. miration of the Arabs, are particularly noticed by Ammianus and Zosimus in