THE CONQUEST OF BABYLON.
B.C. 544-538
Babylon.--The River Euphrates.--Canals.--Curious boats.--Their mode
of construction.--Primitive navigation.--Return of the boatmen.--Extent
of Babylon.--Parks, gardens, palaces, etc.--The walls of
Babylon.--Marvelous accounts.--The ditches.--Streets and gates.--Palace
of the king.--Temple of Belus.--The bridge.--Sculptures.--The hanging
gardens.--Construction of the gardens.--The platform and
terraces.--Engine for raising water.--Floral beauties.--The works of
Nitocris.--Her canals and levees.--The bridge over the Euphrates.--The
tomb of the queen.--Cyrus plans an attack upon Babylon.--Government of
Lydia.--Cyrus returns eastward.--Revolt of the Lydians.--Detachment of
Mazares.--Flight of Pactyas.--Pactyas at Cyme.--The people consult the
oracle.--Reply of the oracle.--Aristodicus and the birds'
nests.--Capture of Pactyas.--Situation of Belshazzar.--Belshazzar's
feeling of security.--Approach of Cyrus.--Cyrus draws off the water
from the river.--The city captured.
In his advance toward the dominions of Croesus in Asia Minor, Cyrus
had passed to the northward of the great and celebrated city of
Babylon. Babylon was on the Euphrates, toward the southern part of
Asia. It was the capital of a large and very fertile region, which
extended on both sides of the Euphrates toward the Persian Gulf. The
limits of the country, however, which was subject to Babylon, varied
very much at different times, as they were extended or contracted by
revolutions and wars.
The River Euphrates was the great source of fertility for the whole
region through which it flowed. The country watered by this river was
very densely populated, and the inhabitants were industrious and
peaceable, cultivating their land, and living quietly and happily on
its fruits. The surface was intersected with canals, which the people
had made for conveying the water of the river over the land for the
purpose of irrigating it. Some of these canals were navigable. There
was one great trunk which passed from the Euphrates to the Tigris,
supplying many minor canals by the way, that was navigable for vessels
of considerable burden.
The traffic of the country was, however, mainly conducted by means of
boats of moderate size, the construction of which seemed to Herodotus
very curious and remarkable. The city was enormously large, and
required immense supplies of food, which were brought down in these
boats from the agricultural country above. The boats were made in
the following manner: first a frame was built, of the shape of the
intended boat, broad and shallow, and with the stem and stern of the
same form. This frame was made of willows, like a basket, and, when
finished, was covered with a sheathing of skins. A layer of reeds was
then spread over the bottom of the boat to protect the frame, and to
distribute evenly the pressure of the cargo. The boat, thus finished,
was laden with the produce of the country, and was then floated down
the river to Babylon. In this navigation the boatmen were careful to
protect the leather sheathing from injury by avoiding all contact with
rocks, or even with the gravel of the shores. They kept their craft in
the middle of the stream by means of two oars, or, rather, an oar and
a paddle, which were worked, the first at the bows, and the second at
the stern. The advance of the boat was in some measure accelerated by
these boatmen, though their main function was to steer their vessel by
keeping it out of eddies and away from projecting points of land, and
directing its course to those parts of the stream where the current
was swiftest, and where it would consequently be borne forward most
rapidly to its destination.
These boats were generally of very considerable size, and they
carried, in addition to their cargo and crew, one or more beasts
of burden--generally asses or mules. These animals were allowed
the pleasure, if any pleasure it was to them, of sailing thus idly
down the stream, for the sake of having them at hand at the end of
the voyage, to carry back again, up the country, the skins, which
constituted the most valuable portion of the craft they sailed in. It
was found that these skins, if carefully preserved, could be easily
transported up the river, and would answer the purpose of a second
voyage. Accordingly, when the boats arrived at Babylon, the cargo was
sold, the boats were broken up, the skins were folded into packs, and
in this form the mules carried them up the river again, the boatmen
driving the mules as they walked by their side.
Babylon was a city of immense extent and magnitude. In fact, the
accounts given of the space which it covered have often been
considered incredible. These accounts make the space which was
included within the walls four or five times as large as London. A
great deal of this space was, however, occupied by parks and gardens
connected with the royal palaces, and by open squares. Then, besides,
the houses occupied by the common people in the ancient cities were of
fewer stories in height, and consequently more extended on the ground,
than those built in modern times. In fact, it is probable that, in
many instances, they were mere ranges of huts and hovels, as is the
case, indeed, to a considerable extent, in Oriental cities, at the
present day, so that it is not at all impossible that even so large an
area as four or five times the size of London may have been included
within the fortifications of the city.
In respect to the walls of the city, very extraordinary and apparently
contradictory accounts are given by the various ancient authors who
described them. Some make them seventy-five and others two or three
hundred feet high. There have been many discussions in respect to the
comparative credibility of these several statements, and some
ingenious attempts have been made to reconcile them. It is not,
however, at all surprising that there should be such a diversity in
the dimensions given, for the walling of an ancient city was seldom of
the same height in all places. The structure necessarily varied
according to the nature of the ground, being high wherever the ground
without was such as to give the enemy an advantage in an attack, and
lower in other situations, where the conformation of the surface was
such as to afford, of itself, a partial protection. It is not,
perhaps, impossible that, at some particular points--as, for example,
across glens and ravines, or along steep declivities--the walls of
Babylon may have been raised even to the very extraordinary height
which Herodotus ascribes to them.
The walls were made of bricks, and the bricks were formed of clay and
earth, which was dug from a trench made outside of the lines. This
trench served the purpose of a ditch, to strengthen the fortification
when the wall was completed. The water from the river, and from
streams flowing toward the river, was admitted to these ditches on
every side, and kept them always full.
The sides of these ditches were lined with bricks too, which were
made, like those of the walls, from the earth obtained from the
excavations. They used for all this masonry a cement made from a
species of bitumen, which was found in great quantities floating down
one of the rivers which flowed into the Euphrates, in the neighborhood
of Babylon.
The River Euphrates itself flowed through the city. There was a
breast-work or low wall along the banks of it on either side, with
openings at the terminations of the streets leading to the water, and
flights of steps to go down. These openings were secured by gates of
brass, which, when closed, would prevent an enemy from gaining access
to the city from the river. The great streets, which terminated thus
at the river on one side, extended to the walls of the city on the
other, and they were crossed by other streets at right angles to them.
In the outer walls of the city, at the extremities of all these
streets, were massive gates of brass, with hinges and frames of the
same metal. There were a hundred of these gates in all. They were
guarded by watch-towers on the walls above. The watch-towers were
built on both the inner and outer faces of the wall, and the wall
itself was so broad that there was room between these watch-towers for
a chariot and four to drive and turn.
The river, of course, divided the city into two parts. The king's
palace was in the center of one of these divisions, within a vast
circular inclosure, which contained the palace buildings, together
with the spacious courts, and parks, and gardens pertaining to them.
In the center of the other division was a corresponding inclosure,
which contained the great temple of Belus. Here there was a very lofty
tower, divided into eight separate towers, one above another, with a
winding staircase to ascend to the summit. In the upper story was a
sort of chapel, with a couch, and a table, and other furniture for use
in the sacred ceremonies, all of gold. Above this, on the highest
platform of all, was a grand observatory, where the Babylonian
astrologers made their celestial observations.
There was a bridge across the river, connecting one section of the
city with the other, and it is said that there was a subterranean
passage under the river also, which was used as a private
communication between two public edifices--palaces or citadels--which
were situated near the extremities of the bridge. All these
constructions were of the most grand and imposing character. In
addition to the architectural magnificence of the buildings, the gates
and walls were embellished with a great variety of sculptures: images
of animals, of every form and in every attitude; and men, single and
in groups, models of great sovereigns, and representations of hunting
scenes, battle scenes, and great events in the Babylonian history.
The most remarkable, however, of all the wonders of Babylon--though
perhaps not built till after Cyrus's time--were what were called the
hanging gardens. Although called the hanging gardens, they were not
suspended in any manner, as the name might denote, but were supported
upon arches and walls. The arches and walls sustained a succession of
terraces, rising one above another, with broad flights of steps for
ascending to them, and on these terraces the gardens were made. The
upper terrace, or platform, was several hundred feet from the ground;
so high, that it was necessary to build arches upon arches within, in
order to attain the requisite elevation. The lateral thrust of these
arches was sustained by a wall twenty-five feet in thickness, which
surrounded the garden on all sides, and rose as high as the lowermost
tier of arches, upon which would, of course, be concentrated the
pressure and weight of all the pile. The whole structure thus formed a
sort of artificial hill, square in form, and rising, in a succession
of terraces, to a broad and level area upon the top. The extent of
this grand square upon the summit was four hundred feet upon each
side.
The surface which served as the foundation for the gardens that
adorned these successive terraces and the area above was formed in the
following manner: Over the masonry of the arches there was laid a
pavement of broad flat stones, sixteen feet long and four feet wide.
Over these there was placed a stratum of reeds, laid in bitumen, and
above them another flooring of bricks, cemented closely together, so
as to be impervious to water. To make the security complete in this
respect, the upper surface of this brick flooring was covered with
sheets of lead, overlapping each other in such a manner as to convey
all the water which might percolate through the mold away to the sides
of the garden. The earth and mold were placed upon this surface, thus
prepared, and the stratum was so deep as to allow large trees to take
root and grow in it. There was an engine constructed in the middle of
the upper terrace, by which water could be drawn up from the river,
and distributed over every part of the vast pile.
The gardens, thus completed, were filled to profusion with every
species of tree, and plant, and vine, which could produce fruit
or flowers to enrich or adorn such a scene. Every country in
communication with Babylon was made to contribute something to
increase the endless variety of floral beauty which was here literally
enthroned. Gardeners of great experience and skill were constantly
employed in cultivating the parterres, pruning the fruit-trees and
the vines, preserving the walks, and introducing new varieties of
vegetation. In a word, the hanging gardens of Babylon became one of
the wonders of the world.
The country in the neighborhood of Babylon, extending from the river
on either hand was in general level and low, and subject to
inundations. One of the sovereigns of the country, a queen named
Nitocris, had formed the grand design of constructing an immense lake,
to take off the superfluous water in case of a flood, and thus
prevent an overflow. She also opened a great number of lateral and
winding channels for the river, wherever the natural disposition of
the surface afforded facilities for doing so, and the earth which was
taken out in the course of these excavations was employed in raising
the banks by artificial terraces, such as are made to confine the
Mississippi at New Orleans, and are there called _levees_.[B] The
object of Nitocris in these measures was two-fold. She wished, in the
first place, to open all practicable channels for the flow of the
water, and then to confine the current within the channels thus made.
She also wished to make the navigation of the stream as intricate and
complicated as possible, so that, while the natives of the country
might easily find their way, in boats, to the capital, a foreign
enemy, if he should make the attempt, might be confused and lost. These
were the rivers of Babylon on the banks of which the captive Jews sat
down and wept when they remembered Zion.
[Footnote B: From the French word _levee_, raised.]
This queen Nitocris seems to have been quite distinguished for her
engineering and architectural plans. It was she that built the bridge
across the Euphrates, within the city; and as there was a feeling of
jealousy and ill will, as usual in such a case, between the two
divisions of the town which the river formed, she caused the bridge to
be constructed with a movable platform or draw, by means of which the
communication might be cut off at pleasure. This draw was generally up
at night and down by day.
Herodotus relates a curious anecdote of this queen, which, if true,
evinces in another way the peculiar originality of mind and the
ingenuity which characterized all her operations. She caused her tomb
to be built, before her death, over one of the principal gates of the
city. Upon the facade of this monument was a very conspicuous
inscription to this effect: "If any one of the sovereigns, my
successors, shall be in extreme want of money, let him open my tomb
and take what he may think proper; but let him not resort to this
resource unless the urgency is extreme."
The tomb remained for some time after the queen's death quite
undisturbed. In fact, the people of the city avoided this gate
altogether, on account of the dead body deposited above it, and the
spot became well-nigh deserted. At length, in process of time, a
subsequent sovereign, being in want of money, ventured to open the
tomb. He found, however, no money within. The gloomy vault contained
nothing but the dead body of the queen, and a label with this
inscription: "If your avarice were not as insatiable as it is base,
you would not have intruded on the repose of the dead."
It was not surprising that Cyrus, having been so successful in his
enterprises thus far, should now begin to turn his thoughts toward
this great Babylonian empire, and to feel a desire to bring it under
his sway. The first thing, however, was to confirm and secure his
Lydian conquests. He spent some time, therefore, in organizing and
arranging, at Sardis, the affairs of the new government which he
was to substitute for that of Croesus there. He designated certain
portions of his army to be left for garrisons in the conquered cities.
He appointed Persian officers, of course, to command these forces;
but, as he wished to conciliate the Lydians, he appointed many of the
municipal and civil officers of the country from among them. There
would appear to be no danger in doing this, as, by giving the command
of the army to Persians, he retained all the real power directly in
his own hands.
One of these civil officers, the most important, in fact, of all, was
the grand treasurer. To him Cyrus committed the charge of the stores
of gold and silver which came into his possession at Sardis, and of
the revenues which were afterward to accrue. Cyrus appointed a Lydian
named Pactyas to this trust, hoping by such measures to conciliate the
people of the country, and to make them more ready to submit to his
sway. Things being thus arranged, Cyrus, taking Croesus with him,
set out with the main army to return toward the East.
As soon as he had left Lydia, Pactyas excited the Lydians to revolt.
The name of the commander-in-chief of the military forces which Cyrus
had left was Tabalus. Pactyas abandoned the city and retired toward
the coast where he contrived to raise a large army, formed partly of
Lydians and partly of bodies of foreign troops, which he was enabled
to hire by means of the treasures which Cyrus had put under his
charge. He then advanced to Sardis, took possession of the town, and
shut up Tabalus, with his Persian troops, in the citadel.
When the tidings of these events came to Cyrus, he was very much
incensed, and determined to destroy the city. Croesus, however,
interceded very earnestly in its behalf. He recommended that Cyrus,
instead of burning Sardis, should send a sufficient force to disarm
the population, and that he should then enact such laws and make such
arrangements as should turn the minds of the people to habits of
luxury and pleasure. "By doing this," said Croesus, "the people
will, in a short time, become so enervated and so effeminate that you
will have nothing to fear from them."
Cyrus decided on adopting this plan. He dispatched a Median named
Mazares, an officer of his army, at the head of a strong force, with
orders to go back to Sardis, to deliver Tabalus from his danger, to
seize and put to death all the leaders in the Lydian rebellion
excepting Pactyas. Pactyas was to be saved alive, and sent a prisoner
to Cyrus in Persia.
Pactyas did not wait for the arrival of Mazares. As soon as he heard
of his approach, he abandoned the ground, and fled northwardly to the
city of Cyme, and sought refuge there. When Mazares had reached Sardis
and re-established the government of Cyrus there, he sent messengers
to Cyme, demanding the surrender of the fugitive.
The people of Cyme were uncertain whether they ought to comply. They
said that they must first consult an oracle. There was a very ancient
and celebrated oracle near Miletus. They sent messengers to this
oracle, demanding to know whether it were according to the will of
the gods or not that the fugitive should be surrendered. The answer
brought back was, that they might surrender him.
They were accordingly making arrangements for doing this, when one of
the citizens, a very prominent and influential man, named Aristodicus,
expressed himself not satisfied with the reply. He did not think it
possible, he said, that the oracle could really counsel them to
deliver up a helpless fugitive to his enemies. The messengers must
have misunderstood or misreported the answer which they had received.
He finally persuaded his countrymen to send a second embassy: he
himself was placed at the head of it. On their arrival, Aristodicus
addressed the oracle as follows:
"To avoid a cruel death from the Persians, Pactyas, a Lydian, fled to
us for refuge. The Persians demanded that we should surrender him.
Much as we are afraid of their power, we are still more afraid to
deliver up a helpless suppliant for protection without clear and
decided directions from you."
The embassy received to this demand the same reply as before.
Still Aristodicus was not satisfied; and, as if by way of bringing
home to the oracle somewhat more forcibly a sense of the true
character of such an action as it seemed to recommend, he began to
make a circuit in the grove which was around the temple in which the
oracle resided, and to rob and destroy the nests which the birds had
built there, allured, apparently, by the sacred repose and quietude of
the scene. This had the desired effect. A solemn voice was heard from
the interior of the temple, saying, in a warning tone,
"Impious man! how dost thou dare to molest those who have placed
themselves under my protection?"
To this Aristodicus replied by asking the oracle how it was that it
watched over and guarded those who sought its own protection, while it
directed the people of Cyme to abandon and betray suppliants for
theirs. To this the oracle answered,
"I direct them to do it, in order that such impious men may the sooner
bring down upon their heads the judgments of heaven for having dared
to entertain even the thought of delivering up a helpless fugitive."
When this answer was reported to the people of Cyme, they did not dare
to give Pactyas up, nor, on the other hand, did they dare to incur
the enmity of the Persians by retaining and protecting him. They
accordingly sent him secretly away. The emissaries of Mazares,
however, followed him. They kept constantly on his track, demanding
him successively of every city where the hapless fugitive sought
refuge, until, at length, partly by threats and partly by a reward,
they induced a certain city to surrender him. Mazares sent him, a
prisoner, to Cyrus. Soon after this Mazares himself died, and Harpagus
was appointed governor of Lydia in his stead.
In the mean time, Cyrus went on with his conquests in the heart of
Asia, and at length, in the course of a few years, he had completed
his arrangements and preparations for the attack on Babylon. He
advanced at the head of a large force to the vicinity of the city. The
King of Babylon, whose name was Belshazzar, withdrew within the walls,
shut the gates, and felt perfectly secure. A simple wall was in those
days a very effectual protection against any armed force whatever, if
it was only high enough not to be scaled, and thick enough to resist
the blows of a battering ram. The artillery of modern times would have
speedily made a fatal breach in such structures; but there was nothing
but the simple force of man, applied through brazen-headed beams of
wood, in those days, and Belshazzar knew well that his walls would bid
all such modes of demolition a complete defiance. He stationed his
soldiers, therefore, on the walls, and his sentinels in the watch
towers, while he himself, and all the nobles of his court, feeling
perfectly secure in their impregnable condition, and being abundantly
supplied with all the means that the whole empire could furnish, both
for sustenance and enjoyment, gave themselves up, in their spacious
palaces and gardens, to gayety, festivity, and pleasure.
Cyrus advanced to the city. He stationed one large detachment of his
troops at the opening in the main walls where the river entered into
the city, and another one below, where it issued from it. These
detachments were ordered to march into the city by the bed of the
river, as soon as they should observe the water subsiding. He then
employed a vast force of laborers to open new channels, and to widen
and deepen those which had existed before, for the purpose of drawing
off the waters from their usual bed. When these passages were thus
prepared, the water was let into them one night, at a time previously
designated, and it soon ceased to flow through the city. The
detachments of soldiers marched in over the bed of the stream,
carrying with them vast numbers of ladders. With these they easily
scaled the low walls which lined the banks of the river, and
Belshazzar was thunderstruck with the announcement made to him in the
midst of one of his feasts that the Persians were in complete and full
possession of the city.