In all arts the East has led the van, and has evidently been as far
advanced before the Western nations in the great one of fortifying its
cities as in most others. The first siege we can obtain any account
of is that of Bactra, and we are told it was so fortified by nature
and art, that Ninus, at the head of four hundred thousand men, would
never have been able to take it, if a stratagem had not been suggested
to him by Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers. This account
proves that fortifying cities was not then a new invention, for it is
not likely that such a degree of perfection could have been attained
by a first attempt. Everything in the East seems to have been upon a
gigantic scale: the cities were immense in extent, the height of the
walls and towers, and the depth and width of the surrounding moats or
ditches, almost incredible. And yet, modern research is stamping the
astounding accounts of historians and topographers with the broad seal
of truth--everything in the East _was_ on a gigantic scale: where human
life and human labour, in densely-populated countries, were without
restriction at the command of vain and ambitious despots, the Pyramids,
the walls of Babylon, and the palaces of Baalbec cease to be miracles.
Ninus, king of Assyria, one of the most ancient of the great disturbers
of the peace of mankind called conquerors, was desirous of putting
the crown to his glory by the conquest of Bactriana, now Corassan.
Nothing in the open country could resist an army of four hundred
thousand men; but Bactra, the capital, for a length of time withstood
all his endeavours. As the defence of a city consisted in its walls,
ditch, and advantages of position only, so the means of attack were
correspondingly simple; and we are not surprised at the inhabitants
holding out for a time which in modern warfare would be impossible. We
are told that the genius of Semiramis conceived a stratagem--what we
do not learn--by which the city was at length taken, and her master,
in a truly eastern manner, showed his gratitude by seeking a cause for
putting her husband to death, and making her his wife. Some accounts
do not hesitate to say that the lady, at least as ambitious as Ninus,
repaid him by removing him as he had removed her first husband, in
order to reign alone.