his other projects; and none of his fuccessors ever attempted it: and (4) Seleucia being built a few years afterwards in the neighbourhood, Babylon in a little time became wholly defolate. Seleucia not only robbed it of its inhabitants, but even of its name, being called alfo (5) Babylon by several others. We learn farther from a fragment of Diodorus Siculus, which is produced by Valesius, and quoted from him by (6) Vitringa, that a king of Parthia, or one of his peers, furpaffing all the famous tyrants in cruelty, omitted no fort of punishment, but fent many of the Babylonians and for trifling caufes into flavery, and burnt the forum and fome of the temples of Babylon, and demolished the beft parts of the city. This happened about 130 years before Chrift: and now let us fee what account is given of Babylon by authors after that time.

Diodorus Siculus (7) defcribes the buildings as ruined or decayed in his time, and afferts that now only a fmall part of the city is inhabited, the greatest part within the walls is tilled. Strabo (8) who wrote not long after Diodorus, faith that part of the city the Persians demolished,

(4) Strabo ibid. Plinii Nat. Hist. Lib. 6. Cap. 30. Edit. Harduin.

(5) Plin. ibid. quæ tamen BabyIonia cognominatur. See Prideaux Connect. Part 1. B. 8. Anno 293. Ptolemy Soter. 12.

τ. λ.

effe Hi

(6) Vitring. Com. in Iefaiam. Cap. 13. p. 421. Vol. 1. Ευημερος των Παρθων βασιλευς Evemerus, Parthorum rex (docuit Valefius clariffime quod eruditi viri lubenter admiferunt, legendum merum, Parthorum regis fatrapam, ex circumftantiis temporis hiftoriæ, et collatis locis Justini ac Athenæi) patria Hyrcanus, cunctos tyrannos acerbitate vincens, nullum fævitiæ genus prætermifit. Plurimos enim Babylonios levibus de caufis fervituti addiclos, cum omni familia in Mediam diftrabendos mifit. Forum quoque et nonnulla deluquoque bra Babylonis igni tradidit, pulcherrima quæque urbis loca evertit. Accidit cafus stante regno Seleucidarum, annis admodum CXXX ante Æ. V.

ac

(7) των δε βασιλειων κὶ των αλλων κατασκευασματων ὁ χρονος τα μεν ὁλοσχερως ηφανισε, τα δ ̓ ελημηναῖο. κὶ γαρ αυτες της Βαβυλωνος βραχυ τι μερος οικειται, το δε πλείςον εντος τειχος γεωρείται. Regiasque et alias structuras partim tempus omnino abolevit, partim corrupit. Nam et ipfius Babylonis exigua quædam portio nunc habitatur, maximaque intra muros pars agrorum cultui eft expofita. Diod. Sic. Lib. 2. p. 70. Edit. Steph. p. 98. Edit. Rhod.

(8) –κὶ καληριψαν της πόλεως, τα μεν οἱ Πέρσαι, τα δ ̓ ὁ χρονος κὶ ἡ των Μακηδόνων ολιγωρία περι τα τοιαυτα. κὶ μαλισα επειδη την Ση λευκειαν επί τω Τίγρητι πλησιον της Βαβυλωνος εν τριακόσιοις πε σαδίοις εειχισε Σαλευκός ὁ Νικατωρ. γαρ εκεινος και οἱ μετ' αυτον άπαντης περι ταύθην εσπέδασαν την πολιν κὶ

Και

βασιλειον ενταυθα μετηνεγκαν και δη και νυν ἡ μεν γεγονε Βαβυλωνος μείζων· ἡ δ' ερημος ἡ πολλή ὡς' επ' αυτης μη αν οκνησαι τινα

lished, and part time and the neglect of the Macedonians, and especially after Seleucus Nicator had built Seleucia on the Tigris in the neighbourhood of Babylon, and he and his fuccessors removed their court thither: and now (faith he) Seleucia is greater than Babylon, and Babylon is much deserted, so that one may apply to this what the comic poet faid of Megalopolis in Arcadia, The great city is now become a great defert. Pliny in like manner (9) affirms, that it was reduced to folitude, being exhaufted by the neighbourhood of Seleucia, built for that purpose by Seleucus Nicator. As Strabo compared Babylon to Megalopolis, fo (1) Paufanias (who florished about the middle of the second century after Chrift) compares Megalopolis to Babylon, and says in his Arcadics, that of Babylon, the greatest city that the fun ever faw, there is nothing now remaining but the walls. Maximus Tyrius (2) mentions it as lying neglected and forfaken; and (3) Lucian intimates, that in a little time it would be fought for and not be found, like Nineveh. Conftantine the Great, in an oration preferved by Eufebius, faith that he himself was upon the fpot, and an eyewitness of the defolate and miferable condition of the city. In Jerome's time (who lived in the fourth century after Christ) it was converted into a chase to keep wild beasts within the compass of its walls for the hunting of

p. 1073. Edit. Amstel. 1707.

(9) Cetero ad folitudinem rediit exhaufta vicinitate Seleuciæ, ob id conditæ a Nicatore. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. 6. Cap. 30. Edit. Harduin.

(1) Βαβυλωνος δε ταυτες ἦν τινα είδε πωλεων των τοτε μεγισην ήλιος, εδεν ετι ην ει με τειχος. Babylon omnium, quas unquam fol afpexit, urbium maxima, jam nihil præter muros reliqui habet. Paufan. L. 3. С. 33.

(2) Βαβυλωνος κειμενης. Max. Tyr. Differt. 6. prope finem.

(3) Ου μετα πολυ και αυτη ζητη θησομενη, ωσπερ ἡ Νινος. haud ita multo poft desideranda et ipsa, quemadmodum nunc Ninus. Lucian. Επισκ. five Contemplantes prope Anem.

the

1

the later kings of Perfia. We have learned, (4) faith he, from a certain Elamite brother, who coming out of those parts, now liveth as a monk at Jerufalem, that the royal huntings are in Babylon, and wild beasts of every kind are confined within the circuit of its walls. And a little afterwards he faith, (5) that excepting the brick walls, which after many years are repaired for the inclofing of wild beasts, all the space within is defolation. These walls might probably be demolished by the Saracens who fubverted this empire of the Persians, or they might be ruined or destroyed by time: but of this we read nothing, neither have we any account of Babylon for feveral hundred years afterwards, there having been fuch a dearth of authors during those times of ignorance.

Of later authors the first who mentions any thing concerning Babylon, is Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew who lived in the twelfth century. In his Itinerary, which was written almost 700 years ago, he afferts, (6) that ancient Babylon is now laid waste, but fome ruins are still to be feen of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, and men fear to enter there on account of the ferpents and scorpions which are in the midst of it. Texeira, a Portuguese, in the description of his travels from India to Italy, affirms (7) that of this great and famous city there is nothing but only a few vestiges remaining, nor in the whole region is any place less frequented.

A German traveler, whose name was Rauwolf, paffed that way in the year of our Lord 1574, and (8) his account of the ruins of this famous city is as follows.

"The village of Elugo now lieth on the place where formerly old Babylon, the metropolis of Chaldæa, was "situated. The harbour is a quarter of a league's dif

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tance from it, where people go ashore in order to pro"ceed by land to the celebrated city of Bagdat, which " is a day and a half's journey from thence eastward on "the Tigris. This country is so dry and barren, that "it cannot be tilled, and so bare that I could never " have believed that this powerful city, once the most

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stately and renowned in all the world, and fituated in "the pleasant and fruitful country of Shinar, could have

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ever stood there, if I had not known it by its fituation, " and many antiquities of great beauty, which are still "standing hereabout in great defolation. First by the " old bridge which was laid over the Euphrates, where" of there are fome pieces and arches still remaining " built of burnt brick, and so strong that it is admirable. "-Just before the village of Elugo is the hill whereon

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the castle stood, and the ruins of its fortifications are still visible, though demolished and uninhabited. Be"hind it, and pretty near to it, did stand the tower of Babylon. It is still to be seen, and is half a league " in diameter; but fo ruinous, so low, and fo full of ve" nomous creatures, which lodge in holes made by them " in the rubbish, that no one durst approach nearer to "it than within half a league, except during two " months in the winter, when these animals never ftir " out of their holes. There is one fort particularly, "which the inhabitants in the language of the country, "which is Persian, call Eglo, the poison whereof is very "searching: they are larger than our lizards."

A noble Roman, Petrus Vallenfis, (Della Valle) was at Bagdat in the year 1616, and went to fee the ruins as they are thought of ancient Babylon: and he informs us (9) that " in the middle of a vast and level plain, about

a quarter of a league from Euphrates, which in that place runs westward, appears a heap of ruined buildings, like a huge mountain, the materials of which

८८

are so confounded together, that one knows not what "to make of it. Its situation and form correfpond " with that pyramid which Strabo calls the tower of Belus; and is in all likelihood the tower of Nimrod in Babylon, or Babel, as that place is still called. "There appear no marks of ruins, without the compass " of that huge mass, to convince one so great a city as

Babylon had ever stood there: all one discovers with" in fifty or fixty paces of it, being only the remains here " and there of some foundations of buildings; and the country round about it so flat and level, that one can hardly believe it should be chosen for the situation of "so great and noble a city as Babylon, or that there were ever any remarkable buildings on it; but for my part I am astonished there appears so much as there does, confidering it is at least four thousand years "fince that city was built, and that Diodorus Siculus " tells us, it was reduced almost to nothing in his " time."

Tavernier, who is a very celebrated traveler, relates, (1) that "at the parting of the Tigris, which is but a " little way from Bagdat, there is the foundation of a

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city, which may seem to have been a large league in compass. There are some of the walls yet standing, upon which fix coaches may go abreast: They are " made of burnt brick, ten foot square, and three "thick. The chronicles of the country say here stood "the ancient Babylon." Tavernier, no doubt, faw the same ruins, as Benjamin the Jew, and Rauwolf, and Peter della Valle did; but he thought them not to be the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace or of the tower of Babel. He adopts the opinion of the Arabs, and con- . ceives them to be rather the remains of some tower built by one of their princes for a beacon to affemble his fubjects in time of war: and this in all probability was the truth of the matter.

Mr. (2) Salmon's observation is just and pertinent: "What is as strange as any thing that is related of Baby

(1) Tavernier in Harris. Vol. 2. Book 2. Chap. 5. (2) Salmon's Modern Hift. Vol. 1.

Present State of the Turkish Empire.
Chap. 11.

"lon