"Make haste, Prince Jason! For your life, make haste !" With one bound he leaped aboard. At sight of the glorious radiance of the Golden Fleece, the nine and forty heroes gave a mighty shout, and Orpheus, striking his harp, sang a song of triumph, to the cadence of which the galley flew over the water, homeward bound, as if careering along with wings! 3 BABYLON. BY CHARLES ROLLIN. [For biographical sketch, see page 65.] I. THE WALLS. BABYLON stood on a large flat or plain, in a very rich and deep soil. The walls were every way prodigious. They were eighty-seven feet thick, three hundred and fifty feet high, and four hundred and eighty furlongs, or sixty of our miles, in circumference. These walls were drawn round the city in the form of an exact square, each side of which was one hundred and twenty furlongs, or fifteen miles, in length, and all built of large bricks cemented together with bitumen, a glutinous slime arising out of the earth in that country, which binds in building much stronger and firmer than lime, and soon grows much harder than the bricks or stones themselves, which it cements together. These walls were surrounded on the outside with a vast ditch, full of water, and lined with bricks on both sides. The earth that was dug out of it was made into the bricks wherewith the walls were built; and therefore, from the vast height and breadth of the walls, may be inferred the greatness of the ditch. On every side of this great square were twenty-five gates, that is, a hundred in all, which were all made of solid brass; and hence it is, that when God promised to Cyrus the conquest of Babylon, he tells him "That he would break in pieces before him the gates of brass." Between every two of these gates were three towers, and four more at the four corners of this great square, and three between each of these corners and the next gate on either side; every one of these towers was ten feet higher than the walls. But this is to be understood only of those parts of the wall where there was need of towers. From the twenty-five gates in each side of this great square extended twenty-five streets, in straight lines to the gates, which were directly over against them, in the opposite side; so that the whole number of the streets were fifty, each fifteen miles long, twenty-five of which passed one way, and twentyfive the other, crossing each other at right angles. And besides these, there were also four half streets, which had houses only on one side, and the wall on the other; these went round the four sides of the city next the walls, and were each of them two hundred feet broad; the rest were about a hundred and fifty. By these streets thus crossing each other, the whole city was divided into six hundred and seventy-six squares, each of which was four furlongs and a half on every side, that is, two miles and a quarter in circumference. Round these squares, on every side towards the streets, stood the houses, which were not contiguous, but had void spaces between them, all built three or four stories high, and embellished with all manner of ornaments towards the streets. The space within, in the middle of each square, was likewise all vacant ground, employed for yards, gardens, and other such uses; so that Babylon was greater in appearance than reality, nearly one half of the city being taken up in gardens and other cultivated lands, as we are told by Q. Curtius. II. THE QUAYS AND BRIDGE. A branch of the river Euphrates ran quite across the city, from the north to the south side; on each side of the river was a quay, and a high wall, built of brick and bitumen, of the same thickness as the walls that went round the city. In these walls, opposite to every street that led to the river, were gates of brass, and from them descents by steps to the river, for the convenience of the inhabitants, who used to pass over from one side to the other in boats, having no other way of crossing the river before the building of the bridge. These brazen gates were open in the daytime, and shut in the night. The bridge was not inferior to any of the other buildings either in beauty or magnificence; it was a furlong in length, and thirty feet in breadth, built with wonderful art, to supply the defect of a foundation in the bottom of the river, which was sandy. The arches were made of huge stones, fastened together with chains of iron and melted lead. Before they began to build the bridge, they turned the course of the river, and laid its channel dry, having another view in so doing besides that of laying the foundations more commodiously, as I shall hereafter explain. And as everything was prepared beforehand, both the bridge and the quays, which I have already described, were built in that interval. III. THE LAKE, DITCHES, AND CANALS MADE FOR THE DRAINING OF THE RIVER. These works, objects of admiration for the skillful in all ages, were more useful than magnificent. In the beginning of the summer, the melting of the snow upon the mountains of Armenia causes a vast increase of waters, which, running into the Euphrates in the months of June, July, and August, makes it overflow its banks, and occasions such another inundation as the Nile does in Egypt. To prevent the damage which both the city and country received from these inundations, at a very considerable distance above the town, two artificial canals were cut, which turned the course of these waters into the Tigris before they reached Babylon. And to secure the country yet more from the danger of inundations, and to keep the river within its channel, they raised prodigious artificial banks on both sides the river, built with brick, cemented with bitumen, which began at the head of the artificial canals, and extended below the city. To facilitate the making of these works, it was necessary to turn the course of the river another way; for which purpose, to the west of Babylon, was dug a prodigious artificial lake, forty miles square, one hundred and sixty in compass, and thirty-five feet deep, according to Herodotus, and seventy-five feet according to Megasthenes. Into this lake the whole river was turned by an artificial canal, cut from the west side of it, till the whole work was finished, when it was made to flow in its former channel. But that the Euphrates, in the time of its increase, might not overflow the city through the gates on its sides, this lake, with the canal from the river, was still preserved. The water received into the lake at the time of these overflowings was kept there all the year, as a common reser voir, for the benefit of the country, to be let out by sluices at convenient times for watering the lands below it. The lake, therefore, was equally useful in securing the country from inundations, and rendering it fertile. I relate the wonders of Babylon as they are delivered down to us by the ancients, but there are some of them which are scarcely to be comprehended or believed, of which number is the lake I have described. I mean with respect to its vast extent. IV. THE PALACES AND THE HANGING GARDENS. The At the two ends of the bridges were two palaces, which had a communication with each other by a vault, built under the channel of the river at the time of its being dry. old palace, which stood on the east side of the river, was thirty furlongs, or three miles and three quarters, in compass; near which stood the temple of Belus, of which we shall soon speak. The new palace, which stood on the west side of the river, opposite to the other, was sixty furlongs, or seven miles and a half, in compass. It was surrounded with three walls, one within another, with considerable spaces between them. These walls, as also those of the other palace, were embellished with an infinite variety of sculptures, representing all kinds of animals to the life. Among them was a curious hunting piece, in which Semiramis, on horseback, was throwing her javelin at a leopard, and her husband Ninus piercing a lion. In this last, or new palace, were the hanging gardens, so celebrated among the Greeks. They contained a square of four plethra, that is, of four hundred feet, on every side, and were carried aloft into the air, in the manner of several large terraces, one above another, till the height equaled that of the walls of the city. The ascent was from terrace to terrace, by stairs ten feet wide. The whole pile was sustained by vast arches, raised upon other arches, one above another, and strengthened by a wall twenty-two feet thick, surrounding it on every side. On the top of the arches were first laid large flat stones, sixteen feet long, and four broad; over these was a layer of reeds, mixed with a great quantity of bitumen, upon which were two rows of bricks, closely cemented together with plaster. The whole was covered with thick sheets of lead, upon which lay the mold of the garden. And all this flooring was contrived to keep the moisture of the mold from running through the arches. The mold, or earth, laid here, was so deep that the greatest trees might take root in it; and with such the terraces were covered, as well as with all other plants and flowers that were proper for a garden of pleasure. In the upper terrace there was an engine, or kind of pump, by which water was drawn up out of the river, and from thence the whole garden was watered. In the spaces between the several arches, upon which this whole structure rested, were large and magnificent apartments, that were very light, and had the advantage of a beautiful prospect. ATHENE.1 BY SIR LEWIS MORRIS. [SIR LEWIS MORRIS: English poet; born at Carmarthen, Wales, 1832. Until 1881 his profession was the law; in 1887 he became secretary of University College, Wales. The descendant of several generations of Welsh bards, he has published three series of "Songs of Two Worlds," 1871, 1874, 1875; "The Epic of Hades," 1876; "Guen," 1879; "The Vision of Saints," 1890. His poems have been recently collected.] WHILE I stood Expectant, lo! a fair pale form drew near - Shone from her not the young-eyed innocence She with clear voice As doth befit a virgin: "She does right To boast her sway, my sister, seeing indeed That all things are as by a double law, And from a double root the tree of Life Springs up to the face of heaven. Body and Soul, Matter and Spirit, lower joys of Sense From "Epic of Hades." By permission of Kegan Paul, Trench, |