miraculous manner of her being nurfed and brought up By pigeons, fince that hiftorian himself looks upon it only as a fabulous fory. It was Semiramis that directed Ninus how to attack the citadel, and by her means he took it, and then became mafter of the city, in which he found an immenfe treafure. The husband of this lady having killed himself, to prevent the effects of the king's threats and indignation, who had conceived a violent paffion for his wife, Ninus married Semiramis.

After his return to Nineveh, he had a fon by her, whom he called Ninyas. Not long after this he died, and left the queen the government of the kingdom. She in honour of his memory erected him a magnificent monument, which remained a long time after the ruin of Nineveh.

(1) I find no appearance of truth in what fome authors relate concerning the manner of Semiramis's coming to the throne. According to them, having fecured the chief men of the state, and attached them to her intereft by her benefactions and promifes, fe folicited the king with great importunity to put the fovereign power into her hands for the fpace of five days. He yielded to her intreaties, and all the provinces of the empire were commanded to obey Semiramis. These orders were executed but too exactly for the unfortunate Ninus, who was put to death, either immediately, or after fome years imprifonment.

SEMIRAMIS. (*) This princess applied all her thoughts to immortalize her name, and to cover the meanness of her extraction by the greatnefs of her deeds and enterprizes. She propofed to herself to furpafs all her predeceffors in magnificence, and to that end the undertook the building of the mighty Babylon, in which work fhe employed two millions of men, which were collected out of all the provinces of her vaft empire. Some of her fucceffors endeavoured to adorn that city with new works and embellishments. I fhall bere fpeak of them all together, in order to give the reader a more clear and diftinct idea of that ftupendous city.

The principal works, which rendered Babylon fo famous, are the walls of the city; the keys and the bridge; the lake, banks, and canals made for the draining of the river; the palaces, hanging gardens, and the temple of Belus; works of fuch

fuch a furprizing magnificence, as is fcarce to be comprehended. Dr. Prideaux having treated this matter with great extent and learning, I have only to copy, or rather abridge him. I. The WALLS.

(w) Babylon flood on a large flat or plain, in a very fat and deep foil. The walls were every way prodigious. They were in thickness eighty-feven feet, in height three hundred and fifty, and in compafs four hundred and eighty furlongs, which make fixty of our miles. Thefe walls were drawn round the city in the form of an exact square, each fide 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 flime arifing out of the earth in that country, which binds in building much stronger and firmer than lime, and foon grows much harder than the bricks or ftones themfelves which it cements together.

Thefe walls were furrounded on the outfide with a vaft ditch, full of water, and lined with bricks on both fides. The earth that was dug out of it, made the bricks wherewith the walls were built; and therefore from the vaft height and breadth of the walls may be inferred the greatnefs of the ditch.

In every fide of this great fquare were twenty-five gates, that is, an hundred in all, which were all made of folid brass; and hence it is, that when God promifed to Cyrus the conqueft of Babylon, he tells him, (x) That he would break in pieces before him the gates of brass. Between every two of thefe 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 fide; every one of these towers was ten feet higher than the walls. But this is to be underftood only of those parts of the wall, where there was need of

towers.

From the twenty-five gates in each fide of this great square went twenty-five streets, in ftraight lines to the gates, which were directly over-against them, in the oppofite fide; fo that the whole number of the ftreets were fifty, each fifteen miles long, whereof twenty-five went one way, and twenty-five the other, directly croffing each other at right angles. And befides thefe, there were also four half streets, which had houses only

(w) Her. l. i. c. 178, 180. Diod. 1. ii. p. 95, 96. (x) Iszi, xlv. 2.

on

Curt, L. v. c. 1.

• I relate things as I find them in the | ing that great abatements are to be made ancient authors, which Dean Prideaux in what they fay as to the immense exteną bas alfo dòné; “but I cannot help believ | of Babylon and Nineveh.

on one fide and the wall on the other; thefe went round the four fides of the city next the walls, and were each of them two hundred feet broad; the reit were about an hundred and fifty. By thefe streets thus croffing each other, the whole city was cut out into fix hundred and feventy fix fquares, each of which was four furlongs and an half on every fide, that is, two miles and a quarter in circumference. (y) Round thefe fquares, on every fide towards the freets, flood the houfes (which were not contiguous, but had void spaces between them) all built three or four ftories high, and beautified with all manner of ornaments towards the freets. The space within, in the middle of each fquare, was likewife all void ground, employed for yards, gardens, and other fuch uses; so that Babylon was greater in appearance than reality, near one half of the city being taken up in gardens and other cultivated lands, as we are told by Q. Curtius.

11. The KEYS and BRIDGE.

(x) A branch of the river Euphrates ran quite crofs the city, from the north to the fouth fide; on each fide of the river was a key, and an high wall built of brick and bitumen, of the fame thickness as the walls that went round the city. In these walls, overagainst every street that led to the river, were gates of brafs, and from them defcents by steps to the river, for the conveniency of the inhabitants, who ufed to pafs over from one fide to the other in boats, having no other way of croffing the river before the building of the bridge. Thefe brazen gates were always open in the day-time, and fhut 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 fupply the defect of a foundation in the bottom of the river, which was all fandy. The arches were made of huge ftones, faftened together with chains of iron and melted lead. Before they begun to build the bridge, they turned the course of the river, and laid its channel dry, having another view in so doing, befides that of laying the foundations more commodiously, as I fhall explain hereafter. And as every thing was prepared before hand, both the bridge and the keys, which I have already defcribed, were built in that interval."

(y) Quint. Curt. 1. v. c. z. 1.2. p. 96.

III. The

(m) Her. 1. 1. c. 180. & 186. Dio.

• Diodorus fays, this bridge was five true, fince the Euphrates was but one furlongs in length, which can bardly be | furlong broad, Strab. 1. xvi, p. 758.

III. The LAKE, DITCHES, and CANALS, made for the draining of the RIVER.

Thefe works, objects of admiration for the fkilful in all ages, were ftill more ufeful than magnificent. (a) In the beginning of the fummer, on the fun's melting the fnow upon the mountains of Armenia, there arises a vaft increase of waters, which running into the Euphrates in the months of June, July and Auguft, makes it overflow its banks, and occafions fuch another inundation as the Nile does in Egypt. (b) To prevent the damage which both the city and country received from these inundations,. at a very confiderable distance above the town two artificial canals were cut, which turned the course of these waters into the Tigris, before they reached Babylon. (c) And to fecure the country yet more from the danger of inundations, and to keep the river within its channel, they raised prodigious artificial banks on both fides the river, built of brick cemented with bitumen, which begun 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 fquare, one hundred and fixty in compass, and thirty-five feet deep according to Herodotus, and feventy-five according to Megafthenes. Into this lake was the whole river turned, by an artificial canal cut from the weft fide 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 fides, this lake, with the canal from the river, was ftill preferved. The water received into the lake at the time of these overflowings was kept there all the year, as in a common refervoir, for the benefit of the country, to be let out by fluices at all convenient times for the watering of the lands below it. The lake therefore was equally useful in defending the countryfrom inundations, and making 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 fcarce to be comprehended or believed, of which number is the lake I have described, I mean with respect to its vaft extent.

(a) Strab. 1. xvi. p. 740. Plin. l. v. c. 26. Præp. Evang. lib. ix. (c) Abyd. ib. Her. 1 i. c. 185.

Berofus,

• The author follows Herodotus, who | chufe to follow Dean Prideaux, who in makes it four lundred and twenty fur that prefers the account of Megaftbenes. legs, or fifty two miles square; but I

Berofas, Megafthenes, and Abydenus, quoted by Jofephus and Eufebius, make Nebuchadnezzar the author of most of thefe works; but Herodotus afcribes the bridge, the two keys of the river, and the lake, to Nitocris, the daughter-in-law of that monarch. Perhaps Nitocris might only finish what her father left imperfect at his death, on which account that hifto rian might give her the honour of the whole undertaking.

IV. The PALACES and the HANGING GARDENS.

(d) At the two ends of the bridge 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. The old palace, which flood on the eaft fide of the river, was thirty furlongs (or three miles and three quarters) in compafs; near which flood the temple of Belus, of which we fhall foon speak, The new palace, which stood on the weft fide of the river, oppofite to the other, was fixty furlongs (or feven miles and an half) in compafs. It was furrounded with three walls, one within another, with confiderable spaces between them. These walls, as alfo thofe of the other palace, were embellished with an infinite variety of fculptures, reprefenting all kinds of animals, to the life. Amongst the reft was a curious hunting piece, in which Semiramis on horfeback was throwing her javelin at a leopard, and her husband Ninus piercing a lion.

(e) In this laft or new palace were the Hanging Gardens, fo celebrated among the Greeks. They contained a square of four plethra (that is, of four hundred feet) on every fide, and were carried up aloft into the air, in the manner of feveral large terraffes, one above another, till the height equalled that of the walls of the city. The afcent was from terrafs to terrafs, by ftairs ten feet wide. The whole pile was fuftained by vaft arches, raised upon other arches, one above another, and ftrengthened by a wall, furrounding it on every fide, of twenty-two feet thicknefs. On the top of the arches were firft laid large flat ftones, fixteen feet long, and four broad: Over these was a layer of reed, mixed with a great quantity of bitumen, upon which were two rows of bricks, clofely cemented together with plaifter. The whole was covered with thick fheets of lead, upon which lay the mould of the garden. And all this floorage was contrived to keep the moisture of the mould from running away through the arches. The mould, or earth, laid hereon, was fo deep, that the greatest trees might take root in

(d) Diod. 1. ii, p. 96, 97. P. 738. Quint, Curt, 1, v. c. r.

it 4

() Diod, p. 98, 99. Strab. 1. xvi.