city, in form of an exact square; they were surrounded on the outside, with a vast ditch, full of water, and lined with bricks, on both sides. In every side of this great square, were 25 gates, that is, an hundred in all, which were made of solid brass; between every two gates, there were three towers, and four more at the four corners, 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. From these 25 gates, in each side of this great square, went 25 streets in straight lines, to the gates over against them on the opposite side; so that the whole number of streets was 50, each fifteen miles long, of which 25 went one way and 25 the other, directly 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 around the four sides of the city next the walls, and were each of them, 200 feet broad and the rest about 150. By these streets thus crossing each other, the whole city was cut into 676 squares, each of which was four furlongs and a half on every side. Round these squares, on every side towards the streets stood the houses. The space within, in the middle of each square was void ground, employed for yards, gardens, &c. A branch of the river Euphrates ran across the city, from the north to the south side: on each side of the river was a key on an high wall of the same thickness with those of the city. In these walls over against every street, that led to the river, were gates of brass, and from them de-. scents, by steps to the river. The bridge was not inferior to any of the other buildings, either in beauty or magnificence; and before it was begun to be built, they turned the course of the river Euphrates and laid its channel dry, for the purpose of laying the foundation more conveniently, and to raise artificial banks on both sides the river, to secure the country from those annual inundations, by which it overflows its banks. The river, being turned out of its course, to facilitate these works, was received into a prodigious artificial lake, dug, for that purpose, to the west of Babylon; this lake was 52 miles square, and 35 feet deep, according to Herodotus, and 75 according to Megasthenes, Into this lake was the whole river turned by an artificial canal, till the work was finished. But that the Euphrates, in the time of its increase, might not overflow the city through the gates, on its side, 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 in a common reservoir, for the benefit of the country, to be let out by sluices, at all convenient times, for watering the lands. At the two ends of the bridge were two palaces, which had a communication with each other by a vault, under the river; the old palace, which stood on the east side of the river, was 30 furlongs in circumference; and the new palace, on the other side of the river, was 60 furlongs in compass. It 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, represent ing all kinds of animals. this best palace were the hanging gardens, so much celebrat. ed in history; these were of a square form, each side being 400 feet long. They were carried up into the air in the manner of several large terrassess, In one above another, till the height equalled that of the walls of the city. The ascent was from terrass to terrass by stairs, ten feet wide, and the whole pile was sustained by vast arches, raised upon other arches, one above another and strengthened by a wall 22 feet thick. On the top of these arches were laid large flat stones, 16 feet long, and four broad; these were lined with bricks, closely cemented together with plaster; and that covered with sheets of lead, upon which lay the mould of the garden. Another of the great works of Babylon, was the temple of Belus. The riches of this temple in statues, tables, censers, cups, and other sacred vessels, all of massy gold, were immense, Among other images, there was one of forty feet high, which weighed one thousand Babylonish talents of gold. Not long after the time of Alexander, who died here, the city began to decline by the building of Seleucia, about forty miles above it, by Seleucus Nicanor, who is said to have erected this new city from hatred to the Babylonians, and to have drawn out of Babylon 500,000 persons to people it, so that the ancient city was in the time of Curtius, the historian, lessened one fourth part, in the time of Pli ny reduced to désolation, in the days of St. Jerome, turned into a park. Mr. Rawolf, who passed through the place, where stood this once famous city, speaks of its ruins in the following manner. "The village of Elugo, is now situated, where stood Babylon of Chaldea. I could have never believed that this powerful city, once the most stately and renowned in all the world, and situated in the fruitful country of Shinah, could have stood there, had I not seen by the situation of the place, by many antiquities of great beauty, which are to be seen, and especially by the bridge over the Euphrates of which some piles and arches of incredible strength are still remaining, that it certainly did. stand there." Now the reader may compare Isaiah's description, of the condition, to which Babylon should be reduced after its fall with the account given of its present state by this traveller. "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom, and Gomorrah; it shall not be inhabited, neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their folds there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and the owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beast of the island shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces," Isa. xiii, 19, &c. . In unison with the above, I take from the Gazetteer of the Eastern Continent, a brief, but more particular and minute account of the gradual decline of Babylon, and the fulfilment of various prophecies. Jeremiah prophesied "that the mighty men of Babylon would forbear to fight, they have remained in their holds; their might hath failed; they became as women." Agreeably to this, Xenophon tells us, that "when Cyrus came before the place, he could not provoke them to venture forth, and try the fortune of arms, though he sent a challenge to the king." A variety of other circumstances, in the progress of its destruction are foretold, which history confirms. The same prophet said, "that it should become desolate, that it should not be inhabited, that wild beasts of the desert should be there." Let us examine if Babylon has fallen; if these circumstances have taken place; if so, then our faith in revelation is confirmed. Diodorus Siculus says, that in his time, but a small part of the city was inhabited. Its destruction had then begun; it was gradual. Not long after, Strabo relates that the Persians had demolished a part of the city; that the court was removed to Seleucia; that the great city had become a desert. In the time of Pliny, Babylon, was a place of "solitude." Maximus Ty. rius mentions its "lying waste and neglected." Constantine the Great says, he had been an eye witness of its "desolate and miserable condition." In the fourth century after Christ, Jerome says, "Its wall served as a fence, and the city as a park, in which the kings of Persia kept wild beasts for hunting. In the twelfth century, Benjamin, a Jew, asserts that "Babylon was laid waste, some ruins remaining, over which men dared not to pass, on account of serpents and scorpions. In 1574, Rawolf says, "The tower of Babylon was so ruinous, so full of venomous creatures, that no one dared approach nearer than half a league, except during two months in the winter." More than two thousand years before, a prophet had predicted this: "their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces." Petrus Valensis was there in 1616; he says, "there was a heap of ruined buildings, like a mountain, which was probably the tower of Nimrod." Jannier says, "in this neighborhood we saw the foundation of a city, and some of the walls standing, upon which six coaches might go abreast." The chronicles of the country said, "Here stood Babylon." Mr. Hanway tells us that in 1743, "These ruins were so effaced, that there was hardly any vestiges of them, to point out the situation of the city. Mr. Jackson in 1797, was at Bagdad, and says, that at a little distance are still to be seen some ruins of ancient Babylon;" but it seems he did not go to examine whether it was true. Mr. Wood, who visited the ruins of Palmyra in 1751, presumes to say, "There is not a stone to tell where Babylon was situated." By these brief extracts from various travellers, we see how gradually, how punctually the prophecies respecting Babylon, have been fulfilled. "They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundation; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord." Lat. 33, 12. BABYLONIA, a province of Chaldea, or Assyria, of which Babylon, was the capital. Here Christianity was early received by the Jews and Pagans; here the apostle Peter wrote one, if not both his letters to his dispersed brethren of Judah; here the Jews, since the destruction of Jerusalem, have had famous synagogues. BACA. See BEKAA. BACHUR, or BAHURIM, or BACKER, or BACHORA, or CHORABA, or CHORAMON, the place had all these names, a village near Jerusalem, in the tribe of Benjamin, on the road to Jordan. Here Shimei cursed David, and sent stones at him. Lat. 31, 44. BALA, otherwise called ZoHAR, or ZoAR, a city of the tribe of Simeon, (1 Chr. ix, 15) said to receive its name Bala, that is, swallowed up, from its being sunk, just at the time as Lot left it. This name, therefore, was given to the place where the city had stood, rather than to the city itself. Eusebius however says, the place was the only one, near Sodom, preserved, and that it continued in his day; it stood near the Dead Sea, and was a military post or garrison of the Romans; the soil produces balsam and dates. BAMOTH, Moses says, (Num. xxi, 19, 20) that the Hebrews went from Nahaleel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the valley, which is in the country of Moab. Eusebius says Bamoth is a city of Moab, upon the river Arnon. Here was the forty-second encampment of Israel. Lat. 31, 20. BAMOTH-BAAL, a city beyond Jordan,which was given to the tribe of Reuben, Josh. xiii, 17. xiii, 17. Eusebius says it is situated in the plain where the river Arnon runs. Lat. 31,33. BARBARIANS, in the Hebrew sense, a stranger, who knows neither the holy language, nor the law. TheGreeks considered all people, but themselves, or those governed by laws like them, barbarians. The Persians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Arabians, Gauls, Germans, and even the Romans, they viewed as barbarians. St. Luke calls the people of Malta Barbarians. St. Paul represented all mankind as Greeks or Barbarians. Political writers now often call those barbarians, who are in that stage of society between the savage and civilized state, that is, the shepherd state. Most probably the word is derived from berbir, a shepherd, whence Barbary, the country of the wandering shepherds, or of Barbarians. BARIS. See Antonio. |