Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

BABYLON. 389but also to rich as well as vast dominions from which theseyet unai)proached creations of kings could emanate.Babylon, within its outer fortifications, was superficiallyabout seven times as big as Paris within hers, being notfarfrom fourteen miles square. Of this enormous territory ofnearly two lunidred square miles, but a small third was coveredwith buildings like a city. The rest was open country,as it were, where farms, tilled to the highest limit ofproductiveness,were capable of feeding the population almost indefinitely.The Euphrates cut the city into two parts, and on oneside was the royal quarter, with its hanging gardens and palaces; on the other the work-a-day world. Fifty main streets,one hundred and fifty feet wide, and four boulevards dividedup this territory. The walls of the city in its prime weretwo hundred cubits (three hundred feet) high and seventyfeet wide, and were surmounted by towers. One hundredgates of brass offered access to the country beyond. Perhapsancient Bab} Ion in its glory was never approached by anyother city. And though conquerors antedating Alexanderhad destroyed many of its features, these had, no doubt, beenreplaced so that it was still the most wonderful of cities, andto the plain Macedonian of double wonder.Alexander had heard that Mazaeus, who had fought sobravely on the Persian right at Gaugamela, had posesssionof the city. Nearing its walls he marched slowly and in battlearray. But instead of being saluted with closed gates andramparts manned, he saw to his surprise and delight the portalsopen, and the population with wreaths and presents, ledby the Chaldaeans and elders and Persian officials, emergeto do him honor and bid him welcome. Mazaeus, the servant,surrendered to Alexander, the conqueror and new master, aswas the Oriental custom, and the Macedonian king enteredwithout a blow into the impregnable city of Semiramis.