BABYLON AND PERSIA

BABYLON THE GREAT. 22/to river, somewhat below that line, but above thatformed by the canals and the now well fortified cityof Sippar. A wall childish as the contrivance mayappear in our time of scientific warfare was nomeandefence, if sufficiently strong and properlymanned, before the daysof artillery; and severalcenturies later we see the Romans, the finest strate¬gists of antiquity, build walls across the narrow partof Britain asa defence against the inroads of thenorthern tribes. This of Nebuchadrezzar's wasbuilt entirely of burned brick held together byasphalt cement ;and Xenophon, who saw some por¬tions of it standing still and calls it the " MedianWall," values its height at a hundred feet, its thick¬ness at twenty.5. In all Nebuchadrezzar's inscriptions that havebeen found and we have a great many he espe¬cially glories in his constructions.He seems to haverepaired almost every great temple in the land andbuilt not a few new ones.From the detailed accounthegives of the condition in which he found the"Temple of the Seven Spheres" at Borsip and ofthe work he did there, it is evident that he considersthe completion and adornment of this his patron'sZiggurat and shrine (temple of Nebo) as one of hisbest claims to fame and the favor of the gods.*Butwhat he did at Babylon not only surpasses all hisother works, but eclipses those of all former kings,even those of Sargon at Dur-Sharrukin, not so muchin splendor as in the vastness and originality of hisconceptions, an originality due probably to that*See "Story of Chaldea," p. 72, pp. 280-283, and p. 293.