BABYLON AND PERSIA

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN."3I9" Wherever the great king travels," Herodotus re¬ports, " he is attended by a number of four-wheeledcars drawn by mules, in which the Choaspes water,ready boiled for use, and stored in flagons of silver,is movedwith him from place to place." * LaterAkhaemenian kings built there palaces, the gorgeous-,ness of which is brought home to us by the numer¬ous and magnificently jDreserved specimens andfragments discovered by Mr. Dieulafoy, within thelast three years.f There, like the Assyrian kings inNineveh, they stored mostof the wealth furnishedthem by tribute and conquests, and such was theaccumulation in the treasure-house of Susa, thatAlexander of Macedon, when he took possession ofit (331 B.C.), found in it, besides immense sums ofmoney, 50,000 talents of silver in ore and ingots(equal in value to about 38 millions of dollars);also 5,000 quintals of finest i^urplc dye, a quintalbeing equal to about onehundred pounds, and thevalue estimated at 125 dollars per pound.21. The affairs of Babylon between the death ofNebuchadrezzar (561 B.C.) and the first Persianin¬vasion (546 B.C.) can bedisposed of in a very fewlines. His son Avil-MarduK (the Evil-Mero-DACH of the Bible,) is said to have governed in areckless and headstrong manner. Some Egibitabletsare dated from his short reign, and the onlyother mention of him we find is the grateful report* It is amusing to find so eariy an instance of this hygienic pre¬caution the boiling of water, which we are wont to consider as sovery modern. ^^._ -f See Appendix to this chapter.XV\ KUnDE i