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CHAP. XXV.

THE following account is what I have been able to learnof Babylon and Apollonius, whilst he staid in it. Ba-bylon * is built within a circumference of four hundredand eighty stadia. The walls are in height one plethronand a half, and in breadth not much less than a plethron.It is divided equally into two parts by the Euphrates ,under which runs a bridge of wonderful construction,uniting invisibly the royal palaces, that are built on eachside of it. It is said, a woman of the Median nation-f whoformerly possessed the empire, joined the river by meansof a bridge, in a way never done before. After havingcollected on each bank of the river the stones, and brass,and bitumen, and W'hatever other materials were necessaryfor building in the water, she turned the course of thestream into the contiguous morasses.^ This dried up diechannel, and then she caused a trench to be dug across itof the depth of two orguias, through which a passage might

* Notwithstanding the account which is here given of Babylon atthe time of Apollonius visiting it, I believe few vestiges then remainedof its ancient grandeur, and the royal seat of government was trans-ferred to Ctesephon. The circumference given to it by our author isthe same with that assigned it by Herodotus and Pliny , 480 stadia, theaverage stadium may be reckoned at 500 feet. The height of a plethronand a half to the walls, taking the plethron at a hundred feet, is thesame as the height given them by Quintus Curtius , of 150 feet. Theirbreadth, of not much less than a plethron, corresponds not with thebreadth of any of the writers. Herodotus gives 75 feet for theirbreadth, and Curtius and Strabo 32 feet. Pausanias , who lived underthe Antonincs, says, that in his time nothing remained of Babylon butits walls, and the temple of Belus.

t The Median woman, Semiramis, the wife of Ninus.

J Paludes Babylonicae