Pilgrimage, Book 1 · Chapter 11
CHAP. XI.
Of the City and Countrey of Babylon: their sumptuous walles, Temples and Images.
LEauing these Antiquities, rotten with age, let vsus come to take better view of this stately City. Herodot. l. 2. Philostrat. devita Apollon.l. I.C. 18. Plin. lib 6.c.26.& Solinus e.60. report concerning the compasse of Babylon, That the walles contained 480. furlongs, situate in a large plain, foure square, inuironed with a broad & deep ditch ful of water: Diodor.l.3.c.4. saith, That ther were but so many furlongs as are daies in the yeare, so that eueryevery day a furlong of the wall was built, and 1300000. workmen imployed therein. Strabo *Libr.16.ascribeth to the compasse 380. furlongs: and Curtius l.5.358 (ninety furlongs thereof inhabited, the rest allotted to tylth and husbandry.) Concerning the thicknes of the walls, or the height, they also disagree. The first Authors affirme the height 200, cubites, the thicknesse 50. They which say least, cut off halfe that summe. *Politic.l.3.t.…Wel might Aristotle esteeme it a country rather than a city: and, not without cause, was it reckoned among the wonders of the world. It had 100. brasen gates, & 250. towers. It was indeed a mother of wonders: so many miracles of Art accompanied the same, the works partly of Semiramis, partly of Nabuchodonosor: which I would desire the Reader to stay his hastie pace, and take notice of. EueryEvery where I shall not, I can not, be so tedious in these kinds of relations. Diodor.lib.3. (or after the Greek l.2.c.4.) thus addeth of Semiramis; She built also a bridge of fiue furlongs. The walls were made of bricke & asphaltum, a slimy kind of pitch which that country yieldeth. She built two pallaces, which might serue both for ornament and defence; one in the west, which inuironed sixty furlongs; with high brick walls: within that a lesse, and within that also a lesse circuit which containeth the tower. These were wrought sumptuously with images of beasts, and therein also was game and hunting of beasts: this had 3. gates. The other in the east, on the other side the riuer, contained but 30. furlongs. In the lower country of Babylonia she made a great square lake containing 200. furlongs: the walls where of were of bricke, and that pitchy morter; the depth. thirtie fiue foot. In the midst of the Citie she erected a Temple to Iupiter Belus (saith Herodotus lib.2.) with brazen gates (now in his time remayning) foure square: each square containing two *…, a furlong is six hundred foot. furlongs, in the midst whereof is a solid tower of the height and thicknes of a furlong: vponupon this another, & so one higher then another, eight in number. In the highest tower is a chappell, and therein a faire bed couered, and a table of gold, without any Image. Neither, as the Chaldaean Priests affirme, doth any abide here in the night, but one woman, whom this God shal appoint. They say the God himselfe there lieth. In regard of this exceeding height, Diodorus affirmes, that the Chaldaeans did thereon make their obseruations of the Starres. Hee also addeth, that Semiramis placed in the top three golden statues: one of Iupiter forty foot long, weighing a thousand Babylonian talents; till his time remaining: an other of Ops, weighing asmuch, sitting in a golden throne, & at her feet two lions, & iust by, huge serpents of siluer, each of 30. talents: the third Image was of Inno standing, in weight 800.talents. Her right hand held the head of a serpēt, her left, a scepter of stone. To all these was common, 1 table of gold 40 foot long, in breadth 12, in weight 50 talents. There were also two standing Cuppes of thirtie talents, and two vessells for perfume of like value: Three other vessells of gold, whereof one, dedicated to Iupiter, weighed twelue hundred Babylonian talents: (eueryevery Babylonian talent is said to containe seuen thousand drachma Atticae, sixtie three pounds, nine ounces, and an halfe, and halfe a quarter Troy weight.) All these the Persian Kings tooke away.
Without the Temple, by Herodotus testimony, was a golden Altar, and an other huge one besides, for their solemne sacrifices, the other being not to be polluted with bloud, except of sucking things. In that greater the Chaldaeans burnt yerely in their sacrifices a hundred thousand talents of Libanotus. One statue of gold twelue cubits high 'Darius, affecting, spared: but Xerxes both tooke it, and slew the priest that forbade him. I might heere also tell of those Pensile gardens, borne vp on arches, foure square, each square containing 4. hundred foot: filled on the roofe with earth, wherein grew great trees and other plants. The entrance was (as it were) a hill: the arches were builded one vponupon another in conuenient height, still increasing as they ascended: the highest which bare the walls were fiftie cubits high, and twelue in breadth: There were within these arches, Innes. There was also a conueyance of water to the watering therof. This garden was made long after Semiramis time by aArege Syro. Diod.a king which heerein seemed to lord it ouer the Elements and countermaund Nature, being himselfe the seruant of his wiues appetite, who in this lowly vally wherein Babilon stood, would faine hauehave some representation of her owne hilly and mountainous country of Media.
This King was Nabuchodonosor, as witnesseth bBeros.fragm. apud Ioseph. contra Appian. lib. 1.Berosus in Iosephus, who hauing conquered Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, inriched the Temple of Belus with the spoiles, and added a new citie to the olde, without the same. And prouiding that the enemy might not after turne the course of the riuer, and approch to the city, he compassed the inner city with three walls, and the vtter city with as many, these of brick, those also with bitumen, or pitchie slime of that countrey, adding thereunto stately gates. And neare his fathers pallace he built another more sumptuous: and this hee did in fifteene dayes. Therein he raised stone-works like vntounto mountains, and planted the same with all manner of trees. Hee made also a pensile garden. Many more things (saith Iosephus) doth Berosus adde, and blameth the Greeke Writers for ascribing the building of Babylon to Semiramis an Assyrian. This fragment of Berosus cited by Iosephus, doth well serue vsus to cleare both the holy and prophane Historie. In the one, Daniel cDan. 4.27.induceth Nabuchodonosor walking in his royall pallace in Babel, with words answerable to his pride, Is not this great Babel that I hauehave builded for the house of the kingdome, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my maiestie? His words (euen in the speaking) were written in the Booke of God, and an enditement thereof framed in the highest Court; where he was adiudged presently the losse of Reason, which he had thus abused, Till hee knew that the most High bare rule ouer the kingdome of men, giuing the same to whom soeuer he will. Well might he say he had built it, in regard of this new city & pallace, with other miracles thereof: with more truth then some Expositors, which accuse him herein of a lie, for arrogating that which Semiramis did.
And for Semiramis, profane histories generally make her the founder of this City, and among others dPseudo Beros.lib. 5.Annius his Berosus, who (contrary to this fragment of the true Berosus in Iosephus) saith, that Semiramis made Babylon of a towne, a great City, that she might be rather esteemed the builder thereof, then enlarger. Nimrod had before built the Tower, but not finished it, and did not eNec designatam vrbem sundauit. lib. 4.found the citie, which hee had designed and set out, and Belus his sonne had fFundamenta designata Babyloniae, oppidi magis quamvrbis, crexit.erected those designed foundations rather of the towne then the city Babylon. Moses testifieth that at the first building, they were (by confusion of language) forced to cease their worke, Genesis 11.8. leauing a name of their shame, instead of that renowne and name, which they had promised to themselues. It may be that Semiramis did amplifie this: and happily so did other Assyrian and Babylonian kings, as Augustine and Abydenus affirme; Hanc quidam putant condidisse Babylon, quam quidem potuit instaurare, August. de ciuitate Dei li.18.ca.2. likewise Abydenus in Euseb. Praep.lib.9. saith, that the walles being by inundation fallen, were built againe by Nabuchodonosor, and agreeth in other things with Berosus.
But the Graecians are children, in comparison of antient History, and little of this matter can we affirme on their testimonie; their first Historian Herodotus liuing long after this age in the time of the Persian monarchie. Howsoeuer, Nabuchodonosor is he which (by diuine and humane testimony) there established that golden head of the Image, the seate of the Babylonian monarchie, raising it to that high top of worldly excellence. Yea Daniel cha.3. speaketh of one more sumptuous Image, then anie mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus set vp by this king threescore cubits high, and six broad, enioyning a Catholike and vniuersall idolatry thereunto, which the three Saints Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused, and in a fierie triall, were found both Martyrs and Confessors.
iStrab.lib. 15.Strabo out of Megasthenes (whom Aunius hath set out as truly as he hath done Berosus, saue that he stutted at the name, and called him kMetasthenes Anny.Metasthenes) saith of this King whom he nameth Nabocodrosor, more esteemed of the Chaldaeans then Hercules, that he came in his expeditions as farre as the Pillars of Hercules (the straights of Gibraltar) and as farre as Tearcon the Aethiopian, and that he conducted an armie out of Iberia into Thracia, and Pontus. This Tearcon is he whom the Scripture calleth Tirhaka, which warred against Senacherib.
l2.Kings 19.9.But to returne to our pensile gardens, which Diodorus and Curtius attribute to a Syrian King (which was no other but this Conqueror of Syria, Nabuchodonosor) and both they and Strabo doe at large describe and account among the worlds wonders, as were also the bridge and the walls of the citie. And no lesse wonderfull was that Obeliske, or needle: a square stone made spire-fashion, cut by Semiramis out of the mountains of Armenia, one hundred and fiftie foot long, and foure and twentie thick, on many waines brought to the riuer, thence to Babylon, and there erected. Plinie testifieth, that the Temple of Belus still remained in his dayes: and that Belus was inuentor of Astronomie. This Temple was the same with the Sepulchre of Belus, which Strabo saith was rased by Xerxes: yet not so, but that Alexander would hauehave repaired it; but in regard that it asked so much labour and time (for onelyonly the cleansing of the earth required tenne thousand men two moneths worke) hee was not able to finish that which he had begunne. In the Description he saith lesse then Herodotus, that it was a Pyramis or spire-worke a furlong or sixe hundred foote in height, and each of the foure squares containing as much. Arrianus mArrian de rebus gestis Alexand.lib.3.affirmeth that Alexander had the same of other Temples also. The Temples, saith he, which Xerxes had ouerthrowne, he commanded to be repaired, and among them the Temple of Belus, whom the Babylonians with singular Religion worship. nAr.lib.7.At his returne homewards, Belus in thankfulnesse (it seemeth) sent his Chaldaean Priests to meet him, and forbid him to enter the citie, as he loued his life, whose oracle Alexander contemning, there ended his daies. The cause why he listened not to them, is thought a mistrust that he conceiued of the Chaldaeans. For whereas Xerxes, at his returne out of Greece, had rased this and all other sacred places of the Babylonians: Alexander minding the repaire hereof, hauing already remoued the rubbish, thought with his whole armie to atchieue this enterprise. But the reuenue which the Kings of Assyria had left for the maintenance of this Temple-sacrifices, after the ouerthrow thereof, was shared among the Chaldaeans; which they by this attempt were like to loose, and therefore were willing to want his presence.
This Temple some suppose to be that Tower of Babel mentioned by Moses Gen. 11. and supposed still in part to remaine. For about seauen or eight miles from Bagdat, as men passe from Felugia a towne on Euphrates, whereon old Babylon stood, to this new citie on Tigris (a worke of eighteene houres, and about fortie miles space) there is seene a ruinous shape of a shapelesse heap and building, in circuit lesse then a mile, (some say, but a quarter of a mile) about the height of the stone-worke on Pauls steeple in London: the brickes being six inches thicke, eight broad, and a foot long (as master Allen measured) with mattes of Canes laid betwixt them, yet remaining as sound, as if they had beene laid within a yeares space. Thus master Eldred, & maister Fitch, maister Cartwright also, and my friend maister Allen, by testimony of their owne eies, hauehave reported. But I can scarce thinke it to be that Tower or Temple, because Authors place it in the middest of old Babylon, and neare Euphrates: although I will not contend about it. Some affirme, ( oVerst…ga… Antiq.I know not with what truth) that Nimrods Tower was in height fiue thousand one hundred seuentie and foure paces. But it is now, as we see, come to confusion. Also there is yet beyond Tigris some ruines of a Temple, which is called the Temple of Bel, with high yron gates, as is reported.
Dominicus Niger pDom Nig. Asia Com. 4.hath these words: Seleucia in processe of time hath changed her state and her site. For it was on the westerne banke of Tigris, which a Cut from Euphrates slowed into; in which place are now seene the ruines thereof, where the shepheards hauehave erected them cottages: and on the Easterne banke hauehave the Barbarians built the City and called it Bachdad, right ouer-against the old. If this be true, vaine is the conceit of credulous Trauellers, which suppose those ruines to bee the monuments of Babylons buriall, and confound againe this later world, with the reports of Babels Tower.
The Bitumen or slimie pitch which they vsed in stead of morter in their building, is, as Dominicus Niger pDom Nig. Asia Com. 4.out of Trogus reporteth, common in those parts. Herodotus telleth, that eight dayes iourney from Babylon was another Citie, named IS, with a small rill of the same name, which runneth into Euphrates, carrying thither (as tribute) much of this slimie matter. Niger mentioneth one place, where out of a clift or opening of the earth proceedeth such a stinke, that it killeth the birds which flie ouer it. And at this day, two daies iourney from Bagdat rR.…itche.Hak. Voy.to.3.at a place called Ait, is a mouth continually throwing forth boiling pitch, therefore by the Moores called Hel-mouth, which runneth into a great field alwayes full thereof: and herewith they pitch their boats. The water, as my friend maister Allen (who liued in Bagdat diuers moneths) told me, is warme & accounted medicinable, for which cause he hath drunke largely thereof: the liquid pitch floateth on the toppe of the water, like clouted creame, to vse his owne phrase.
The Country of Babylonia hath beene the most fruitfull in the world, sHero.lib.2.yeelding ordinarily two hundred, and in some places three hundred increase: the blades of the wheat and barly about foure fingers broad. tPlinn et. hist. lib.18.ca.17.Plinie, somewhat otherwise: They cut (saith he) or mowe their corne twice, and feed it a third time in Babylonia, otherwise it would be nothing but blade: & yet so their barrener land yeeldeth fiftie, their best an hundred increase. Tigris and Euphrates ouerflow it, but bring not fatnesse to the soile, as Nilus in Egypt, but rather cleanse that superfluous fatnesse which naturally it hath.
The soile is of a rosennie clay, saith master Allen, and would still retaine in likelihood his antient fertilitie, if it were watered with like diligent husbandry: In digging it yeeldeth corrupt waters, sauouring of that pitchy slime. In the antient Babylon, it seemeth that in eueryevery garden of any citizen of sort were rilles made out of the riuer. The ruines from the tower aforesaid to Bagdat (which some call Babylon) & beyond on the other side of the riuer, containe twentie two miles, yet to be seene: which happily are the ruines, not of old Babylon, so much, as of the neighbor townes here built, Seleucia, Vologesocerta, and Ctesiphon: which I rather thinke, because they reach beyond Tigris as well as on this side.
To returne to the religious places in Babylon: Caelius Rhodig. lect. Antiq.lib.8.ca. 12. tells, that in the Temple of Apollo, was found a golden Chest of great antiquity, which being broken by some accident, thence issued a pestilent vapour, that infected not those alone which were present, but the neighbouring Nations, as farre as Parthia, Ammianus Marcellinus uAmmian.l.23hath the like Historie of the Image of Apollo Chomens at Seleucia, which was brought to Rome, and there placed by the Priests in the temple of Apollo Palatinus: and whenas a certaine hole which the Chaldaean Wise-men had by Art stopped, through the couetousnesse of certaine souldiers breaking in thither for spoile, was broken vp, the world was thence poysoned with a contagion from Persia, as far as France. *Philost. de …ita Apol.lib. I. cap 18.Philostratus tells of Apollonius, that he saw at Babylon such stately Palaces, as scarce agree with the state of Babylon in the time of Apollonius, which was while Domician reigned: amongst other things he saw Galleries full of Greeke Images, as of Orpheus, Andromeda, &c. He came also into a Gallery, the roofe whereof was made bowing like the heauens, and couered with Saphire, so to resemble Heauen, and the Images of their Gods, made of gold, were there set. From the roofe there hanged foure birds of gold, representing the Goddesse of Reuenge, which they called the tongues of the Gods, I know not by what art or mysterie, admonishing the King not to exalt himselfe.