built by him adjoining Sippara, so that in the threatened overflow the waters might be collected therein. Accordingly, Arderikka must have been situated above Sippara. The river Euphrates, according to Herodotus, extends to the Red Sea (εἰς τὴν Ἐρυθρὴν Θάλασσαν, I., 1 80). Under the term "Red Sea" he includes the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf (cf. I., I, 202; II., 8, 11,102, 158,159; III., 30; IV., 37, 40). Our "Red Sea," in its narrower sense, is called Ἀράβιος Κόλπος (II., n, 102, 158, 159), and also sometimes Ἐρυθρὴ Θάλασσα (II., 8, 158; IV., 42).
The Size of Babylon.
Herodotus gives us quite a lengthy description of Babylon, from which we infer that he had visited the city. In order to understand the condition of Babylon at the time of his visit it will be necessary to review briefly its history. Although Babylon, for the first time, during the reign of Nebuchadrezar[1] a became the political center of a world empire and the permanent residence of the Babylonian king, yet the city long before had possessed great importance, the founding of Babylon reaching back at least to the third millennium B. C. Before the time of Ḫammurabi (c. 2250 B. C.) the city had no great importance as compared with the other old towns of Babylonia, such as Larsam, Eridu, Erech. Up to the time of this king it was the head of a small, yet independent, commonwealth; but after the
- ↑ This name appears in the Bible in two forms: Nebuchadrezzar and the less accurate Nebuchadnezzar. The spelling Nebuchadrezar is adopted here as being nearer the original Nabû-kudurri-uṣur ("Nebo protect the boundary "). Strabo and other Greek writers transliterate Ναβουκοδρόσορος (Ναβοκοδρόσορος).
