Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/39

part of Babylon will be clear when we show later that he regards the Nebo temple of Borsippa as situated in the midst of Babylon. If this be true, we are not warranted in supposing that the accounts of Herodotus about the size of Babylon are exaggerations. Herodotus gives the height of the walls as two hundred cubits, and their breadth fifty cubits. (I., 178.) He further adds that the "royal cubit," of which he speaks, is broader by three fingers than the ordinary one; hence their height would be about three hundred and eighty-five feet and their width eighty-five feet. Diodorus Siculus, on the authority of Ctesias, says that the height of the walls amounted to two hundred cubits (three hundred feet); but he remarks that, according to later writers, their height is only fifty cubits (seventy-five feet). Pliny (Hist. Nat., VI., 26) speaks of two hundred and thirty-five feet, while Strabo estimates but fifty cubits (seventy-five feet). These differences may be explained by the rapid dilapidation of the walls. Herodotus had not seen their former height, for he himself states that Darius had torn down the walls of the town and removed all the gates. (III., 159.) He says nothing of their rebuilding in later times; however it is possible that their destruction by Darius was not complete, and that remains were still standing in several places on which he, and later writers, based their estimates. In that case, the difference might be explained by dilapidation. Oppert (Expéd. I., 225) would apply the height given by Herodotus only to certain parts of the walls—viz,, the towers, while H, C. Rawlinson ("Herodotus," London, 1852, Note to I., 178, G. Rawlinson) remarks that, according to his view, the height of the circuit wall