. A comprehensive dictionary of the Bible . rs appear to agree that a district of vast size,more or less inhabited, was enclosed within loftywalls, and included under the name of respect to the exact extent of the circuit theydiffer. Herodotus and Pliny make it 480 stades,Strabo 385, Quintus Curtius 368, Clitarchus 365, andCtesias 360 stades. Here we have merely the mod-erate variations to be expected in independent meas-urements, except in the first of the numbers. Per- haps (so Oppert) Herodotus spoke of the outer wallwhich could be traced in his time, while the laterwriters, wh
. A comprehensive dictionary of the Bible . rs appear to agree that a district of vast size,more or less inhabited, was enclosed within loftywalls, and included under the name of respect to the exact extent of the circuit theydiffer. Herodotus and Pliny make it 480 stades,Strabo 385, Quintus Curtius 368, Clitarchus 365, andCtesias 360 stades. Here we have merely the mod-erate variations to be expected in independent meas-urements, except in the first of the numbers. Per- haps (so Oppert) Herodotus spoke of the outer wallwhich could be traced in his time, while the laterwriters, who never speak of an inner and an outerbarrier, give the measurement of Herodotuss innerwall, which may have alone remained in their the lowest estimate of the extent of the cir-cuit, we shall have for the space within the rampartan area of above 100 square miles: nearly five timesthe size of London! It is evident that this vastspace cannot have been entirely covered with confesses that but a small part of the en-. Chart of the Country round Babylon, with Limits of the Ancient City, according to Oppert. closure was inhabited in his own day, and Quintus Cur-tius says that as much as nine-tenths consisted, evenm the most flourishing times, of gardens, parks, para-dises, fields, and orchards. The height of the wallsHerodotus makes 200 royal cubits, or 337^ feet;Ctesias 50 fathoms, or 300 feet; Pliny and Solinus200 royal feet; Strabo 50 cubits, or 75 feet. Weare forced to fall back on the earlier authorities,who are also the only eye-witnesses ; and, surprisingas it seems, perhaps we must believe the statement,that the vast enclosed space above mentioned wassurrounded by walls which have well been termedartificial mountains, being nearly the height of thedome of St. Pauls ! The thickness of the wall Herod-otus makes 50 royal cubits, or nearly 85 feet; Plinyand Solinus, 50 royal, or about 60 common feet; andStrabo, 32 feet. The latter may belong properly to
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