onia must seem
incredible to those who have not visited the country." Theophrastus, the
disciple of Aristotle, remarks--"In Babylon the wheat-fields are
regularly mown twice, and then fed off with beasts, to keep down the
luxuriance of the leaf; otherwise the plant does not run to ear. When
this is done, the return, in lands that are badly cultivated, is
fifty-fold; while, in those that are well farmed, it is a hundred-fold."
Strabo observes--"The country produces barley on a scale not known
elsewhere, for the return is said to be three hundred-fold. All other
wants are supplied by the palm, which furnishes not only bread, but wine,
vinegar, honey, and meal." Pliny follows Theophrastus, with the
exception that he makes the return of the wheat-crop, where the land is
well farmed, a hundred and fifty-fold. The wealth of the region was
strikingly exhibited by the heavy demands which were made upon it by the
Persian kings, as well as by the riches which, notwithstanding these
demands, were accumulated in the hands of those who administered its
government. The money-tribute paid by Babylonia and Assyria to the
Persians was a thousand talents of silver (nearly a quarter of a million
of our money) annually; while the tribute in kind was reckoned at one
third part of the contributions of the whole empire. Yet, despite this
drain on its resources, the government was regarded as the best that the
Persian king had to bestow, and the wealth accumulated by Babylonian
satraps was extraordinary. Herodotus tells us of a certain
Tritanteechmes, a governor, who, to his own knowledge, derived from his
province nearly two bushels of silver daily! This fortunate individual
had a "stud of sixteen thousand mares, with a proportionate number of
horses." Another evidence of the fertility of the region may be traced
in the fear of Artaxerxes Mnemon, after the battle of Cunaxa, lest the
Ten Thousand should determine to settle permanently in the vicinity of
Sittace upon the Tigris. Whatever opinion may be held as to the exact
position of this place, and of the district intended by Xenophon, it is
certain that it was in the alluvial plain and so contained within the
limits of the ancient Chaldaea.

Modern travellers, speaking of Chaldaea in its present condition, express
themselves less enthusiastically than the ancients; but, on the whole,
agree with them as to the natural capabilities of the country. "The
soil," says one of the most j