pared for the inroad of Cyrus that they had accumulated
within their walls a store of provisions for many years. Strange as it
may seem, we must suppose that the king of Babylon, after all the cost
and labor spent in providing defences for the territory, voluntarily
neglected to avail himself of them, suffered the invader to tread down
the fertile Babylonia without resistance, and merely drew out the
citizens to oppose him when he arrived under the walls of the city--if
the statement of Herodotus is correct. And we may illustrate this
unaccountable omission by that which we know to have happened in the
march of the younger Cyrus to Cunuxa against his brother Artaxerxes
Mnemon. The latter had caused to be dug, expressly in preparation for
this invasion, a broad and deep ditch (thirty feet wide and eight feet
deep) from the wall of Media to the river Euphrates, a distance of
twelve parasangs or forty-five English miles, leaving only a passage of
twenty feet broad close alongside of the river. Yet when the invading
army arrived at this important pass, they found not a man there to
defend it, and all of them marched without resistance through the narrow
inlet. Cyrus the younger, who had up to that moment felt assured that
his brother would fight, now supposed that he had given up the idea of
defending Babylon: instead of which, two days afterward, Artaxerxes
attacked him on an open plain of ground where there was no advantage of
position on either side; though the invaders were taken rather unawares
in consequence of their extreme confidence arising from recent unopposed
entrance within the artificial ditch. This anecdote is the more valuable
as an illustration, because all its circumstances are transmitted to us
by a discerning eye-witness. And both the two incidents here brought
into comparison demonstrate the recklessness, changefulness, and
incapacity of calculation belonging to the Asiatic mind of that day--as
well as the great command of hands possessed by these kings, and their
prodigal waste of human labor. Vast walls and deep ditches are an
inestimable aid to a brave and well-commanded garrison; but they cannot
be made entirely to supply the want of bravery and intelligence.

In whatever manner the difficulties of approaching Babylon may have
been overcome, the fact that they were overcome by Cyrus is certain. On
first setting out for this conquest, he was about to cross the river
Gyndes (one of the affluents from t