h one another, they went forth against the enemy 176 and were slain
in fight, that is to say all the men of Xanthos: and of the Xanthians
who now claim to be Lykians the greater number have come in from abroad,
except only eighty households; but these eighty households happened
at that time to be away from their native place, and so they escaped
destruction. Thus Harpagos obtained possession of Caunos, for the men of
Caunos imitated in most respects the behaviour of the Lykians.

177. So Harpagos was conquering the coast regions of Asia; and Cyrus
himself meanwhile was doing the same in the upper parts of it, subduing
every nation and passing over none. Now most of these actions I shall
pass over in silence, but the undertakings which gave him trouble more
than the rest and which are the most worthy of note, of these I shall
make mention.

178. Cyrus, so soon as he had made subject to himself all other parts
of the mainland, proceeded to attack the Assyrians. Now Assyria
has doubtless many other great cities, but the most famous and the
strongest, and the place where the seat of their monarchy had been
established after Nineveh was destroyed, was Babylon; which was a city
such as I shall say.--It lies in a great plain, and in size it is such
that each face measures one hundred and twenty furlongs, 177 the shape
of the whole being square; thus the furlongs of the circuit of the city
amount in all to four hundred and eighty. Such is the size of the city
of Babylon, and it had a magnificence greater than all other cities of
which we have knowledge. First there runs round it a trench deep and
broad and full of water; then a wall fifty royal cubits in thickness
and two hundred cubits in height: now the royal cubit is larger by three
fingers than the common cubit. 178

179. I must also tell in addition to this for what purpose the earth was
used, which was taken out of the trench, and in what manner the wall was
made. As they dug the trench they made the earth which was carried out
of the excavation into bricks, and having moulded enough bricks they
baked them in kilns; and then afterwards, using hot asphalt for mortar
and inserting reed mats at every thirty courses of brickwork, they built
up first the edges of the trench and then the wall itself in the same
manner: and at the top of the wall along the edges they built chambers
of one story facing one another; and between the rows of chambers they
left space to drive a fou