s enemy's
advance towards the capital. But such considerations have seldom had
much force with Orientals, whose notions of war and strategy are even
now of the rudest and most primitive description. To measure one's
strength as quickly as possible with that of one's foe, to fight one
great pitched battle in order to decide the question of superiority
in the field, and then, if defeated, either to surrender or to retire
behind walls, has been the ordinary conception of a commander's duties
in the East from the time of the Ramesside kings to our own day. No
special blame therefore attaches to Nabonadius for his neglect. He
followed the traditional policy of Oriental monarchs in the course which
he took. And his subjects had less reason to complain of his resolution
than most others, since the many strongholds in Babylonia must have
afforded them a ready refuge, and the great fortified district within
which Babylon itself stood must have been capable of accommodating with
ease the whole native population of the country.

If we may trust Herodotus, the invader, having made all his preparations
and commenced his march, came to a sudden pause midway between Ecbatana
and Babylon. One of the sacred white horses, which drew the chariot of
Ormazd, had been drowned in crossing a river; and Cyrus had thereupon
desisted from his march, and, declaring that he would revenge himself
on the insolent stream, had set his soldiers to disperse its waters into
360 channels. This work employed him during the whole summer and autumn;
nor was it till another spring had come that he resumed his expedition.
To the Babylonians such a pause must have appeared like irresolution.
They must have suspected that the invader had changed his mind and would
not venture across the Tigris. If the particulars of the story reached
them, they probably laughed at the monarch who vented his rage on
inanimate nature, while he let his enemies escape scot free.

Cyrus, however, had a motive for his proceedings which will appear
in the sequel. Having wintered on the banks of the Gyndes in a mild
climate, where tents would have been quite a sufficient protection to
his army, he put his troops in motion at the commencement of spring,
crossed the Tigris apparently unopposed, and soon came in sight of the
capital. Here he found the Babylonian army drawn out to meet him under
the command of Nabonadius himself, who had resolved to try the chance
of a battle. An engagement