the worship of Anaitis.

When Darius III, the last Persian emperor, was overthrown by Alexander
the Great in 331 B.C., Babylon welcomed the Macedonian conqueror as it
had welcomed Cyrus. Alexander was impressed by the wisdom and
accomplishments of the astrologers and priests, who had become known
as "Chaldaeans", and added Bel Merodach to his extraordinary pantheon,
which already included Amon of Egypt, Melkarth, and Jehovah. Impressed
by the antiquity and magnificence of Babylon, he resolved to make it
the capital of his world-wide empire, and there he received
ambassadors from countries as far east as India and as far west as
Gaul.

The canals of Babylonia were surveyed, and building operations on a
vast scale planned out. No fewer than ten thousand men were engaged
working for two months reconstructing and decorating the temple of
Merodach, which towered to a height of 607 feet. It looked as if
Babylon were about to rise to a position of splendour unequalled in
its history, when Alexander fell sick, after attending a banquet, and
died on an evening of golden splendour sometime in June of 323 B.C.

One can imagine the feelings of the Babylonian priests and astrologers
as they spent the last few nights of the emperor's life reading "the
omens of the air"--taking note of wind and shadow, moon and stars and
planets, seeking for a sign, but unable to discover one favourable.
Their hopes of Babylonian glory were suspended in the balance, and
they perished completely when the young emperor passed away in the
thirty-third year of his life. For four days and four nights the
citizens mourned in silence for Alexander and for Babylon.

The ancient city fell into decay under the empire of the Seleucidae.
Seleucus I had been governor of Babylon, and after the break-up of
Alexander's empire he returned to the ancient metropolis as a
conqueror. "None of the persons who succeeded Alexander", Strabo
wrote, "attended to the undertaking at Babylon"--the reconstruction of
Merodach's temple. "Other works were neglected, and the city was
dilapidated partly by the Persians and partly by time and through the
indifference of the Greeks, particularly after Seleucus Nicator
fortified Seleukeia on the Tigris."[567]

Seleucus drafted to the city which bore his name the great bulk of the
inhabitants of Babylon. The remnant which was left behind continued to
worship Merodach and other gods after the walls had crumbled and the
great temple be