Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/26

30 built by him adjoining Sippara, so that in the threatened overflow the waters might be collected therein. Accordingly, Arderikka must have been situated above Sippara. The river Euphrates, according to Herodotus, extends to the Red Sea (, I., 1 80). Under the term "Red Sea" he includes the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf (cf. I., I, 202; II., 8, 11,102, 158,159; III., 30; IV., 37, 40). Our "Red Sea," in its narrower sense, is called (II., n, 102, 158, 159), and also sometimes  (II., 8, 158; IV., 42).

Herodotus gives us quite a lengthy description of Babylon, from which we infer that he had visited the city. In order to understand the condition of Babylon at the time of his visit it will be necessary to review briefly its history. Although Babylon, for the first time, during the reign of Nebuchadrezar a became the political center of a world empire and the permanent residence of the Babylonian king, yet the city long before had possessed great importance, the founding of Babylon reaching back at least to the third millennium B. C. Before the time of Ḫammurabi (c. 2250 B. C.) the city had no great importance as compared with the other old towns of Babylonia, such as Larsam, Eridu, Erech. Up to the time of this king it was the head of a small, yet independent, commonwealth; but after the