Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/315

 INDUSTRY. 2'J'. pbrates and the Tigris, many rich and populous villages, while Borsippa and other considerable towns were situated lower down and eighty-five stadia ; all different from Herodotus, who gives four hundred and eighty stadia, a square of one hundred and twenty stadia each side. Grosskurd (ad Strubon. xvi. p. 738), Letronne, and Ueeren, all presume that the smaller number must be the truth, and that Herodotus must have been misinformed ; and Grosskurd further urges, that Herodotus cannot have seen the walls, inasmuch as he himself tells us that Darius caused them to be razed after the second siege and reconquest (Hcrodot. iii, 159). But upon this we may observe : First, the expression (rd -m^of Trepielfa) does not imply that the wall was so thoroughly and entirely razed by Darius as to leave no part standing, still less, that the great and broad moat was in all its circuit filled up and levelled. This would have been a most laborious operation in reference to such high and bulky masses, and withal not neces- sary for the purpose of rendering the town defenceless ; for which purpose the destruction of certain portions cf the wall is sufficient. Next, Herodotus speaks distinctly of the walls and ditch as existing in his time, when he saw the place, which does not exclude the possibility that numerous breaches may have been designedly made in them, or mere openings left in the walls with- out any actual gates, for the purpose of obviating all idea of revolt. But however this latter fact may be, certain it is that the great walls were either continuous, or discontinuous only to the extent of these designed breaches, when Herodotus saw them. He describes the town and its phenomena in the present tense: KEETUI iv ire6t(/i fzeyu/M, fiiya&o^ iovaa (J.STUTTOV enaaTov 120 ara diuv, ioiaw TETpayuvov OVTOI ardtiioi Tfjf Ttepiodov r^c Tro/Uof yivovrai avvtnravTEC 480. To filv vvv peyadoq TOOOVTOV ectTi TOV darcof TOV Bafiv- %uviov. 'EKCKoaftijTo <5e uc ovdev t'M.o TrohiGfta TUV T/^EIQ ISfiev radpor ftsv irpiJTu. fi.iv /3d#ea TE KOI evpea /cat rr/ltj; <5arof 7repi-&cef /icrii <!e, re l^or n-EVTi/KovTa ftlv TTIJXEUV flacrtf.Tjiuv iijv TO evpof, inboe Jf, dirjKoaiuv Trrj^euv. 'O 6e f3aaiAi}io( nrjxve TOV /lETpiov carl Trr/^ewf ftt^uv rpial 6aKTvA.iotai (c. 178). Again (c. 181), ToOro pev <5/) rd re?,-Of -&upT]$ kaTf eTepov c5e taudev Tel^of Trcpt^et, ov TTO?JM TK in the language of one who had himself gone up to the top of it. After having mentioned the striking present phenomena of the temple, he specifics a statue of solid gold, twelve cubits high, which the Chaldoeans told him had once been there, but which he did not see, and he carefully marks the dis- tinction in his language, qv cJe iv ~u Tfftivel TOVTU ITI TOV xpbvov EKEIVOV Kol uvtipiuf SvudeKO. mixtuv, ^pt'fffoc orfpeoc. 'Eyw [uv /j.iv OVK el6ov Ti 6k Myerai i<-o Xa/.datur, TOVTO heyu (c. 183). The argument, therefore, by which Grosskurd justifies the rejection of the statement of Herodotus is not to be reconciled with the language of th historian: Herodotus certainly saw both the walls and the ditch. KtC-siai law them too, and his statemert of the circuit, as three hundred and sixty