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293 THE TAKING OF BABYLON 293

facts. As a writer, he has been universally praised by both ancients and moderns. " Ο that I were in a condition," says Lucian, " to resemble Herodotus, if only in some mea- sure ! I by no means say in all his gifts, but only in some single point ; as for instance, the beauty of his language, or its harmony, or the natural and peculiar grace of the Ionic dialect, or his fulness of thought, or by whatever name those thousand beauties are called which, to the despair of his imitator, are united in him."

His trustworthiness has many times been called into ques- tion by those who urge that his credulity, his love of effect, and his partisanship for Athens unfitted him for the histo- rian's office. But it seems clear at least that he was not will- fully deceitful, and that the picture he paints of the world of his time is the world as it appeared to him.

Canon Rawlinson's translation is used in the following passages.

THE TAKING OF BABYLON

Having, however, thus wreaked his vengeance on the Gyndes by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with the first approach of the ensuing spring, marched forward against Baby- lon. The Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming. A battle was fought at a short distance from the city, in which the Babylonians were defeated by the Persian king, whereupon they with- drew within their defences. Here they shut them- selves up, and made light of his siege, having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus con- quering nation after nation, they were convinced that he would never stop, and that their turn would come at last.