Named Entity Results, Babylon (Iraq)

I am going to indicate what seems to me to be the most marvellous thing in the country, next to the city itself. Their boats which ply the river and go to Babylon are all of skins, and round. They make these in Armenia, higher up the stream than Assyria. First they cut frames of willow, then they stretch hides over these for a covering, making as it were a hold; they neither broaden the stern nor narrow the prow, but the boat is round, like a shield. They then fill it with reeds and send it fllarge; the largest of them are of as much as five thousand talentsThe Attic talent = about 58 lbs. avoirdupois; the Aeginetan = about 82. burden. There is a live ass in each boat, or more than one in the larger. So when they have floated down to Babylon and disposed of their cargo, they sell the framework of the boat and all the reeds; the hides are set on the backs of asses, which are then driven back to Armenia, for it is not by any means possible to go upstream by water, because of the swif

and money besides; for when the crier had sold all the most attractive, he would put up the one that was least beautiful, or crippled, and offer her to whoever would take her to wife for the least amount, until she fell to one who promised to accept least; the money came from the sale of the attractive ones, who thus paid the dowry of the ugly and the crippled. But a man could not give his daughter in marriage to whomever he liked, nor could one that bought a girl take her away without giving security that he would in fact make her his wife. And if the couple could not agree, it was a law that the money be returned. Men might also come from other villages to buy if they so desired. This, then, was their best custom; but it does not continue at this time; they have invented a new one lately [so that the women not be wronged or taken to another city]; since the conquest of Babylon made them afflicted and poor, everyone of the people that lacks a livelihood prostitutes his daughters.

From Babylon and the rest of Assyria came to Darius a thousand talents of silver and five hundred castrated boys; this was the ninth province; Ecbatana and the rest of Media, with the Paricanians and Orthocorybantians, paid four hundred and fifty talents, and was the tenth province. The eleventh comprised the Caspii, Pausicae, Pantimathi, and Daritae, paying jointly two hundred;

When Darius heard of this, he collected all his forces and led them against Babylon, and he marched up to the town and laid siege to it; but the Babylonians thought nothing of the siege. They came up on to the ramparts of the wall and taunted Darius and his army with gesture and word, and one of them uttered this mot: “Why loiter there, Persians, and not go away? You will take us when mules give birth.” One of the Babylonians said this, by no means expecting that a mule would give birt

A year and seven months passed, and Darius and his whole army were bitter because they could not take Babylon. Yet Darius had used every trick and every device against it. He tried the stratagem by which Cyrus took it, and every other stratagem and device, yet with no success; for the Babylonians kept a vigilant watch, and he could not take them.

But in the twentieth month of the siege a marvellous thing befell Zopyrus, son of that Megabyzus who was one of the seven destroyers of the Magus: one of his food-carrying mules gave birth. Zopyrus would not believe the news; but when he saw the foal for himself, he told those who had seen it to tell no one; then reflecting he recalled the Babylonian's word at the beginning of the siege—that the city would be taken when mules gave birth—and having this utterance in mind he conceived that Babylon might be taken; for the hand of heaven, he supposed, was in the man's word and the birth from his own mul

As soon as he thought that it was Babylon's fate to fall, he came and inquired of Darius if taking Babylon were very important to him; and when he was assured that it was, he then cast about for a plan by which the city's fall would be accomplished by him alone; for good service among the Persians is very much esteemed, and rewarded by high preferment. He could think of no other way to bring the city down than to mutilate himself and then desert to the Babylonians; so, making light of it, he mBabylon were very important to him; and when he was assured that it was, he then cast about for a plan by which the city's fall would be accomplished by him alone; for good service among the Persians is very much esteemed, and rewarded by high preferment. He could think of no other way to bring the city down than to mutilate himself and then desert to the Babylonians; so, making light of it, he mutilated himself beyond repair, and after cutting off his nose and ears and cropping his hair as a disfigurement and scourging himself, he came before Darius.

hing at Persians.” Darius answered, “Unfeeling man, you give a pretty name to an ugly act if you say that it was on account of those besieged that you did for yourself past cure. Why, you poor fool, will the enemy surrender sooner because you mutilated yourself? How could you not have been out of your mind to disfigure yourself?” “Had I told you,” said Zopyrus, “what I intended to do, you would not have let me; but now I have done it on my own. Now, then, if you do your part we shall take Babylon. I shall desert to the city as I am, and I shall say to them that I suffered this at your hands; and I think that I shall persuade them, and thus gain a command. Now, on the tenth day after I enter the city, take a thousand men from the part of your army about which you will least care if it is lost, and post them before the gate called the gate of Semiramis; on the seventh day after that, post two thousand more before the gate called the gate of the Ninevites; and when twenty days are

Having given these instructions, he went to the gates, turning and looking back as though he were in fact a deserter. When the watch posted on the towers saw him, they ran down, and opening half the gate a little asked him who he was and why he came; he told them that he was Zopyrus and was deserting to them. When they heard this, the gatekeepers brought him before the general assembly of the Babylonians, where he made a pitiful sight, saying that he had suffered at the hands of Darius what he had suffered at his own because he had advised the king to lead his army away, since they could find no way to take the city. “Now,” he said in his speech to them, “I come as a great boon to you, men of Babylon, and as a great bane to Darius and to his army and to the Persians; for he shall not get away with having mutilated me so; and I know all the issues of his plans.” This was what he

e convinced that he was telling them the truth and came as their ally, and were ready to give him all that he asked; and he asked for a command. When he got this from them, he did exactly as he had arranged with Darius. On the tenth day he led out the Babylonian army, surrounded and slaughtered the thousand whom he had instructed Darius to put in the field first. Seeing that he produced works equal to his words, the Babylonians were overjoyed and ready to serve him in every way. When the agreed number of days was past, he led out once more a chosen body of Babylonians, and slaughtered the two thousand men of Darius' army. When the Babylonians saw this work too, the praise of Zopyrus was on everyone's lips. The agreed number of days once again passing, he led out his men to the place he had named, where he surrounded the four thousand and slaughtered them. And when he had done this, Zopyrus was the one man for Babylon: he was made the commander of their armies and guard of the walls.