"سرد لرحلة إلى موقع مدينة بابل في ١٨١١، طُبعت الآن لأول مرة: مذكرات على الأطلال؛ مع نقوش من الخرائط المدبئية للمؤلف: ملاحظات على طبوغرافية بابل القديمة،بقلم الرائد رينيل؛ في إشارة إلى المذكرات: مذكرات ثانية على الأطلال؛ في إشارة إلى ملاحظات الرائد رينيل: مع سرد لرحلة إلى برسبوليس: طُبعت الآن لأول مرة، مع كتابات مسمارية نسخت في برسبوليس ولم تُنشر من قبل: كتبها الراحل كلوديوس جيمس ريتش، المحترم، المقيم البريطاني السابق لشركة الهند الشرقية في بغداد. حررته أرملته." [‎٢‎٤] (٤٧٤/٥١)

xxiv
INTRODUCTION,
else beside me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither
shall I know the loss of children : but these two
things shall come to thee in a moment in one day,
the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come
upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of
thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine
enchantments, &c."*
" Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand;
it shall come as a destruction
Behold, the day of the Lord cometli, cruel both with
wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate:
and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it."f
" How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asun
der and broken! how is Babylon become a desola
tion among the nations!" " Though Babylon should
mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify
the height of her strength, yet from me shall
spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord. . . Because
the Lord hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of
her the great voice.
At the time when Demetrias Poliorcetes took
possession of Babylon, two fortresses alone remained
of all its magnificent fortifications, and were its sole
defence; and before his arrival Patroclus, a General
ol Seleucus, had driven the inhabitants of Babylon
out ol theii city. Most ol them, we are informed
by Diodoius, retreated far from the Euphrates, and
fled into the desert; others took refuge upon the
Isaiah xlvii. + l S aiah xiii. 6. 9, Jeremiah 1. and li.