'Narrative of a journey to the site of Babylon in 1811, now first published: memoir on the ruins; with engravings from the original sketches by the author: remarks on the topography of ancient Babylon, by Major Rennell; in reference to the memoir: second memoir on the ruins; in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon. East India Company at Bagdad. Edited by his widow.' [‎24] (51/474)

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.