'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎26] (53/474)

xxvi
INTRODUCTION.
hesitation, the words of the comic poet, ' the great
city is a great desert.' "
Before it fell into the condition described by
Strabo, this city had been subjected to much oppres
sion. About 127 years before J. C. a Parthian
general reduced a great number of Babylonian
families into slavery, and sent them away to Media
to be sold. He destroyed all that remained of the
public buildings, overturned the temples, and spared
no monument of ancient splendour.
In the reign of Augustus, we learn from Diodorus
Siculus, that in his time a very small portion of
Babylon was still inhabited, and that the remainder
was under cultivation.
Strabo, who wrote in the time of Tiberius, could
not have been informed of the latest misfortunes of
this miserable city, and he says, merely in a general
way, as has been already related, that it was quite
deserted.
Babylon never recovered such a succession of
misfortunes, and seems only to have owed to her
ancient celebrity the preservation of her name
among the cities of the East. Nevertheless she
might have lingered on in her reduced and feeble
condition some time longer, had not religious intole
rance given rise to a civil war, the cause of which
was the devotedness of the Jews to their religion.
A large body of that people had taken refuge in
Babylon, many of whom perished in this persecu-