'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in reference to Major Rennell's remarks: with narrative of a journey to Persepolis: now first printed, with hitherto unpublished cuneiform inscriptions copied at Persepolis: by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., formerly the Resident of the Hon.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.' [‎44] (71/474)

xliv INTRODUCTION.
complete and final overthrow of this great and
ancient city.
Josephus places this visitation of the plague, to
which I have referred, in the reign of Caligula.
The Jews and the other inhabitants were obliged to
abandon this miserable city, where the insalubrity of
the air was kept up by the stagnant waters of the
Euphrates. It would seem that the famous em
bankment, constructed by Queen Nitocris, had been
broken down, and the lake which had been formed
to receive the overflowings of that river, and which
was still to be seen in the time of Trajan, had been
entirely filled up. The Babylonians had already
been frequently menaced with a similar misfortune,
and they had only averted it by a labour and expense
which, at the time of this latter visitation, they were
no longer in a condition to undertake.
Before the foundation of their city, the whole
territory was covered with water; and it was only by
confining the Euphrates to its bed, that the first
kings ot Babylon succeeded in peopling the province
and the capital.
The Persians, by that destructive policy which
has been so often pursued by conquerors, placed
obstructions in the middle of the Euphrates, in order
to hinder its navigation. Alexander spared no
trouble to set it free from these impediments, but
time was not allowed him to accomplish his under
taking. Aitei his death the whole was neglected,
and consequently fell into a worse condition than