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The later of the two queens, whose name was Nitocris, a wiser
princess than her predecessor, not only left behind her, as memorials
of her occupancy of the throne, the works which I shall presently
describe, but also, observing the great power and restless enterprise
of the Medes, who had taken so large a number of cities, and among
them Nineveh, and expecting to be attacked in her turn, made all
possible exertions to increase the defences of her empire. And first,
whereas the river Euphrates, which traverses the city, ran formerly
with a straight course to Babylon, she, by certain excavations which
she made at some distance up the stream, rendered it so winding that it
comes three several times in sight of the same village, a village in
Assyria, which is called Ardericea; and to this day, they who would
go from our sea to Babylon, on descending to the river touch three
times, and on three different days, at this very place. She also
made an embankment along each side of the Euphrates, wonderful both
for breadth and height, and dug a basin for a lake a great way above
Babylon, close alongside of the stream, which was sunk everywhere to
the point where they came to water, and was of such breadth that the
whole circuit measured four hundred and twenty furlongs. The soil dug
out of this basin was made use of in the embankments along the
waterside. When the excavation was finished, she had stones brought,
and bordered with them the entire margin of the reservoir. These two
things were done, the river made to wind, and the lake excavated,
that the stream might be slacker by reason of the number of curves, and
the voyage be rendered circuitous, and that at the end of the voyage it
might be necessary to skirt the lake and so make a long round. All
these works were on that side of Babylon where the passes lay, and the
roads into Media were the straightest, and the aim of the queen in
making them was to prevent the Medes from holding intercourse with the
Babylonians, and so to keep them in ignorance of her affairs.
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