, that he was King of the _Medes_ and _Persians_: for upon the
conquest of _Babylon_, he set over the whole Kingdom an hundred and twenty
Princes, _Dan._ vi. 1. and afterwards when _Cambyses_ and _Darius
Hystaspis_ had added some new territories, the whole contained but 127
provinces.

The extent of the _Babylonian_ Empire was much the same with that of
_Nineveh_ after the revolt of the _Medes_. _Berosus_ saith that
_Nebuchadnezzar_ held _Egypt_, _Syria_, _Phoenicia_ and _Arabia_: and
_Strabo_ adds _Arbela_ to the territories of _Babylon_; and saying that
_Babylon_ was anciently the metropolis of _Assyria_, he thus describes the
limits of this _Assyrian_ Empire. _Contiguous_, [424] saith he, _to
_Persia_ and _Susiana_ are the _Assyrians_: for so they call _Babylonia_,
and the greatest part of the region about it: part of which is _Arturia_,
wherein is _Ninus [_or_ Nineveh;]_ and _Apolloniatis_, and the _Elymaeans_,
and the _Paraetacae_, and _Chalonitis_ by the mountain _Zagrus_, and the
fields near _Ninus_, and _Dolomene_, and _Chalachene_, and _Chazene_, and
_Adiabene_, and the nations of _Mesopotamia_ near the _Gordyaeans_, and the
_Mygdones_ about _Nisibis_, unto _Zeugma_ upon _Euphrates_; and a large
region on this side _Euphrates_ inhabited by the _Arabians_ and _Syrians_
properly so called, as far as _Cilicia_ and _Phoenicia_ and _Libya_ and the
sea of _Egypt_ and the _Sinus Issicus__: and a little after describing the
extent of the _Babylonian_ region, he bounds it on the north, with the
_Armenians_ and _Medes_ unto the mountain _Zagrus_; on the east side, with
_Susa_ and _Elymais_ and _Paraetacene_, inclusively; on the south, with the
_Persian Gulph_ and _Chaldaea_; and on the west, with the _Arabes Scenitae_
as far as _Adiabene_ and _Gordyaea_: afterwards speaking of _Susiana_ and
_Sitacene_, a region between _Babylon_ and _Susa_, and of _Paraetacene_ and
_Cossaea_ and _Elymais_, and of the _Sagapeni_ and _Siloceni_, two little
adjoining Provinces, he concludes, [425] _and these are the nations which
inhabit _Babylonia_ eastward: to the north are _Media_ and _Armenia_,
_exclusively_, and westward are _Adiabene_ and _Mesopotamia_,
_inclusively_; the greatest part of _Adiabene_ is plain, the same being
part of _Babylonia_: in same places it borders on _Armenia_: for the
_Medes_, _Armenians_ and _Babylonians_ warred frequently on one another_.
Thus far _Strabo_.

When _Cyrus_ took _Babylon_, he changed the Kingdom