may be right in
identifying it with "the Canal of the Sun-god" of the early texts. Thanks
to this system of irrigation the cultivation of the soil was highly
advanced in Babylonia. According to Herodotus (i. 193) wheat commonly
returned two hundred-fold to the sower, and occasionally three
hundred-fold. Pliny (_H. N._ xviii. 17) states that it was cut twice, and
afterwards was good keep for sheep, and Berossus remarked that wheat,
sesame, barley, ochrys, palms, apples and many kinds of shelled fruit grew
wild, as wheat still does in the neighbourhood of Anah. A Persian poem
celebrated the 360 uses of the palm (Strabo xvi. 1. 14), and Ammianus
Marcellinus (xxiv. 3) says that from the point reached by Julian's army to
the shores of the Persian Gulf was one continuous forest of verdure.

II. _Classical Authorities_.--Such a country was naturally fitted to be a
pioneer of civilization. Before the decipherment of the cuneiform texts our
knowledge of its history, however, was scanty and questionable. Had the
native history of Berossus survived, this would not have been the case; all
that is known of the Chaldaean historian's work, however, is derived from
quotations in Josephus, Ptolemy, Eusebius and the Syncellus. The
authenticity of his list of 10 antediluvian kings who reigned for 120
_sari_ or 432,000 years, has been partially confirmed by the inscriptions;
but his 8 postdiluvian dynasties are difficult to reconcile with the
monuments, and the numbers attached to them are probably corrupt. It is
different with the 7th and 8th dynasties as given by Ptolemy in the
_Almagest_, which prove to have been faithfully recorded:--

1. Nabonassar (747 B.C.) 14 years
2. Nadios 2 "
3. Khinziros and Poros (Pul) 5 "
4. Ilulaeos 5 "
5. Mardokempados (Merodach-Baladan) 12 "
6. Arkeanos (Sargon) 5 "
7. Interregnum 2 "
8. Hagisa 1 month
9. Belibos (702 B.C.) 3 years
10. Assaranadios (Assur-nadin-sum) 6 "
[v.03 p.0101]
11. R[=e]gebelos 1 year
12. M[=e]sesimordakos 4 years
13. Interregnum 8 "
14. Asaridinos (Esar-haddon) 13 "
15. Saosdukhinos (Savul-sum-yukin) 20 "
16. Sin[=e]ladanos (Assur-bani-pal) 22 "

The account of Babylon given by Herodotus is not th