Part 35 (2/2)

Where was Babylon?

This celebrated city, so often mentioned in Holy Writ, (and remarkable for the minuteness hich its destruction was foretold by the Prophets,) was the capital of the assyrian Empire, and situated on the river Euphrates After the destruction of Nineve, the ancient capital of this empire, Babylon became the most famous city of the East

_Minuteness_, particularity

What is meant by the assyrian Empire?

The country of assyria, in Asia

For as this city particularly celebrated?

For its hanging gardens, palaces, temples, and walls, the latter of which are said to have been three hundred and fifty feet high, and so broad that six chariots could go abreast upon thely fortified, both by nature and art, as to be thought inable_, incapable of being taken or destroyed by an enemy

By as it destroyed, and when?

By Cyrus, 538 years before the birth of Christ, just fifty years after Nabuchodonosor had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its temple

Who was Cyrus?

The founder of the Persian E of Babylon

What was the Pantheon?

A temple of a circular form which was dedicated to all the Gods, or all the Saints That of all others the most celebrated, is the Pantheon of ancient Rost the wonders of that city at the present day

_Circular_, having the forrippa, the Consul of Rome, twenty-five years before Christ; it was dedicated by hireat nued in niches all round it; and because it was built in a circular form to represent heaven, the residence of the Gods It was afterwards converted into a church by Pope Boniface IV, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and all the Martyrs, under the title of ”Our Lady of the Rotunda” Agrippa likewise built the Pantheon at Athens, which was but little inferior to that of Rome The Greek Christians afterwards converted it into a church, dedicating it to the Blessed Virgin; but the Turks, when they subdued Greece, changed it into a mosque

_Dedicated_, appropriated to a particular person, or to a sacred use

_Residence_, dwelling, habitation