even the entrance of an enemy,—we are told that the Babylonians were so thoroughly prepared for the inroad of Cyrus that they had accumulated a store of provisions within the city walls for many years. [368] Herodot. i, 177. τὰ δὲ οἱ πάρεσχε πόνον τε πλεῖστον, καὶ ἀξιαπηγητότατά ἐστι, τούτων ἐπιμνήσομαι. [369] See Xenophon, Anabas. i, 7, 15; ii, 4, 12. For the inextricable difficulties in which the Ten Thousand Greeks were involved, after the battle of Kunaxa, and the insurmountable obstacles which impeded their march, assuming any resisting force whatever, see Xenoph. Anab. ii, 1, 11; ii, 2, 3; ii, 3, 10; ii, 4, 12-13. These obstacles, doubtless, served as a protection to them against attack, not less than as an impediment to their advance; and the well-supplied villages enabled them to obtain plenty of provisions: hence the anxiety of the Great King to help them across the Tigris out of Babylonia. But it is not easy to see how, in the face of such difficulties, any invading army could reach Babylon. Ritter represents the wall of Media as having reached across from the Euphratês to the Tigris at the point where they come nearest together, about two hundred stadia or twenty-five miles across. But it is nowhere stated, so far as I can find, that this wall reached to the Euphratês,—still less that its length was two hundred stadia, for the passages of Strabo cited by Ritter do not prove either point (ii, 80; xi, 529). And Xenophon (ii, 4, 12) gives the length of the wall as I have stated it in the text, = 20 parasangs = 600 stadia = 75 miles. The passage of the Anabasis (i, 7, 15) seems to connect the Median wall with the canals, and not with the river Euphratês. The narrative of Herodotus, as I have remarked in a former chapter, leads us to suppose that he descended that river to Babylon; and if we suppose that the wall did not reach the Euphratês, this would afford some reason why he makes no mention of it. See Ritter, West Asien, b. iii, Abtheilung iii, Abschn. i, sect. 29, pp. 19-22. [370] Ὁ Τίγρης μέγας τε καὶ οὐδαμοῦ διαβατὸς ἔς τε ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκβολὴν (Arrian, vii, 7, 7). By which he means, that it is not fordable below the ancient Nineveh, or Mosul; for a little above that spot, Alexander himself forded it with his army, a few days before the battle of Arbêla—not without very great difficulty (Arrian, iii, 7, 8; Diodor. xvii, 55).