[109] διαίρεσις _in opening the flesh_. ἐξαίρεσις, _in taking out the rib_. σύνθεσις, _in closing up the part again_. Of deeper doubt is its Topography, and locall designation, yet being the primitive garden, and without much controversie[110] seated in the East; it is more then probable the first curiosity, and cultivation of plants, most nourished in those quarters. And since the Ark of _Noah_ first toucht upon some mountains of _Armenia,_ the planting art arose again in the East, and found its revolution not far from the place of its Nativity, about the Plains of those Regions. And if _Zoroaster_ were either _Cham_, _Chus_, or _Mizraim_, they were early proficients therein, who left (as _Pliny_ delivereth) a work of Agriculture. [110] _For some there is from the ambiguity of the word_ Mikedem, _whether_ ab oriente _or_ a principio. However the account of the Pensill or hanging gardens of _Babylon_, if made by _Semiramis_, the third or fourth from _Nimrod_, is of no slender antiquity; which being not framed upon ordinary level of ground, but raised upon pillars admitting under-passages, we cannot accept as the first _Babylonian_ Gardens; But a more eminent progress and advancement in that art, then any that went before it: Somewhat answering or hinting the old Opinion concerning Paradise it self, with many conceptions elevated above the plane of the Earth. _Nebuchodonosor_, whom some will have to be the famous _Syrian_ King of _Diodorus_, beautifully repaired that City; and so magnificently built his hanging gardens;[111] that from succeeding Writers he had the honour of the first. From whence over-looking _Babylon_, and all the Region about it, he found no circumscription to the eye of his ambition, till over-delighted with the bravery of this Paradise; in his melancholy metamorphosis, he found the folly of that delight, and a proper punishment, in the contrary habitation, in wilde plantations and wandrings of the fields. [111] Josephus. The _Persian_ Gallants who destroyed this Monarchy, maintained their Botanicall bravery. Unto whom we owe the very name of Paradise: wherewith we meet not in Scripture before the time of _Solomon_, and conceived originally _Persian_. The word for that disputed Garden, expressing in the Hebrew no more then a Field enclosed, which from the same Root is content to derive a garden and a Buckler. _Cyrus_ the elder brought up in Woods and Mountains, when time and power enabled, pursued the dictate of his education, and brought the treasures of the field into rule and circumscription, So nobly beautifying the hanging Gardens of _Babylon_, that he was also thought to be the authour thereof. _Ahasuerus_ (whom many conceive to have been _Artaxerxes Longimanus_) in the Countrey and City of Flowers,[112] and in an open Garden, entertained his Princes and people, while _Vasthi_ more modestly treated the Ladies within the Palace thereof. [112] Sushan in Susiana.