'[4] But these
cities, like all which are supported in the same manner, by the
residence of a court and its establishments, become deserted as the
seat of dominion is changed. Nineveh, built by Ninus out of the
spoils he brought back from the wide range of his conquests,
continued to be the residence of the court and the principal seat of
its military establishments for thirteen centuries to the reign of
Sardanapalus. During the whole of this time it was the practice of
the sovereigns to collect from all the provinces of the empire their
respective quotas of troops, and to canton them within the city for
one year, at the expiration of which they were relieved by fresh
troops.' In the last years of Sardanapalus, four provinces of the
empire, Media, Persia, Babylonia, and Arabia, are said to have
furnished a quota of four hundred thousand; and, in the rebellion
which closed his reign, these troops were often beaten by those from
the other provinces of the empire, which could not have been much
less in number. The successful rebel, Arbaces, transferred the court
and his own appendages to its capital, and Nineveh became deserted,
and for more than eighteen centuries lost to the civilized world.
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