"Wisely remarked. Thy three companions shall be promoted to posts of
honor and trust in the empire. Let them, under thee, preside over the
province of Babylon."

Thus Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, through the miraculous
interposition of that Jehovah they loved, and whose law they honored,
were elevated to be the chief personages in the Chaldean empire.



CHAPTER XVII.

YEARS passed by, and uninterrupted success attended the reign of the king
of Babylon. The aggrandizement of the city was without a parallel in
history. It appeared to have become the leading passion of the monarch's
mind. The reader may have a faint idea of the glory of the city when he
remembers that it was a regular square, forty-five miles in compass,
enclosed by a wall two hundred feet high, and fifty broad, in which there
were one hundred gates of brass. Its principal ornaments were the Temple
of Belus, and the famous "hanging gardens."

The Temple of Belus was most remarkable for a prodigious tower that stood
in the midst of it. According to Herodotus, it was a square, of a furlong
on each side--that is, half a mile in the whole compass; and according to
Strabo, it was a furlong in height. It consisted of eight towers, built
one above the other; and because it decreased gradually towards the top,
Strabo calls the whole a pyramid. It is not only asserted, but proved,
that this tower far exceeded the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt in
height.