ALEXANDER’S MARCH TO BABYLON. 
287 
summit of Boursa Shishara, that the ground immediately around 
it might have been the site of Borosippa; the place mentioned 
by Strabo, as that “ to which Alexander retired,” when he was 
warned by the Chaldean soothsayers not to enter Babylon by its 
eastern side. Some authors, and I think Plutarch, say he was 
exhorted not to enter it at all. Historians remark, that Boro¬ 
sippa was a city of considerable consequence, and particularly 
revered on account of its temple, dedicated to Diana and Apollo, 
(the sun and moon of the Chaldean worship ;) and Josephus also, 
situates the place of Alexander’s retreat in Babylonia, not very 
far from the great city itself. Therefore I should be inclined to 
suggest, that if there be any thing in the resemblance of names, 
and more in apparent agreement of situation, this spot of Boursa 
Shishara, may offer some pretensions to the distinction of having 
been the last halting-place of the Macedonian hero. When we 
compare the circumstances with the situation, we find that 
Alexander was approaching Babylon from the east; and, on his 
road, being successively warned, not only from astrologers, but 
by various omens, not to enter the city, a superstitious dread 
continued to grow on him, “ like water creeping on the ground 
till the whole strength of his mind giving way, he stopped, and 
and retiring to Borosippa, abandoned himself in a kind of despair 
to the horrible excesses, of which, after entering the city in one 
of their mad paroxysms, he died. The term retired , used by the 
historian, certainly implies that he returned to some place he had 
just left, or at least that lay in his rear; which rear was eastward 
of Babylon, his march having been from Media. Had Borosippa 
lain on the west of the city, (which those writers must suppose, 
who would trace its site to the base of Birs Nimrood,) surely the 
historian would have found other terms for describing Alex- 
