It was now Babylon’s hour, and Babylon likewise was fallen. The fall of a city which had long wielded a power almost worldwide would at any period be a matter of great moment. But this fall of Babylon was even more than this … [They] made Babylon capital of several kingdoms at once ... Babylon had been made the center of a new world power. It was indeed a solemn hour of human history. The glory of Babylon is ended. The long procession of princes, priests, and kings has passed by. No city so vast had stood on the world before it. No city with a history so long has even yet appeared. From the beginnings of human history it had stood … and it would soon be a shapeless mass of ruins, standing alone in a sad, untilled desert.
