Daniel 4:30 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Is not this great Babylon that I have built— The circuit of this city is said to have been 360 stadia at least, or more than 45 miles, and Pliny extends it to 60 miles. Herodotus describes it as a square, each side of which was 120 stadia, or 480 in circumference: the height of its walls was 50 cubits according to the lowest reckoning, and the breadth of them such that six chariots a-breast, according to Diodorus, might drive along them. It was beautifully situated on the Euphrates; so that a branch of that river ran through the midst of it, over which was a bridge of a furlong in length, with a magnificent palace at each end. That it is agreeable to Scripture language and the manner of the Hebrews to style that person the builder of a city, who restores it after a state of neglect to its pristine beauty, and improves and adorns it, may be learnt from 2 Chronicles 11:6 and from Exodus 14:22 where cities are said to be built by the kings that repaired, or enlarged and fortified them, although they had been constructed long before. Bochart thinks that Babylon was as much indebted to Nebuchadnezzar as Rome was to Augustus Caesar, who used to boast, as Suetonius relates in his life, that he received the city of brick, and left it of marble. Whatever we read of the original construction of Babylon by Nimrod or Belus, or of its enlargement by Semiramis, yet it was either of little account, or certainly not as one of the wonders of the world, till the walls with their hundred gates, the temple of Belus, the monarch's most magnificent palace, the hanging gardens, and other grand works and improvements, were added by the king who is here said to have built it. See Joseph. Ant. from Berosus, lib. 10: cap. 11. Some of these great works are said to have been finished by Nitocris, who probably completed the plan which Nebuchadnezzar had begun. Nineveh had been the capital of the Assyrian empire, and was for a long time the most considerable city: according to Diodorus, lib. 2: its circuit was reckoned near sixty English miles, or, as the prophet Jonah describes it, of three days' journey, allowing twenty miles to a day. It is reported by some to have been much larger than Babylon, and to have had the preference given to it in several respects. Nor was it till after the destruction of this city that Babylon came into great repute. Now this happened in the time of Nabopollasar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, who lived at Babylon, but was not peaceably established in the empire, nor was the seat of empire completely fixed herein, till the reign of his son. Herodotus relates, that the wealth and resources of the Babylonian state were so great, that it was equal to one-third part of all Asia; and that beside the tribute, if the other supplies for the great king were divided into twelve parts, according to the twelve months of the year, Babylon would supply four, and all Asia the other eight. See lib. 1: p. 77. Ed. Gron.