| has gloss | eng: Babylon (Greek: , Strabo xvii. p. 807; Diod. i. 56; Joseph. Antiq. ii. 5; Ctesias Fr.; Ptol. iv. 5. § 54), was a fortress city or castle in the Delta of Egypt. It was situated in the Heliopolite Nome, upon the right (eastern) bank of the Nile, at latitude 30° N, and near the commencement of the Pharaonic Canal (also called Ptolemys Canal and Trajans Canal), from the Nile to the Red Sea. It was the boundary town between Lower and Middle Egypt, where the river craft paid tolls when ascending or descending the Nile. Diodorus ascribes its erection to rebel Assyrian captives in the reign of Sesostris, and Ctesias (Persica) dates it to the time of Semiramis; but Josephus (l. c.), with greater probability, attributes its structure to some Babylonian followers of Cambyses, in 525 BC. In the age of Augustus the Deltaic Babylon became a town of some importance, and was the headquarters of the three legions which ensured the obedience of Egypt. |