Histories

When Darius heard of this, he collected all his forces and led them against Babylon [44.4,32.55] (deserted settlement), Babil, Iraq, AsiaBabylon, and he marched up to the town and laid siege to it; but the Babylonians thought nothing of the siege. They came up on to the ramparts of the wall and taunted Darius and his army with gesture and word, and one of them uttered this mot:

“Why loiter there, Persians, and not go away? You will take us when mules give birth.” One of the Babylonians said this, by no means expecting that a mule would give birth.