In the year of Nabonassar 101, Saosduchinus, after a Reign of twenty years, was succeeded at Babylon by Chyniladon, and I think at Nineveh also, for I take Chyniladon to be that Nabuchodonosor who is mentioned in the book of Judith; for the history of that King suits best with these times: for there it is said that Nabuchodonosor King of the Assyrians who Reigned at Nineveh, that great city, in the twelfth year of his Reign made war upon Arphaxad King of the Medes, and was then left alone by a defection of the auxiliary nations of Cilicia, Damascus, Syria, Phoenicia, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt; and without their help routed the army of the Medes, and slew Arphaxad: and Arphaxad is there said to have built Ecbatane and therefore was either Dejoces, or his son Phraortes, who might finish the city founded by his father: and Herodotus [374] tells the same story of a King of Assyria, who routed the Medes, and slew their King Phraortes; and saith that in the time of this war the Assyrians were left alone by the defection of the auxiliary nations, being otherwise in good condition: Arphaxad was therefore the Phraortes of Herodotus, and by consequence was slain near the beginning of the Reign of Josiah: for this war was made after Phoenicia, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt had been conquered and revolted, Judith i. 7, 8, 9. and by consequence after the Reign of Asserhadon who conquered them: it was made when the Jews were newly returned from captivity, and the Vessels and Altar and Temple were sanctified after the profanation, Judith iv. 3. that is soon after Manasseh their King had been carried captive to Babylon by Asserhadon; and upon the death of that King, or some other change in the Assyrian Empire, had been released with the Jews from that captivity, and had repaired the Altar, and restored the sacrifices and worship of the Temple, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, 16. In the Greek version of the book of Judith, chap. v. 18. it is said, that the Temple of God was cast to the ground; but this is not said in Jerom's version; and in the Greek version, chap. iv. 3, and chap. xvi. 20, it is said, that the vessels, and the altar, and the house were sanctified after the prophanation, and in both versions, chap. iv. 11, the Temple is represented standing.

After this war Nabuchodonosor King of Assyria, in the 13th year of his Reign, according to the version of Jerom, sent his captain Holofernes with a great army to avenge himself on all the west country; because they had disobeyed his commandment: and Holofernes went forth with an army of 12000 horse, and 120000 foot of Assyrians, Medes and Persians, and reduced Cilicia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, and Damascus, and part of Arabia, and Ammon, and Edom, and Madian, and then came against Judaea: and this was done when the government was in the hands of the High-Priest and Antients of Israel, Judith iv. 8. and vii. 23. and by consequence not in the Reign of Manasseh or Amon, but when Josiah was a child. In times of prosperity the children of Israel were apt to go after false Gods, and in times of affliction to repent and turn to the Lord. So Manasseh a very wicked King, being captivated by the Assyrians, repented; and being released from captivity restored the worship of the true God: So when we are told that Josiah in the eighth year of his Reign, while he was yet young, began to seek after the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year of his Reign began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from Idolatry, and to destroy the High Places, and Groves, and Altars and Images of Baalim, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. we may understand that these acts of religion were occasioned by impending dangers, and escapes from danger. When Holofernes came against the western nations, and spoiled them, then were the Jews terrified, and they fortified Judaea, and cryed unto God with great fervency, and humbled themselves in sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads, and cried unto the God of Israel that he would not give their wives and their children and cities for a prey, and the Temple for a profanation: and the High-priest, and all the Priests put on sackcloth and ashes, and offered daily burnt offerings with vows and free gifts of the people, Judith iv. and then began Josiah to seek after the God of his father David: and after Judith had slain Holofernes, and the Assyrians were fled, and the Jews who pursued them were returned to Jerusalem, they worshipped the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and gifts, and continued feasting before the sanctuary for the space of three months, Judith xvi. 18, and then did Josiah purge Judah and Jerusalem from Idolatry. Whence it seems to me that the eighth year of Josiah fell in with the fourteenth or fifteenth of Nabuchodonosor, and that the twelfth year of Nabuchodonosor, in which Phraortes was slain, was the fifth or sixth of Josiah. Phraortes Reigned 22 years according to Herodotus, and therefore succeeded his father Dejoces about the 40th year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 89, and was slain by the Assyrians, and succeeded by Astyages, Anno Nabonass. 111. Dejoces Reigned 53 years according to Herodotus, and these years began in the 16th year of Hezekiah; which makes it probable that the Medes dated them from the time of their revolt: and according to all this reckoning, the Reign of Nabuchodonosor fell in with that of Chyniladon; which makes it probable that they were but two names of one and the same King.

Soon after the death of Phraortes [375] the Scythians under Madyes or Medus invaded Media, and beat the Medes in battle, Anno Nabonass. 113, and went thence towards Egypt, but were met in Phoenicia by Psammitichus and bought off, and returning Reigned over a great part of Asia: but in the end of about 28 years were expelled; many of their Princes and commanders being slain in a feast by the Medes under the conduct of Cyaxeres, the successor of Astyages, just before the destruction of Nineveh, and the rest being soon after forced to retire.

In the year of Nabonassar 123, [376] Nabopolassar the commander of the forces of Chyniladon the King of Assyria in Chaldaea revolted from him, and became King of Babylon; and Chyniladon was either then, or soon after, succeeded at Nineveh by the last King of Assyria, called Sarac by Polyhistor: and at length Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, married Amyite the daughter of Astyages and sister of Cyaxeres; and by this marriage the two families having contracted affinity, they conspired against the Assyrians; and Nabopolasser being now grown old, and Astyages being dead, their sons Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxeres led the armies of the two nations against Nineveh, slew Sarac, destroyed the city, and shared the Kingdom of the Assyrians. This victory the Jews refer to the Chaldaeans; the Greeks to the Medes; Tobit, Polyhistor, Josephus, and Ctesias to both. It gave a beginning to the great successes of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxeres, and laid the foundation of the two collateral Empires of the Babylonians and Medes; these being branches of the Assyrian Empire: and thence the time of the fall of the Assyrian Empire is determined, the conquerors being then in their youth. In the Reign of Josiah, when Zephaniah prophesied, Nineveh and the Kingdom of Assyria were standing, and their fall was predicted by that Prophet, Zeph. i. 1, and ii. 13. and in the end of his Reign Pharaoh Nechoh King of Egypt, the successor of Psammitichus, went up against the King of Assyria to the river Euphrates, to fight against Carchemish or Circutium, and in his way thither slew Josiah, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. and therefore the last King of Assyria was not yet slain. But in the third and fourth year of Jehoiakim the successor of Josiah, the two conquerors having taken Nineveh and finished their war in Assyria, prosecuted their conquests westward, and leading their forces against the King of Egypt, as an invader of their right of conquest, they beat him at Carchemish, and [377] took from him whatever he had newly taken from the Assyrians: and therefore we cannot err above a year or two, if we refer the destruction of Nineveh, and fall of the Assyrian Empire, to the second year of Jehoiakim, Anno Nabonass. 140. The name of the last King Sarac might perhaps be contracted from Sarchedon, as this name was from Asserhadon, Asserhadon-Pul, or Sardanapalus.

While the Assyrians Reigned at Nineveh, Persia was divided into several Kingdoms; and amongst others there was a Kingdom of Elam, which flourished in the days of Hezekiah, Manasseh, Josiah, and Jehoiakim Kings of Judah, and fell in the days of Zedekiah, Jer. xxv. 25, and xlix. 34, and Ezek. xxxii. 24. This Kingdom seems to have been potent, and to have had wars with the King of Touran or Scythia beyond the river Oxus with various success, and at length to have been subdued by the Medes and Babylonians, or one of them. For while Nebuchadnezzar warred in the west, Cyaxeres recovered the Assyrian provinces of Armenia, Pontus, and Cappadocia, and then they went eastward against the provinces of Persia and Parthia. Whether the Pischdadians, whom the Persians reckon to have been their oldest Kings, were Kings of the Kingdom of Elam, or of that of the Assyrians, and whether Elam was conquered by the Assyrians at the same time with Babylonia and Susiana in the Reign of Asserhadon, and soon after revolted, I leave to be examined.

* * * * *

CHAP. IV.

Of the two Contemporary Empires of the Babylonians and Medes.

By the fall of the Assyrian Empire the Kingdoms of the Babylonians and Medes grew great and potent. The Reigns of the Kings of Babylon are stated in Ptolemy's Canon: for understanding of which you are to note that every King's Reign in that Canon began with the last Thoth of his predecessor's Reign, as I gather by comparing the Reigns of the Roman Emperors in that Canon with their Reigns recorded in years, months, and days, by other Authors: whence it appears from that Canon that Asserhadon died in the year of Nabonassar 81, Saosduchinus his successor in the year 101, Chyniladon in the year 123, Nabopolassar in the year 144, and Nebuchadnezzar in the year 187. All these Kings, and some others mentioned in the Canon, Reigned successively over Babylon, and this last King died in the 37th year of Jechoniah's captivity, 2 Kings xxv. 27. and therefore Jechoniah was captivated in the 150th year of Nabonassar.

This captivity was in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign, 2 Kings xxiv. 12. and eleventh of Jehoiakim's: for the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign was the fourth of Jehoiakim's, Jer. xxv. i. and Jehoiakim Reigned eleven years before this captivity, 2 Kings xxiii. 36. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5, and Jechoniah three months, ending with the captivity; and the tenth year of Jechoniah's captivity, was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign, Jer. xxxii. 1. and the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which Jerusalem was taken, was the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. lii. 5, 12. and therefore Nebuchadnezzar began his Reign in the year of Nabonassar 142, that is, two years before the death of his father Nabopolassar, he being then made King by his father; and Jehoiakim succeeded his father Josiah in the year of Nabonassar 139; and Jerusalem was taken and the Temple burnt in the year of Nabonassar 160, about twenty years after the destruction of Nineveh.

The Reign of Darius Hystaspis over Persia, by the Canon and the consent of all Chronologers, and by several Eclipses of the Moon, began in spring in the year of Nabonassar 227: and in the fourth year of King Darius, in the 4th day of the ninth month, which is the month Chisleu, when the Jews had sent unto the house of God, saying, should I weep in the fifth month as I have done these so many years? the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, speak to all the people of the Land, and to the Priests, saying; when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me? Zech. vii. Count backwards those seventy years in which they fasted in the fifth month for the burning of the Temple, and in the seventh for the death of Gedaliah; and the burning of the Temple and death of Gedaliah, will fall upon the fifth and seventh Jewish months, in the year of Nabonassar 160, as above.

As the Chaldaean Astronomers counted the Reigns of their Kings by the years of Nabonassar, beginning with the month Thoth, so the Jews, as their Authors tell us, counted the Reigns of theirs by the years of Moses, beginning every year with the month Nisan: for if any King began his Reign a few days before this month began, it was reckoned to him for a whole year, and the beginning of this month was accounted the beginning of the second year of his Reign; and according to this reckoning the first year of Jehojakim began with the month Nisan, Anno Nabonass. 139, tho' his Reign might not really begin 'till five or six months after; and the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and first of Nebuchadnezzar, according to the reckoning of the Jews, began with the month Nisan, Anno Nabonass. 142; and the first year of Zedekiah and of Jeconiah's captivity, and ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, began with the month Nisan, in the year of Nabonassar 150; and the tenth year of Zedekiah, and 18th of Nebuchadnezzar, began with the month Nisan in the year of Nabonassar 159. Now in the ninth year of Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judaea and the cities thereof and in the tenth month of that year, and tenth day of the month, he and his host besieged Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxv. 1. Jer. xxxiv. 1, xxxix. 1, and lii. 4. From this time to the tenth month in the second year of Darius are just seventy years, and accordingly, upon the 24th day of the eleventh month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah,—and the Angel of the Lord said, Oh Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation, these threescore and ten years, Zech. i. 7, 12. So then the ninth year of Zedekiah, in which this indignation against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah began, commenced with the month Nisan in the year of Nabonassar 158; and the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, in which the city was taken and the Temple burnt, commenced with the month Nisan in the year of Nabonassar 160, as above.

By all these characters the years of Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Nebuchadnezzar, seem to be sufficiently determined, and thereby the Chronology of the Jews in the Old Testament is connected with that of later times: for between the death of Solomon and the ninth year of Zedekiah wherein Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judaea, and began the Siege of Jerusalem, there were 390 years, as is manifest both by the prophesy of Ezekiel, chap. iv, and by summing up the years of the Kings of Judah; and from the ninth year of Zedekiah inclusively to the vulgar AEra of Christ, there were 590 years: and both these numbers, with half the Reign of Solomon, make up a thousand years.

In the [378] end of the Reign of Josiah, Anno Nabonass. 139, Pharaoh Nechoh, the successor of Psammitichus, came with a great army out of Egypt against the King of Assyria, and being denied passage through Judaea, beat the Jews at Megiddo or Magdolus before Egypt, slew Josiah their King, marched to Carchemish or Circutium, a town of Mesopotamia upon Euphrates, and took it, possest himself of the cities of Syria, sent for Jehoahaz the new King of Judah to Riblah or Antioch, deposed him there, made Jehojakim King in the room of Josiah, and put the Kingdom of Judah to tribute: but the King of Assyria being in the mean time besieged and subdued, and Nineveh destroyed by Assuerus King of the Medes, and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and the conquerors being thereby entitled to the countries belonging to the King of Assyria, they led their victorious armies against the King of Egypt who had seized part of them. For Nebuchadnezzar, assisted [379] by Astibares, that is, by Astivares, Assuerus, Acksweres, Axeres, or Cy-Axeres, King of the Medes, in the [380] third year of Jehoiakim, came with an army of Babylonians, Medes, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, to the number of 10000 chariots, and 180000 foot, and 120000 horse, and laid waste Samaria, Galilee, Scythopolis, and the Jews in Galaaditis, and besieged Jerusalem, and took King Jehoiakim alive, and [381] bound him in chains for a time, and carried to Babylon Daniel and others of the people, and part of what Gold and Silver and Brass they found in the Temple: and in [382] the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was the twentieth of Nabopolassar, they routed the army of Pharaoh Nechoh at Carchemish, and by pursuing the war took from the King of Egypt whatever pertained to him from the river of Egypt to the river of Euphrates. This King of Egypt is called by Berosus, [383] the Satrapa of Egypt, Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia; and this victory over him put an end to his Reign in Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, which he had newly invaded, and gave a beginning to the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar there: and by the conquests over Assyria and Syria the small Kingdom of Babylon was erected into a potent Empire.

Whilst Nebuchadnezzar was acting in Syria, [384] his father Nabopolassar died, having Reigned 21 years; and Nebuchadnezzar upon the news thereof, having ordered his affairs in Syria returned to Babylon, leaving the captives and his army with his servants to follow him: and from henceforward he applied himself sometimes to war, conquering Sittacene, Susiana, Arabia, Edom, Egypt, and some other countries; and sometimes to peace, adorning the Temple of Belus with the spoils that he had taken; and the city of Babylon with magnificent walls and gates, and stately palaces and pensile gardens, as Berosus relates; and amongst other things he cut the new rivers Naarmalcha and Pallacopas above Babylon and built the city of Teredon.

Judaea was now in servitude under the King of Babylon, being invaded and subdued in the third and fourth years of Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim served him three years, and then turned and rebelled, 2 King. xxiv. 1. While Nebuchadnezzar and the army of the Chaldaeans continued in Syria, Jehojakim was under compulsion; after they returned to Babylon, Jehojakim continued in fidelity three years, that is, during the 7th, 8th and 9th years of his Reign, and rebelled in the tenth: whereupon in the return or end of the year, that is in spring, he sent [385] and besieged Jerusalem, captivated Jeconiah the son and successor of Jehoiakim, spoiled the Temple, and carried away to Babylon the Princes, craftsmen, smiths, and all that were fit for war: and, when none remained but the poorest of the people, made [386] Zedekiah their King, and bound him upon oath to serve the King of Babylon: this was in spring in the end of the eleventh year of Jehoiakim, and beginning of the year of Nabonassar 150.

Zedekiah notwithstanding his oath [387] revolted, and made a covenant with the King of Egypt, and therefore Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year of Zedekiah [388] invaded Judaea and the cities thereof, and in the tenth Jewish month of that year besieged Jerusalem again, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the 4th and 5th months, after a siege of one year and an half, took and burnt the City and Temple.

Nebuchadnezzar after he was made King by his father Reigned over Phoenicia and Coele-Syria 45 years, and [389] after the death of his father 43 years, and [390] after the captivity of Jeconiah 37; and then was succeeded by his son Evilmerodach, called Iluarodamus in Ptolemy's Canon. Jerome [391] tells us, that Evilmerodach Reigned seven years in his father's life-time, while his father did eat grass with oxen, and after his father's restoration was put in prison with Jeconiah King of Judah 'till the death of his father, and then succeeded in the Throne. In the fifth year of Jeconiah's captivity, Belshazzar was next in dignity to his father Nebuchadnezzar, and was designed to be his successor, Baruch i. 2, 10, 11, 12, 14, and therefore Evilmerodach was even then in disgrace. Upon his coming to the Throne [392] he brought his friend and companion Jeconiah out of prison on the 27th day of the twelfth month; so that Nebuchadnezzar died in the end of winter, Anno Nabonass. 187.

Evilmerodach Reigned two years after his father's death, and for his lust and evil manners was slain by his sister's husband Neriglissar, or Nergalassar, Nabonass. 189, according to the Canon.

Neriglissar, in the name of his young son Labosordachus, or Laboasserdach, the grand-child of Nebuchadnezzar by his daughter, Reigned four years, according to the Canon and Berosus, including the short Reign of Laboasserdach alone: for Laboasserdach, according to Berosus and Josephus, Reigned nine months after the death of his father, and then for his evil manners was slain in a feast, by the conspiracy of his friends with Nabonnedus a Babylonian, to whom by consent they gave the Kingdom: but these nine months are not reckoned apart in the Canon.

Nabonnedus or Nabonadius, according to the Canon, began his Reign in the year of Nabonassar 193, Reigned seventeen years, and ended his Reign in the year of Nabonassar 210, being then vanquished and Babylon taken by Cyrus.

Herodotus calls this last King of Babylon, Labynitus, and says that he was the son of a former Labynitus, and of Nitocris an eminent Queen of Babylon: by the father he seems to understand that Labynitus, who, as he tells us, was King of Babylon when the great Eclipse of the Sun predicted by Thales put an end to the five years war between the Medes and Lydians; and this was the great Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel [393] calls the last King of Babylon, Belshazzar, and saith that Nebuchadnezzar was his father: and Josephus tells us, [394] that the last King of Babylon was called Naboandel by the Babylonians, and Reigned seventeen years; and therefore he is the same King of Babylon with Nabonnedus or Labynitus; and this is more agreeable to sacred writ than to make Nabonnedus a stranger to the royal line: for all nations were to serve Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, till the very time of his land should come, and many nations should serve themselves of him, Jer. xxvii. 7. Belshazzar was born and lived in honour before the fifth year of Jeconiah's captivity, which was the eleventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's Reign; and therefore he was above 34 years old at the death of Evilmerodach, and so could be no other King than Nabonnedus: for Laboasserdach the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar was a child when he Reigned.

Herodotus [395] tells us, that there were two famous Queens of Babylon, Semiramis and Nitocris; and that the latter was more skilful: she observing that the Kingdom of the Medes, having subdued many cities, and among others Nineveh, was become great and potent, intercepted and fortified the passages out of Media into Babylonia; and the river which before was straight, she made crooked with great windings, that it might be more sedate and less apt to overflow: and on the side of the river above Babylon, in imitation of the Lake of Moeris in Egypt, she dug a Lake every way forty miles broad, to receive the water of the river, and keep it for watering the land. She built also a bridge over the river in the middle of Babylon, turning the stream into the Lake 'till the bridge was built. Philostratus saith, [396] that she made a bridge under the river two fathoms broad, meaning an arched vault over which the river flowed, and under which they might walk cross the river: he calls her [Greek: Medeia], a Mede.

Berosus tells us, that Nebuchadnezzar built a pensile garden upon arches, because his wife was a Mede and delighted in mountainous prospects, such as abounded in Media, but were wanting in Babylonia: she was Amyite the daughter of Astyages, and sister of Cyaxeres, Kings of the Medes. Nebuchadnezzar married her upon a league between the two families against the King of Assyria: but Nitocris might be another woman who in the Reign of her son Labynitus, a voluptuous and vicious King, took care of his affairs, and for securing his Kingdom against the Medes, did the works above mentioned. This is that Queen mentioned in Daniel, chap. v. ver. 10.

Josephus [397] relates out of the Tyrian records, that in the Reign of Ithobalus King of Tyre, that city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years together: in the end of that siege Ithobalus their King was slain, Ezek. xxviii. 8, 9, 10. and after him, according to the Tyrian records, Reigned Baal ten years, Ecnibalus and Chelbes one year, Abbarus three months, Mytgonus and Gerastratus six years, Balatorus one year, Merbalus four years, and Iromus twenty years: and in the fourteenth year of Iromus, say the Tyrian records, the Reign of Cyrus began in Babylonia; therefore the siege of Tyre began 48 years and some months before the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia: it began when Jerusalem had been newly taken and burnt, with the Temple, Ezek. xxvi and by consequence after the eleventh year of Jeconiah's captivity, or 160th year of Nabonassar, and therefore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began after the year of Nabonassar 208: it ended before the eight and twentieth year of Jeconiah's captivity, or 176th year of Nabonassar, Ezek. xxix. 17. and therefore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began before the year of Nabonassar 211. By this argument the first year of Cyrus in Babylonia was one of the two intermediate years 209, 210. Cyrus invaded Babylonia in the year of Nabonassar 209; [398] Babylon held out, and the next year was taken, Jer. li. 39, 57. by diverting the river Euphrates, and entring the city through the emptied channel, and by consequence after midsummer: for the river, by the melting of the snow in Armenia, overflows yearly in the beginning of summer, but in the heat of dimmer grows low. [399] And that night was the King of Babylon slain, and Darius the Mede, or King of the Medes, took the Kingdom being about threescore and two years old: so then Babylon was taken a month or two after the summer solstice, in the year of Nabonassar 210; as the Canon also represents.

The Kings of the Medes before Cyrus were Dejoces, Phraortes, Astyages, Cyaxeres, or Cyaxares, and Darius: the three first Reigned before the Kingdom grew great, the two last were great conquerors, and erected the Empire; for AEschylus, who flourished in the Reigns of Darius Hystaspis, and Xerxes, and died in the 76th Olympiad, introduces Darius thus complaining of those who persuaded his son Xerxes to invade Greece; [400]

[Greek: Toigar sphin ergon estin exeirgasmenon] [Greek: Megiston, aieimneston hoion oudepo,] [Greek: To d' asty Souson exekeinosen peson;] [Greek: Ex houte timen Zeus anax tend' opasen] [Greek: En andra pases Asiados melotrophou] [Greek: Tagein, echonta skeptron euthynterion] [Greek: Medos gar en ho protos hegemon stratou;] [Greek: Allos d' ekeinou pais tod' ergon enyse;] [Greek: Phrenes gar autou thymon oiakostrophoun.] [Greek: Tritos d' ap' autou Kyros, eudaimon aner,] &c.

They have done a work The greatest, and most memorable, such as never happen'd, For it has emptied the falling Sufa: From the time that King Jupiter granted this honour, That one man should Reign over all fruitful Asia, Having the imperial Scepter. For he that first led the Army was a Mede; The next, who was his son, finisht the work, For prudence directed his soul; The third was Cyrus, a happy man, &c.

The Poet here attributes the founding of the Medo-Persian Empire to the two immediate predecessors of Cyrus, the first of which was a Mede, and the second was his son: the second was Darius the Mede, the immediate predecessor of Cyrus, according to Daniel; and therefore the first was the father of Darius, that is, Achsuerus, Assuerus, Oxyares, Axeres, Prince Axeres, or Cy-Axeres, the word Cy signifying a Prince: for Daniel tells us, that Darius was the son of Achsuerus, or Ahasuerus, as the Masoretes erroneously call him, of the seed of the Medes, that is, of the seed royal: this is that Assuerus who together with Nebuchadnezzar took and destroyed Nineveh, according to Tobit: which action is by the Greeks ascribed to Cyaxeres, and by Eupolemus to Astibares, a name perhaps corruptly written for Assuerus. By this victory over the Assyrians, and subversion of their Empire seated at Nineveh, and the ensuing conquests of Armenia, Cappadocia and Persia, he began to extend the Reign of one man over all Asia; and his son Darius the Mede, by conquering the Kingdoms of Lydia and Babylon, finished the work: and the third King was Cyrus, a happy man for his great successes under and against Darius, and large and peaceable dominion in his own Reign.

Cyrus lived seventy years, according to Cicero, and Reigned nine years over Babylon, according to Ptolemy's Canon, and therefore was 61 years old at the taking of Babylon; at which time Darius the Mede was 62 years old, according to Daniel: and therefore Darius was two Generations younger than Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus: for Astyages, according to both [401] Herodotus and Xenophon, gave his daughter Mandane to Cambyses a Prince of Persia, and by them became the grandfather of Cyrus; and Cyaxeres was the son of Astyages, according [402] to Xenophon, and gave his Daughter to Cyrus. This daughter, [403] saith Xenophon, was reported to be very handsome, and used to play with Cyrus when they were both children, and to say that she would marry him: and therefore they were much of the same age. Xenophon saith that Cyrus married her after the taking of Babylon; but she was then an old woman: it's more probable that he married her while she was young and handsome, and he a young man; and that because he was the brother-in-law of Darius the King, he led the armies of the Kingdom until he revolted: so then Astyages, Cyaxeres and Darius Reigned successively over the Medes; and Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages, and married the sister of Darius, and succeeded him in the Throne.

Herodotus therefore [404] hath inverted the order of the Kings Astyages and Cyaxeres, making Cyaxeres to be the son and successor of Phraortes, and the father and predecessor of Astyages the father of Mandane, and grandfather of Cyrus, and telling us, that this Astyages married Ariene the daughter of Alyattes King of Lydia, and was at length taken prisoner and deprived of his dominion by Cyrus: and Pausanias hath copied after Herodotus, in telling us that Astyages the son of Cyaxeres Reigned in Media in the days of Alyattes King of Lydia. Cyaxeres had a son who married Ariene the daughter of Alyattes; but this son was not the father of Mandane, and grandfather of Cyrus, but of the same age with Cyrus: and his true name is preserved in the name of the Darics, which upon the conquest of Croesus by the conduct of his General Cyrus, he coyned out of the gold and silver of the conquered Lydians: his name was therefore Darius, as he is called by Daniel; for Daniel tells us, that this Darius was a Mede, and that his father's name was Assuerus, that is Axeres or Cyaxeres, as above: considering therefore that Cyaxeres Reigned long, and that no author mentions more Kings of Media than one called Astyages, and that AEschylus who lived in those days knew but of two great Monarchs of Media and Persia, the father and the son, older than Cyrus; it seems to me that Astyages, the father of Mandane and grandfather of Cyrus, was the father and predecessor of Cyaxeres; and that the son and successor of Cyaxeres was called Darius. Cyaxeres, [405] according to Herodotus, Reigned 40 years, and his successor 35, and Cyrus, according to Xenophon, seven: Cyrus died Anno Nabonass. 219, according to the Canon, and therefore Cyaxeres died Anno Nabonass. 177, and began his Reign Anno Nabonass. 137, and his father Astyages Reigned 26 years, beginning his Reign at the death of Phraortes, who was slain by the Assyrians, Anno Nabonass. 111, as above.

Of all the Kings of the Medes, Cyaxeres was greatest warrior. Herodotus [406] saith that he was much more valiant than his ancestors, and that he was the first who divided the Kingdom into provinces, and reduced the irregular and undisciplined forces of the Medes into discipline and order: and therefore by the testimony of Herodotus he was that King of the Medes whom AEschylus makes the first conqueror and founder of the Empire; for Herodotus represents him and his son to have been the two immediate predecessors of Cyrus, erring only in the name of the son. Astyages did nothing glorious: in the beginning of his Reign a great body of Scythians commanded by Madyes, [407] invaded Media and Parthia, as above, and Reigned there about 28 years; but at length his son Cyaxeres circumvented and slew them in a feast, and made the rest fly to their brethren in Parthia; and immediately after, in conjunction with Nebuchadnezzar, invaded and subverted the Kingdom of Assyria, and destroyed Nineveh.

In the fourth year of _Jehoiakim_, which the _Jews_ reckon to be the first of _Nebuchadnezzar_, dating his Reign from his being made King by his father, or from the month _Nisan_ preceding, when the victors had newly shared the Empire of the _Assyrians_, and in prosecuting their victory were invading _Syria_ and _Phoenicia_, and were ready to invade the nations round about; God [408] threatned that _he would take all the families of the North, _that is, the armies of the _Medes_,_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_ the King of _Babylon_, and bring them against _Judaea_ and against the nations round about, and utterly destroy those nations, and make them an astonishment and lasting desolations, and cause them all to drink the wine-cup of his fury_; and in particular, he names _the Kings of _Judah_ and _Egypt_, and those of _Edom_, and _Moab_, and _Ammon_, and _Tyre_, and _Zidon_, and the Isles of the Sea, and _Arabia_, and _Zimri_, and all the Kings of _Elam_, and all the Kings of the _Medes_, and all the Kings of the North, and the King of _Sesac_; and that after seventy years, he would also punish the King of _Babylon_. Here, in numbering the nations which should suffer, he omits the _Assyrians_ as fallen already, and names the Kings of _Elam_ or _Persia_, and _Sesac_ or _Susa_, as distinct from those of the _Medes_ and _Babylonians_; and therefore the _Persians_ were not yet subdued by the _Medes_, nor the King of _Susa_ by the _Chaldaeans_; and as by the punishment of the King of _Babylon_ he means the conquest of _Babylon_ by the _Medes_; so by the punishment of the _Medes_ he seems to mean the conquest of the _Medes_ by _Cyrus_.

After this, in the beginning of the Reign of Zedekiah, that is, in the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, God threatned that he would give the Kingdoms of Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and Tyre and Zidon, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and that all the nations should serve him, and his son, and his son's son until the very time of his land should come, and many nations and great Kings should serve themselves of him, Jer. xxvii. And at the same time God thus predicted the approaching conquest of the Persians by the Medes and their confederates: Behold, saith he, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might: and upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them towards all those winds, and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come: for I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them 'till I have consumed them; and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the King and the Princes, saith the Lord: but it shall come to pass in the latter days, viz. in the Reign of Cyrus, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. Jer. xlix. 35, &c. The Persians were therefore hitherto a free nation under their own King, but soon after this were invaded, subdued, captivated, and dispersed into the nations round about, and continued in servitude until the Reign of Cyrus: and since the Medes and Chaldaeans did not conquer the Persians 'till after the ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, it gives us occasion to enquire what that active warrior Cyaxeres was doing next after the taking of Nineveh.

When Cyaxeres expelled the Scythians, [409] some of them made their peace with him, and staid in Media, and presented to him daily some of the venison which they took in hunting: but happening one day to catch nothing, Cyaxeres in a passion treated them with opprobrious language: this they resented, and soon after killed one of the children of the Medes, dressed it like venison, and presented it to Cyaxeres, and then fled to Alyattes King of Lydia; whence followed a war of five years between the two Kings Cyaxeres and Alyattes: and thence I gather that the Kingdoms of the Medes and Lydians were now contiguous, and by consequence that Cyaxeres, soon after the conquest of Nineveh, seized the regions belonging to the Assyrians, as far as to the river Halys. In the sixth year of this war, in the midst of a battel between the two Kings, there was a total Eclipse of the Sun, predicted by Thales; [410] and this Eclipse fell upon the 28th of May, Anno Nabonass. 163, forty and seven years before the taking of Babylon, and put an end to the battel: and thereupon the two Kings made peace by the mediation of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, and Syennesis King of Cilicia; and the peace was ratified by a marriage, between Darius the son of Cyaxeres and Ariene the daughter of Alyattes: Darius was therefore fifteen or sixteen years old at the time of this marriage; for he was 62 years old at the taking of Babylon.

In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's Reign, the year in which Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, Ezekiel comparing the Kingdoms of the East to trees in the garden of Eden, thus mentions their being conquered by the Kings of the Medes and Chaldaeans: Behold, saith he, the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon with fair branches,—his height was exalted above all the trees of the field,—and under his shadow dwelt all great nations,—not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty:—but I have delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen,—I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to the grave with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth: they also went down into the grave with him, unto them that be slain with the sword, and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen, Ezek. xxxi.

The next year _Ezekiel_, in another prophesy, thus enumerates the principal nations who had been subdued and slaughtered by the conquering sword of _Cyaxeres_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_. _Asthur_ is there and all her company, _viz. in _Hades_ or the lower parts of the earth, where the dead bodies lay buried_, his graves are about him; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused their terrour in the land of the living. There is _Elam_, and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terrour in the land of the living: yet have they born their shame with them that go down into the pit.—There is _Meshech_, _Tubal_, and all her multitude [411]; her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terrour in the land of the living.—There is _Edom_, her Kings, and all her Princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword.—There be the Princes of the North all of them, and all the _Zidonians_, which with their terrour are gone down with the slain_, Ezek. xxxii. Here by the Princes of the North I understand those on the north of _Judaea_, and chiefly the Princes of _Armenia_ and _Cappadocia_, who fell in the wars which _Cyaxeres_ made in reducing those countries after the taking of _Nineveh_. _Elam_ or _Persia_ was conquered by the _Medes_, and _Susiana_ by the _Babylonians_, after the ninth, and before the nineteenth year of _Nebuchadnezzar_: and therefore we cannot err much if we place these conquests in the twelfth or fourteenth year of _Nebuchadnezzar_: in the nineteenth, twentieth, and one and twentieth year of this King, he invaded and [412] conquered _Judaea_, _Moab_, _Ammon_, _Edom_, the _Philistims_ and _Zidon_; and [413] the next year he besieged _Tyre_, and after a siege of thirteen years he took it, in the 35th year of his Reign; and then he [414] invaded and conquered _Egypt_, _Ethiopia_ and _Libya_; and about eighteen or twenty years after the death of this King, _Darius_ the _Mede_ conquered the Kingdom of _Sardes_; and after five or six years more he invaded and conquered the Empire of _Babylon_: and thereby finished the work of propagating the _Medo-Persian_ Monarchy over all _Asia_, as _AEschylus_ represents.

Now this is that Darius who coined a great number of pieces of pure gold called Darics, or Stateres Darici: for Suidas, Harpocration, and the Scholiast of Aristophanes> [415] tell us, that these were coined not by the father of Xerxes, but by an earlier Darius, by Darius the first, by the first King of the Medes and Persians who coined gold money. They were stamped on one side with the effigies of an Archer, who was crowned with a spiked crown, had a bow in his left hand, and an arrow in his right, and was cloathed with a long robe; I have seen one of them in gold, and another in silver: they were of the same weight and value with the Attic Stater or piece of gold money weighing two Attic drachms. Darius seems to have learnt the art and use of money from the conquered Kingdom of the Lydians, and to have recoined their gold: for the Medes, before they conquered the Lydians, had no money. Herodotus [416] tells us, that when Croesus was preparing to invade Cyrus, a certain Lydian called Sandanis advised him, that he was preparing an expedition against a nation who were cloathed with leathern breeches, who eat not such victuals as they would, but such as their barren country afforded; who drank no wine, but water only, who eat no figs nor other good meat, who had nothing to lose, but might get much from the Lydians: for the Persians, saith Herodotus, before they conquered the Lydians, had nothing rich or valuable: and [417] Isaiah tells us, that the Medes regarded not silver, nor delighted in gold; but the Lydians and Phrygians were exceeding rich, even to a proverb: Midas & Croesus, saith [418] Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia [auri] pondo xxxiv millia invenerat, praeter vasa aurea aurumque factum, & in eo folia ac platanum vitemque. Qua victoria argenti quingenta millia talentorum reportavit, & craterem Semiramidis cujus pondus quindecim talentorum colligebat. Talentum autem AEgyptium pondo octoginta capere Varro tradit. What the conqueror did with all this gold and silver appears by the Darics. The Lydians, according to [419] Herodotus, were the first who coined gold and silver, and Croesus coined gold monies in plenty, called Croesei; and it was not reasonable that the monies of the Kings of Lydia should continue current after the overthrow of their Kingdom, and therefore Darius recoined it with his own effigies, but without altering the current weight and value: he Reigned then from before the conquest of Sardes 'till after the conquest of Babylon.

And since the cup of Semiramis was preserved 'till the conquest of Croesus by Darius, it is not probable that she could be older than is represented by Herodotus.

This conquest of the Kingdom of Lydia put the Greeks into fear of the Medes: for Theognis, who lived at Megara in the very times of these wars, writes thus, [420]

[Greek: Pinomen, charienta met' alleloisi legontes,] [Greek: Meden ton Medon deidiotes polemon.]

Let us drink, talking pleasant things with one another, Not fearing the war of the Medes.

And again, [421]

[Greek: Autos de straton hybristen Medon aperyke] [Greek: Tesde poleus, hina soi laoi en euphrosynei] [Greek: Eros eperchomenou kleitas pempos' hekatombas,] [Greek: Terpomenoi kithare kai eratei thaliei,] [Greek: Paianonte chorois, iachosi te, son peri bomon.] [Greek: E gar egoge dedoik', aphradien esoron] [Greek: Kai stasin Hellenon laophthoron; alla sy Phoibe,] [Greek: Hilaos hemeteren tende phylasse polin.]

_Thou _Apollo_ drive away the injurious army of the _Medes_ _From this city, that the people may with joy_ _Send thee choice hecatombs in the spring,_ _Delighted with the harp and chearful feasting,_ _And chorus's of _Poeans_ and acclamations about thy altar_. _For truly I am afraid, beholding the folly_ _And sedition of the _Greeks_, which corrupts the people: but thou _Apollo_,_ _Being propitious, keep this our city._

The Poet tells us further that discord had destroyed Magnesia, Colophon, and Smyrna, cities of Ionia and Phrygia, and would destroy the Greeks; which is as much as to say that the Medes had then conquered those cities.

The _Medes_ therefore Reigned 'till the taking of _Sardes_: and further, according to _Xenophon_ and the Scriptures, they Reigned 'till the taking of _Babylon_: for _Xenophon_ [422] tells us, that after the taking of _Babylon_, _Cyrus_ went to the King of the _Medes_ at _Ecbatane_ and succeeded him in the Kingdom: and _Jerom_, [423] _that _Babylon_ was taken by _Darius_ King of the _Medes_ and his kinsman _Cyrus_: and the Scriptures tell us, that _Babylon_ was destroyed by _a nation out of the north_, _Jerem_. l. 3, 9, 41. by _the Kingdoms of _Ararat Minni, or _Armenia_, and _Ashchenez, or _Phrygia minor_, _Jer_. li. 27. by the _Medes_, _Isa._ xiii. 17, 19. _by the Kings of the _Medes_ and the captains and rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion_, _Jer_. li. 11, 28. The Kingdom of _Babylon_ was _numbred and finished and broken and given to the _Medes_ and _Persians_, _Dan._ v. 26. 28. first to the _Medes_ under _Darius_, and then to the _Persians_ under _Cyrus_: for _Darius_ Reigned over _Babylon_ like a conqueror, not observing the laws of the _Babylonians_, but introducing the immutable laws of the conquering nations, the _Medes_ and _Persians_, _Dan._ vi. 8, 12, 15; and the _Medes_ in his Reign are set before the _Persians_, _Dan._ ib. & v. 28, & viii. 20. as the _Persians_ were afterwards in the Reign of _Cyrus_ and his successors set before the _Medes_, _Esther_ i. 3, 14, 18, 19. _Dan._ x. 1, 20. and xi. 2. which shews that in the Reign of _Darius_ the _Medes_ were uppermost.

You may know also by the great number of provinces in the Kingdom of Darius, that he was King of the Medes and Persians: for upon the conquest of Babylon, he set over the whole Kingdom an hundred and twenty Princes, Dan. vi. 1. and afterwards when Cambyses and Darius Hystaspis had added some new territories, the whole contained but 127 provinces.

The extent of the _Babylonian_ Empire was much the same with that of _Nineveh_ after the revolt of the _Medes_. _Berosus_ saith that _Nebuchadnezzar_ held _Egypt_, _Syria_, _Phoenicia_ and _Arabia_: and _Strabo_ adds _Arbela_ to the territories of _Babylon_; and saying that _Babylon_ was anciently the metropolis of _Assyria_, he thus describes the limits of this _Assyrian_ Empire. _Contiguous_, [424] saith he, _to _Persia_ and _Susiana_ are the _Assyrians_: for so they call _Babylonia_, and the greatest part of the region about it: part of which is _Arturia_, wherein is _Ninus [_or_ Nineveh;]_ and _Apolloniatis_, and the _Elymaeans_, and the _Paraetacae_, and _Chalonitis_ by the mountain _Zagrus_, and the fields near _Ninus_, and _Dolomene_, and _Chalachene_, and _Chazene_, and _Adiabene_, and the nations of _Mesopotamia_ near the _Gordyaeans_, and the _Mygdones_ about _Nisibis_, unto _Zeugma_ upon _Euphrates_; and a large region on this side _Euphrates_ inhabited by the _Arabians_ and _Syrians_ properly so called, as far as _Cilicia_ and _Phoenicia_ and _Libya_ and the sea of _Egypt_ and the _Sinus Issicus_: and a little after describing the extent of the _Babylonian_ region, he bounds it on the north, with the _Armenians_ and _Medes_ unto the mountain _Zagrus_; on the east side, with _Susa_ and _Elymais_ and _Paraetacene_, inclusively; on the south, with the _Persian Gulph_ and _Chaldaea_; and on the west, with the _Arabes Scenitae_ as far as _Adiabene_ and _Gordyaea_: afterwards speaking of _Susiana_ and _Sitacene_, a region between _Babylon_ and _Susa_, and of _Paraetacene_ and _Cossaea_ and _Elymais_, and of the _Sagapeni_ and _Siloceni_, two little adjoining Provinces, he concludes, [425] _and these are the nations which inhabit _Babylonia_ eastward: to the north are _Media_ and _Armenia_, _exclusively_, and westward are _Adiabene_ and _Mesopotamia_, _inclusively_; the greatest part of _Adiabene_ is plain, the same being part of _Babylonia_: in same places it borders on _Armenia_: for the _Medes_, _Armenians_ and _Babylonians_ warred frequently on one another_. Thus far _Strabo_.

When Cyrus took Babylon, he changed the Kingdom into a Satrapy or Province: whereby the bounds were long after known: and by this means Herodotus [426] gives us an estimate of the bigness of this Monarchy in proportion to that of the Persians, telling us that whilst every region over which the King of Persia Reigned in his days, was distributed for the nourishment of his army, besides the tributes, the Babylonian region nourished him four months of the twelve in the year, and all the rest of Asia eight: so the power of the region, saith he, is equivalent to the third part of Asia, and its Principality, which the Persians call a Satrapy, is far the best of all the Provinces.

Babylon [427] was a square city of 120 furlongs, or 15 miles on every side, compassed first with a broad and deep ditch, and then with a wall fifty cubits thick, and two hundred high. Euphrates flowed through the middle of it southward, a few leagues on this side Tigris: and in the middle of one half westward stood the King's new Palace, built by Nebuchadnezzar; and in the middle of the other half stood the Temple of Belus, with the old Palace between that Temple and the river: this old Palace was built by the Assyrians, according to [428] Isaiah, and by consequence, by Pul and his son Nabonassar, as above: they founded the city for the Arabians, and set up the towers thereof, and raised the Palaces thereof: and at that time Sabacon the Ethiopian invaded Egypt, and made great multitudes of Egyptians fly from him into Chaldaea, and carry thither their Astronomy, and Astrology, and Architecture, and the form of their year, which they preserved there in the AEra of Nabonassar: for the practice of observing the Stars began in Egypt in the days of Ammon, as above, and was propagated from thence in the Reign of his son Sesac into Afric, Europe, and Asia by conquest; and then Atlas formed the Sphere of the Libyans, and Chiron that of the Greeks, and the Chaldaeans also made a Sphere of their own. But Astrology was invented in Egypt by Nichepsos, or Necepsos, one of the Kings of the lower Egypt, and Petosiris his Priest, a little before the days of Sabacon, and propagated thence into Chaldaea, where Zoroaster the Legislator of the Magi met with it: so Paulinus,

Quique magos docuit mysteria vana Necepsos:

And Diodorus, [429] they say that the Chaldaeans in Babylonia are colonies of the Egyptians, and being taught by the Priests of Egypt became famous for Astrology. By the influence of the same colonies, the Temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon seems to have been erected in the form of the Egyptian Pyramids: for [430] this Temple was a solid Tower or Pyramid a furlong square, and a furlong high, with seven retractions, which made it appear like eight towers standing upon one another, and growing less and less to the top: and in the eighth tower was a Temple with a bed and a golden table, kept by a woman, after the manner of the Egyptians in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon at Thebes; and above the Temple was a place for observing the Stars: they went up to the top of it by steps on the outside, and the bottom was compassed with a court, and the court with a building two furlongs in length on every side.

The Babylonians were extreamly addicted to Sorcery, Inchantments, Astrology and Divinations, Isa. xlvii. 9, 12, 13. Dan. ii. 2, & v. 11. and to the worship of Idols, Jer. l. 2, 40. and to feasting, wine and women. Nihil urbis ejus corruptius moribus, nec ad irritandas illiciendasque immodicas voluptates instructius. Liberos conjugesque cum hospitibus stupro coire, modo pretium flagitii detur, parentes maritique patiuntur. Convivales ludi tota Perside regibus purpuratisque cordi sunt: Babylonii maxime in vinum & quae ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt. Faeminarum convivia ineuntium in principio modestus est habitus; dein summa quaeque amicula exuunt, paulatimque pudorem profanant: ad ultimum, honos auribus sit, ima corporum velamenta projiciunt. Nec meretricum hoc dedecus est, sed matronarum virginumque, apud quas comitas habetur vulgati corporis vilitas. Q. Curtius, lib. v. cap. 1. And this lewdness of their women, coloured over with the name of civility, was encouraged even by their religion: for it was the custom for their women once in their life to sit in the Temple of Venus for the use of strangers; which Temple they called Succoth Benoth, the Temple of Women: and when any woman was once sat there, she was not to depart 'till some stranger threw money into her bosom, took her away and lay with her; and the money being for sacred uses, she was obliged to accept of it how little soever, and follow the stranger.

The Persians being conquered by the Medes about the middle of the Reign of Zedekiah, continued in subjection under them 'till the end of the Reign of Darius the Mede: and Cyrus, who was of the Royal Family of the Persians, might be Satrapa of Persia, and command a body of their forces under Darius; but was not yet an absolute and independant King: but after the taking of Babylon, when he had a victorious army at his devotion, and Darius was returned from Babylon into Media, he revolted from Darius, in conjunction with the Persians under him; [431] they being incited thereunto by Harpagus a Mede, whom Xenophon calls Artagerses and Atabazus, and who had assisted Cyrus in conquering Croesus and Asia minor, and had been injured by Darius. Harpagus was sent by Darius with an army against Cyrus, and in the midst of a battel revolted with part of the army to Cyrus: Darius got up a fresh army, and the next year the two armies fought again: this last battel was fought at Pasargadae in Persia, according to [432] Strabo; and there Darius was beaten and taken Prisoner by Cyrus, and the Monarchy was by this victory translated to the Persians. The last King of the Medes is by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and by Herodotus, Astyages the father of Mandane: but these Kings were dead before, and Daniel lets us know that Darius was the true name of the last King, and Herodotus, [433] that the last King was conquered by Cyrus in the manner above described; and the Darics coined by the last King testify that his name was Darius.

This victory over Darius was about two years after the taking of Babylon: for the Reign or Nabonnedus the last King of the Chaldees, whom Josephus calls Naboandel and Belshazzar, ended in the year of Nabonassar 210, nine years before the death of Cyrus, according to the Canon: but after the translation of the Kingdom of the Medes to the Persians, Cyrus Reigned only seven years, according to [434] Xenophon; and spending the seven winter months yearly at Babylon, the three spring months yearly at Susa, and the two Summer months at Ecbatane, he came the seventh time into Persia, and died there in the spring, and was buried at Pasargadae. By the Canon and the common consent of all Chronologers, he died in the year of Nabonassar 219, and therefore conquered Darius in the year of Nabonassar 212, seventy and two years after the destruction of Nineveh, and beat him the first time in the year of Nabonassar 211, and revolted from him, and became King of the Persians, either the same year, or in the end of the year before. At his death he was seventy years old according to Herodotus, and therefore he was born in the year of Nabonassar 149, his mother Mandane being the sister of Cyaxeres, at that time a young man, and also the sister of Amyite the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, and his father Cambyses being of the old Royal Family of the Persians.

* * * * *

CHAP. V.

A Description of the TEMPLE of Solomon.

[435] The Temple of Solomon being destroyed by the Babylonians, it may not be amiss here to give a description of that edifice.

This [436] Temple looked eastward, and stood in a square area, called the Separate Place: and [437] before it stood the Altar, in the center of another square area, called the Inner Court, or Court of the Priests: and these two square areas, being parted only by a marble rail, made an area 200 cubits long from west to east, and 100 cubits broad: this area was compassed on the west with a wall, and [438] on the other three sides with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which stood the buildings for the Priests, with cloysters under them: and the pavement was faced on the inside with a marble rail before the cloysters: the whole made an area 250 cubits long from west to east, and 200 broad, and was compassed with an outward Court, called also the Great Court, or Court of the People, [439] which was an hundred cubits on every side; for there were but two Courts built by Solomon: and the outward Court was about four cubits lower than the inward, and was compassed on the west with a wall, and on the other three sides [440] with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which stood the buildings for the People. All this was the [441] Sanctuary, and made a square area 500 cubits long, and 500 broad, and was compassed with a walk, called the Mountain of the House: and this walk being 50 cubits broad, was compassed with a wall six cubits broad, and six high, and six hundred long on every side: and the cubit was about 211/2, or almost 22 inches of the English foot, being the sacred cubit of the Jews, which was an hand-breadth, or the sixth part of its length bigger than the common cubit.

The Altar stood in the center of the whole; and in the buildings of [442] both Courts over against the middle of the Altar, eastward, southward, and northward, were gates [443] 25 cubits broad between the buildings, and 40 long; with porches of ten cubits more, looking towards the Altar Court, which made the whole length of the gates fifty cubits cross the pavements. Every gate had two doors, one at either [444] end, ten cubits wide, and twenty high, with posts and thresholds six cubits broad: within the gates was an area 28 cubits long between the thresholds, and 13 cubits wide: and on either side of this area were three posts, each six cubits square, and twenty high, with arches five cubits wide between them: all which posts and arches filled the 28 cubits in length between the thresholds; and their breadth being added to the thirteen cubits, made the whole breadth of the gates 25 cubits. These posts were hollow, and had rooms in them with narrow windows for the porters, and a step before them a cubit broad: and the walls of the porches being six cubits thick, were also hollow for several uses. [445] At the east gate of the Peoples Court, called the King's gate, [446] were six porters, at the south gate were four, and at the north gate were four: the people [447] went in and out at the south and north gates: the [448] east gate was opened only for the King, and in this gate he ate the Sacrifices. There were also four gates or doors in the western wall of the Mountain of the House: of these [449] the most northern, called Shallecheth, or the gate of the causey, led to the King's palace, the valley between being filled up with a causey: the next gate, called Parbar, led to the suburbs Millo: the third and fourth gates, called Asuppim, led the one to Millo, the other to the city of Jerusalem, there being steps down into the valley and up again into the city. At the gate Shallecheth were four porters; at the other three gates were six porters, two at each gate: the house of the porters who had the charge of the north gate of the People's Court, had also the charge of the gates Shallecheth and Parbar: and the house of the porters who had the charge of the south gate of the People s Court, had also the charge of the other two gates called Asuppim.

They came through the four western gates into the Mountain of the House, and [450] went up from the Mountain of the House, to the gates of the People's Court by seven steps, and from the People's Court to the gates of the Priest's Court by eight steps: [451] and the arches in the sides of the gates of both courts led into cloysters [452] under a double building, supported by three rows of marble pillars, which butted directly upon the middles of the square posts, ran along from thence upon the pavements towards the corners of the Courts: the axes of the pillars in the middle row being eleven cubits distant from the axes of the pillars in the other two rows on either hand; and the building joining to the sides of the gates: the pillars were three cubits in diameter below, and their bases four cubits and an half square. The gates and buildings of both Courts were alike, and [453] faced their Courts: the cloysters of all the buildings, and the porches of all the gates looking towards the Altar. The row of pillars on the backsides of the cloysters adhered to marble walls, which bounded the cloysters and supported the buildings: [454] these buildings were three stories high above the cloysters, and [455] were supported in each of those stories by a row of cedar beams, or pillars of cedar, standing above the middle row of the marble pillars: the buildings on either side of every gate of the People's Court, being 1871/2 cubits long, were distinguished into five chambers on a floor, running in length from the gates to the corners or the Courts: there [456] being in all thirty chambers in a story, where the People ate the Sacrifices, or thirty exhedras, each of which contained three chambers, a lower, a middle, and an upper: every exhedra was 371/2 cubits long, being supported by four pillars in each row, [457] whose bases were 41/2 cubits square, and the distances between their bases 61/2 cubits, and the distances between the axes of the pillars eleven cubits: and where two [458] exhedras joyned, there the bases of their pillars joyned; the axes of those two pillars being only 41/2 cubits distant from one another: and perhaps for strengthning the building, the space between the axes of these two pillars in the front was filled up with a marble column 41/2 cubits square, the two pillars standing half out on either side of the square column. At the ends of these buildings [459] in the four corners of the Peoples Court, were little Courts fifty cubits square on the outside of their walls, and forty on the inside thereof, for stair-cases to the buildings, and kitchins to bake and boil the Sacrifices for the People, the kitchin being thirty cubits broad, and the stair-case ten. The buildings on either side of the gates of the Priests Court were also 371/2 cubits long, and contained each of them one great chamber in a story, subdivided into smaller rooms, for the Great Officers of the Temple, and Princes of the Priests: and in the south-east and north-east corners of this court, at the ends of the buildings, were kitchins and stair-cases for the Great Officers; and perhaps rooms for laying up wood for the Altar.

In the eastern gate of the Peoples Court, sat a Court of Judicature, composed of 23 Elders. The eastern gate of the Priests Court, with the buildings on either side, was for the High-Priest, and his deputy the Sagan, and for the Sanhedrim or Supreme Court of Judicature, composed of seventy Elders. [460] The building or exhedra on the eastern side of the southern gate, was for the Priests who had the oversight of the charge of the Sanctuary with its treasuries: and these were, first, two Catholikim, who were High-Treasurers and Secretaries to the High-Priest, and examined, stated, and prepared all acts and accounts to be signed and sealed by him; then seven Amarcholim, who kept the keys of the seven locks of every gate of the Sanctuary, and those also of the treasuries, and had the oversight, direction, and appointment of all things in the Sanctuary; then three or more Gisbarim, or Under-Treasurers, or Receivers, who kept the Holy Vessels, and the Publick Money, and received or disposed of such sums as were brought in for the service of the Temple, and accounted for the same. All these, with the High-Priest, composed the Supreme Council for managing the affairs of the Temple.

The Sacrifices [461] were killed on the northern side of the Altar, and flea'd, cut in pieces and salted in the northern gate of the Temple; and therefore the building or exhedra on the eastern side of this gate, was for the Priests who had the oversight of the charge of the Altar, and Daily Service: and these Officers were, He that received money of the People for purchasing things for the Sacrifices, and gave out tickets for the same; He that upon sight of the tickets delivered the wine, flower and oyl purchased; He that was over the lots, whereby every Priest attending on the Altar had his duty assigned; He that upon sight of the tickets delivered out the doves and pigeons purchased; He that administred physic to the Priests attending; He that was over the waters; He that was over the times, and did the duty of a cryer, calling the Priests or Levites to attend in their ministeries; He that opened the gates in the morning to begin the service, and shut them in the evening when the service was done, and for that end received the keys of the Amarcholim, and returned them when he had done his duty; He that visited the night-watches; He that by a Cymbal called the Levites to their stations for singing; He that appointed the Hymns and set the Tune; and He that took care of the Shew-Bread: there were also Officers who took care of the Perfume, the Veil, and the Wardrobe of the Priests.

The exhedra on the western side of the south gate, and that on the western side of the north gate, were for the Princes of the four and twenty courses of the Priests, one exhedra for twelve of the Princes, [462] and the other exhedra for the other twelve: and upon the pavement on either side of the Separate Place [463] were other buildings without cloysters, for the four and twenty courses of the Priests to eat the Sacrifices, and lay up their garments and the most holy things: each pavement being 100 cubits long, and 50 broad, had buildings on either side of it twenty cubits broad, with a walk or alley ten cubits broad between them: the building which bordered upon the Separate Place was an hundred cubits long, and that next the Peoples Court but fifty, the other fifty cubits westward [464] being for a stair-case and kitchin: these buildings [465] were three stories high, and the middle story was narrower in the front than the lower story, and the upper story still narrower, to make room for galleries; for they had galleries before them, and under the galleries were closets for laying up the holy things, and the garments of the Priests, and these galleries were towards the walk or alley, which ran between the buildings.

They went up from the Priests Court to the Porch of the Temple by ten steps: and the [466] House of the Temple was twenty cubits broad, and sixty long within; or thirty broad, and seventy long, including the walls; or seventy cubits broad, and 90 long, including a building of treasure-chambers which was twenty cubits broad on three sides of the House; and if the Porch be also included, the Temple was [467] an hundred cubits long. The treasure-chambers were built of cedar, between the wall of the Temple, and another wall without: they were [468] built in two rows three stories high, and opened door against door into a walk or gallery which ran along between them, and was five cubits broad in every story; So that the breadth of the chambers on either side of the gallery, including the breadth of the wall to which they adjoined, was ten cubits; and the whole breadth of the gallery and chambers, and both walls, was five and twenty cubits: the chambers [469] were five cubits broad in the lower story, six broad in the middle story, and seven broad in the upper story; for the wall of the Temple was built with retractions of a cubit, to rest the timber upon. Ezekiel represents the chambers a cubit narrower, and the walls a cubit thicker than they were in Solomon's Temple: there were [470] thirty chambers in a story, in all ninety chambers, and they were five cubits high in every story. The [471] Porch of the Temple was 120 cubits high, and its length from south to north equalled the breadth of the House: the House was three stories high, which made the height of the Holy Place three times thirty cubits, and that of the Most Holy three times twenty: the upper rooms were treasure-chambers; they [472] went up to the middle chamber by winding stairs in the southern shoulder of the House, and from the middle into the upper.

Some time after this Temple was built, the Jews [473] added a New Court, on the eastern side of the Priests Court, before the King's gate, and therein built [474] a covert for the Sabbath: this Court was not measured by Ezekiel, but the dimensions thereof may be gathered from those of the Womens Court, in the second Temple, built after the example thereof: for when Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the first Temple, Zerubbabel, by the commissions of Cyrus and Darius, built another upon the same area, excepting the Outward Court, which was left open to the Gentiles: and this Temple [475] was sixty cubits long, and sixty broad, being only two stories in height, and having only one row of treasure-chambers about it: and on either side of the Priests Court were double buildings for the Priests, built upon three rows of marble pillars in the lower story, with a row of cedar beams or pillars in the stories above: and the cloyster in the lower story looked towards the Priests Court: and the Separate Place, and Priests Court, with their buildings on the north and south sides, and the Womens Court, at the east end, took up an area three hundred cubits long, and two hundred broad, the Altar standing in the center of the whole. The Womens Court was so named, because the women came into it as well as the men: there were galleries for the women, and the men worshipped upon the ground below: and in this state the second Temple continued all the Reign of the Persians; but afterwards suffered some alterations, especially in the days of Herod.

This description of the Temple being taken principally from Ezekiel's Vision thereof; and the ancient Hebrew copy followed by the Seventy, differing in some readings from the copy followed by the editors of the present Hebrew, I will here subjoin that part of the Vision which relates to the Outward Court, as I have deduced it from the present Hebrew, and the version of the Seventy compared together.

Ezekiel chap. xl. ver. 5, &c.

[476] And behold a wall on the outside of the House round about, at the distance of fifty cubits from it, aabb: and in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long by the cubit, and an hand-breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, or wall, one reed, and the height one reed. [477] Then came he unto the gate of the House, which looketh towards the east, and went up the seven steps thereof, AB, and measured the threshold of the gate, CD, which was one reed broad, and the Porters little chamber, EFG, one reed long, and one reed broad; and the arched passage between the little chambers, FH, five cubits: and the second little chamber, HIK, a reed broad and a reed long; and the arched passage, IL, five cubits: and the third little chamber LMN, a reed long and a reed broad: and the threshold of the gate next the porch of the gate within, OP, one reed: and he measured the porch of the gate, QR, eight cubits; and the posts thereof ST, st, two cubits; and the porch of the gate, QR, was inward, or toward the inward court; and the little chambers, EF, HI, LM, ef, hi, lm, were outward, or to the east; three on this side, and three on that side of the gate. There was one measure of the three, and one measure of the posts on this side, and on that side; and he measured the breadth of the door of the gate, Cc, or Dd, ten cubits; and the breadth of the gate within between the little chambers, Ee or Ff, thirteen cubits; and the limit, or margin, or step before the little chambers, EM, one cubit on this side, and the step, em, one cubit on the other side; and the little chambers, EFG, HIK, LMN, efg, hik, lmn, were six cubits broad on this side, and six cubits broad on that side: and he measured the whole breadth of the gate, from the further wall of one little chamber to the further wall of another little chamber: the breadth, Gg, or Kk, or Nn, was twenty and five cubits through; door, FH, against door, fh: and he measured the posts, EF, HI, and LM, ef, hi, and lm, twenty cubits high; and at the posts there were gates, or arched passages, FH, IL, fh, il, round about; and from the eastern face of the gate at the entrance, Cc, to the western face of the porch of the gate within, Tt, were fifty cubits: and there were narrow windows to the little chambers, and to the porch within the gate, round about, and likewise to the posts; even windows were round about within: and upon each post were palm trees.

Then he brought me into the Outward Court, and lo there were chambers, and a pavement with pillars upon it in the court round about, [478] thirty chambers in length upon the pavement, supported by the pillars, ten chambers on every side, except the western: and the pavement butted upon the shoulders or sides of the gates below, every gate having five chambers or exhedrae on either side. And he measured the breadth of the Outward Court, from the fore-front of the lower-gate, to the fore-front of the inward court, an hundred cubits eastward.

Then he brought me northward, and there was a gate that looked towards the north; he measured the length thereof, and the breadth thereof, and the little chambers thereof, three on this side, and three on that side, and the posts thereof, and the porch thereof, and it was according to the measures of the first gate; its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth was five and twenty: and the windows thereof, and the porch and the palm-trees thereof were according to the measures of the gate which looked to the east, and they went up to it by seven steps: and its porch was before them, that is inward. And there was a gate of the inward court over against this gate of the north, as in the gates to the eastward: and he measured from gate to gate an hundred cubits.

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A Description of THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON



ABCD. The Separate Place in which stood the Temple.

ABEF. The Court of y^{e} Priests.

G. The Altar.

DHLKICEFD. A Pavement compassing three sides of the foremention'd Courts, and upon which stood the Buildings for the Priests, with Cloysters under them.

MNOP. The Court of the People.

MQTSRN. A Pavement compassing three sides of the Peoples Court, upon which stood the Buildings for the People, with Cloysters under them.

UXYZ. The Mountain of the House.

aabb. A Wall enclosing the whole.

c. The Gate Shallecheth.

d. The Gate Parbar.

ef. The two Gates Assupim.

g. The East Gate of the Peoples Court, call'd the Kings Gate.

hh. The North and South Gates of the same Court.

iiii. The chambers over the Cloysters of the Peoples Court where the People ate the Sacrifices, 30 Chambers in each Story.

kkkk. Four little Courts serving for Stair Cases and Kitchins for the People.

l. The Eastern Gate of the Priests Court, over which sate the Sanhedrin.

m. The Southern Gate of the Priests Court.

n. The Northern Gate of the same Court, where the Sacrifices were flea'd &c.

opqrst. The Buildings over the Cloysters for the Priests, viz six large Chambers (subdivided) in each Story, whereof o and p were for the High Priest and Sagan, q for the Overseers of the Sanctuary and Treasury, r for the Overseers of the Altar and Sacrifice and s and t for the Princes of the twenty four Courses of Priests.

uu. Two Courts in which were Stair Cases and Kitchins for the Priests.

x. The House or Temple which (together with the Treasure Chambers y, and Buildings zz on each side of the Separate Place) is more particularly describ'd on the second Plate.

* * * * *

A Description of the Inner Court & Buildings for the Priests in Solomons Temple.



ABCD. The Separate Place.

ABEF. The Inner Court, or Court of the Priests, parted from the Separate Place, and and Pavement on the other three sides, by a marble rail.

G. The Altar.

HHH. The East, South, & North Gates of the Priests Court.

III. &c. The Cloysters supporting the Buildings for the Priests.

KK. Two Courts in which were Stair Cases and Kitchins for the Priests.

L. Ten Steps to the Porch of the Temple.

M. The Porch of the Temple.

N. The Holy Place.

O. The most Holy Place.

PPPP. Thirty Treasure-Chambers, in two rows, opening into a gallery, door against door, and compassing three sides of the Holy & most Holy Places.

Q. The Stairs leading to the Middle Chamber.

RRRR. &c. The buildings for the four and twenty Courses of Priests, upon the Pavement on either side of the Separate Place, three Stories high without Cloysters, but the upper Stories narrower than the lower, to make room for Galleries before them. There were 24 Chambers in each Story and they opend into a walk or alley, SS. between the Buildings.

TT. Two Courts in which were Kitchins for the Priests of the twenty four Courses.

* * * * *

A Particular Description of one of the Gates of the Peoples Court, with part of the Cloyster adjoyning.



uw. The inner margin of the Pavement compassing three sides of the Peoples Court.

xxx. &c. The Pillars of the Cloyster supporting the Buildings for the People.

yyyy. Double Pillars where two Exhedrae joyned, and whose interstices in the front zz were filled up with a square Column of Marble.

Note The preceding letters of this Plate refer to the description in pag. 344 345.

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CHAP. VI.

Of the Empire of the Persians.

Cyrus having translated the Monarchy to the Persians, and Reigned seven years, was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who Reigned seven years and five months, and in the three last years of his Reign subdued Egypt: he was succeeded by Mardus, or Smerdis the Magus, who feigned himself to be Smerdis the brother of Cambyses.

Smerdis Reigned seven months, and in the eighth month being discovered, was slain, with a great number of the Magi; so the Persians called their Priests, and in memory of this kept an anniversary day, which they called, The slaughter of the Magi. Then Reigned Maraphus and Artaphernes a few days, and after them Darius the son of Hystaspes, the son of Arsamenes, of the family of Achaemenes, a Persian, being chosen King by the neighing of his horse: before he Reigned his [479] name was Ochus. He seems on this occasion to have reformed the constitution of the Magi, making his father Hystaspes their Master, or Archimagus; for Porphyrius tells us, [480] that the Magi were a sort of men so venerable amongst the Persians, that Darius the son of Hystaspes wrote on the monument of his father, amongst other things, that he had been the Master of the Magi. In this reformation of the Magi, Hystaspes was assisted by Zoroastres: so Agathias; The Persians at this day say simply that Zoroastres lived under Hystaspes: and Apuleius; Pythagoram, aiunt, inter captivos Cambysae Regis [ex AEgypto Babylonem abductos] doctores habuisse Persarum Magos, & praecipue Zoroastrem, omnis divini arcani Antistitem. By Zoroastres's conversing at Babylon he seems to have borrowed his skill from the Chaldaeans; for he was skilled in Astronomy, and used their year: so Q. Curtius; [481] Magi proximi patrium carmen canebant: Magos trecenti & sexaginta quinque juvenes sequebantur, puniceis amiculis velati, diebus totius anni pares numero: and Ammianus; Scientiae multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres. From his conversing in several places he is reckoned a Chaldaean, an Assyrian, a Mede, a Persian, a Bactrian. Suidas calls him [482] a Perso-Mede, and saith that he was the most skilful of Astronomers, and first author of the name of the Magi received among them. This skill in Astronomy he had doubtless from the Chaldaeans, but Hystaspes travelled into India, to be instructed by the Gymnosophists: and these two conjoyning their skill and authority, instituted a new set of Priests or Magi, and instructed them in such ceremonies and mysteries of Religion and Philosophy as they thought fit to establish for the Religion and Philosophy of that Empire; and these instructed others, 'till from a small number they grew to a great multitude: for Suidas tells us, that Zoroastres gave a beginning to the name of the Magi: and Elmacinus; that he reformed the religion of the Persians, which before was divided into many sects: and Agathias; that he introduced the religion of the Magi among the Persians, changing their ancient sacred rites, and bringing in several opinions: and Ammianus [483] tells us, Magiam esse divinorum incorruptissimum cultum, cujus scientiae seculis priscis multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres: deinde Hystaspes Rex prudentissimus Darii pater; qui quum superioris Indiae secreta fidentius penetraret, ad nemorosam quamdam venerat solitudinem, cujus tranquillis silentiis praecelsa Brachmanorum ingenia potiuntur; eorumque monitu rationes mundani motus & siderum, purosque sacrorum ritus quantum colligere potuit eruditus, ex his quae didicit, aliqua sensibus Magorum infudit; quae illi cum disciplinis praesentiendi futura, per suam quisque progeniem, posteris aetatibus tradunt. Ex eo per saecula multa ad praesens, una eademque prosapia multitudo creata, Deorum cultibus dedicatur. Feruntque, si justum est credi, etiam ignem coelitus lapsum apud se sempiternis foculis custodiri, cujus portionem exiguam ut faustam praeisse quondam Asiaticis Regibus dicunt: Hujus originis apud veteres numerus erat exilis, ejusque mysteriis Persicae potestates in faciendis rebus divinis solemniter utebantur. Eratque piaculum aras adire, vel hostiam contrectare, antequam Magus conceptis precationibus libamenta diffunderet praecursoria. Verum aucti paullatim, in amplitudinem gentis solidae concesserunt & nomen: villasque inhabitantes nulla murorum firmitudine communitas & legibus suis uti permissi, religionis respectu sunt honorati. So this Empire was at first composed of many nations, each of which had hitherto its own religion: but now Hystaspes and Zoroastres collected what they conceived to be best, established it by law, and taught it to others, and those to others, 'till their disciples became numerous enough for the Priesthood of the whole Empire; and instead of those various old religions, they set up their own institutions in the whole Empire, much after the manner that Numa contrived and instituted the religion of the Romans: and this religion of the Persian Empire was composed partly of the institutions of the Chaldaeans, in which Zoroastres was well skilled; and partly of the institutions of the ancient Brachmans, who are supposed to derive even their name from the Abrahamans, or sons of Abraham, born of his second wife Keturah, instructed by their father in the worship of ONE GOD without images, and sent into the east, where Hystaspes was instructed by their successors. About the same time with Hystapes and Zoroastres, lived also Ostanes, another eminent Magus: Pliny places him under Darius Hystaspis, and Suidas makes him the follower of Zoroastres: he came into Greece with Xerxes, and seems to be the Otanes of Herodotus, who discovered Smerdis, and formed the conspiracy against him, and for that service was honoured by the conspirators, and exempt from subjection to Darius.

In the sacred commentary of the Persian rites these words are ascribed to Zoroastres; [484] [Greek: Ho Theos esti kephalen echon hierakos. houtos estin ho protos, aphthartos, aidios, agenetos, ameres, anomoiotatos, heniochos pantos kalou, adorodoketos, agathon agathotatos, phronimon phronimotatos; esti de kai pater eunomias kai dikaiosynes, autodidaktos, physikos, kai teleios, kai sophos, kai hierou physikou monos heuretes.] Deus est accipitris capite: hic est primus, incorruptibilis, aeternus, ingenitus, sine partibus, omnibus aliis dissimillimus, moderator omnis boni, donis non capiendus, bonorum optimus, prudentium prudentissimus, legum aequitatis ac justitiae parens, ipse sui doctor, physicus & perfectus & sapiens & sacri physici unicus inventor: and the same was taught by Ostanes, in his book called Octateuchus. This was the Antient God of the Persian Magi, and they worshipped him by keeping a perpetual fire for Sacrifices upon an Altar in the center of a round area, compassed with a ditch, without any Temple in the place, and without paying any worship to the dead, or any images. But in a short time they declined from the worship of this Eternal, Invisible God, to worship the Sun, and the Fire, and dead men, and images, as the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Chaldaeans had done before: and from these superstitions, and the pretending to prognostications, the words Magi and Magia, which signify the Priests and Religion of the Persians, came to be taken in an ill sense.

Darius, or Darab, began his Reign in spring, in the sixteenth year of the Empire of the Persians, Anno Nabonass. 227, and Reigned 36 years, by the unanimous consent of all Chronologers. In the second year of his Reign the Jews began to build the Temple, by the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, and finished it in the sixth. He fought the Greeks at Marathon in October, Anno Nabonass. 258, ten years before the battel at Salamis, and died in the fifth year following, in the end of winter, or beginning of spring, Anno Nabonass. 263. The years of Cambyses and Darius are determined by three Eclipses of the Moon recorded by Ptolemy, so that they cannot be disputed: and by those Eclipses, and the Prophesies of Haggai and Zechariah compared together, it is manifest that the years of Darius began after the 24th day of the eleventh Jewish month, and before the 24th day of April, and by consequence in March or April.

Xerxes, Achschirosch, Achsweros, or Oxyares, succeeded his father Darius, and spent the first five years of his Reign, and something more, in preparations for his Expedition against the Greeks: and this Expedition was in the time of the Olympic Games, in the beginning of the first year of the 75th Olympiad, Callias being Archon at Athens; as all Chronologers agree. The great number of people which he drew out of Susa to invade Greece, made AEschylus the Poet say [485]:

[Greek: To d' asty Souson exekeinosen peson.] It emptied the falling city of Susa.

The passage of his army over the Hellespont began in the end of the fourth year of the 74th Olympiad, that is in June, Anno Nabonass. 268, and took up a month; and in autumn, after three months more, on the 16th day of the month Munychion, at the full moon, was the battel at Salamis; and a little after that an Eclipse of the Moon, which by the calculation fell on Octob. 2. His first year therefore began in spring, Anno Nabonass. 263, as above: he Reigned almost twenty one years by the consent of all writers, and was murdered by Artabanus, captain of his guards; towards the end of winter, Anno Nabonass. 284.

Artabanus Reigned seven months, and upon suspicion of treason against Xerxes, was slain by Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Xerxes.

Artaxerxes began his Reign in the autumnal half year, between the 4th and 9th Jewish months, Nehem. i. 1. & ii. 1, & v. 14. and Ezra vii. 7, 8, 9. and his 20th year fell in with the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, as Africanus [486] informs us, and therefore his first year began within a month or two or the autumnal Equinox, Anno Nabonass. 284. Thucydides relates that the news of his death came to Athens in winter, in the seventh year of the Peloponnesian war, that is An. 4. Olymp. 88. and by the Canon he Reigned forty one years, including the Reign of his predecessor Artabanus, and died about the middle of winter, Anno Nabonass. 325 ineunte: the Persians now call him Ardschir and Bahaman, the Oriental Christians Artahascht.

Then Reigned Xerxes, two months, and Sogdian seven months, and Darius Nothus, the bastard son of Artaxerxes, nineteen years wanting four or five months; and Darius died in summer, a little after the end of the Peloponnesian war, and in the same Olympic year, and by consequence in May or June, Anno Nabonass. 344. The 13th year of his Reign was coincident in winter with the 20th of the Peloponnesian war, and the years of that war are stated by indisputable characters, and agreed on by all Chronologers: the war began in spring, Ann. 1. Olymp. 87, lasted 27 years, and ended Apr. 14. An. 4. Olymp. 93.

The next King was Artaxerxes Mnemon, the son of Darius: he Reigned forty six years, and died Anno Nabonass. 390. Then Reigned Artaxerxes Ochus twenty one years; Arses, or Arogus, two years, and Darius Codomannus four years, unto the battel of Arbela, whereby the Persian Monarchy was translated to the Greeks, Octob. 2. An. Nabonass. 417; but Darius was not slain untill a year and some months after.

I have hitherto stated the times of this Monarchy out of the Greek and Latin writers: for the Jews knew nothing more of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian Empires than what they have out of the sacred books of the old Testament; and therefore own no more Kings, nor years of Kings, than they can find in those books: the Kings they reckon are only Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, Cyrus, Ahasuerus, and Darius the Persian; this last Darius they reckon to be the Artaxerxes, in whose Reign Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, accounting Artaxerxes a common name of the Persian Kings: Nebuchadnezzar, they say, Reigned forty five years, 2 King. xxv. 27. Belshazzar three years, Dan. viii. 1. and therefore Evilmerodach twenty three, to make up the seventy years captivity; excluding the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, in which they say the Prophesy of the seventy years was given. To Darius the Mede they assign one year, or at most but two, Dan. ix. 1. to Cyrus three years incomplete, Dan. x. 1. to Ahasuerus twelve years 'till the casting of Pur, Esth. iii. 7. one year more 'till the Jews smote their enemies, Esth. ix. 1. and one year more 'till Esther and Mordecai wrote the second letter for the keeping of Purim, Esth. ix. 29. in all fourteen years: and to Darius the Persian they allot thirty two or rather thirty six years, Nehem. xiii. 6. So that the Persian Empire from the building of the Temple in the Second year of Darius Hystaspis, flourished only thirty four years, until Alexander the great overthrew it: thus the Jews reckon in their greater Chronicle, Seder Olam Rabbah. Josephus, out of the sacred and other books, reckons only these Kings of Persia; Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspis, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and Darius: and taking this Darius, who was Darius Nothus, to be one and the same King with the last Darius, whom Alexander the great overcame; by means of this reckoning he makes Sanballat and Jaddua alive when Alexander the great overthrew the Persian Empire. Thus all the Jews conclude the Persian Empire with Artaxerxes Longimanus, and Darius Nothus, allowing no more Kings of Persia, than they found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and referring to the Reigns of this Artaxerxes, and this Darius, whatever they met with in profane history concerning the following Kings of the same names: so as to take Artaxerxes Longimanus, Artaxerxes Mnemon and Artaxerxes Ochus, for one and the same Artaxerxes; and Darius Nothus, and Darius Codomannus, for one and the same Darius; and Jaddua, and Simeon Justus, for one and the same High-Priest. Those Jews who took Herod for the Messiah, and were thence called Herodians, seem to have grounded their opinion upon the seventy weeks of years, which they found between the Reign of Cyrus and that of Herod: but afterwards, in applying the Prophesy to Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, and at length to Barchochab, they seem to have shortned the Reign of the Kingdom of Persia. These accounts being very imperfect, it was necessary to have recourse to the records of the Greeks and Latines, and to the Canon recited by Ptolemy, for stating the times of this Empire. Which being done, we have a better ground for understanding the history of the Jews set down in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and adjusting it; for this history having suffered by time, wants some illustration: and first I shall state the history of the Jews under Zerubbabel, in the Reigns of Cyrus, Cambysis, and Darius Hystaspis.