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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 there
fore 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. 1. 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 there
fore Nebuchadnezzar began his Reign in the
year of Nabonassar 142, that is, two years be
fore the death of his father Nabopolassar, he be
ing 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, whenwhen 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 se
venty 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 a
bove.
As the Chaldæan 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
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 Judæa 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 Ju
dah, 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 indig
nation against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah
began, commenced with the month Nisan in 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 Chro
nology 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 Judæa,
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 Æra of Christ, there were 590 years: and both
these numbers, with half the Reign of Solomon,
make up a thousand years.
In the 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 Judæa, beat the Jews
at Megiddo or Magdolus before Egypt, slew Josiah their King, marched to Carchemish or Circutium, a town of Mesopotamia upon Euphrates, 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 belong
ing to the King of Assyria, they led their vi
ctorious armies against the King of Egypt who
had seized part of them. For Nebuchadnezzar,
assisted Astibares, that is, by Astivares, Assuerus, Acksweres, Axeres, or Cy-Axeres, King
of the Medes, in the 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
to Babylon Daniel and others of the people, and
part of what Gold and Silver and Brass they
found in the Temple: and in
of Jehoiakim, which was the twentieth of Nabopolassar, they routed the army of Pharaoh Nechohchoh at Carchemish, and by pursuing the war
took from the King of Egypt whatever pertain
ed to him from the river of Egypt to the river
of Euphrates. This King of Egypt is called by Berosus, Satrapa of Egypt, Cœle-Syria, and Phœnicia; and this victory over him put an end
to his Reign in Cœle-Syria and Phœnicia, 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 King
dom of Babylon was erected into a potent Em
pire.
Whilst Nebuchadnezzar was acting in Syria, Nabopolassar died, having Reigned
21 years; and Nebuchadnezzar upon the news
thereof, having ordered his affairs in Syria re
turned 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.
Judæa was now in servitude under the King
of Babylon, being invaded and subdued in the
third and fourth years of Jehoiakim, and Jehoia
kim served him three years, and then turned and rebelled, 2 King. xxiv. 1. While Nebuchadnezzar
and the army of the Chaldæans 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
besieged Jerusalem, captivated Jeconiah the son
and successor of Jehoiakim, spoiled the Tem
ple, 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 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
and made a covenant with the King of Egypt,
and therefore Nebuchadnezzar in the ninth year
of Zedekiah Judæa and the cities there
of, and in the tenth Jewish month of that
year besieged Jerusalem again, and in the eleZedekiah, 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 Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria
45 years, and
years, and Jeconiah
37; and then was succeeded by his son Evilmerodach, called Iluarodamus in Ptolemy's Canon. Jerome 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 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 fa
ther'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 con
sent 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, be
ing 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
last King of Babylon, Belshazzar, and saith that Nebuchadnezzar was his father: and Josephus Babylon was cal
led 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 grand
son of Nebuchadnezzar was a child when he
Reigned.
Herodotus
mous Queens of Babylon, Semiramis and Nitocris; and that the latter was more skilful: she
observing that the Kingdom of the Medes, hav
ing subdued many cities, and among others Nineveh, was become great and potent, inter
cepted 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 Babylon, in imitation of the Lake of Mœris 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,
bridge under the river two fathoms broad, mean
ing an arched vault over which the river
flowed, and under which they might walk cross
the river: he calls her 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 wo
man 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 Tyrian records,
that in the Reign of Ithobalus King of Tyre,
that city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thir
teen 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 Tem
ple, 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 there
fore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began be
fore the year of Nabonassar 211. By this argu
ment the first year of Cyrus in Babylonia was
one of the two intermediate years 209, 210. Cyrus invaded Babylonia in the year of Nabonassarnassar 209; 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 conse
quence 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 summer grows low. 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 be
fore the Kingdom grew great, the two last
were great conquerors, and erected the Empire;
for Æschylus, who flourished in the Reigns of Darius Hystaspis, and Xerxes, and died in the
76th Olympiad, introduces Darius thus com
plaining of those who persuaded his son Xerxes
to invade Greece;
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 prede
cessor of Cyrus, according to Daniel; and there
fore the first was the father of Darius, that is, Achsu-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 ensu
ing 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 Ge
nerations younger than Astyages, the grandfaCyrus: for Astyages, according to both 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 Xenophon, and gave his Daughter to Cyrus.
This daughter, 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 King
dom 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
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 Alyattes King of Lydia, and
was at length taken prisoner and deprived of
his dominion by Cyrus: and Pausanias hath co
pied 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 Crœsus 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: consi
dering therefore that Cyaxeres Reigned long,
and that no author mentions more Kings of Media than one called Astyages, and that Æschylus 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 pre
decessor of Cyaxeres; and that the son and suc
cessor of Cyaxeres was called Darius. Cyaxeres, 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
was much more valiant than his ancestors, and
that he was the first who divided the King
dom into provinces, and reduced the irregular
and undisciplined forces of the Medes into dis
cipline and order: and therefore by the testi
mony of Herodotus he was that King of the Medes whom Æschylus makes the first conque
ror and founder of the Empire; for Herodotus
represents him and his son to have been the
two immediate predecessors of Cyrus, erring on
ly in the name of the son. Astyages did no
thing glorious: in the beginning of his Reign
a great body of Scythians commanded by Madyes, 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 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 pro
secuting their victory were invading Syria and Phœnicia, and were ready to invade the nations
round about; God 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 Ju
dæa 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,
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 Chaldæans; 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 Am
mon, 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 con
quest 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 nationnation 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, cap
tivated, and dispersed into the nations round
about, and continued in servitude until the
Reign of Cyrus: and since the Medes and Chaldæans did not conquer the Persians 'till after the
ninth year of Nebuchadnezzar, it gives us oc
casion to enquire what that active warrior Cyaxeres was doing next after the taking of Nineveh.
When Cyaxeres expelled the Scythians,
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
killed one of the children of the Medes, dres
sed 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 con
sequence 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;
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, be
tween 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 ta
king of Babylon.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's Reign,
the year in which Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalemsalem and destroyed the Temple, Ezekiel com
paring the Kingdoms of the East to trees in
the garden of Eden, thus mentions their being
conquered by the Kings of the Medes and Chaldæans: 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 Le
banon, 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 conquer
ing 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 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 Edom, The Scythians.; 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 isher 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 un
derstand those on the north of Judæa, 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 Nebuchadnezzar: in the
nineteenth, twentieth, and one and twentieth
year of this King, he invaded and Judæa, Moab, Ammon, Edom, the Philistims and Zidon; and Tyre,
and after a siege of thirteen years he took it, in
the 35th year of his Reign; and then he
vaded 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 Em
pire of Babylon: and thereby finished the work
of propagating the Medo-Persian Monarchy over
all Asia, as Æschylus 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
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 crown
ed 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 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 conquer
ed the Lydians, had no money. Herodotus
us, that when Crœsus 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 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 & Crœsus, saith Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia [auri] pondo xxxiv millia invenerat, præter 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 Ægyptium pondo octoginta capere Varro tradit.
and silver appears by the Darics. The Lydians,
according to Herodotus, were the first who
coined gold and silver, and Crœsus coined gold
monies in plenty, called Crœsei; 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 recoin
ed 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 preserv
ed 'till the conquest of Crœsus by Darius, it is
not probable that she could be older than is re
presented 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,
And again,
The Poet tells us further that discord had de
stroyed Magnesia, Colophon, and Smyrna, cities
of Ionia and Phrygia, and would destroy the GreeksGreeks; 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 Babylon, Cyrus went to the King
of the Medes at Ecbatane and succeeded him in
the Kingdom: and Jerom, 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. 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, Phœnicia and Arabia: and Strabo adds Arbela to the territories
of Babylon; and saying that Babylon was an
ciently the metropolis of Assyria, he thus de
scribes the limits of this Assyrian Empire. Contiguous, 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 Atturia, wherein is Ninus [or Nineveh;] and
Apolloniatis, and the Elymæans, and the Paræ
tacæ, and Chalonitis by the mountain Zagrus, and the fields near Ninus, and Dolomene, and
Chalachene, and Chazene, and Adiabene, and thethe nations of Mesopotamia near the Gordyæans, 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 Phœnicia 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 Parætacene, inclusively; on the
south, with the Persian Gulph and Chaldæa; and
on the west, with the Arabes Scenitæ as far as Adiabene and Gordyæa: afterwards speaking of Susiana and Sitacene, a region between Babylon
and Susa, and of Parætacene and Cossæa and Elymais, and of the Sagapeni and Siloceni, two
little adjoining Provinces, he concludes, and these are the nations which inhabit Babylonia eastward: to the north are Media and Armenia,
exclusively, and westward are Adiabene and Me
sopotamia, inclusively; the greatest part of Adia
bene 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
this means Herodotus
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 Babylo
nian 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
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 south
ward, 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 Tem
ple of Belus, with the old Palace between that
Temple and the river: this old Palace was built
by the Assyrians, according to 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 PalacesPalaces thereof: and at that time Sabacon the Ethiopian invaded Egypt, and made great multi
tudes of Egyptians fly from him into Chaldæa,
and carry thither their Astronomy, and Astro
logy, and Architecture, and the form of their
year, which they preserved there in the Æra 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 Chaldæans 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 Chaldæa, where Zoroaster the Le
gislator of the Magi met with it: so Paulinus,
And Diodorus, they say that the Chaldæans 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 EgyptianEgyptian Pyramids: for
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 out
side, and the bottom was compassed with a
court, and the court with a building two fur
longs in length on every side.
The Babylonians were extreamly addicted to
Sorcery, Inchantments, Astrology and Divina
tions, 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 , lib. v. cap. 1. And this lewdness of their
ejus corruptius moribus, nec ad irritandas illicien
dasque immodicas voluptates instructius. Liberos
conjugesque cum hospitibus stupro coire, modo pre
tium flagitii detur, parentes maritique patiuntur.
Convivales ludi tota Perside regibus purpuratisque
cordi sunt: Babylonii maxime in vinum & quæ
ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt. Fæminarum convi
via ineuntium in principio modestus est habitus;
dein summa quæque amicula exuunt, paulatimque pudorem
ima corporum velamenta projiciunt. Nec meretricum
hoc dedecus est, sed matronarum virginumque, apud
quas comitas habetur vulgati corporis vilitas. Q.
Curtius
women, coloured over with the name of civi
lity, 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 DariusDarius, in conjunction with the Persians under
him; Harpagus
a Mede, whom Xenophon calls Artagerses and Atabazus, and who had assisted Cyrus in conque
ring Crœsus and Asia minor, and had been inju
red 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 bat
tel was fought at Pasargadæ in Persia, according
to 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, 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 of Nabonnedus the last King of the Chaldees, whom Josephus calls Naboandel and Belshazzar, ended
in the year of Nabonassar 210, nine years beCyrus, according to the Canon:
but after the translation of the Kingdom of the Medes to the Persians, Cyrus Reigned only seven
years, according to 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 Pasargadæ. By the
Canon and the common consent of all Chrono
logers, 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 re
volted 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 fa
ther Cambyses being of the old Royal Family of
the Persians.