The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended Part 10

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._ x.x.xvi. 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._ x.x.xii. 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 142, that is, two years before the death of his father _Nabopola.s.sar_, he being then made King by his father; and _Jehoiakim_ succeeded his father _Josiah_ in the year of _Nabona.s.sar_ 139; and _Jerusalem_ was taken and the Temple burnt in the year of _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 G.o.d, 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 160, as above.

As the _Chaldaean_ Astronomers counted the Reigns of their Kings by the years of _Nabona.s.sar_, 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 Nabona.s.s._ 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 Nabona.s.s._ 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 150; and the tenth year of _Zedekiah_, and 18th of _Nebuchadnezzar_, began with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabona.s.sar_ 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._ x.x.xiv. 1, x.x.xix. 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 Nabona.s.s._ 139, _Pharaoh Nechoh_, the successor of _Psammitichus_, came with a great army out of _Egypt_ against the King of _a.s.syria_, and being denied pa.s.sage 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 _a.s.syria_ being in the mean time besieged and subdued, and _Nineveh_ destroyed by _a.s.suerus_ King of the _Medes_, and _Nebuchadnezzar_ King of _Babylon_, and the conquerors being thereby ent.i.tled to the countries belonging to the King of _a.s.syria_, they led their victorious armies against the King of _Egypt_ who had seized part of them. For _Nebuchadnezzar_, a.s.sisted [379] by _Astibares_, that is, by _Astivares_, _a.s.suerus_, _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 Bra.s.s they found in the Temple: and in [382] the fourth year of _Jehoiakim_, which was the twentieth of _Nabopola.s.sar_, 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_, _Cle-Syria_, and _Phnicia_; and this victory over him put an end to his Reign in _Cle-Syria_ and _Phnicia_, which he had newly invaded, and gave a beginning to the Reign of _Nebuchadnezzar_ there: and by the conquests over _a.s.syria_ and _Syria_ the small Kingdom of _Babylon_ was erected into a potent Empire.

Whilst _Nebuchadnezzar_ was acting in _Syria_, [384] his father _Nabopola.s.sar_ 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 _Phnicia_ and _Cle-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 gra.s.s 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 Nabona.s.s._ 187.

_Evilmerodach_ Reigned two years after his father's death, and for his l.u.s.t and evil manners was slain by his sister's husband _Neriglissar_, or _Nergala.s.sar_, _Nabona.s.s._ 189, according to the Canon.

_Neriglissar_, in the name of his young son _Labosordachus_, or _Laboa.s.serdach_, the grand-child of _Nebuchadnezzar_ by his daughter, Reigned four years, according to the Canon and _Berosus_, including the short Reign of _Laboa.s.serdach_ alone: for _Laboa.s.serdach_, 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 193, Reigned seventeen years, and ended his Reign in the year of _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 _Laboa.s.serdach_ 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 pa.s.sages 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 _Mris_ 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 ??de?a, 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 _a.s.syria_: 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 _Nabona.s.sar_, and therefore the Reign of _Cyrus_ in _Babylonia_ began after the year of _Nabona.s.sar_ 208: it ended before the eight and twentieth year of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, or 176th year of _Nabona.s.sar_, _Ezek._ xxix. 17. and therefore the Reign of _Cyrus_ in _Babylonia_ began before the year of _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 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 _Nabona.s.sar_ 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]

????a? sf?? e???? est?? e?e???ase???

?e??st??, a?e???st?? ????? ??dep?, ?? d' ast? S??s?? e?e?e???se? pes???

?? ???te t??? ?e?? a?a? t??d' ?pase?

?? a?d?a pas?? ?s?ad?? ???t??f??

?a?e??, e???ta s??pt??? e????t?????

??d?? ?a? ?? ?? p??t?? ???e?? st?at???

????? d' e?e???? pa?? t?d' e???? ???se?

F?e?e? ?a? a?t?? ???? ??a??st??f???.

???t?? d' ap' a?t?? ?????, e?da??? a???, &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_, _a.s.suerus_, _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 _a.s.suerus_ 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 _a.s.suerus_. By this victory over the _a.s.syrians_, 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 _Crsus_ 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 _a.s.suerus_, 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 Nabona.s.s._ 219, according to the Canon, and therefore _Cyaxeres_ died _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 177, and began his Reign _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 137, and his father _Astyages_ Reigned 26 years, beginning his Reign at the death of _Phraortes_, who was slain by the _a.s.syrians_, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 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_ circ.u.mvented 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 _a.s.syria_, 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 _a.s.syrians_, and in prosecuting their victory were invading _Syria_ and _Phnicia_, and were ready to invade the nations round about; G.o.d [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 _a.s.syrians_ 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,_ G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sion 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 _a.s.syrians_, 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 Nabona.s.s._ 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_ a.s.syrian _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 G.o.d 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. x.x.xi.

The next year _Ezekiel_, in another prophesy, thus enumerates the princ.i.p.al 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 mult.i.tude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncirc.u.mcised 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 mult.i.tude [411]; her graves are round about him: all of them uncirc.u.mcised, 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.

x.x.xii. 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_ Crsus _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 & Crsus_, saith [418] _Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia_ [auri] _pondo x.x.xiv 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 _Crsus_ coined gold monies in plenty, called _Crsei_; 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 _Crsus_ 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]

????e?, ?a??e?ta et' a??????s? ?e???te?, ??de? t?? ??d?? de?d??te? p??e??.

_Let us drink, talking pleasant things with one another,_ _Not fearing the war of the _Medes_._

And again, [421]

??t?? de st?at?? ????st?? ??d?? ape???e ??sde p??e??, ???a s?? ?a?? e? e?f??s????

???? epe???e??? ??e?ta? pep?s' ?e?at?a?, ?e?p?e??? ???a?? ?a? e?at?? ?a????, ?a?a???te ??????, ?a??s? te, s?? pe?? ???.

? ?a? e???e ded???', af?ad??? es????

?a? stas?? ???????? ?a?f?????? a??a s? F??e, ???a?? ??ete??? t??de f??a.s.se p????.

_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 _Pans_ 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.