The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 37

This prince had as little religion and prosperity as his forefathers.(1043) Having made an alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he broke the oath of fidelity he had taken to the king of Babylon. The latter soon chastised him for it, and immediately laid siege to Jerusalem. The king of Egypt's arrival at the head of an army gave the besieged a gleam of hope; but their joy was very short-lived; the Egyptians were defeated, and the conqueror returned against Jerusalem, and renewed the siege, which lasted near a twelvemonth.(M177) At last the city was taken by storm, and a terrible slaughter ensued. Zedekiah's two sons were, by Nabuchodonosor's orders, killed before their father's face, with all the n.o.bles and princ.i.p.al men of Judah. Zedekiah himself had both his eyes put out, was loaded with fetters, and carried to Babylon, where he was confined in prison as long as he lived. The city and temple were pillaged and burnt, and all their fortifications demolished.

Upon Nabuchodonosor's return to Babylon, after his successful war against Judea, he ordered a golden statue to be made,(1044) sixty(1045) cubits high, a.s.sembled all the great men of the kingdom to celebrate the dedication of it, and commanded all his subjects to wors.h.i.+p it, threatening to cast those that should refuse into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Upon this occasion it was that the three young Hebrews, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias, who with an invincible courage refused to comply with the king's impious ordinance, were preserved after a miraculous manner in the midst of the flames. The king, himself a witness of this astonis.h.i.+ng miracle, published an edict, whereby all persons whatsoever were forbidden, upon pain of death, to speak any thing amiss against the G.o.d of Ananias, Misael, and Azarias. He likewise promoted these three young men to the highest honours and employments.

Nabuchodonosor, in the twenty-first year of his reign, and the fourth after the destruction of Jerusalem, marched again into Syria, and besieged Tyre, at the time when Ithobal was king thereof. Tyre was a strong and opulent city, which had never been subject to any foreign power, and was then in great repute for its commerce: by which many of its citizens were become like so many princes in wealth and magnificence.(1046) It had been built by the Sidonians two hundred and forty years before the temple of Jerusalem. For Sidon being taken by the Philistines of Ascalon, many of its inhabitants made their escape in s.h.i.+ps, and founded the city of Tyre.

And for this reason we find it called in Isaiah "the daughter of Sidon."(1047) But the daughter soon surpa.s.sed the mother in grandeur, riches, and power. Accordingly, at the time we are speaking of, she was in a condition to resist, thirteen years together, a monarch, to whose yoke all the rest of the East had submitted.

It was not till after so long an interval, that Nabuchodonosor made himself master of Tyre.(1048) His troops suffered incredible hards.h.i.+ps before it; so that, according to the prophet's expression, "every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled."(1049) Before the city was reduced to the last extremity, its inhabitants retired, with the greatest part of their effects, into a neighbouring isle, half a mile from the sh.o.r.e, where they built a new city; the name and glory whereof extinguished the remembrance of the old one, which from thenceforward became a mere village, retaining the name of ancient Tyre.

Nabuchodonosor and his army having undergone the utmost fatigues during so long and difficult a siege,(1050) and having found nothing in the place to requite them for the service they had rendered Almighty G.o.d (it is the expression of the prophet) in executing his vengeance upon that city, to make them amends, G.o.d was pleased to promise by the mouth of Ezekiel, that he would give them the spoils of Egypt. And indeed they soon after conquered that country, as I have more fully related in the history of the Egyptians.(1051)

When this prince had happily finished all his wars, and was in a state of perfect peace and tranquillity, he employed himself in putting the last hand to the building, or rather to the embellis.h.i.+ng of Babylon. The reader may see in Josephus(1052) an account of the magnificent structures ascribed to this monarch by several writers. I have mentioned a great part of them in the description already given of that stately city.

Whilst nothing seemed wanting to complete this prince's happiness, a frightful dream disturbed his repose, and filled him with great anxiety.(1053) "He saw a tree in the midst of the earth, whose height was great: the tree grew, and was strong, and the height of it reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of the earth. The leaves were fair, and the fruit much; and in it was meat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof; and all flesh was fed of it. Then a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven, and cried; Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit; let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches. Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and bra.s.s, in the tender gra.s.s of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the gra.s.s of the earth. Let his heart be changed from man's; and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pa.s.s over him. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men."

The king, justly terrified at this dreadful dream, consulted all his wise men and magicians, but to no purpose. He was obliged to have recourse to Daniel, who expounded the dream, and applied it to the king himself, plainly declaring to him, "That he should be driven from the company of men for seven years, should be reduced to the condition and fellows.h.i.+p of the beasts of the field, and feed upon gra.s.s like an ox; that his kingdom nevertheless should be preserved for him, and he should repossess his throne, when he should have learnt to know and acknowledge, that all power is from above, and cometh from Heaven. After this he exhorted him to break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor."

All these things came to pa.s.s upon Nabuchodonosor, as the prophet had foretold. At the end of twelve months, as he was walking in his palace, and admiring the beauty and magnificence of his buildings, he said: "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" Would a secret impulse of complacency and vanity in a prince, at the sight of such n.o.ble structures erected by himself, appear to us so very criminal? And yet, hardly were the words out of his mouth, when a voice came down from Heaven, and p.r.o.nounced his sentence: "In the same hour his understanding went from him; he was driven from men, and did eat gra.s.s like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of Heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws."

After the expiration of the appointed time, he recovered his senses, and the use of his understanding: "He lifted up his eyes unto Heaven (says the Scripture) and blessed the Most High; he praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:" Confessing, "That all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing before him, and that he doeth according to his will, in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?"

Now he recovered his former countenance and form. His courtiers went out to seek him; he was restored to his throne, and became greater and more powerful than ever. Penetrated with the heartiest grat.i.tude, he caused, by a solemn edict, to be published through the whole extent of his dominions, what astonis.h.i.+ng and miraculous things G.o.d had wrought in his person.

One year after this he died, having reigned forty-three years, reckoning from the death of his father. He was one of the greatest monarchs that ever reigned in the East. He was succeeded by his son:

(M178) EVIL-MERODACH. As soon as he was settled in the throne, he released Jechonias, king of Judah, out of prison, where he had been confined near seven and thirty years.(1054)

In the reign of this Evil-Merodach, which lasted but two years, the learned place Daniel's detection of the fraud practised by the priests of Bel; the innocent artifice by which he contrived to destroy the dragon, which was wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d; and the miraculous deliverance of the same prophet out of the den of lions, where he had victuals brought him by the prophet Habakkuk.

Evil-Merodach rendered himself so odious by his debauchery and other extravagancies, that his own relations conspired against him, and put him to death.(1055)

(M179) NERIGLISSOR, his sister's husband, and one of the chief conspirators, reigned in his stead.

Immediately on his accession to the crown, he made great preparations for war against the Medes,(1056) which made Cyaxares send for Cyrus out of Persia, to his a.s.sistance. This story will be more particularly related by and by, where we shall find that this prince was slain in battle in the fourth year of his reign.

(M180) LABOROSOARCHOD, his son, succeeded to the throne. This was a very wicked prince. Being born with the most vicious inclinations, he indulged them without restraint when he came to the crown; as if he had been invested with sovereign power, only to have the privilege of committing with impunity the most infamous and barbarous actions. He reigned but nine months; his own subjects conspiring against him, put him to death. His successor was:

(M181) LABYNITUS, OR NABONIDUS. This prince had likewise other names, and in Scripture that of Belshazzar. It is on good grounds supposed that he was the son of Evil-Merodach, by his wife Nitocris, and consequently grandson to Nabuchodonosor, to whom, according to Jeremiah's prophecy, the nations of the East were to be subject, as also to his son, and his grandson after him: "All nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land shall come."(1057)

Nitocris is that queen who raised so many n.o.ble edifices in Babylon.(1058) She caused her own monument to be placed over one of the most remarkable gates of the city, with an inscription, dissuading her successors from touching the treasures laid up in it, without the most urgent and indispensable necessity. The tomb remained closed till the reign of Darius, who, upon his breaking it open, instead of those immense treasures he had flattered himself with discovering, found nothing but the following inscription:

IF THOU HADST NOT AN INSATIABLE THIRST AFTER MONEY, AND A MOST SORDID, AVARICIOUS SOUL, THOU WOULDST NEVER HAVE BROKEN OPEN THE MONUMENTS OF THE DEAD.

In the first year of Belshazzar's reign, Daniel had the vision of the four beasts, which represented the four great monarchies, and the kingdom of the Messiah, which was to succeed them.(1059) In the third year of the same reign he had the vision of the ram and the he-goat, which prefigured the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great, and the persecution which Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, should bring upon the Jews.(1060) I shall hereafter make some reflections upon these prophecies, and give a larger account of them.

Belshazzar, whilst his enemies were besieging Babylon, gave a great entertainment to his whole court, upon a certain festival, which was annually celebrated with great rejoicing.(1061) The joy of this feast was greatly disturbed by a vision, and still more so by the explication which Daniel gave of it to the king. The sentence written upon the wall imported, that his kingdom was taken from him, and given to the Medes and Persians. That very night the city was taken, and Belshazzar killed.

(M182) Thus ended the Babylonian empire, after having subsisted two hundred and ten years from the destruction of the great a.s.syrian empire.

The particular circ.u.mstances of the siege, and the taking of Babylon, shall be related in the history of Cyrus.

Chapter III. The History of the Kingdom of the Medes.

(M183) I took notice, in speaking of the destruction of the ancient a.s.syrian empire, that Arbaces, general of the Median army, was one of the chief authors of the conspiracy against Sardanapalus: and several writers believe, that he then immediately became sovereign master of Media and many other provinces, and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king. Herodotus is not of this opinion. I shall relate what that celebrated historian says upon the subject.

The a.s.syrians, who had for many ages held the empire of Asia, began to decline in their power by the revolt of several nations.(1062) The Medes first threw off their yoke, and maintained for some time the liberty they had acquired by their valour: but that liberty degenerating into licentiousness, and their government not being well established, they fell into a kind of anarchy, worse than their former subjection. Injustice, violence, and rapine, prevailed everywhere, because there was n.o.body that had either power enough to restrain them, or sufficient authority to punish the offenders. But all these disorders at length induced the people to settle a form of government, which rendered the state more flouris.h.i.+ng than ever it was before.

The nation of the Medes was then divided into six tribes. Almost all the people dwelt in villages, when Dejoces, the son of Phraortes, a Mede by birth, erected the state into a monarchy. This person, seeing the great disorders that prevailed throughout all Media, resolved to take advantage of those troubles, and make them serve to exalt him to the royal dignity.

He had a great reputation in his own country, and pa.s.sed for a man, not only regular in his own conduct, but possessed of all the prudence and equity necessary to govern others.

As soon as he had formed the design of obtaining the throne, he laboured to make the good qualities that had been observed in him more conspicuous than ever: he succeeded so well, that the inhabitants of the village where he lived made him their judge. In this office he acquitted himself with great prudence; and his cares had all the success that had been expected from them; for he brought the people of that village to a sober and regular life. The inhabitants of other villages, whom perpetual disorders suffered not to live in quiet, observing the good order Dejoces had introduced in the place where he presided as judge, began to apply to him, and make him arbitrator of their differences. The fame of his equity daily increasing, all such as had any affair of consequence, brought it before him, expecting to find that equity in Dejoces, which they could meet with nowhere else.

When he found himself thus far advanced in his designs, he judged it a proper time to set his last engines to work for the compa.s.sing his point.

He, therefore, retired from business, pretending to be over-fatigued with the mult.i.tude of people that resorted to him from all quarters; and would not exercise the office of judge any longer, notwithstanding all the importunity of such as wished well to the public tranquillity. Whenever any persons addressed themselves to him, he told them, that his own domestic affairs would not allow him to attend to those of other people.

The licentiousness which had been for some time restrained by the judicious management of Dejoces, began to prevail more than ever, as soon as he had withdrawn himself from the administration of affairs; and the evil increased to such a degree, that the Medes were obliged to a.s.semble, and deliberate upon the means of putting a stop to the public disorder.

There are different sorts of ambition: some violent and impetuous, carrying every thing as it were by storm, hesitating at no kind of cruelty or murder: another sort, more gentle, like that we are speaking of, puts on an appearance of moderation and justice, working under ground, (if I may use that expression,) and yet arrives at her point as surely as the other.

Dejoces, who saw things succeeding according to his wish, sent his emissaries to the a.s.sembly, after having instructed them in the part they were to act. When expedients for stopping the course of the public evils came to be proposed, these emissaries, speaking in their turn, represented, that unless the face of the republic was entirely changed, their country would become uninhabitable; that the only means to remedy the present disorders was to elect a king, who should have authority to restrain violence, and make laws for the government of the nation. Then every man could prosecute his own affairs in peace and safety; whereas the injustice that now reigned in all parts, would quickly force the people to abandon the country. This opinion was generally approved; and the whole company was convinced, that no expedient could be devised more effectual for curing the present evil, than that of converting the state into a monarchy. The only thing then to be done, was to choose a king; and about this their deliberations were not long. They all agreed there was not a man in Media so capable of governing as Dejoces; so that he was immediately with common consent elected king.

If we reflect in the least on the first establishment of kingdoms, in any age or country whatsoever, we shall find, that the maintenance of order, and the care of the public good, was the original design of monarchy.

Indeed there would be no possibility of establis.h.i.+ng order and peace, if all men were resolved to be independent, and would not submit to an authority which takes from them a part of their liberty, in order to preserve the rest. Mankind must be perpetually at war, if they will always be striving for dominion over others, or refuse to submit to the strongest. For the sake of their own peace and safety, they must have a master, and must consent to obey him. This is the human origin of government. And the Scripture teacheth us, that the Divine Providence has not only allowed of the project, and the execution of it, but consecrated it likewise by an immediate communication of his own power.(1063)

There is nothing certainly n.o.bler or greater than to see a private person, eminent for his merit and virtue, and fitted by his excellent talents for the highest employments, and yet through inclination and modesty preferring a life of obscurity and retirement: than to see such a man sincerely refuse the offer made to him, of reigning over a whole nation, and at last consent to undergo the toil of government, from no other motive than that of being serviceable to his fellow-citizens. His first disposition, by which he declares that he is acquainted with the duties, and consequently with the dangers annexed to a sovereign power, shows him to have a soul more elevated and great than greatness itself; or, to speak more justly, a soul superior to all ambition: nothing can show him so perfectly worthy of that important charge, as the opinion he has of his not being so, and his fears of being unequal to it. But when he generously sacrifices his own quiet and satisfaction to the welfare and tranquillity of the public, it is plain he understands what that sovereign power has in it really good, or truly valuable; which is, that it puts a man in a condition of becoming the defender of his country, of procuring it many advantages, and of redressing various evils; of causing law and justice to flourish, of bringing virtue and probity into reputation, and of establis.h.i.+ng peace and plenty: and he comforts himself for the cares and troubles to which he is exposed, by the prospect of the many benefits resulting from them to the public. Such a governor was Numa, at Rome; and such have been some other emperors, whom the people found it necessary to compel to accept the supreme power.

It must be owned (I cannot help repeating it) that there is nothing n.o.bler or greater than such a disposition. But to put on the mask of modesty and virtue, in order to satisfy one's ambition, as Dejoces did; to affect to appear outwardly what a man is not inwardly; to refuse for a time, and then accept with a seeming repugnancy, what a man earnestly desires, and what he has been labouring by secret, underhand practices to obtain; this double-dealing has so much meanness in it, that it necessarily lessens our opinion of the person, and extremely sullies the l.u.s.tre of those good qualities, which in other respects, he possesses.

(M184) DEJOCES reigned fifty-three years.(1064) When he had ascended the throne, he endeavoured to convince the people, that they were not mistaken in the choice they had made of him, for restoring of order. At first he resolved to have his dignity of king attended with all the marks that could inspire an awe and respect for his person. He obliged his subjects to build him a magnificent palace in the place he appointed. This palace he strongly fortified, and chose out from among his people such persons as he judged fittest to be his guards, from their attachment to his interests, and his reliance on their fidelity.

After having thus provided for his own security, he applied himself to polish and civilize his subjects, who, having been accustomed to live in the country and in villages, almost without laws and without polity, had contracted the disposition and manners of savages. To this end he commanded them to build a city, marking out himself the place and circ.u.mference of the walls. This city was compa.s.sed about with seven distinct walls, all disposed in such a manner, that the outermost did not hinder the parapet of the second from being seen, nor the second that of the third, and so of all the rest. The situation of the place was extremely favourable for such a design, for it was a regular hill, whose ascent was equal on every side. Within the last and smallest enclosure stood the king's palace, with all his treasures: in the sixth, which was next to that, there were several apartments for lodging the officers of his household; and the intermediate s.p.a.ces, between the other walls, were appointed for the habitation of the people: the first and largest enclosure was about the bigness of Athens. The name of this city was Ecbatana.

The prospect of it was magnificent and beautiful; for, besides the disposition of the walls, which formed a kind of amphitheatre, the different colours wherewith the several parapets were painted formed a delightful variety.

After the city was finished, and Dejoces had obliged part of the Medes to settle in it, he turned all his thoughts to composing of laws for the good of the state. But being persuaded, that the majesty of kings is most respected afar off(1065) he began to keep himself at a distance from his people; was almost inaccessible, and, as it were, invisible to his subjects, not suffering them to speak, or communicate their affairs to him, but only by pet.i.tions, and the interposition of his officers. And even those that had the privilege of approaching him, might neither laugh nor spit in his presence.

This able statesman acted in this manner, in order the better to secure to himself the possession of the crown. For, having to deal with men yet uncivilized, and no very good judges of true merit, he was afraid, that too great a familiarity with him might induce contempt, and occasion plots and conspiracies against a growing power, which is generally looked upon with invidious and discontented eyes. But by keeping himself thus concealed from the eyes of the people, and making himself known only by the wise laws he made, and the strict justice he took care to administer to every one, he acquired the respect and esteem of all his subjects.

It is said, that from the innermost part of his palace he saw every thing that was done in his dominions, by means of his emissaries, who brought him accounts, and informed him of all transactions. By this means no crime escaped either the knowledge of the prince, or the rigour of the law; and the punishment treading upon the heels of the offence, kept the wicked in awe, and stopped the course of violence and injustice.

Things might possibly pa.s.s in this manner to a certain degree during his administration: but there is nothing more obvious than the great inconveniencies necessarily resulting from the custom introduced by Dejoces, and wherein he has been imitated by the rest of the Eastern potentates; the custom, I mean, of living concealed in his palace, of governing by spies dispersed throughout his kingdom, of relying solely upon their sincerity for the truth of facts; of not suffering truth, the complaints of the oppressed, and the just reasons of innocent persons, to be conveyed to him any other way, than through foreign channels, that is, by men liable to be prejudiced or corrupted; men that stopped up all avenues to remonstrances, or the reparation of injuries, and that were capable of doing the greatest injustice themselves, with so much the more ease and a.s.surance, as their iniquity remained undiscovered, and consequently unpunished. But besides all this, methinks, that very affectation in princes of making themselves invisible, shows them to be conscious of their slender merit, which shuns the light, and dares not stand the test of a near examination.

Dejoces was so wholly taken up in humanizing and softening the manners, and in making laws for the good government of his people, that he never engaged in any enterprise against his neighbours, though his reign was very long, for he did not die till after having reigned fifty-three years.

(M185) PHRAORTES reigned twenty-two years.(1066) After the death of Dejoces, his son Phraortes, called otherwise Aphraartes,(1067) succeeded.