Part 18

While the _Assyrians_ Reigned at _Nineveh_, _Persia_ was divided into several Kingdoms; and amongst others there was a Kingdom of _Elam_, which flourished in the days of _Hezekiah_, _Manasseh_, _Josiah_, and _Jehoiakim_ Kings of _Judah_, and fell in the days of _Zedekiah_, _Jer._ xxv. 25, and xlix. 34, and _Ezek._ xxxii. 24. This Kingdom seems to have been potent, and to have had wars with the King of _Touran_ or _Scythia_ beyond the river _Oxus_ with various success, and at length to have been subdued by the _Medes_ and _Babylonians_, or one of them. For while _Nebuchadnezzar_ warred in the west, _Cyaxeres_ recovered the _Assyrian_ provinces of _Armenia_, _Pontus_, and _Cappadocia_, and then they went eastward against the provinces of _Persia_ and _Parthia_. Whether the _Pischdadians_, whom the _Persians_ reckon to have been their oldest Kings, were Kings of the Kingdom of _Elam_, or of that of the _Assyrians_, and whether _Elam_ was conquered by the _Assyrians_ at the same time with _Babylonia_ and _Susiana_ in the Reign of _Asserhadon_, and soon after revolted, I leave to be examined.

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CHAP. IV.

_Of the two Contemporary Empires of the _Babylonians_ and _Medes_._

By the fall of the _Assyrian_ Empire the Kingdoms of the _Babylonians_ and _Medes_ grew great and potent. The Reigns of the Kings of _Babylon_ are stated in _Ptolemy's_ Canon: for understanding of which you are to note that every King's Reign in that Canon began with the last _Thoth_ of his predecessor's Reign, as I gather by comparing the Reigns of the _Roman_ Emperors in that Canon with their Reigns recorded in years, months, and days, by other Authors: whence it appears from that Canon that _Asserhadon_ died in the year of _Nabonassar_ 81, _Saosduchinus_ his successor in the year 101, _Chyniladon_ in the year 123, _Nabopolassar_ in the year 144, and _Nebuchadnezzar_ in the year 187. All these Kings, and some others mentioned in the Canon, Reigned successively over _Babylon_, and this last King died in the 37th year of _Jechoniah_'s captivity, 2 _Kings_ xxv. 27. and therefore _Jechoniah_ was captivated in the 150th year of _Nabonassar_.

This captivity was in the eighth year of _Nebuchadnezzar_'s Reign, 2 _Kings_ xxiv. 12. and eleventh of _Jehoiakim_'s: for the first year of _Nebuchadnezzar_'s Reign was the fourth of _Jehoiakim_'s, _Jer._ xxv. i. and _Jehoiakim_ Reigned eleven years before this captivity, 2 _Kings_ xxiii. 36. 2 _Chron._ xxxvi. 5, and _Jechoniah_ three months, ending with the captivity; and the tenth year of _Jechoniah_'s captivity, was the eighteenth year of _Nebuchadnezzar_'s Reign, _Jer._ xxxii. 1. and the eleventh year of _Zedekiah_, in which _Jerusalem_ was taken, was the nineteenth of _Nebuchadnezzar_, _Jer._ lii. 5, 12. and therefore _Nebuchadnezzar_ began his Reign in the year of _Nabonassar_ 142, that is, two years before the death of his father _Nabopolassar_, he being then made King by his father; and _Jehoiakim_ succeeded his father _Josiah_ in the year of _Nabonassar_ 139; and _Jerusalem_ was taken and the Temple burnt in the year of _Nabonassar_ 160, about twenty years after the destruction of _Nineveh_.

The Reign of _Darius Hystaspis_ over _Persia_, by the Canon and the consent of all Chronologers, and by several Eclipses of the Moon, began in spring in the year of _Nabonassar_ 227: and _in the fourth year of King _Darius_, in the 4th day of the ninth month, which is the month _Chisleu_, when the _Jews_ had sent unto the house of God, saying, should I weep in the fifth month as I have done these so many years? the word of the Lord came unto _Zechariah_, saying, speak to all the people of the Land, and to the Priests, saying; when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me?_ _Zech._ vii. Count backwards those seventy years in which they fasted in the fifth month for the burning of the Temple, and in the seventh for the death of _Gedaliah_; and the burning of the Temple and death of _Gedaliah_, will fall upon the fifth and seventh _Jewish_ months, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 160, as above.

As the _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 might not really begin 'till five or six months after; and the fourth year of _Jehoiakim_, and first of _Nebuchadnezzar_, according to the reckoning of the _Jews_, began with the month _Nisan_, _Anno Nabonass._ 142; and the first year of _Zedekiah_ and of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, and ninth year of _Nebuchadnezzar_, began with the month _Nisan_, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 150; and the tenth year of _Zedekiah_, and 18th of _Nebuchadnezzar_, began with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabonassar_ 159. Now in the ninth year of _Zedekiah_, _Nebuchadnezzar_ invaded _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 _Judah_, against which thou hast had indignation, these threescore and ten years_, _Zech._ i. 7, 12. So then the ninth year of _Zedekiah_, in which this indignation against _Jerusalem_ and the cities of _Judah_ began, commenced with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabonassar_ 158; and the eleventh year of _Zedekiah_, and nineteenth of _Nebuchadnezzar_, in which the city was taken and the Temple burnt, commenced with the month _Nisan_ in the year of _Nabonassar_ 160, as above.

By all these characters the years of _Jehoiakim_, _Zedekiah_, and _Nebuchadnezzar_, seem to be sufficiently determined, and thereby the Chronology of the _Jews_ in the Old Testament is connected with that of later times: for between the death of _Solomon_ and the ninth year of _Zedekiah_ wherein _Nebuchadnezzar_ invaded _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 [378] end of the Reign of _Josiah_, _Anno Nabonass._ 139, _Pharaoh Nechoh_, the successor of _Psammitichus_, came with a great army out of _Egypt_ against the King of _Assyria_, and being denied passage through _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_, and took it, possest himself of the cities of _Syria_, sent for _Jehoahaz_ the new King of _Judah_ to _Riblah_ or _Antioch_, deposed him there, made _Jehojakim_ King in the room of _Josiah_, and put the Kingdom of _Judah_ to tribute: but the King of _Assyria_ being in the mean time besieged and subdued, and _Nineveh_ destroyed by _Assuerus_ King of the _Medes_, and _Nebuchadnezzar_ King of _Babylon_, and the conquerors being thereby entitled to the countries belonging to the King of _Assyria_, they led their victorious armies against the King of _Egypt_ who had seized part of them. For _Nebuchadnezzar_, assisted [379] by _Astibares_, that is, by _Astivares_, _Assuerus_, _Acksweres_, _Axeres_, or _Cy-Axeres_, King of the _Medes_, in the [380] third year of _Jehoiakim_, came with an army of _Babylonians_, _Medes_, _Syrians_, _Moabites_ and _Ammonites_, to the number of 10000 chariots, and 180000 foot, and 120000 horse, and laid waste _Samaria_, _Galilee_, _Scythopolis_, and the _Jews_ in _Galaaditis_, and besieged _Jerusalem_, and took King _Jehoiakim_ alive, and [381] bound him in chains for a time, and carried to _Babylon_ _Daniel_ and others of the people, and part of what Gold and Silver and Brass they found in the Temple: and in [382] the fourth year of _Jehoiakim_, which was the twentieth of _Nabopolassar_, they routed the army of _Pharaoh Nechoh_ at _Carchemish_, and by pursuing the war took from the King of _Egypt_ whatever pertained to him from the river of _Egypt_ to the river of _Euphrates_. This King of _Egypt_ is called by _Berosus_, [383] the _Satrapa_ of _Egypt_, _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 Kingdom of _Babylon_ was erected into a potent Empire.

Whilst _Nebuchadnezzar_ was acting in _Syria_, [384] his father _Nabopolassar_ died, having Reigned 21 years; and _Nebuchadnezzar_ upon the news thereof, having ordered his affairs in _Syria_ returned to _Babylon_, leaving the captives and his army with his servants to follow him: and from henceforward he applied himself sometimes to war, conquering _Sittacene_, _Susiana_, _Arabia_, _Edom_, _Egypt_, and some other countries; and sometimes to peace, adorning the Temple of _Belus_ with the spoils that he had taken; and the city of _Babylon_ with magnificent walls and gates, and stately palaces and pensile gardens, as _Berosus_ relates; and amongst other things he cut the new rivers _Naarmalcha_ and _Pallacopas_ above _Babylon_ and built the city of _Teredon_.

_Judæa_ 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 _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 [385] and besieged _Jerusalem_, captivated _Jeconiah_ the son and successor of _Jehoiakim_, spoiled the Temple, and carried away to _Babylon_ the Princes, craftsmen, smiths, and all that were fit for war: and, when none remained but the poorest of the people, made [386] _Zedekiah_ their King, and bound him upon oath to serve the King of _Babylon_: this was in spring in the end of the eleventh year of _Jehoiakim_, and beginning of the year of _Nabonassar_ 150.

_Zedekiah_ notwithstanding his oath [387] revolted, and made a covenant with the King of _Egypt_, and therefore _Nebuchadnezzar_ in the ninth year of _Zedekiah_ [388] invaded _Judæa_ 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 _Phœnicia_ and _Cœle-Syria_ 45 years, and [389] after the death of his father 43 years, and [390] after the captivity of _Jeconiah_ 37; and then was succeeded by his son _Evilmerodach_, called _Iluarodamus_ in _Ptolemy_'s Canon. _Jerome_ [391] tells us, that _Evilmerodach_ Reigned seven years in his father's life-time, while his father did eat grass with oxen, and after his father's restoration was put in prison with _Jeconiah_ King of _Judah_ 'till the death of his father, and then succeeded in the Throne. In the fifth year of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, _Belshazzar_ was next in dignity to his father _Nebuchadnezzar_, and was designed to be his successor, _Baruch_ i. 2, 10, 11, 12, 14, and therefore _Evilmerodach_ was even then in disgrace. Upon his coming to the Throne [392] he brought his friend and companion _Jeconiah_ out of prison on the 27th day of the twelfth month; so that _Nebuchadnezzar_ died in the end of winter, _Anno Nabonass._ 187.

_Evilmerodach_ Reigned two years after his father's death, and for his lust and evil manners was slain by his sister's husband _Neriglissar_, or _Nergalassar_, _Nabonass._ 189, according to the Canon.

_Neriglissar_, in the name of his young son _Labosordachus_, or _Laboasserdach_, the grand-child of _Nebuchadnezzar_ by his daughter, Reigned four years, according to the Canon and _Berosus_, including the short Reign of _Laboasserdach_ alone: for _Laboasserdach_, according to _Berosus_ and _Josephus_, Reigned nine months after the death of his father, and then for his evil manners was slain in a feast, by the conspiracy of his friends with _Nabonnedus_ a _Babylonian_, to whom by consent they gave the Kingdom: but these nine months are not reckoned apart in the Canon.

_Nabonnedus_ or _Nabonadius_, according to the Canon, began his Reign in the year of _Nabonassar_ 193, Reigned seventeen years, and ended his Reign in the year of _Nabonassar_ 210, being then vanquished and _Babylon_ taken by _Cyrus_.

_Herodotus_ calls this last King of _Babylon_, _Labynitus_, and says that he was the son of a former _Labynitus_, and of _Nitocris_ an eminent Queen of _Babylon_: by the father he seems to understand that _Labynitus_, who, as he tells us, was King of _Babylon_ when the great Eclipse of the Sun predicted by _Thales_ put an end to the five years war between the _Medes_ and _Lydians_; and this was the great _Nebuchadnezzar_. _Daniel_ [393] calls the last King of _Babylon_, _Belshazzar_, and saith that _Nebuchadnezzar_ was his father: and _Josephus_ tells us, [394] that the last King of _Babylon_ was called _Naboandel_ by the _Babylonians_, and Reigned seventeen years; and therefore he is the same King of _Babylon_ with _Nabonnedus_ or _Labynitus_; and this is more agreeable to sacred writ than to make _Nabonnedus_ a stranger to the royal line: for all _nations were to serve _Nebuchadnezzar_ and his posterity, till the very time of his land should come, and many nations should serve themselves of him_, _Jer._ xxvii. 7. _Belshazzar_ was born and lived in honour before the fifth year of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, which was the eleventh year of _Nebuchadnezzar_'s Reign; and therefore he was above 34 years old at the death of _Evilmerodach_, and so could be no other King than _Nabonnedus_: for _Laboasserdach_ the grandson of _Nebuchadnezzar_ was a child when he Reigned.

_Herodotus_ [395] tells us, that there were two famous Queens of _Babylon_, _Semiramis_ and _Nitocris_; and that the latter was more skilful: she observing that the Kingdom of the _Medes_, having subdued many cities, and among others _Nineveh_, was become great and potent, intercepted and fortified the passages out of _Media_ into _Babylonia_; and the river which before was straight, she made crooked with great windings, that it might be more sedate and less apt to overflow: and on the side of the river above _Babylon_, in imitation of the Lake of _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, [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 Μηδεια, a _Mede_.

_Berosus_ tells us, that _Nebuchadnezzar_ built a pensile garden upon arches, because his wife was a _Mede_ and delighted in mountainous prospects, such as abounded in _Media_, but were wanting in _Babylonia_: she was _Amyite_ the daughter of _Astyages_, and sister of _Cyaxeres_, Kings of the _Medes_. _Nebuchadnezzar_ married her upon a league between the two families against the King of _Assyria_: but _Nitocris_ might be another woman who in the Reign of her son _Labynitus_, a voluptuous and vicious King, took care of his affairs, and for securing his Kingdom against the _Medes_, did the works above mentioned. This is that Queen mentioned in _Daniel_, chap. v. ver. 10.

_Josephus_ [397] relates out of the _Tyrian_ records, that in the Reign of _Ithobalus_ King of _Tyre_, that city was besieged by _Nebuchadnezzar_ thirteen years together: in the end of that siege _Ithobalus_ their King was slain, _Ezek._ xxviii. 8, 9, 10. and after him, according to the _Tyrian_ records, Reigned _Baal_ ten years, _Ecnibalus_ and _Chelbes_ one year, _Abbarus_ three months, _Mytgonus_ and _Gerastratus_ six years, _Balatorus_ one year, _Merbalus_ four years, and _Iromus_ twenty years: and in the fourteenth year of _Iromus_, say the _Tyrian_ records, the Reign of _Cyrus_ began in _Babylonia_; therefore the siege of _Tyre_ began 48 years and some months before the Reign of _Cyrus_ in _Babylonia_: it began when _Jerusalem_ had been newly taken and burnt, with the Temple, _Ezek._ xxvi and by consequence after the eleventh year of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, or 160th year of _Nabonassar_, and therefore the Reign of _Cyrus_ in _Babylonia_ began after the year of _Nabonassar_ 208: it ended before the eight and twentieth year of _Jeconiah_'s captivity, or 176th year of _Nabonassar_, _Ezek._ xxix. 17. and therefore the Reign of _Cyrus_ in _Babylonia_ began before the year of _Nabonassar_ 211. By this argument the first year of _Cyrus_ in _Babylonia_ was one of the two intermediate years 209, 210. _Cyrus_ invaded _Babylonia_ in the year of _Nabonassar_ 209; [398] _Babylon_ held out, and the next year was taken, _Jer._ li. 39, 57. by diverting the river _Euphrates_, and entring the city through the emptied channel, and by consequence after midsummer: for the river, by the melting of the snow in _Armenia_, overflows yearly in the beginning of summer, but in the heat of dimmer grows low. [399] _And that night was the King of _Babylon_ slain, and _Darius_ the _Mede_, or King of the _Medes_, took the Kingdom being about threescore and two years old_: so then _Babylon_ was taken a month or two after the summer solstice, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 210; as the Canon also represents.

The Kings of the _Medes_ before _Cyrus_ were _Dejoces_, _Phraortes_, _Astyages_, _Cyaxeres_, or _Cyaxares_, and _Darius_: the three first Reigned before the Kingdom grew great, the two last were great conquerors, and erected the Empire; for _Æschylus_, 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]

Τοιγαρ σφιν εργον εστιν εξειργασμενον Μεγιστον, αιειμνηστον ‛οιον ουδεπω, Το δ' αστυ Σουσων εξεκεινωσεν πεσον· Εξ ‛ουτε τιμην Ζευς αναξ τηνδ' ωπασεν Εν ανδρα πασης Ασιαδος μηλοτροφου Ταγειν, εχοντα σκηπτρον ευθυντηριον Μηδος γαρ ην ‛ο πρωτος ‛ηγεμων στρατου· Αλλος δ' εκεινου παις τοδ' εργον ηνυσε· Φρενες γαρ αυτου θυμον οιακοστροφουν. Τριτος δ' απ' αυτου Κυρος, ευδαιμων ανηρ, &c.

_They have done a work_ _The greatest, and most memorable, such as never happen'd,_ _For it has emptied the falling _Sufa_:_ _From the time that King_ Jupiter _granted this honour,_ _That one man should Reign over all fruitful _Asia_,_ _Having the imperial Scepter._ _For he that first led the Army was a _Mede_;_ _The next, who was his son, finisht the work,_ _For prudence directed his soul;_ _The third was _Cyrus_, a happy man_, &c.

The Poet here attributes the founding of the _Medo-Persian_ Empire to the two immediate predecessors of _Cyrus_, the first of which was a _Mede_, and the second was his son: the second was _Darius_ the _Mede_, the immediate predecessor of _Cyrus_, according to _Daniel_; and therefore the first was the father of _Darius_, that is, _Achsuerus_, _Assuerus_, _Oxyares_, _Axeres_, Prince _Axeres_, or _Cy-Axeres_, the word _Cy_ signifying a Prince: for _Daniel_ tells us, that _Darius_ was the son of _Achsuerus_, or _Ahasuerus_, as the _Masoretes_ erroneously call him, of the seed of the _Medes_, that is, of the seed royal: this is that _Assuerus_ who together with _Nebuchadnezzar_ took and destroyed _Nineveh_, according to _Tobit_: which action is by the _Greeks_ ascribed to _Cyaxeres_, and by _Eupolemus_ to _Astibares_, a name perhaps corruptly written for _Assuerus_. By this victory over the _Assyrians_, and subversion of their Empire seated at _Nineveh_, and the ensuing conquests of _Armenia_, _Cappadocia_ and _Persia_, he began to extend the Reign of one man over all _Asia_; and his son _Darius_ the _Mede_, by conquering the Kingdoms of _Lydia_ and _Babylon_, finished the work: and the third King was _Cyrus_, a happy man for his great successes under and against _Darius_, and large and peaceable dominion in his own Reign.

_Cyrus_ lived seventy years, according to _Cicero_, and Reigned nine years over _Babylon_, according to _Ptolemy_'s Canon, and therefore was 61 years old at the taking of _Babylon_; at which time _Darius_ the _Mede_ was 62 years old, according to _Daniel_: and therefore _Darius_ was two Generations younger than _Astyages_, the grandfather of _Cyrus_: for _Astyages_, according to both [401] _Herodotus_ and _Xenophon_, gave his daughter _Mandane_ to _Cambyses_ a Prince of _Persia_, and by them became the grandfather of _Cyrus_; and _Cyaxeres_ was the son of _Astyages_, according [402] to _Xenophon_, and gave his Daughter to _Cyrus_. This daughter, [403] saith _Xenophon_, was reported to be very handsome, and used to play with _Cyrus_ when they were both children, and to say that she would marry him: and therefore they were much of the same age. _Xenophon_ saith that _Cyrus_ married her after the taking of _Babylon_; but she was then an old woman: it's more probable that he married her while she was young and handsome, and he a young man; and that because he was the brother-in-law of _Darius_ the King, he led the armies of the Kingdom until he revolted: so then _Astyages_, _Cyaxeres_ and _Darius_ Reigned successively over the _Medes_; and _Cyrus_ was the grandson of _Astyages_, and married the sister of _Darius_, and succeeded him in the Throne.