Cyrus,* in the mean time, well informed of the confusion that was generally occasioned by this festival, both in the palace and the city, had posted a part of his troops on that side where the river entered into the city, and another part on that side where it went out; and had commanded them to enter the city that very night, by marching along the channel of the river, as soon as ever they found it fordable. Having given all necessary orders, and exhorted his officers to follow him, by representing to them that he marched under the guidance of the gods; in the evening he made them open the great receptacles, or ditches, on both sides of the city, above and below, that the water of the river might run into them. By this means the Euphrates was quickly emptied, and its channel became dry. Then the two forementioned bodies of troops, according to their orders, went into the channel, the one commanded by Gobryas, and the other by Gadatas, and advanced without meeting any obstacle. The invisible guide, who had promised to open all the gates to Cyrus, made the general negligence and disorder of that riotous night subservient to his design, by leaving open the gates of brass, which were made to shut up the descents from the quays to the river, and which alone, if they had not been left open, were sufficient to have defeated the whole enterprise. Thus did these two bodies of troops penetrate into the very heart of the city without any opposition, and meeting together at the royal palace, according to their agreement, surprised the guards, and cut them to pieces. Some of the company that were within the palace opening the doors to know what noise it was they heard without, the soldiers rushed in, and quickly made themselves masters of it; and meeting the king, who came up to them sword in hand, at the head of those that were in the way to succour him, they killed him, and put all those that attended him to the sword. The first thing the conquerors did afterwards, was to thank the gods for having at least punished that impious king. These words are Xenophon's, and are very worthy of attention, as they so perfectly agree with what the Scriptures have recorded of the impious Belshazzar. A. M. 3466. The taking of Babylon put an end to the Babylonian Ant. J. C. 538. empire, after a duration of 210 years from the beginning of the reign of Nabonassar. Thus was the power of that proud city abolished just fifty years after she had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and her temple. And herein were accomplished those predictions, which the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, had denounced against her, and of which we have already given a particular account. There is still one more, the most important and the most incredible of them all, and yet the Scripture has set it down in the strongest terms, and marked it out with the greatest exactness; a prediction literally fulfilled in all its points; the proof of which still actually subsists, is the most easy to be verified, and indeed of * Cyrop. 1. vii. p. 189-192. Вести су 140 HISTORY OF a nature not to be contested. What I mean is the prediction of so total and absolute a ruin of Babylon, that not the least remains or traces should be left of it. I think it may not be improper to give an account of the perfect accomplishment of this famous prophecy, before we proceed to speak of what followed the taking of Babylon. SECTION III. The completion of the prophecy which foretold the total ruin and destruction of Babylon. This prediction we find recorded in several of the prophets, but particularly in Isaiah, in the thirteenth chapter, from the 19th to the 22d verses, and in the 23d and 24th verses of the fourteenth chapter. I have already inserted it at large, page 132, &c. It is there declared, that Babylon shall be utterly destroyed, as the criminal cities of Sodom and Gomorrah formerly were; that she shall be no more inhabited; that she shall never be rebuilt; that the Arabs shall not so much as set up their tents there; that the shepherd shall not come thither even to rest his flock; that it shall become a dwelling place for the wild beasts, and a retreat for the birds of night; that the place where it stood shall be covered over with a marsh, so that no trace shall be left to show where Babylon had been. It is God himself who pronounced this sentence, and it is for the service of religion to show how exactly every article of it has been successively accomplished. I. In the first place, Babylon ceased to be a royal city, the kings of Persia choosing to reside elsewhere. They delighted more in Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, or any other place; and did themselves destroy a good part of Babylon. A. M. 3880. II. We are informed by Strabo and Pliny, that the Ant. J. C. 124. Macedonians, who succeeded the Persians, did not only neglect it, and forbear to embellish or even repair it, but that moreover they built Seleucia in the neighbourhood,* on purpose to draw away its inhabitants, and cause it to be deserted. Nothing can better explain what the prophet had foretold; It shall not be inhabited. Its own masters endeavour to make it desolate. III. The new kings of Persia, who afterwards became masters of Babylon, completed the ruin of it, by building Ctesiphon,† which carried away all the remainder of the inhabitants; so that from the time the curse was pronounced against that city, it seems as if those very persons that ought to have protected her, were become her enemies; and had all thought it their duty to reduce her to a state of * Partem urbis Persæ diruerunt, partem tempus consumpsit et Macedonum negligentia; maximè postquam Seleucus Nicator Seluciam ad Tigrim condidit, stadiis rantum trecentis à Babylone dissitam. Strab. 1. xvi. p. 738. In solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seluciæ, ob id conditæ à Nicatore intra nonagesimum (or quadragesimum) lapidem. Plin. 1. vi c. 26. in † Pro illâ Seluciam et Ctesiphontem urbes Persarum inclytas fecerunt. S. Hieron. cap. xiii. Isa solitude, though by indirect means, and without using any violence; that it might more manifestly appear to be the hand of God, rather than the hand of man, which brought about her destruction. A. D. 96. IV. She was so totally forsaken, that nothing of her was left remaining but the walls. And to this condition she was reduced at the time when Pausanias wrote his remarks upon Greece.* Illa autem Babylon omnium quas unquam sol aspexit urbium maxima, jam præter muros nihil habet reliqui. Paus. in Arcad. pag. 509. V. The kings of Persia finding their place deserted, made a park of it, in which they kept wild beasts for hunting. Thus did it become, as the prophet had foretold, a dwelling-place for ravenous beasts, that are enemies to man; or for timorous animals, that flee before him. Instead of citizens, she was now inhabited by wild boars, leopards, bears, deer, and wild asses. Babylon was now the retreat of fierce, savage, deadly creatures, that hate the light, and delight in darkness. Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and dragon's shall dwell in their pleasant palaces.† St. Jerome has transmitted to us the following valuA. D. 400. able remark which he had from a Persian monk, that he had himself seen what he related to him. Didicimus à quodam fratre Elamitâ, qui de illis finibus egrediens, nunc Hierosolymis vitam exigit monachorum, venationes regias esse in Babylone, et omnis generis bestias murorum ejus ambitu tantùm contineri. In cap. Isa. xiii. 22. VI. But it was still too much that the walls of Babylon were standing. At length they fell down in several places, and were never repaired. Various accidents destroyed the remainder. The animals which were to be subservient to the pleasure of the Persian kings, abandoned the place; serpents and scorpions remained, so that it became a dreadful place for persons that should have the curiosity to visit, or search after, its antiquities. The Euphrates, that used to run through the city, having no longer a free channel, took its course another way; so that in Theodoret's time there was nothing more than a very stream of water left, which ran across the ruins, and, not meeting with a slope or free passage, necessarily degenerated into a marsh. In the time of Alexander the Great, the river had quitted its ordinary channel, by reason of the outlets and canals which Cyrus had made, and of which we have already given an account; the outlets being badly stopped up, had occasioned a great inundation in the country. Alexander, designing to fix the seat of his empire at Babylon, projected the bringing back of the Euphrates into its natural and former channel, and had actually set his men to work. *He wrote in the reign of Antoninus, successor to Adrian. ↑ Isa. xiii. 21, 22. Euphrates quondam urbem ipsam mediam dividebat; nunc autem fluvius conver Bus est in aliam viam, et per rudera minimus aquarum meatus fluit. Theodor. in cap. 1. Jerem. ver. 38, 39. Arrian, de Exped. Alex. li. viii. But the Almighty, who watched over the fulfilling of his prophecy, and who had declared, he would destroy even to the very remains and footsteps of Babylon [I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,*] defeated this enterprise by the death of Alexander, which happened soon after. It is easy to comprehend how, after this, Babylon being neglected to such a degree as we have seen, its river was converted into an inaccessible pool, which covered the very place where that impious city had stood, as Isaiah had foretold: İ will make it pools of water. And this was necessary, lest the place where Babylon had stood should be discovered hereafter by the course of the Euphrates. VII. By means of all these changes Babylon became an utter desert, and all the country round fell into the same state of desolation and horror; so that the most able geographers at this day cannot determine the place where it stood. In this manner God's prediction was literally fulfilled: I will cut off from Babylon the name— I will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. I myself, saith the Lord, will examine with a jealous eye, to see if there be any remains of that city, which was an enemy to my name, and to Jerusalem. I will thoroughly sweep the place where it stood, and will clear it so effectually, by defacing every trace of the city, that no person shall be able to preserve the memory of the place chosen by Nimrod, and which I, the Lord, have abolished. I will sweep it with the besom of destruction saith the Lord of hosts. VIII. God was not satisfied with causing all these alterations to be foretold, but to give the greater assurance of their certainty, thought fit to seal the prediction of them by an oath. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. But if we would take this dreadful oath in its full latitude, we must not confine it either to Babylon or to its inhabitants, or to the princes that reigned therein. The malediction relates to the whole world: it is the general anathema pronounced against the wicked; it is the terrible decree, by which the two cities of Babylon and Jerusalem shall be separated for ever, and an eternal divorce be put between the saints and the reprobate. The Scriptures that have foretold it, shall subsist till the day of its execution. The sentence is written therein, and deposited as it were, in the public archives of religion. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, As I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. What I have said of this prophecy concerning Babylon is almost all entirely taken out of an excellent treatise upon Isaiah, which is still in manuscript. * Isa. xiv. 22. ↑ Ib. xiv. 23. Nunc omnino destructa, ita ut vix ejus supersint rudera. Baudrand, || Isa. xiv. 24. SECTION IV. What followed upon the taking of Babylon. Cyrus, having entered the city in the manner we have described, put all to the sword that were found in the streets: he then commanded the citizens to bring him all their arms, and afterwards to shut themselves up in their houses. The next morning, by break of day, the garrison which kept the citadel being apprised that the city was taken, and their king killed, surrendered themselves to Cyrus. Thus did this prince, almost without striking a blow, and without any resistance, find himself in peaceable possession of the strongest place in the world. The first thing he did was, to thank the gods for the success they had given him. And then, having assembled his principal officers, he publicly applauded their courage and prudence, their zeal and attachment to his person, and distributed rewards to his whole army.† After which he represented to them, that the only means of preserving what they had acquired was to persevere in their ancient virtue; that the proper end of victory was not to give themselves up to idleness and pleasure; that, after having conquered their enemies by force of arms, it would be shameful to suffer themselves to be overcome by the allurements of pleasure; that, in order to maintain their ancient glory, it behoved them to keep up amongst the Persians at Babylon the same discipline they had observed in their own country, and for that purpose, to take a particular care to give their children a good education. This (says he) will necessarily engage us daily to make further advances in virtue, as it will oblige us to be diligent and careful in setting them good examples: nor will it be easy for them to be corrupted, when they shall neither hear nor see any thing amongst us, but what excites them to virtue, and shall be continually employed in honourable and laudable exercises. Cyrus committed the different parts and offices of his government to different persons, according to their various talents and qualifications; but the care of forming and appointing general officers, governors of provinces, ministers and ambassadors, he reserved to himself, looking upon that as the proper duty and employment of a king, upon which depended his glory, the success of his affairs, and the happiness and tranquillity of his kingdom. His great talent was to study the particular character of men, in order to place every one in his proper sphere, to give them authority in proportion to their merit, to make their private advancement concur with the public good, and to make the whole machine of the state move in so regufar a manner, that every part should have a dependance upon, and mutually contribute to support each other; and that the strength of one should not exert itself but for the benefit and advantage of the + Ibid. 202. * *Cyrop. 1. vii. p. 192. † Cyrop. l. vii. p. 197, 200. |