it called in Isaiah, the daughter of Sidon.* But the daughter soon surpassed 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. His troops suffered incredible hardships before it; so that, according to the prophet's expression, every head was made bald,‡ and every shoulder was peeled. Before the city was reduced to the last extremity, its inhabitants retired, with the greatest part of their effects, into a neighbouring isle, a mile from the shore, 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, and having found nothing in the place to requite them for the service they had rendered Almighty God (it is the expression of the prophet) in executing his vengeance upon that city, to make them amends, God 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.

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 embellishing, of Babylon. The reader may see in Josephus 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.** 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 its branches. Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass 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 pass over him. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the Jos. Ant. 1. x. c. 11. et con. Ap. I. i. Antiq. L. x. c. 11.

* Is. xxiii. 12.

Ezek. xxix. 18-20.

Vol. i.

Ezek. xxix. 18, 19. ** Dan. iv.

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 fellowship of the beasts of the field, and feed upon grass 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 pass 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 noble 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 pronounced his sentence: In the same hour his understanding went from him; he was driven from men, and did eat grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like bird's 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 gratitude, he caused, by a solemn edict, to be published through the whole extent of his dominons, what astonishing and miraculous things God 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 suc

ceeded by his son

A. M. 3441.

EVIL-MERODACH.* As soon as he was settled in

Ant. J. C. 563. the throne, he released Jechonias, king of Judah,

* 2 Kings, xxv. 27-30.

out of prison, where he had been confined near seven-and-thirty years.

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 worshipped as a god; 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 extravagances,* that his own relations conspired against him, and put him to death.

A. M. 3444.

NERIGLISSOR, his sister's husband, and one of the Ant. J. C. 560. chief conspirators, reigned in his stead.

Immediately on his accession to the crown, he made great preparations for war against the Medes, which made Cyaxares send for Cyrus out of Persia, to his assistance. 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.

A. M. 3448.

LABOROSOARCHOD, his son, succeeded to the throne. Ant. J. C. 556. 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

A. M. 3449.

LABYNITUS or NABONIDUS. This prince had likeAnt. J. C. 555. wise 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.‡

Nitocris is that queen that raised so many noble edifices in Babylon.§ 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 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.

Beros. Megasthen. † Cyrop. l. i.

185, &c.

+ Jer. xxvii. 7.

Herod. 1. 1. cap.

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. In the third year of the same reign he had the vision of the ram and the hegoat,f which prefigured the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great, and the persecution which Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, would bring upon the Jews. I shall hereafter make some reflections upon these prophecies, and give a larger ac

count 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. 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.

A. M. 3468.

Thus ended the Babylonian empire, after having Ant. J. C. 536. subsisted 210 years from the destruction of the great Assyrian empire.

The particular circumstances 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.

A. M. 3257. I TOOK notice, in speaking of the destruction of the Ant. J. C. 747. ancient Assyrian 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 assumed the title of king. Herodotus is not of this opinion. I shall relate what that celebrated historian says upon the subject.

The Assyrians, who had for many ages held the empire of Asia, began to decline in their power by the revolt of several nations. 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 every where, because there was nobody 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 flourishing than ever it was before. + Dan. v.

* Dan. vii.

† Dan. viii.

Herod. l. i. c. 95.

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 passed 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 no where 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 compassing his point. He therefore retired from business, pretending to be overfatigued with the multitude 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, so 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 assemble, and deliberate upon the means of putting a stop to the public disorder.

There are different sorts of ambition: some, violent and impetuous, carry 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 assembly, 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 VOL. II.

G