_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.
_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 _Crœsus_
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 _Assuerus_, 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
_Æschylus_ 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 Nabonass._ 219, according to the
Canon, and therefore _Cyaxeres_ died _Anno Nabonass._ 177, and began his
Reign _Anno Nabonass._ 137, and his father _Astyages_ Reigned 26 years,
beginning his Reign at the death of _Phraortes_, who was slain by the
_Assyrians_, _Anno Nabonass._ 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 _Æschylus_ 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_ circumvented 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 _Assyria_, 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 _Assyrians_, and in prosecuting their victory were
invading _Syria_ and _Phœnicia_, and were ready to invade the nations round
about; God [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 _Judæa_ 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 _Assyrians_ 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 _Chaldæans_; 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,_ God 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 God 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 pass 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 _Chaldæans_ 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 passion 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 _Assyrians_, 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 Nabonass._ 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 _Chaldæans:
Behold_, saith he, _the_ Assyrian _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
God 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. xxxi.
The next year _Ezekiel_, in another prophesy, thus enumerates the principal
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 multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the
sword, which are gone down uncircumcised 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 multitude [411]; her graves are round about him: all
of them uncircumcised, 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.
xxxii. Here by the Princes of the North I understand those on the north of
_Judæa_, 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 _Judæa_, _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
_Æschylus_ 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_ Crœsus _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 & Crœsus_, saith
[418] _Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia_ [auri] _pondo
xxxiv millia invenerat, præter 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 Ægyptium 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 _Crœsus_ coined gold monies in plenty, called
_Crœsei_; 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
_Crœsus_ 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]
Πινωμεν, χαριεντα μετ' αλληλοισι λεγοντες,
Μηδεν τον Μηδων δειδιοτες πολεμον.
_Let us drink, talking pleasant things with one another,_
_Not fearing the war of the _Medes_._
And again, [421]
Αυτος δε στρατον ‛υβριστην Μηδων απερυκε
Τησδε πολευς, ‛ινα σοι λαοι εν ευφροσυνηι
Ηρος επερχομενου κλειτας πεμπωσ' ‛εκατομβας,
Τερπομενοι κιθαρη και ερατηι θαλιηι,
Παιανωντε χοροις, ιαχωσι τε, σον περι βωμον.
Η γαρ εγωγε δεδοικ', αφραδιην εσορων
Και στασιν ‛Ελληνων λαοφθορον· αλλα συ Φοιβε,
‛Ιλαος ‛ημετερην τηνδε φυλασσε πολιν.
_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 _Pœans_ 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.