The Sacæa, according to all our authorities, was a Persian, not a
Babylonian, feast. We have not a tittle of evidence to show that the
Babylonians, with whom Zakmuk was a feast of old standing, ever heard
of the Sacæa before they were conquered by the Persians (B.C. 536).
Mr. Frazer admits this: the Babylonian custom, 'so far as appears from
our authorities, does not date from before the Persian conquest; but
probably it was much older.'[13] Why 'probably'? On the strength of
this 'probably' Mr. Frazer calls the doings at the Persian Sacæa 'a
Babylonian custom.'[14] It was a custom of the Persian conquerors of
Babylon, if we can believe Dio Chrysostom; but we have no evidence that
it was a Babylonian custom. Yet it 'has just got to be' a Babylonian
custom that Mr. Frazer may attach it to a vernal Babylonian feast,
Zakmuk, and so to Purim, and so to Eastertide.