THE REVOLT OF BABYLON.
B.C. 516-514
City of Babylon.--The captive Jews.--Wickedness of the
Babylonians.--Causes of discontent.--Preparations of the Babylonians
for revolt.--Their secrecy.--Time chosen for revolt.--Story of
Syloson.--Syloson's red cloak.--He gives it to Darius.--Syloson goes
to Susa.--Interview with Darius.--Request of Syloson.--Darius grants
it.--Citadel of Samos.--Measures of Maeandrius.--Hypocrisy
of Maeandrius.--His brother Charilaus.--Reproaches of
Charilaus.--Character of Maeandrius.--Attack of Charilaus.--Slaughter
of the Samians.--Revolt of Babylon.--Insults and jeers of the
Babylonians.--Ancient mode of warfare.--Modern warfare.--Taunt of the
Babylonians.--Fabricating prodigies.--The mule of Zopyrus.--Interview
with Darius.--Desperate plan of Zopyrus.--He mutilates
himself.--Darius's astonishment.--Final arrangements.--Zopyrus
leaves the Persian camp.--Success of Zopyrus's stratagem.--His
piteous story.--The three victories.--Zopyrus intrusted with power
in Babylon.--Zopyrus admits the Persians.--Fall of Babylon.
The city of Babylon, originally the capital of the Assyrian empire,
was conquered by Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, when he
annexed the Assyrian empire to his dominions. It was a vast and a very
magnificent and wealthy city; and Cyrus made it, for a time, one of
his capitals.
When Cyrus made this conquest of Babylon, he found the Jews in
captivity there. They had been made captive by Nebuchadnezzar, a
previous king of Babylon, as is related in the Scriptures. The holy
prophets of Judea had predicted that after seventy years the captives
should return, and that Babylon itself should afterward be destroyed.
The first prediction was fulfilled by the victory of Cyrus. It
devolved on Darius to execute the second of these solemn and
retributive decrees of heaven.
Although Darius was thus the instrument of divine Providence in the
destruction of Babylon, he was unintentionally and unconsciously so.
In the terrible scenes connected with the siege and the storming of
the ill-fated city, it was the impulse of his own hatred and revenge
that he was directly obeying; he was not at all aware that he was, at
the same time, the messenger of the divine displeasure. The wretched
Babylonians, in the storming and destruction of their city, were
expiating a double criminality. Their pride, their wickedness, their
wanton cruelty toward the Jews, had brought upon them the condemnation
of God, while their political treason and rebellion, or, at least,
what was considered treason and rebellion aroused the implacable
resentment of their king.
The Babylonians had been disposed to revolt even in the days of Cyrus.
They had been accustomed to consider their city as the most noble and
magnificent capital in the world, and they were displeased that Cyrus
did not make it the seat and center of his empire. Cyrus preferred
Susa; and Babylon, accordingly, though he called it one of his
capitals, soon fell to the rank of a provincial city. The nobles and
provincial leaders that remained there began accordingly to form plans
for revolting from the Persian dominion, with a view of restoring
their city to its ancient position and renown.
They had a very favorable opportunity for maturing their plans, and
making their preparations for the execution of them during the time of
the magian usurpation; for while the false Smerdis was on the throne,
being shut up and concealed in his palace at Susa, the affairs of the
provinces were neglected; and when Darius and his accomplices
discovered the imposture and put Smerdis to death, there was
necessarily required, after so violent a revolution, a considerable
time before the affairs of the empire demanding attention at the
capital could be settled, so as to allow the government to turn their
thoughts at all toward the distant dependencies. The Babylonians
availed themselves of all these opportunities to put their city in the
best condition for resisting the Persian power. They strengthened
their defenses, and accumulated great stores of provisions, and took
measures for diminishing that part of the population which would be
useless in war. These measures were all concerted and carried into
effect in the most covert and secret manner; and the tidings came at
last to Susa that Babylon had openly revolted, before the government
of Darius was aware even of the existence of any disaffection.
The time which the Babylonians chose for their rebellion at last was
one when the movable forces which Darius had at command were at the
west, engaged in a campaign on the shores of Asia Minor. Darius had
sent them there for the purpose of restoring a certain exile and
wanderer named Syloson to Samos, and making him the monarch of it.
Darius had been induced thus to interpose in Syloson's behalf by the
following very extraordinary circumstances.
Syloson was the brother of Polycrates, whose unhappy history has
already been given. He was exiled from Samos some time before Darius
ascended the throne, and he became, consequently, a sort of soldier of
fortune, serving, like other such adventurers, wherever there was the
greatest prospect of glory and pay. In this capacity he followed the
army of Cambyses into Egypt in the memorable campaign described in the
first chapter of this volume. It happened, also, that Darius himself,
who was then a young noble in the Persian court, and yet of no
particular distinction, as there was then no reason to imagine that he
would ever be elevated to the throne, was also in Cambyses's army, and
the two young men became acquainted with one another there.
While the army was at Memphis, an incident occurred in which these two
personages were actors, which, though it seemed unimportant at the
time, led, in the end, to vast and momentous results. The incident was
this:
Syloson had a very handsome red cloak, which, as he appeared in it one
day, walking in the great square at Memphis, strongly attracted the
admiration of Darius. Darius asked Syloson if he would sell him the
cloak. Syloson said that he would not sell it, but would give it to
him. He thought, probably, that Darius would decline receiving it as a
present. If he did entertain that idea, it seems he was mistaken.
Darius praised him for his generosity, and accepted the gift.
Syloson was then sorry that he had made so inconsiderate an offer, and
regretted very much the loss of his cloak. In process of time, the
campaign of Cambyses in Egypt was ended, and Darius returned to
Persia, leaving Syloson in the west. At length the conspiracy was
formed for dethroning Smerdis the magian, as has already been
described, and Darius was designated to reign in his stead. As the
news of the young noble's elevation spread into the western world, it
reached Syloson. He was much pleased at receiving the intelligence,
and he saw immediately that there was a prospect of his being able to
derive some advantage, himself, from the accession of his old
fellow-soldier to the throne.
He immediately proceeded to Susa. He applied at the gates of the
palace for admission to the presence of the king. The porter asked him
who he was. He replied that he was a Greek who had formerly done
Darius a service, and he wished to see him. The porter carried the
message to the king. The king could not imagine who the stranger
should be. He endeavored in vain to recall to mind any instance in
which he had received a favor from a Greek. At length he ordered the
attendant to call the visitor in.
Syloson was accordingly conducted into the king's presence. Darius
looked upon him, but did not know him. He directed the interpreters to
inquire what the service was which he had rendered the king, and when
he had rendered it. The Greek replied by relating the circumstance of
the cloak. Darius recollected the cloak, though he had forgotten the
giver. "Are you, indeed," said he, "the man who made me that present?
I thought then that you were very generous to me, and you shall see
that I do not undervalue the obligation now. I am at length,
fortunately, in a situation to requite the favor, and I will give you
such an abundance of gold and silver as shall effectually prevent your
being sorry for having shown a kindness to Darius Hystaspes."
Syloson thanked the king in reply, but said that he did not wish for
gold and silver. Darius asked him what reward he did desire. He
replied that he wished Samos to be restored to him: "Samos," said he,
"was the possession of my brother. When he went away from the island,
he left it temporarily in the hands of Maeandrius, an officer of his
household. It still remains in the possession of this family, while I,
the rightful heir, am a homeless wanderer and exile, excluded from my
brother's dominions by one of his slaves."
Darius immediately determined to accede to Syloson's request. He
raised an army and put it under the command of Otanes, who, it will be
recollected, was one of the seven conspirators that combined to
dethrone Smerdis the magian. He directed Otanes to accompany Syloson
to Samos, and to put him in possession of the island. Syloson was
particularly earnest in his request that no unnecessary violence
should be used, and no blood shed, or vindictive measures of any kind
adopted. Darius promised to comply with these desires, and gave his
orders to Otanes accordingly.
Notwithstanding this, however, the expedition resulted in the almost
total destruction of the Samian population, in the following manner.
There was a citadel at Samos, to which the inhabitants retired when
they learned that Otanes had embarked his troops in ships on the
coast, and was advancing toward the island. Maeandrius was vexed and
angry at the prospect of being deprived of his possessions and his
power; and, as the people hated him on account of his extortion and
tyranny, he hated them in return, and cared not how much suffering his
measures might be the means of bringing upon them. He had a
subterranean and secret passage from the citadel to the shore of the
sea, where, in a secluded cove, were boats or vessels ready to take
him away. Having made these arrangements to secure his own safety, he
proceeded to take such a course and adopt such measures as should tend
most effectually to exasperate and offend the Persians, intending to
escape, himself, at the last moment, by this subterranean retreat,
and to leave the inhabitants of the island at the mercy of their
infuriated enemies.
He had a brother whom he had shut up in a dungeon, and whose mind,
naturally depraved, and irritated by his injuries, was in a state of
malignant and furious despair. Maeandrius had pretended to be willing
to give up the island to the Persians. He had entered into
negotiations with them for this purpose, and the Persians considered
the treaty as in fact concluded. The leaders and officers of the army
had assembled, accordingly, before the citadel in a peaceful attitude,
waiting merely for the completion of the forms of surrender, when
Charilaus, Maeandrius's captive brother, saw them, by looking out
between the bars of his window, in the tower in which he was confined.
He sent an urgent message to Maeandrius, requesting to speak to him.
Maeandrius ordered the prisoner to be brought before him. The haggard
and wretched-looking captive, rendered half insane by the combined
influence of the confinement he had endured, and of the wild
excitement produced by the universal panic and confusion which reigned
around him, broke forth against his brother in the boldest and most
violent invectives. He reproached him in the most bitter terms for
being willing to yield so ingloriously, and without a struggle, to an
invading foe, whom he might easily repel. "You have courage and energy
enough, it seems," said he, "to make war upon an innocent and
defenseless brother, and to keep him for years in chains and in a
dungeon, but when an actual enemy appears, though he comes to despoil
you of all your possessions, and to send you into hopeless exile, and
though, if you had the ordinary courage and spirit of a man, you could
easily drive him away, yet you dare not face him. If you are too
cowardly and mean to do your duty yourself, give me your soldiers, and
I will do it for you. I will drive these Persians back into the sea
with as much pleasure as it would give me to drive you there!"
Such a nature as that of Maeandrius can not be stung into a proper
sense of duty by reproaches like these. There seem to have been in his
heart no moral sensibilities of any kind, and there could be, of
course, no compunctions for the past, and no awakening of new and
better desires for the future. All the effect which was produced upon
his mind by these bitter denunciations was to convince him that to
comply with his brother's request would be to do the best thing now in
his power for widening, and extending, and making sure the misery and
mischief which were impending. He placed his troops, therefore, under
his brother's orders; and while the infuriated madman sallied forth at
the head of them to attack the astonished Persians on one side of the
citadel, Maeandrius made his escape through the under-ground passage on
the other. The Persians were so exasperated at what appeared to them
the basest treachery, that, as soon as they could recover their arms
and get once more into battle array, they commenced a universal
slaughter of the Samians. They spared neither age, sex, nor condition;
and when, at last, their vengeance was satisfied, and they put the
island into Syloson's hands, and withdrew, he found himself in
possession of an almost absolute solitude.
[Illustration: THE BABYLONIANS DERIDING DARIUS.]
It was while Otanes was absent on this enterprise, having with him a
large part of the disposable forces of the king, that the Babylonians
revolted. Darius was greatly incensed at hearing the tidings.
Sovereigns are always greatly incensed at a revolt on the part of
their subjects. The circumstances of the case, whatever they may be,
always seem to them to constitute a peculiar aggravation of the
offense. Darius was indignant that the Babylonians had attempted to
take advantage of his weakness by rebelling when his armies were
away. If they had risen when his armies were around him, he would
have been equally indignant with them for having dared to brave his
power.
He assembled all the forces at his disposal, and advanced to Babylon.
The people of the city shut their gates against him, and derided him.
They danced and capered on the walls, making all sorts of gestures
expressive of contempt and defiance, accompanied with shouts and
outcries of ridicule and scorn. They had great confidence in the
strength of their defenses, and then, besides this, they probably
regarded Darius as a sort of usurper, who had no legitimate title to
the throne, and who would never be able to subdue any serious
resistance which might be offered to the establishment of his power.
It was from these considerations that they were emboldened to be
guilty of the folly of taunting and insulting their foes from the city
walls.
Such incidents as this, of personal communications between masses of
enemies on the eve of a battle, were very common in ancient warfare,
though impossible in modern times. In those days, when the missiles
employed were thrown chiefly by the strength of the human arm alone,
the combatants could safely draw near enough together for each side to
hear the voices and to see the gesticulations of the other. Besiegers
could advance sufficiently close to a castle or citadel to parley
insultingly with the garrison upon the walls, and yet be safe from the
showers of darts and arrows which were projected toward them in
return. But all this is now changed. The reach of cannon, and even of
musketry, is so long, that combatants, approaching a conflict, are
kept at a very respectful distance apart, until the time arrives in
which the actual engagement is to begin. They reconnoiter each other
with spy-glasses from watch-towers on the walls, or from eminences in
the field, but they can hold no communication except by a formal
embassy, protected by a flag of truce, which, with its white and
distant fluttering, as it slowly advances over the green fields, warns
the gunners at the battery or on the bastion to point their artillery
another way.
The Babylonians, on the walls of their city, reproached and taunted
their foes incessantly. "Take our advice," said they, "and go back
where you came from. You will only lose your time in besieging
Babylon. When mules have foals, you will take the city, and not till
then."
The expression "when mules have foals" was equivalent in those days to
our proverbial phrase, "when the sky falls," being used to denote any
thing impossible or absurd, inasmuch as mules, like other hybrid
animals, do not produce young. It was thought in those times
absolutely impossible that they should do so; but it is now well known
that the case is not impossible, though very rare.
It seems to have added very much to the interest of an historical
narrative in the minds of the ancient Greeks, to have some prodigy
connected with every great event; and, in order to gratify this
feeling, the writers appear in some instances to have fabricated a
prodigy for the occasion, and in others to have elevated some unusual,
though by no means supernatural circumstance, to the rank and
importance of one. The prodigy connected with this siege of Babylon
was the foaling of a mule. The mule belonged to a general in the army
of Darius, named Zopyrus. It was after Darius had been prosecuting the
siege of the city for a year and a half, without any progress
whatever toward the accomplishment of his end. The army began to
despair of success. Zopyrus, with the rest, was expecting that the
siege would be indefinitely prolonged, or, perhaps, absolutely
abandoned, when his attention was strongly attracted to the phenomenon
which had happened in respect to the mule. He remembered the taunt of
the Babylonian on the wall, and it seemed to him that the whole
occurrence portended that the time had now arrived when some way might
be devised for the capture of the city.
Portents and prophecies are often the causes of their own fulfillment,
and this portent led Zopyrus to endeavor to devise some means to
accomplish the end in view. He went first, however, to Darius, to
converse with him upon the subject, with a view of ascertaining how
far he was really desirous of bringing the siege to a termination. He
wished to know whether the object was of sufficient importance in
Darius's mind to warrant any great sacrifice on his own part to effect
it.
He found that it was so. Darius was extremely impatient to end the
siege and to capture the city; and Zopyrus saw at once that, if he
could in any way be the means of accomplishing the work, he should
entitle himself, in the highest possible degree, to the gratitude of
the king.
He determined to go himself into Babylon as a pretended deserter from
Darius, with a view to obtaining an influence and a command within the
city, which should enable him afterward to deliver it up to the
besiegers; and, in order to convince the Babylonians that his
desertion was real, he resolved to mutilate himself in a manner so
dreadful as would effectually prevent their imagining that the
injuries which he suffered were inflicted by any contrivance of his
own. He accordingly cut off his hair and his ears, and mutilated his
face in a manner too shocking to be here detailed, inflicting injuries
which could never be repaired. He caused himself to be scourged, also,
until his whole body was covered with cuts and contusions. He then
went, wounded and bleeding as he was, into the presence of Darius, to
make known his plans.
Darius expressed amazement and consternation at the terrible
spectacle. He leaped from his throne and rushed toward Zopyrus,
demanding who had dared to maltreat one of his generals in such a
manner. When Zopyrus replied that he had himself done the deed, the
king's astonishment was greater than before. He told Zopyrus that he
was insane. Some sudden paroxysm of madness had come over him. Zopyrus
replied that he was not insane; and he explained his design. His plan,
he said, was deliberately and calmly formed, and it should be steadily
and faithfully executed. "I did not make known my design to you," said
he, "before I had taken the preliminary steps, for I knew that you
would prevent my taking them. It is now too late for that, and nothing
remains but to reap, if possible, the advantage which may be derived
from what I have done."
He then arranged with Darius the plans which he had formed, so far as
he needed the co-operation of the king in the execution of them. If he
could gain a partial command in the Babylonian army, he was to make a
sally from the city gates on a certain day, and attack a portion of
the Persian army, which Darius was to leave purposely exposed, in
order that he might gain credit with the Babylonians by destroying
them. From this he supposed that the confidence which the Babylonians
would repose in him would increase, and he might consequently receive
a greater command. Thus he might, by acting in concert with Darius
without, gradually gain such an ascendency within the city as finally
to have power to open the gates and let the besiegers in. Darius was
to station a detachment of a thousand men near a certain gate, leaving
them imperfectly armed, on the tenth day after Zopyrus entered the
city. These Zopyrus was to destroy. Seven days afterward, two thousand
more were to be stationed in a similar manner at another point; and
these were also to be destroyed by a second sally. Twenty days after
this, four thousand more were to be similarly exposed. Thus seven
thousand innocent and defenseless men would be slaughtered, but that,
as Zopyrus said, would be "of no consequence." The lives of men were
estimated by heroes and conquerors in those days only at their
numerical value in swelling the army roll.
These things being all arranged, Zopyrus took leave of the King to go
to Babylon. As he left the Persian camp, he began to run, looking
round behind him continually, as if in flight. Some men, too,
pretended to pursue him. He fled toward one of the gates of the city.
The sentinels on the walls saw him coming. When he reached the gate,
the porter inside of it talked with him through a small opening, and
heard his story. The porter then reported the case to the superior
officers, and they commanded that the fugitive should be admitted.
When conducted into the presence of the magistrates, he related a
piteous story of the cruel treatment which he had received from
Darius, and of the difficulty which he had experienced in making his
escape from the tyrant's hands. He uttered, too, dreadful imprecations
against Darius, and expressed the most eager determination to be
revenged. He informed the Babylonians, moreover, that he was well
acquainted with all Darius's plans and designs, and with the
disposition which he had made of his army; and that, if they would, in
a few days, when his wounds should have in some measure healed, give
him a small command, he would show them, by actual trial, what he
could do to aid their cause.
They acceded to this proposition, and furnished Zopyrus, at the end of
ten days, with a moderate force. Zopyrus, at the head of this force,
sallied forth from the gate which had been previously agreed upon
between him and Darius, and fell upon the unfortunate thousand that
had been stationed there for the purpose of being destroyed. They were
nearly defenseless, and Zopyrus, though his force was inferior, cut
them all to pieces before they could be re-enforced or protected, and
then retreated safely into the city again. He was received by the
Babylonians with the utmost exultation and joy. He had no difficulty
in obtaining, seven days afterward, the command of a larger force,
when, sallying forth from another gate, as had been agreed upon by
Darius, he gained another victory, destroying, on this occasion, twice
as many Persians as before. These exploits gained the pretended
deserter unbounded fame and honor within the city. The populace
applauded him with continual acclamations; and the magistrates invited
him to their councils, offered him high command, and governed their
own plans and measures by his advice. At length, on the twentieth day,
he made his third sally, at which time he destroyed and captured a
still greater number than before. This gave him such an influence and
position within the city, in respect to its defense, that he had no
difficulty in getting intrusted with the keys of certain gates--those,
namely, by which he had agreed that the army of Darius should be
admitted.
When the time arrived, the Persians advanced to the attack of the city
in that quarter, and the Babylonians rallied as usual on the walls to
repel them. The contest had scarcely begun before they found that the
gates were open, and that the columns of the enemy were pouring in.
The city was thus soon wholly at the mercy of the conqueror. Darius
dismantled the walls, carried off the brazen gates, and crucified
three thousand of the most distinguished inhabitants; then
establishing over the rest a government of his own, he withdrew his
troops and returned to Susa. He bestowed upon Zopyrus, at Susa, all
possible rewards and honors. The marks of his wounds and mutilations
could never be effaced, but Darius often said that he would gladly
give up twenty Babylons to be able to efface them.