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scarlet, with a chain of gold about his neck, and to be proclaimed the third ruler in the kingdom.

"In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain," Dan. v. 25-30. This is the brief statement of Holy Writ. No circumstances are detailed. All inquiries, therefore, into the particulars are only conjectures, or to be supported by such evidence as may be found in common writers. If these contradict each other, we may adopt which we think best grounded, without in the least departing from, or impugning the truth of Scripture.

According to Xenophon, Belshazzar was slain by conspirators; for he states, that Gobryas and Godatas, who led the band that broke into his palace, were the first who adored the gods for having punished the impious king. Dr. Hales conceives it probable that Daniel's interpretation of the handwriting upon the wall hastened his doom, since the conspirators, with their most injured leaders, would now consider him as devoted to immediate destruction by God himself for his "sacrilege." "The great feast," adds this excellent writer, on the night of which he was slain, appears to have been a season of profound peace and tranquillity, when a thousand of his lords could freely come from all parts of his empire without molestation or interruption from a besieging enemy, and when the king would be most apt to forget God, after he had eaten, and was full." The death of Belshazzar occurred B. C. 553, and he was succeeded in his kingdom by

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LABOROSOARCHAD,

A boy, who, according to Berosus, was slain in a conspiracy, nine months after, when, according to Dr. Hales, the Babylonian dynasty became extinct, and the kingdom descended peaceably to "Darius the Mede," or Cyaxares; who, on the well-known policy of the Medes and Persians, appointed a Babylonian nobleman named

NABONADIUS,

Or Labynetus, to be king, or viceroy.

According to Rollin, and other writers of ancient history, this person was the Belshazzar of Scripture; but Dr. Hales, who is here followed, has satisfactorily shown, that the succession of Darius the Mede to the Babylonian throne, was not attended with war. After recording the death of Labo

rosoarchad, he says: "The family of Nebuchadnezzar being now extinct, and the Babylonian dynasty ended, according to prophecy, who had so good a title to the crown as Cyaxares, or Darius the Mede?' 1. He was pointed out as the next successor by the prophet Daniel, whose interpretation of the Divine inscription must naturedly have had the greatest weight with the grandees and the whole nation. 2. He was the queen-mother's brother, and the next of kin, by her side, to the crown. And, 3. He was by far the most powerful competitor for it, and also a prince of an easy and amiable disposition. Upon all these accounts, therefore, we cannot hesitate to admit, that the Babylonians made him, soon after, a voluntary tender of the sovereignty, and that 'Darius the Mede' took, or accepted the kingdom, with their free and full consent." According to this, it would appear that Belshazzar was not the king in whose time the city was taken by Cyrus; and consequently the events which took place on the night on which Belshazzar was slain, were distinct from, and anterior to the siege and capture of the city by the Persian king.

Nabonadius, it would appear, held his office for the space of seventeen years, at the end of which time, B. c. 536, he revolted against Cyrus, who had this year succeeded to the united empire of the Medes and Persians. Cyrus could not attend immediately to him, but at length he marched to Babylon, and took the city, during the drunken festival of the Sakea, as predicted by the prophet Jeremiah, ch. li. 28-41. This event took place in the first year of the sovereignty of Cyrus, after which the proud city mouldered into dust. It is known only in the pages of history, and there it is exhibited as a monument of God's wrath, and as testifying to the frailty of all sublunary affairs.*

"The glory of Babel the proud is no more,

She hath perished, as lesser things perished before;
She is desolate now, and the dragon crawls

O'er the muddy heaps of her ruined walls;

And the serpents creep, and the wild beasts stray

Where her chambers of state and her proud halls lay;

And nothing is left, save a tale of her fame,

The fame of her glory, and wreck of her name."—ANON.

The date of the taking of Babylon by Cyrus, as connected with the liberation of the Jews, is not affected by this correct view of history; whereas, by the plan adopted by some, of placing the death of Belshazzar and the siege of Babylon together, the reign of the former is carried down too far in the chronology of the Babylon monarchs.

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1. Nabopolassar, Labynetus 1., Boktanser, or Nebuchadnezzar.

subdues Elam, or Persia..

2. Ilverodam, or Evil Merodach...

3. Niracassolassar, Neriglissar, or Belshazzar..

4. Nabonadius, or Labynetus II., appointed by Darius the Mede. Babylon taken by Cyrus....

Y. B.C. 2 606 43 604

596

3 561

5 558

17 553

70 536

THE HISTORY OF THE MEDES

CHAPTER I.

THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MEDIA.

THIS Country, once the seat of a potent empire, derived its name from Madai, the third son of Japhet; as may be gathered from Scripture, in which the Medes are constantly thus denominated. See 2 Kings xvii. 6; Isa. xiii. 17; Dan. v. 28, etc.

It is difficult to determine the boundaries of Media, as they appear to have varied in different ages. According to the best authorities, however, Media Proper was bounded by Armenia and Assyria Proper on the west; by Persia on the east; by the Caspian provinces on the north; and by Susiana on the south.

In ancient times, Media was divided into several provinces, namely, Tropatene, Charomithrane, Darites, Marciane, Amariace, and Syro-Media. According to Strabo, these were, by a later division, reduced to two provinces, Great Media, and Media Atropatene.

Great Media, which is a high table land, is said by all writers to have possessed a good climate and fertile soil; an account which is confirmed by modern travellers. It was separated on the west and south-west from the low country watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, by a range of mountains, known to the ancients by the names of Zagros and Parachoatris. On the east it was bounded by a desert and the Caspian mountains, (the modern Elburz mountains ;) and on the north and north-west by the Cadussii, Atropatene, and the Matiene: thus, nearly corresponding to the modern

Irak Ajemi, which is the most western province of the Persian empire.

Media Atropatene, now called Aderbijan, extended as far north as the Arates. This was a cold, barren, and inhospitable country, on which account it is supposed that Tiglathpileser and Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria, chose it for the abode of the captive tribes of Israel; (see 2 Kings xvii. 6; 1 Chron. v. 26;) acting upon a similar course of policy, which actuated the Russian monarch, Peter the Great, in transferring the Swedish prisoners, taken at Pultowa, into the barren regions of Siberia. By some authors, this division of Media is supposed to have derived its name from Atropates, who successfully opposed the Macedonians, and established an independent monarchy, which continued till the time of Strabo, notwithstanding its proximity to the Armenian and Parthian dominions. It is more probable, however, that the appellation of Atropatene is a corruption of Adzur-bagjan, or "The Place of Fire," from the number of pyrea, or fire temples, erected there, Thebarma, on the lake of Urmeeah, in Aderbijan, being the reputed place of Zoroaster's birth; or from the volcanic eruptions to which it is subjected.

MOUNTAINS.

According to Ptolemy and Strabo, the mountains of Media, demanding notice, are

1. Choatra, parting Media from Assyria, and branching out from the Gordyan or Carduchian mountains, on the confines of Assyria and Armenia.

2. Zagros, a mountain range, which divides Media from Assyria on the east. And,

3. Parachoatra, which is placed by Ptolemy on the borders, towards Persia. and by Strabo on the confines of Media, Hyrcania, and Parthia.

These are boundaries between Media and the adjacent regions; and, therefore, may be said to belong to the latter as well as the former. But there are other mountains, those of the Orontes, the Jasonius, and the Coronus, which, as they stand in the very heart of the country, may, in the strictest sense, be termed mountains of Media. The principal of

these is the

Orontes, or the modern Alwend, which bounds the plains of Hamadan to the north-west. This range stretches from

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