it was they heard without, the soldiers rushed in and quickly made themselves masters of it. And meeting the king, who came up to them sword in hand, at the head of those that were in the way to succour him, they killed him and put all those that attended him to the sword. The first thing the conquerors did afterwards, was to thank the gods for having at last punished that impious king. These words are Xenophon's, and are very remarkable, as they so perfectly agree with what the Scriptures have recorded of the impious Belshazzar.* The taking of Babylon put an end to the Babylonian empire, after a duration of two hundred and ten years from the beginning of Nabonassar's reign, who was the founder thereof. Thus was the power of that proud city abolished, just fifty years after she had destroyed the city of Jerusalem and her temple. And herein were accomplished those predictions which the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, had denounced against her, and of which we have already given a particular account. There is still one more, the most important and the most incredible of them all, and yet the Scripture has set it down in the strongest terms, and marked it out with the greatest exactness; a prediction literally fulfilled in all its points, the proof of which still actually subsists, is the most easy to be verified, and indeed of a nature not to be contested. What I mean is, the prediction of so total and absolute a ruin of Babylon, that not the least remains or footsteps should be left of it. I think it may not be improper to give an account of the perfect accomplishment of this famous prophecy, before we proceed to speak of what followed the taking of Babylon.† SECTION III.-THE COMPLETION OF THE PROPHECY WHICH FORETOLD THE TOTAL RUIN AND DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON. THIS prediction we find recorded in several of the prophets, but particularly in Isaiah, in the 13th chapter, from the 19th to the 22d verse, and in the 23d and 24th verses of the 14th chapter. I have already inserted it at large, page 336, &c. It is there declared, that Babylon should be utterly destroyed, as the criminal cities of Sodom and Gomorrah formerly were; that she shall be no more inhabited; that she shall never be rebuilt; that the Arabs shall not so much as set up their tents there; that neither herdsman nor shepherd shall come thither even to rest his herd or his flock; that it shall become a dwellingplace for wild beasts, and a retreat for the birds of the night; that the place where it stood shall be covered over with a marsh, or fen, so that no mark or footstep shall be left to show where Babylon had been. It was God himself who pronounced this sentence, and it is for the service of religion, to show how exactly every article of it has been successively accomplished. 1. In the first place, Babylon ceased to be a royal city, the kings of Persia choosing to reside elsewhere. They delighted more in Shusan, Ecbatana, Persepolis, or any other place, and did themselves destroy a great part o Babylon. 2. We are informed by Strabo and Pliny, that the Macedonians, who succeeded the Persians, did not only neglect it, and forbear to make any embellishments, or even reparations in it, but that moreover they built Seleucia in the neighbourhood, on purpose to draw away its inhabitants, and cause it to be deserted. Nothing can better explain what the prophet had foretold, “I shall not be inhabited." Its own masters endeavour to depopulate it. 3. The new kings of Persia, who afterwards became masters of Babylon, completed the ruin of it, by building Ctesiphon, which carried away all the remainder of the inhabitants; so that, from the time the anathema was pro * Cyrop. 1. vii. p. 189-192. †A. M. 3466. Ant. J. C. 538. Partem urbis Perse diruerunt, partem tempus consumpsit, et Macedonum negligentia; maxime postquam Seleucus Nicator Seleuciam ad Tigrim condidit, stadiis tantum trecentis a Babylone dissitam.-Strab. 1. xvi. p. 738. In solitudinem rediit exhausta vicinitate Seleuciæ, ob id conditæ a Nicatore intra nonagesimum (or quadragesimum) lapidem.-Plin. 1. vi. c. 26. A. M. 3880. Ant. J. C. 124. Pro illa Seleuciam et Ctesiphontem urbes Persarum inclitas fecerunt.-S. Hieron. in cap. xiii. Isa. nounced against that city, it seems as if those very persons that ought to have protected her were become her enemies as if they had all thought it their duty to reduce her to a state of solitude, though by indirect means, and with out using any violence; that it might the more manifestly appear to be the hand of God, rather than the hand of man, which brought about her destruction. 4. She was so totally forsaken, that nothing of her was left remaining but the walls. And to this condition was she reduced at the time when Pausanias wrote his remarks upon Greece.* Illa autem Babylon, omnium quas unquam sol aspexit urbium maxima, jam præter muros nihil habet reliqui. Paus. in Arcad. p. 509.† 5. The kings of Persia, finding the place deserted, made a park of it, in which they kept wild beasts for hunting. Thus did it become, as the prophet had foretold, a dwelling-place for ravenous beasts, that are enemies to man; or for timorous animals, that flee before him. Instead of citizens, it was now inhabited by wild boars, leopards, bears, deer, and wild asses. Babylon was now the retreat of fierce, savage, deadly creatures, that hate the light, and delight in darkness. "Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and "dragons shall dwell in their pleasant palaces." St. Jerome has transmitted to us the following valuable remark, which he had from a Persian monk, that had himself seen what he related to him; Didicimus a quodum fratre Elamita, qui de illis finibus egrediens, nunc Hierosolymis vitam exegit monachorum, venationes regias esse in Babylone, et omnis generis bestias murorum ejus ambitu tantum contineri.-In cap. Isa. xiii. 22.§ 6. But it was still too much that the walls of Babylon were standing. At length they fell down in several places, and were never repaired. Various accidents destroyed the remainder. The animals, which served for pleasure to the Persian kings, abandoned the place; serpents and scorpions remained, so that it became a dreadful place for persons that should have the curiosity to visit, or search after its antiquities. The Euphrates, that used to run through the city, having no longer a free channel, took its course another way; so that, in Theodoret's time, there was but a very little stream of water left, which ran across the ruins, and, not meeting with a descent or free passage, necessarily expanded into a marsh. In the time of Alexander the Great, the river had left its ordinary channel, by reason of the outlets and canals which Cyrus had made, and of which we kave already given an account; these outlets, being ill stopped up, had occasioned a great inundation in the country. Alexander, designing to fix the seat of his empire at Babylon, projected the bringing back the Euphrates into its natural and former channel, and had actually set his men to work. But the Almighty, who watched over the fulfilling of his prophecy, and who declared he would destroy even to the very remains and traces of Babylon, “I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,* ** defeated this enterprise by the death of Alexander, which happened soon after. It is easy to comprehend how, after this. Babylon being neglected to such a degree as we have seen, its river was converted into an inaccessible pool, which covered the very place where that impious city had stood, as Isaiah had foretold, "I will make it pools of water."†† And this was necessary, lest the place where Babylon had stood should be discovered hereafter by the course of the Euphrates. 7. By means of all these changes, Babylon became an utter desert, and all the country round fell into the same state of desolation and horror; so that the ablest geographers at this day cannot determine the place were it stood.‡‡ In this manner God's prediction was literally fulfilled; I will make it a posses A. D. 400. * He wrote in the reign of Antoninus, successor to Adrian. †A. D. 96. Isa. xiii. 21, 22. Euphrates quondam urbem ipsam mediam divi lebat; nunc autem fluvius conversus est in aliam viam, et per rudera minimus aquarum meatus fluit.-Theod. in cap. 1. Jerem. 38 et 39. T Arrian. de Exped. Alex. 1. viii. ** Isa. xvi. 22. tt Isa. xvi. 28. ‡‡ Nunc omnino destructa, ita ut vix ejus supersint rudera.-Baudran. sion for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." I myself, saith the Lord, will examine with a jealous eye, to see if there be any remains of that city, which was an enemy to my name and to Jerusalem. I will thoroughly sweep the place where it stood, and will clear it so effectually, by defacing every trace of the city, that no person shall be able to preserve the memory of the place chosen by Nimrod, and which I, who am the Lord, have abolished. "I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." 66 8. God was not satisfied with causing all these alterations to be foretold, but, to give the greater assurance of their certainty, thought fit to seal the prediction of them by an oath. "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand." But if we should take this dreadful oath in its full latitude,we must not confine it either to Babylon, or to its inhabitants, or to the princes who reigned therein. The malediction relates to the whole world; it is the general anathema pronounced against the wicked; it is the terrible decree, by which the two cities of Babylon and Jerusalem shall be separated for ever, and an eternal divorce be put between the good and the wicked. The Scriptures, that have foretold it, shall subsist till the day of its execution. The sentence is written therein, and deposited, as it were, in the public archives of religion. "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand." What I have said of this prophecy concerning Babylon, is almost entirely taken out of an excellent treatise upon Isaiah, which is still in manuscript. SECTION IV.-WHAT FOLLOWED UPON THE TAKING OF BABYLON. CYRUS having entered the city after the manner we have described, put all to the sword that were found in the streets; then commanded the citizens to bring him all their arms, and afterwards to shut themselves up in their houses. The next morning, by break of day, the garrison, which kept the citadel, being surprised that the city was taken, and their king killed, surrendered themselves to Cyrus. Thus did this prince, almost without striking a blow, and without any resistance, find himself in peaceable possession of the strongest place in the world.t The first thing he did was to thank the gods for the success they had given him. And then, having assembled his principal officers, he publicly applauded their courage and prudence, their zeal and attachment to his person, and distributed rewards to his whole army. After which he represented to them, that the only means of preserving what they had acquired, was to persevere in their ancient virtue; that the proper end of victory was not to give themselves up to idleness and pleasure; that after having conquered their enemies by force of arms, it would be shameful to suffer themselves to be overthrown by the allurements of pleasure; that, in order to maintain their ancient glory, it behooved them to keep up among the Persians at Babylon the same discipline they had observed in their own country, and, for that end, to take particular care to give their children education. This, says he, will necessarily engage us daily to make farther advances in virtue, as it will oblige us to be diligent and careful in setting them good examples; nor will it be easy for them to be corrupted, when they shall neither hear nor see any thing among as but what excites them to virtue, and shall be continually employed in honDurable and laudable exercises.§ Cyrus committed the different parts and offices of his government to differ. ent persons, according to their various talents and qualifications; but the care of forming and appointing general officers, governors of provinces, ministers, and ambassadors, he reserved to himself, looking upon that as the proper duty and employment of a king, upon which depended his glory, the success of his Cyrop. 1. vii. p. 197–200, * Isa. xiv. 23. † Isa. xiv. 24. Cyrop. 1. vii. P. 192. affairs, and the happiness and tranquillity of his kingdom. His great talent was to study the particular character of men, in order to place every one in his proper sphere, to give them authority in proportion to their merit, to make their private advancement concur with the public good, and to make the whole machine of the state move in so regular a manner, that every part should have a dependence upon, and mutually contribute to support each other; and that the strength of one should not exert itself but for the benefit and advantage of the rest. Each person had his district, and his particular sphere of business, of which he gave an account to another above him, and he again to a third, and so on, till, by these different degrees and regular subordination, the cog nizance of affairs came to the king himself, who did not stand idle in the midst of all this motion, but was, as it were, the soul to the body of the state, which, by this means, he governed with as much ease as a father governs his private family.* When he afterwards sent governors, called satraps, into the provinces under his subjection, he would not suffer the particular governors of places, or the commanding officers of the troops maintained for the security of the country, to depend upon those provincial governors, or to be subject to any one but himself; that if any of the satraps, elated with his power or riches, made an ill use of his authority, there might be found witnesses and censors of his maladministration within his own government. For there was nothing he so carefully avoided, as the trusting any one man with an absolute power, knowing that a prince will quickly have reason to repent his having exalted one person so high, that all others are thereby abased and kept under.† Thus Cyrus established a wonderful order with respect to his military affairs, his treasury, and civil government. In all the provinces he had persons of approved integrity, who gave him an account of every thing that passed. He made it his principal care to honour and reward all such as distinguished themselves by their merit, or were eminent in any respect whatever. He preferred clemency far before martial courage, because the latter is often the cause of ruin and desolation to whole nations, whereas the former is always beneficent and useful. He was sensible, that good laws contribute very much to the forming and preserving of good manners; but, in his opinion, the prince, by his example, was to be a living law to his people :§ nor did he think a man worthy to reign over others, unless he was more wise and virtuous than those he governed: he was also persuaded, that the surest means for a prince to gain the respect of his courtiers, and of such as approached his person, was to have so much regard for them, as never to do or say any thing before them, contrary to the rules of decency and good manners. T He looked upon liberality as a virtue truly royal; nor did he think there was any thing great or valuable in riches, but the pleasure of distributing them to others.** I have prodigious riches," says he to his courtiers, "I own, and I am glad the world knows it; but you may assure yourselves, they are as much yours as mine. For to what end should I heap up wealth? For my own use, and to consume it myself? That would be impossible, if I desired it. No; the chief end I aim at, is to have it in my power to reward those who serve the public faithfully, and to succour and relieve those that will acquaint me with their wants and necessities."tt Croesus one day represented to him, that by continual giving, he would at last make himself poor; whereas he might have amassed infinite treasures, and have been the richest prince in the world. "And to what sum," replied Cyrus, "do you think those treasures might have amounted?" Croesus named a certain sum, which was immensely great. Cyrus thereupon ordered a short note to be written to the lords of his court, in which it was signified to them, that he had occasion for money. Immediately a much larger sum was brought to him than Croesus had mentioned. "Look 'ere," says Cyrus to him, "here Cyrop. p. 202. t Cyrop. I viii. p. 229. Cyrop. p. 204 tt Cyrop. p. 225. are my treasures; the chests I keep my riches in, are the hearts and affections of my subjects. But as much as he esteemed liberality, he still laid a greater stress upon kindness and condescension, affability and humanity, which are qualities still more engaging, and more apt to acquire the affection of a people, which is properly to reign. For a prince to be more generous than others in giving, when he is infinitely more rich than they, has nothing in it so surprising or extraordinary, as to descend in a manner from the throne, and to put himself upon a level with his subjects. But what Cyrus preferred to all other things, was the worship of the gods, and a respect for religion. Upon this, therefore, he thought himself obliged to bestow his first and principal care, as soon as he became more at leisure, and more master of his time, by the conquest of Babylon. He began by establishing a number of magi, to sing daily a morning-service of praise to the honour of the gods, and to offer sacrifices; which was always practised among them in succeeding ages.t The prince's disposition quickly became, as is usual, the prevailing disposition among his people; and his example became the rule of their conduct. The Persians, who saw that Cyrus's reign had been but one continued chain and series of prosperity and success, believed, that by serving the gods as he did, they should be blessed with the like happiness and prosperity: besides, they were sensible that it was the surest way to please their prince, and to make their court to him successfully. Cyrus, on the other hand, was extremely glad to find them have such sentiments of religion, being convinced, that whoever sincerely fears and worships God, will at the same time be faithful to his king, and preserve an inviolable attachment to his person, and to the welfare of the state. All this is excellent, but is only true and real in the true religion. Cyrus being resolved to settle Lis chief residence at Babylon, a powerful city, which could not be very well affected to him, thought it necessary to be more cautious than he had been hitherto, in regard to the safety of his person. The most dangerous hours for princes within their palaces, and the most likely for treasonable attempts upon their lives, are those of bathing, eating, and sleeping. He determined, therefore, to suffer nobody to be near him at those times, but those persons on whose fidelity he could absolutely rely; and on this account he thought eunuchs preferable to all others; because as they had neither wives, children, nor families, and besides were generally despised on account of the meanness of their birth, and the ignominy of their condition, they were engaged by all sorts of reasons to an entire attachment to their master, on whose life their whole fortune depended, and on whose account alone it was, that they were of any consideration. Cyrus therefore filled all the offices of his household with eunuchs; and as this had been the practice before his time, from henceforth it became the general custom of all the eastern countries.‡ It is well known, that in after times this usage prevailed also among the Roman emperors, with whom the eunuchs were the reigning, all powerful favourites; nor is it any wonder. It was very natural for the prince, after having confided his person to their care, and experienced their zeal, fidelity, and merit, to intrust them also with the management of affairs, and by degrees to give himself up to them. These expert courtiers knew how to improve those favourable moments, when sovereigns, delivered from the weight of their dignity, which is a burden to them, become men, and familiarize themselves with their officers. And by this policy having got possession of their masters' minds and confidence, they came to be in great credit at court, to have the administration of public affairs, and the disposal of employments and honours, and to arrive, themselves, at the highest offices and dignities of the state. But the good emperors, such as Alexander Severus, held the eunuchs in abhorrence, looking upon them as creatures sold and attached only to their for * Сугор. р. 210. † Cyrop. p. 204. + Cyrop. 1. vii. P. 196 |