The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended Part 12

n. _The Northern Gate of the same Court, where the Sacrifices were flea'd &c._

opqrst. _The Buildings over the Cloysters for the Priests, viz six large Chambers (subdivided) in each Story, whereof _o_ and _p_ were for the High Priest and Sagan, _q_ for the Overseers of the Sanctuary and Treasury, _r_ for the Overseers of the Altar and Sacrifice and _s_ and _t_ for the Princes of the twenty four Courses of Priests._

uu. _Two Courts in which were Stair Cases and Kitchins for the Priests._

x. _The House or Temple which (together with the Treasure Chambers _y_, and Buildings _zz_ on each side of the Separate Place) is more particularly describ'd on the second Plate._

_A Description of the Inner Court & Buildings for the Priests in Solomons Temple._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Plate_ II. _p. 346._]

ABCD. _The Separate Place._

ABEF. _The Inner Court, or Court of the Priests, parted from the Separate Place, and and Pavement on the other three sides, by a marble rail._

G. _The Altar._

HHH. _The East, South, & North Gates of the Priests Court._

III. _&c. The Cloysters supporting the Buildings for the Priests._

KK. _Two Courts in which were Stair Cases and Kitchins for the Priests._

L. _Ten Steps to the Porch of the Temple._

M. _The Porch of the Temple._

N. _The Holy Place._

O. _The most Holy Place._

PPPP. _Thirty Treasure-Chambers, in two rows, opening into a gallery, door against door, and compa.s.sing three sides of the Holy & most Holy Places._

Q. _The Stairs leading to the Middle Chamber._

RRRR. _&c. The buildings for the four and twenty Courses of Priests, upon the Pavement on either side of the Separate Place, three Stories high without Cloysters, but the upper Stories narrower than the lower, to make room for Galleries before them. There were 24 Chambers in each Story and they opend into a walk or alley, _SS._ between the Buildings._

TT. _Two Courts in which were Kitchins for the Priests of the twenty four Courses._

_A Particular Description of one of the Gates of the Peoples Court, with part of the Cloyster adjoyning._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Plate_ III. _p. 346._]

uw. _The inner margin of the Pavement compa.s.sing three sides of the Peoples Court._

x.x.x. _&c. The Pillars of the Cloyster supporting the Buildings for the People._

yyyy. _Double Pillars where two Exhedrae joyned, and whose interstices in the front _zz_ were filled up with a square Column of Marble._

Note _The preceding letters of this Plate refer to the description in pag.

344 345._

CHAP. VI.

_Of the Empire of the _Persians_._

_Cyrus_ having translated the Monarchy to the _Persians_, and Reigned seven years, was succeeded by his son _Cambyses_, who Reigned seven years and five months, and in the three last years of his Reign subdued _Egypt_: he was succeeded by _Mardus_, or _Smerdis_ the _Magus_, who feigned himself to be _Smerdis_ the brother of _Cambyses_.

_Smerdis_ Reigned seven months, and in the eighth month being discovered, was slain, with a great number of the _Magi_; so the _Persians_ called their Priests, and in memory of this kept an anniversary day, which they called, _The slaughter of the _Magi__. Then Reigned _Maraphus_ and _Artaphernes_ a few days, and after them _Darius_ the son of _Hystaspes_, the son of _Arsamenes_, of the family of _Achaemenes_, a _Persian_, being chosen King by the neighing of his horse: before he Reigned his [479] name was _Ochus_. He seems on this occasion to have reformed the const.i.tution of the _Magi_, making his father _Hystaspes_ their Master, or _Archimagus_; for _Porphyrius_ tells us, [480] that _the _Magi_ were a sort of men so venerable amongst the _Persians_, that _Darius_ the son of _Hystaspes_ wrote on the monument of his father_, amongst other things, _that he had been the Master of the _Magi__. In this reformation of the _Magi_, _Hystaspes_ was a.s.sisted by _Zoroastres_: so _Agathias_; _The _Persians_ at this day say simply that _Zoroastres_ lived under _Hystaspes__: and _Apuleius_; _Pythagoram, aiunt, inter captivos Cambysae Regis _[ex aegypto Babylonem abductos]_ doctores habuisse Persarum Magos, & praecipue Zoroastrem, omnis divini arcani Antist.i.tem_. By _Zoroastres_'s conversing at _Babylon_ he seems to have borrowed his skill from the _Chaldaeans_; for he was skilled in Astronomy, and used their year: so _Q. Curtius_; [481]

_Magi proximi patrium carmen canebant: Magos trecenti & s.e.xaginta quinque juvenes sequebantur, puniceis amiculis velati, diebus totius anni pares numero_: and _Ammia.n.u.s_; _Scientiae multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactria.n.u.s addidit Zoroastres_. From his conversing in several places he is reckoned a _Chaldaean_, an _a.s.syrian_, a _Mede_, a _Persian_, a _Bactrian_. _Suidas_ calls him [482] a _Perso-Mede_, and saith that he was _the most skilful of Astronomers, and first author of the name of the _Magi_ received among them_. This skill in Astronomy he had doubtless from the _Chaldaeans_, but _Hystaspes_ travelled into _India_, to be instructed by the _Gymnosophists_: and these two conjoyning their skill and authority, inst.i.tuted a new set of Priests or _Magi_, and instructed them in such ceremonies and mysteries of Religion and Philosophy as they thought fit to establish for the Religion and Philosophy of that Empire; and these instructed others, 'till from a small number they grew to a great mult.i.tude: for _Suidas_ tells us, that _Zoroastres gave a beginning to the name of the _Magi__: and _Elmacinus_; that _he reformed the religion of the _Persians_, which before was divided into many sects_: and _Agathias_; that _he introduced the religion of the _Magi_ among the _Persians_, changing their ancient sacred rites, and bringing in several opinions_: and _Ammia.n.u.s_ [483] tells us, _Magiam esse divinorum incorruptissimum cultum, cujus scientiae seculis priscis multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactria.n.u.s addidit Zoroastres: deinde Hystaspes Rex prudentissimus Darii pater; qui quum superioris Indiae secreta fidentius penetraret, ad nemorosam quamdam venerat solitudinem, cujus tranquillis silentiis praecelsa Brachmanorum ingenia potiuntur; eorumque monitu rationes mundani motus & siderum, purosque sacrorum ritus quantum colligere potuit eruditus, ex his quae didicit, aliqua sensibus Magorum infudit; quae illi c.u.m disciplinis praesentiendi futura, per suam quisque progeniem, posteris aetatibus tradunt.

Ex eo per saecula multa ad praesens, una eademque prosapia mult.i.tudo creata, Deorum cultibus dedicatur. Feruntque, si justum est credi, etiam ignem c.l.i.tus lapsum apud se sempiternis foculis custodiri, cujus portionem exiguam ut faustam praeisse quondam Asiaticis Regibus dic.u.n.t: Hujus originis apud veteres numerus erat exilis, ejusque mysteriis Persicae potestates in faciendis rebus divinis solemniter utebantur. Eratque piaculum aras adire, vel hostiam contrectare, antequam Magus conceptis precationibus libamenta diffunderet praecursoria. Verum aucti paullatim, in amplitudinem gentis solidae concesserunt & nomen: villasque inhabitantes nulla murorum firmitudine communitas & legibus suis uti permissi, religionis respectu sunt honorati_. So this Empire was at first composed of many nations, each of which had hitherto its own religion: but now _Hystaspes_ and _Zoroastres_ collected what they conceived to be best, established it by law, and taught it to others, and those to others, 'till their disciples became numerous enough for the Priesthood of the whole Empire; and instead of those various old religions, they set up their own inst.i.tutions in the whole Empire, much after the manner that _Numa_ contrived and inst.i.tuted the religion of the _Romans_: and this religion of the _Persian_ Empire was composed partly of the inst.i.tutions of the _Chaldaeans_, in which _Zoroastres_ was well skilled; and partly of the inst.i.tutions of the ancient _Brachmans_, who are supposed to derive even their name from the _Abrahamans_, or sons of _Abraham_, born of his second wife _Keturah_, instructed by their father in the wors.h.i.+p of ONE G.o.d without images, and sent into the east, where _Hystaspes_ was instructed by their successors.

About the same time with _Hystapes_ and _Zoroastres_, lived also _Ostanes_, another eminent _Magus_: _Pliny_ places him under _Darius Hystaspis_, and _Suidas_ makes him the follower of _Zoroastres_: he came into _Greece_ with _Xerxes_, and seems to be the _Otanes_ of _Herodotus_, who discovered _Smerdis_, and formed the conspiracy against him, and for that service was honoured by the conspirators, and exempt from subjection to _Darius_.

In the sacred commentary of the _Persian_ rites these words are ascribed to _Zoroastres_; [484] ?? Te?? est? ?efa??? e??? ??e?a???. ???t?? est?? ??

p??t??, af?a?t??, a?d???, a?e??t??, ae???, a?????tat??, ???????? pa?t??

?a???, ad???d???t??, a?a??? a?a??tat??, f?????? f?????tat??? est? de ?a?

pat?? e????a? ?a? d??a??s????, a?t?d?da?t??, f?s????, ?a? te?e???, ?a?

s?f??, ?a? ??e??? f?s???? ???? ?e??et??. _Deus est accipitris capite: hic est primus, incorruptibilis, aeternus, ingenitus, sine partibus, omnibus aliis dissimillimus, moderator omnis boni, donis non capiendus, bonorum optimus, prudentium prudentissimus, legum aequitatis ac just.i.tiae parens, ipse sui doctor, physicus & perfectus & sapiens & sacri physici unicus inventor_: and the same was taught by _Ostanes_, in his book called _Octateuchus_. This was the Antient G.o.d of the _Persian Magi_, and they wors.h.i.+pped him by keeping a perpetual fire for Sacrifices upon an Altar in the center of a round area, compa.s.sed with a ditch, without any Temple in the place, and without paying any wors.h.i.+p to the dead, or any images. But in a short time they declined from the wors.h.i.+p of this Eternal, Invisible G.o.d, to wors.h.i.+p the Sun, and the Fire, and dead men, and images, as the _Egyptians_, _Phnicians_, and _Chaldaeans_ had done before: and from these superst.i.tions, and the pretending to prognostications, the words _Magi_ and _Magia_, which signify the Priests and Religion of the _Persians_, came to be taken in an ill sense.

_Darius_, or _Darab_, began his Reign in spring, in the sixteenth year of the Empire of the _Persians_, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 227, and Reigned 36 years, by the unanimous consent of all Chronologers. In the second year of his Reign the _Jews_ began to build the Temple, by the prophesying of _Haggai_ and _Zechariah_, and finished it in the sixth. He fought the _Greeks_ at _Marathon_ in _October_, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 258, ten years before the battel at _Salamis_, and died in the fifth year following, in the end of winter, or beginning of spring, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 263. The years of _Cambyses_ and _Darius_ are determined by three Eclipses of the Moon recorded by _Ptolemy_, so that they cannot be disputed: and by those Eclipses, and the Prophesies of _Haggai_ and _Zechariah_ compared together, it is manifest that the years of _Darius_ began after the 24th day of the eleventh _Jewish_ month, and before the 24th day of _April_, and by consequence in _March_ or _April_.

_Xerxes_, _Achschirosch_, _Achsweros_, or _Oxyares_, succeeded his father _Darius_, and spent the first five years of his Reign, and something more, in preparations for his Expedition against the _Greeks_: and this Expedition was in the time of the Olympic Games, in the beginning of the first year of the 75th Olympiad, _Callias_ being _Archon_ at _Athens_; as all Chronologers agree. The great number of people which he drew out of _Susa_ to invade _Greece_, made _aeschylus_ the Poet say [485]:

?? d' ast? S??s?? e?e?e???se? pes??.

_It emptied the falling city of _Susa_._

The pa.s.sage of his army over the _h.e.l.lespont_ began in the end of the fourth year of the 74th Olympiad, that is in _June_, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 268, and took up a month; and in autumn, after three months more, on the 16th day of the month _Munychion_, at the full moon, was the battel at _Salamis_; and a little after that an Eclipse of the Moon, which by the calculation fell on _Octob._ 2. His first year therefore began in spring, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 263, as above: he Reigned almost twenty one years by the consent of all writers, and was murdered by _Artaba.n.u.s_, captain of his guards; towards the end of winter, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 284.

_Artaba.n.u.s_ Reigned seven months, and upon suspicion of treason against _Xerxes_, was slain by _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, the son of _Xerxes_.

_Artaxerxes_ began his Reign in the autumnal half year, between the 4th and 9th _Jewish_ months, _Nehem._ i. 1. & ii. 1, & v. 14. and _Ezra_ vii. 7, 8, 9. and his 20th year fell in with the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, as _Africa.n.u.s_ [486] informs us, and therefore his first year began within a month or two or the autumnal Equinox, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 284. _Thucydides_ relates that the news of his death came to _Athens_ in winter, in the seventh year of the _Peloponnesian_ war, that is _An._ 4. Olymp. 88. and by the Canon he Reigned forty one years, including the Reign of his predecessor _Artaba.n.u.s_, and died about the middle of winter, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 325 _ineunte_: the _Persians_ now call him _Ardschir_ and _Bahaman_, the Oriental Christians _Artahascht_.

Then Reigned _Xerxes_, two months, and _Sogdian_ seven months, and _Darius Nothus_, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d son of _Artaxerxes_, nineteen years wanting four or five months; and _Darius_ died in summer, a little after the end of the _Peloponnesian_ war, and in the same Olympic year, and by consequence in _May_ or _June_, _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 344. The 13th year of his Reign was coincident in winter with the 20th of the _Peloponnesian_ war, and the years of that war are stated by indisputable characters, and agreed on by all Chronologers: the war began in spring, _Ann._ 1. Olymp. 87, lasted 27 years, and ended _Apr._ 14. _An._ 4. Olymp. 93.

The next King was _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, the son of _Darius_: he Reigned forty six years, and died _Anno Nabona.s.s._ 390. Then Reigned _Artaxerxes Ochus_ twenty one years; _a.r.s.es_, or _Arogus_, two years, and _Darius Codomannus_ four years, unto the battel of _Arbela_, whereby the _Persian_ Monarchy was translated to the _Greeks_, _Octob._ 2. _An. Nabona.s.s._ 417; but _Darius_ was not slain untill a year and some months after.

I have hitherto stated the times of this Monarchy out of the _Greek_ and _Latin_ writers: for the _Jews_ knew nothing more of the _Babylonian_ and _Medo-Persian_ Empires than what they have out of the sacred books of the old Testament; and therefore own no more Kings, nor years of Kings, than they can find in those books: the Kings they reckon are only _Nebuchadnezzar_, _Evilmerodach_, _Belshazzar_, _Darius_ the _Mede_, _Cyrus_, _Ahasuerus_, and _Darius_ the _Persian_; this last _Darius_ they reckon to be the _Artaxerxes_, in whose Reign _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ came to _Jerusalem_, accounting _Artaxerxes_ a common name of the _Persian_ Kings: _Nebuchadnezzar_, they say, Reigned forty five years, 2 _King._ xxv. 27.

_Belshazzar_ three years, _Dan._ viii. 1. and therefore _Evilmerodach_ twenty three, to make up the seventy years captivity; excluding the first year of _Nebuchadnezzar_, in which they say the Prophesy of the seventy years was given. To _Darius_ the _Mede_ they a.s.sign one year, or at most but two, _Dan._ ix. 1. to _Cyrus_ three years incomplete, _Dan._ x. 1. to _Ahasuerus_ twelve years 'till the casting of _Pur_, _Esth._ iii. 7. one year more 'till the _Jews_ smote their enemies, _Esth._ ix. 1. and one year more 'till _Esther_ and _Mordecai_ wrote the second letter for the keeping of _Purim_, _Esth._ ix. 29. in all fourteen years: and to _Darius_ the _Persian_ they allot thirty two or rather thirty six years, _Nehem._ xiii.

6. So that the _Persian_ Empire from the building of the Temple in the Second year of _Darius Hystaspis_, flourished only thirty four years, until _Alexander_ the great overthrew it: thus the _Jews_ reckon in their greater Chronicle, _Seder Olam Rabbah_. _Josephus_, out of the sacred and other books, reckons only these Kings of _Persia_; _Cyrus_, _Cambyses_, _Darius Hystaspis_, _Xerxes_, _Artaxerxes_, and _Darius_: and taking this _Darius_, who was _Darius Nothus_, to be one and the same King with the last _Darius_, whom _Alexander_ the great overcame; by means of this reckoning he makes _Sanballat_ and _Jaddua_ alive when _Alexander_ the great overthrew the _Persian_ Empire. Thus all the _Jews_ conclude the _Persian_ Empire with _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, and _Darius Nothus_, allowing no more Kings of _Persia_, than they found in the books of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_; and referring to the Reigns of this _Artaxerxes_, and this _Darius_, whatever they met with in profane history concerning the following Kings of the same names: so as to take _Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s_, _Artaxerxes Mnemon_ and _Artaxerxes Ochus_, for one and the same _Artaxerxes_; and _Darius Nothus_, and _Darius Codomannus_, for one and the same _Darius_; and _Jaddua_, and _Simeon Justus_, for one and the same High-Priest. Those _Jews_ who took _Herod_ for the _Messiah_, and were thence called _Herodians_, seem to have grounded their opinion upon the seventy weeks of years, which they found between the Reign of _Cyrus_ and that of _Herod_: but afterwards, in applying the Prophesy to _Theudas_, and _Judas_ of _Galilee_, and at length to _Barchochab_, they seem to have shortned the Reign of the Kingdom of _Persia_. These accounts being very imperfect, it was necessary to have recourse to the records of the _Greeks_ and _Latines_, and to the Canon recited by _Ptolemy_, for stating the times of this Empire. Which being done, we have a better ground for understanding the history of the _Jews_ set down in the books of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_, and adjusting it; for this history having suffered by time, wants some ill.u.s.tration: and first I shall state the history of the _Jews_ under _Zerubbabel_, in the Reigns of _Cyrus_, _Cambysis_, and _Darius Hystaspis_.

This history is contained partly in the three first chapters of the book of _Ezra_, and first five verses of the fourth; and partly in the book of _Nehemiah_, from the 5th verse of the seventh chapter to the 9th verse of the twelfth: for _Nehemiah_ copied all this out of the Chronicles of the _Jews_, written before his days; as may appear by reading the place, and considering that the Priests and Levites who sealed the Covenant on the 24th day of the seventh month, _Nehem._ x. were the very same with those who returned from captivity in the first year of _Cyrus_, _Nehem._ xii. and that all those who returned sealed it: this will be perceived by the following comparison of their names.