According to the book of Daniel, it would seem as if Babylon was taken on this occasion, not by Cyrus, king of Persia, but by a Median king named Darius (v, 31). The question of the identity of this person- age with any Median or Babylonian king known to us from profane sources will be discussed under Darius the Mede. It need only be remarked here that Scripture does not really conflict on this point with profane authorities, since there is sufficient indication, from the terms used by the sacred writer, that " Darius the Mede," whoever he may have been, was not the
BABYLONIA 6
real conqueror, nor a kin? who ruled in his own right, but a monarch intrusted by another with a certain delegated authority (see Dan. v, 31, and ix, 1).
With the conquest by Cyrus commenced the decay and ruin of Babylon. The "broad walls" were then to some extent "broken down" (Beros. Fr. 14), and the "high gates" probably "burnt with fire" (Jer. li, 58). The defences, that is to say, were ruined ; though it is not to be supposed that the laborious and useless task of entirely demolishing the gigantic fortifications of the place was attempted or even contemplated by the conqueror. Babylon was weakened, but it con- tinued a royal residence not only during the lifetime of Darius the Mede, but through the entire period of the Persian empire. The Persian kings held their court at Babylon during the larger portion of the year, and at the time of Alexander's conquests it was still the second, if not the first city of the empire. It had, however, suffered considerably on more than one oc- casion subsequent to the time of Cyrus. Twice in the reign of Darius (Behist. Ins.), and once in that of Xerxes (Ctes. Pers. § 22), it had risen against the Per- sians, and made an effort to regain its independence. After each rebellion its defences were weakened, and during the long period of profound peace which the Persian empire enjoyed from the reign of Xerxes to that of Darius Codomannus they were allowed to go completely to decay. The public buildings also suf- fered grievoush' from neglect. Alexander found the great temple of Belus in so ruined a condition that it would have required the labor of 10,000 men for two months even to clear away the rubbish with which it was encumbered (Strabo, xvi, 1, 5). His designs for the restoration of the temple and the general embel- lishment of the city were frustrated by his untimely death, and the removal of the seat of empire to Anti- och under the Seleucida; gave the finishing blow to the prosperity of the place. The great city of Seleucia, which soon after arose in its neighborhood, not onlj' drew away its population, but was actually construct- ed of materials derived from its buildings (Plin. //. JV. vi, 30). Since then Babylon has been a quarry from which all the tribes in the vicinity have perpetually derived the bricks with which the}' have built their cities, and (besides Seleucia) Ctesiphon, Al-Modain, Bagdad, Kufa, Kerbelah, Hillah, and numerous other towns, have risen from its ruins. The "great city," "the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," has thus emphatically "become heaps" (Jer. li, 37) — she is truly "an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabit- ant." Her walls have altogether disappeared — they have "fallen" (Jer. li, 44), been "thrown down" (1, 15), been " broken utterly" (li, 58). " A drought is upon her waters" (1, 39); for the system of irrigation, on which, in Babylonia, fertility altogether depends, has long been laid aside ; " her cities" are everywhere " a desolation" (li, 43), her "land a wilderness;" "wild beasts of the desert" (jackals) "lie there," and "owls dwell there" (comp. Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 4*4, with Isa. xiii, 21, 22, and Jer. 1, 39) : the natives regard the whole site as haunted, and neither will the "Arab pitch tent nor the shepherd fold sheep there."— Smith.
After the exile many of the Jews continued settled in Babylonia; the capital even contained an entire quarter of them (comp. Susann. i, 5 sq. ;1 Pet. v, 13; Josephus, Ant. xx, 2, 2; xv, 3, 1; xviii, 9, 1; Philo, Opp. ii. 578, 68< ) ; and after the destruction of Jerusa- lem these Babylonian Jews established schools of con- siderable repute, although the natives were stigmatized as "Babylonians" by the bigoted Jewish population (Talm. Babyl. Joma, fol. 66). Traces of their learn- ing exist not only in much rabbinical literature that emanated from tin-- now extinct schools, but M. Layard has recently discovered several earthen bowls covered with their Hebrew inscriptions in an early character, copies and translations of which are given in his Bab. and Nin. p. I: 6 pq.
6 BACA
III. Literature. — On the history, see Niebuhr's Ge- schickte Asshur's und Babel's ; Brandis's Iicmm Assyr- iarum Tempora Emendata; Bosanquet's Sacred and Profane Chronology; and Bawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i, Essaj's vi and viii. Compare also the A in. Biblical [ Repository, April, 183G, p. S64-3G8; July, 1836, p. 158- [ 185 ; Jour. Sac. Literature, July, 1860, p. 492 sq. ; Kollin, Anc. Hist, ii, 54 etc. ; Prideaux, Connection, i, | 51 etc. ; Heeren, Ideen, I, ii, 172 sq. ; Cellarii No/it. ii, 746 sq. ; Norberg, Opusc. acad. iii, 222 sq. ; Kesler, Ilistoria excidii Babyl. (Tubing. 1766) ; Bredow, Un- tersuchungen ub. alt. Gesch. (Altona, 1800); Jour. Boy. As. Soc. (Lond. 1855), xv, pt. 2, and Maps accompa- nying it. See Babylon.