[132] T. W. Pinches, in Smith's _Bibl. Dict._, i. 716, 2nd edn. Into this theory are pressed the general expressions that Darius "received the kingdom" and was "made king," which have not the least bearing on it. They may simply mean that he became king by conquest, and not in the ordinary course--so Rosenmüller, Hitzig, Von Lengerke, etc.; or perhaps the words show some sense of uncertainty as to the exact course of events. The sequence of Persian kings in _Seder Olam_, 28-30, and in Rashi on Dan. v. 1, ix. 1, is equally unhistorical.
[133] This is supported by the remark that this three-months viceroy "appointed governors in Babylon"!
[134] Herod., iii. 89; _Records of the Past_, viii. 88.
[135] See, too, Meinhold (_Beiträge_, p. 46), who concludes his survey with the words, "Sprachliche wie sachliche Gründe machen es _nicht nur wahrscheinlich sondern gewiss_ dass an danielsche Autorschaft von Dan. ii.-vi., überhanpt an die Entstehung zur Zeit der jüdischen Verbannung nicht zu denken ist." He adds that almost all scholars believe the chapters to be no older than the age of the Maccabees, and that even Kahnis (_Dogmatik_, i. 376) and Delitzsch (Herzog, _s.v._ "Dan.") give up their genuineness. He himself believes that these Aramaic chapters were _incorporated_ by a later writer, who wrote the introduction.
[136] Sayce. _l.c._, p. 529.
[137] Kamphausen, p. 45.
[138] Sayce, _l.c._ The author of the Book of Daniel seems only to have known of _three_ kings of Persia after Cyrus (xi. 2). But five are mentioned in the Old Testament--Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, Xerxes, and Darius III. (Codomannus, Neh. xii. 22). There were three Dariuses and three Artaxerxes, but he only knows one of each name (Kamphausen, p. 32). He might easily have overlooked the fact that the Darius of Neh. xii. 22 was a wholly different person from the Darius of Ezra vi. 1.