stable, each of them having embroidered furniture, and bits of gold. Next came the Persian cavalry, divided into four bodies, each consisting of ten thousand men; then the Median horse, and after those the cavalry of the allies. The chariots of war, four abreast, marched in the rear, and closed the procession.

When they came to the fields consecrated to the gods, they offered their sacrifices first to Jupiter, and then to the sun. To the honour of the first were burnt bulls, and to the honour of the second, horses. They likewise sacrificed some victims to the Earth, according to the appointment of the Magi; then to the demi-gods, the patrons and protectors of * Sy

ria.

In order to recreate the people after this grave and solemn ceremony, Cyrus thought fit that it should conclude with games, and horse and chariot races. The place where they were was large and spacious. He ordered a certain portion of it to be marked out, about the quantity of five † stadia, and proposed prizes for the victors of each nation, which were to encounter separately, and among themselves. He himself won the prize in the Persian horse-races, for nobody was so complete an horseman as he. The chariots ran but two at a time, one against another.

This kind of racing continued a long time afterwards amongst the Persians, except only that it was not always attended with sacrifices. All the ceremonies being ended, they returned to the city in the same order.

2 Some days after, Cyrus, to celebrate the victory he had obtained in the horse-races, gave a great entertainment to all his chief officers, as well foreigners as Medes and Persians. They had never yet seen

Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 220-224.

* Among the ancients Syria is often put for Assyria. A little above half a mile.

any thing of the kind so sumptuous and magnificent. At the conclusion of the feast he made every one a noble present; so that they all went home with hearts overflowing with joy, admiration, and gratitude: And all-powerful as he was, master of all the East, and so many kingdoms, he did not think it derogatory to his majesty to conduct the whole company to the door of his apartment. Such were the manners and behaviour of those ancient times, when men understood how to unite great simplicity with the highest degree of human grandeur.

ARTICLE III.

The History of Cyrus, from the Taking of Babylon to the Time of his Death.

CYRUS finding himself master of all the East, by the taking of Babylon, did not imitate the example of most other conquerors, who sully the glory of their victories by a voluptuous and effeminate life; to which they fancy they may justly abandon themselves after their past toils, and the long course of hardships they have gone through. He thought it incumbent upon him to maintain his reputation by the same methods he had acquired it, that is, by a prudent conduct, by a laborious and active life, and a constant application to the duties of his high

station.

SECT. I. Cyrus takes a Journey into Persia. At his return from thence to Babylon, he forms a Plan of Government for the whole Empire. Daniel's Credit and Power.

WHEN Cyrus judged he had sufficiently regulated his affairs at Babylon, he thought proper to take a journey into Persia. In his way thither he a Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 227.

2

went through Media, to visit his uncle Cyaxares, to whom he carried very magnificent presents, telling him at the same time that he would find a noble palace at Babylon, all ready prepared for him, whenever he would please to go thither; and that he was to look upon that city as his own. Indeed Cyrus, as long as his uncle lived, held the empire only in co-partnership with him, though he had entirely conquered and acquired it by his own valour. Nay, so far did he carry his complaisance, that he let his uncle enjoy the first rank. This is the Cyaxares, Ant. J C. who is called in Scripture Darius the Mede; and we shall find, that under his reign, which lasted but two years, Daniel had several revelations. It appears, that Cyrus, when he returned from Persia, carried Cyaxares with him to Babylon.

A. M.

3466.

538.

When they were arrived there, they concerted together a scheme of government for the whole empire. They divided it into an hundred and twenty provinces. And that the prince's orders might be conveyed with the greater expedition, Cyrus caused post-houses to be erected at proper distances, where the couriers, that travelled day and night, found horses always ready, and by that means performed their journeys with incredible dispatch. The government of these provinces was given to those persons that had assisted Cyrus most, and rendered him the greatest service in the war. Over these governors were appointed three superintendants, who were always to reside at court, and to whom the governors were to give an account from time to time of every thing that passed in their respective provinces, and from whom they were to receive the prince's orders and instructions; so that these three principal ministers had the superintendency over, and the chief administration of the great affairs of the whole empire. Of these three, Daniel was made the chief.

Dan. vi. 1.

Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 230.

Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 232. e Dan. vi. 2, 3.

He highly deserved such a preference, not only on account of his great wisdom, which was celebrated throughout all the East, and had appeared in a distinguished manner at Belshazzar's feast, but likewise on account of his great age, and consummate experience. For at that time it was full sixty-seven years, from the fourth of Nabuchodonosor, that he had been employed as prime minister of the kings of Babylon.

fAs this distinction made him the second person in the empire, and placed him immediately under the king, the other courtiers conceived so great a jealousy of him, that they conspired to destroy him. As there was no hold to be taken of him, unless it were on account of the law of his God, to which they knew him inviolably attached, they obtained an edict from Darius, whereby all persons were forbidden to ask any thing whatsoever, for the space of thirty days, either of any god, or any man, save of the king; and that upon pain of being cast into the den of lions. Now, as Daniel was saying his usual prayers, with his face turned towards Jerusalem, he was surprised, accused, and cast into the den of lions. But being miraculously preserved, and coming out safe and unhurt, his accusers were thrown in, and immediately devoured by those animals. This event still augmented Daniel's credit and reputation.

Towards the end of the saine year, which was reckoned the first of Darius the Mede, Daniel, knowing by the computation he made, that the seventy years of Judah's captivity, determined by the prophet Jeremiah, were drawing towards an end, prayed earnestly to God, that he would vouchsafe to remember his people, rebuild Jerusalem, and look with an eye of mercy upon his holy city, and the sanctuary he had placed therein. Upon which the angel Gabriel assured him in a vision, not only of the deliverance of the Jews from their temporal captivity, but likewise

of another deliverance much more considerable, namely, a deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan, which God would procure to his Church, and which was to be accomplished at the end of seventy weeks, that were to elapse from the time the order should be given for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, that is, after the space of four hundred and ninety years. For taking each day for a year, according to the language sometimes used in holy Scripture, those seventy weeks of years made up exactly four hundred and ninety years.

Cyrus, upon his return to Babylon, had given orders for all his forces to join him there. On the general review made of them, he found they consisted of an hundred and twenty thousand horse, of two thousand chariots armed with scythes, and six hundred thousand foot. When he had furnished the garrisons with so many of them as were necessary for the defence of the several parts of the empire, he marched with the remainder into Syria, where he regulated the affairs of that province, and then subdued all those countries as far as the Red Sea, and the confines of Æthiopia.

It was probably in this interval of time, that Daniel was cast into the den of lions, and miraculously delivered from them, as we have just now related.

Perhaps in the same interval also were those famous pieces of gold coined, which are called Darics, from the name of Darius the Mede, which for their fineness and beauty were for several ages preferred to all other money throughout the whole East.