If Babylon was indebted to Nebuchadnezzar for many great buildings, it was still more so to his daughter Nitocris. She erected a great multitude; and amongst the rest, one of the gates. On this gate she caused to be inscribed a command to her successors, that, when she should be buried under it, none of them should open the tomb to touch the treasure which laid there, unless impelled by some great and overwhelming necessity. Many years passed away, and no one opened it. At length Darius came to the city. Reading the inscription, he caused the tomb to be opened; but alas! instead of finding the vast treasures he had expected, he beheld only this inscription:—"If thou hadst not an insatiable thirst for money, and a most sordid avaricious soul, thou wouldst never have broken open the monuments of the dead."
Astyages, king of the Medes, was succeeded by Cyaxares, uncle to Cyrus. Cyaxares, learning that the king of Babylon had made great preparations against him, sent for Cyrus, son of Cambyses, king of Persia, and placed him at the head of his army. Before marching, Cyrus addressed those officers who had followed him from Persia, in the following manner. "Do you know the nature of the enemy you have to deal with? They are soft, effeminate, enervated men, already half conquered by their own luxury and voluptuousness; men not able to bear either hunger or thirst; equally incapable of supporting either the toil of war, or the sight of danger: whereas you, that are inured, from your infancy, to a sober and hard way of living; to you, I say, hunger and thirst are but as sauce, and the only sauce, to your meals; fatigues are your pleasure; dangers are your delight; and the love of your country, and of glory, your only passion. Besides, the justice of our cause is another considerable advantage. They are the aggressors. It is the enemy that attacks us; and it is our friends and allies that require our aid. Can any thing be more just than to repel the injury they would bring upon us? Is there any thing more honourable, than to fly to the assistance of our friends? But what ought to be the principal motive of your confidence is, that I do not engage in this expedition without having first consulted the gods, and implored their protection; for you know it is my custom to begin all my actions, and all my undertakings, in that manner."
Cyrus, after several battles, laid siege to Babylon. It was in the days of Belshazzar. That prince was absorbed in luxury and sloth. A great festival was to be held within the palace, and Cyrus heard of it. He prepared himself, therefore, and all his army. The court, in the meantime, was rife in every species of dance, feast, and revelry. In the pride of his heart, Belshazzar ordered all the gold and silver vessels, which had been taken from the temple of Jerusalem, to be brought to the banqueting-room; and he and his officers, and his wives and his concubines, drank out of them. No sooner was this done, than the fingers of a man's hand came out from the wall, and wrote over the candlestick upon the plaster.
The king saw the hand; and when he saw it "his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."
He summoned the magi, and made proclamation. "Whoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." Daniel, the prophet, interpreted this writing. "This is the writing that was written: Mene Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Peres; thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians[114]."
Notwithstanding this interpretation, Belshazzar continued the feast, and to grace it the more, performed his promise. He commanded, and "they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler of the kingdom."
In the meantime, Cyrus, well aware of the riot and luxury prevailing in the king's palace, entered the city by the river, the waters of which he had managed to be drawn dry, by means of the sluices. He and his army entered through the gates of brass, which opened on the quays. This they did in two divisions; then they proceeded through the city; met before the palace; slew the guards; and some of the company having come out to see what was the cause of the noise they heard, the soldiers rushed in and immediately made themselves masters of the palace. The king, however, in this last extremity, acted in a manner more worthy than might have been expected. He put himself at the head of those who were inclined to support him; but he was quickly despatched, and all those that were with him. Thus terminated the Babylonian empire, after a duration of two hundred and ten years, from the beginning of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who was its founder; and the fate of which had been so truly foretold.
"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms," says Isaiah, "and the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited: neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabians pitch their tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there; but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there; and the wild beasts of the island shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. I will also make it a possession for the bittern and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction." Events answered the prophecy, though not precisely at this time[115].
From this period Babylon belonged to the Persian kings: but having become greatly affronted by the transference of the royal court to Susa, the inhabitants revolted. By this insult, they drew upon themselves the whole force of the Persian empire. The inhabitants had provided themselves with every necessary to support a siege. But lest it might last longer than they anticipated, they put the most barbarous act in practice that ever had then been heard of from the creation of the world. They assembled all their wives and children, and strangled them; no man being allowed to preserve more than one wife and a servant to do the necessary business of his house. The siege lasted eighteen months. Darius himself began to despair.
Some friends having taken the liberty, one day, to propose the question to Darius, who was then holding a pomegranate in his hand:—"What good is there you would wish to multiply as often as that fruit contains seeds?" "Such friends as Zopyrus," answered the king, without hesitation. This answer threw Zopyrus into one of those paroxysms of zeal, which can only be justified by the sentiment that gives them birth.