The extent of the Babylonian Empire was much the same with that of Nineveh after the revolt of the Medes. Berosus saith that Nebuchadnezzar held Egypt, Syria, Phœnicia and Arabia: and Strabo adds Arbela to the territories of Babylon; and saying that Babylon was anciently the metropolis of Assyria, he thus describes the limits of this Assyrian Empire. Contiguous, [[424]] saith he, to Persia and Susiana are the Assyrians: for so they call Babylonia, and the greatest part of the region about it: part of which is Arturia, wherein is Ninus [or Nineveh;] and Apolloniatis, and the Elymæans, and the Parætacæ, and Chalonitis by the mountain Zagrus, and the fields near Ninus, and Dolomene, and Chalachene, and Chazene, and Adiabene, and the nations of Mesopotamia near the Gordyæans, and the Mygdones about Nisibis, unto Zeugma upon Euphrates; and a large region on this side Euphrates inhabited by the Arabians and Syrians properly so called, as far as Cilicia and Phœnicia and Libya and the sea of Egypt and the Sinus Issicus: and a little after describing the extent of the Babylonian region, he bounds it on the north, with the Armenians and Medes unto the mountain Zagrus; on the east side, with Susa and Elymais and Parætacene, inclusively; on the south, with the Persian Gulph and Chaldæa; and on the west, with the Arabes Scenitæ as far as Adiabene and Gordyæa: afterwards speaking of Susiana and Sitacene, a region between Babylon and Susa, and of Parætacene and Cossæa and Elymais, and of the Sagapeni and Siloceni, two little adjoining Provinces, he concludes, [[425]] and these are the nations which inhabit Babylonia eastward: to the north are Media and Armenia, exclusively, and westward are Adiabene and Mesopotamia, inclusively; the greatest part of Adiabene is plain, the same being part of Babylonia: in same places it borders on Armenia: for the Medes, Armenians and Babylonians warred frequently on one another. Thus far Strabo.
When Cyrus took Babylon, he changed the Kingdom into a Satrapy or Province: whereby the bounds were long after known: and by this means Herodotus [[426]] gives us an estimate of the bigness of this Monarchy in proportion to that of the Persians, telling us that whilst every region over which the King of Persia Reigned in his days, was distributed for the nourishment of his army, besides the tributes, the Babylonian region nourished him four months of the twelve in the year, and all the rest of Asia eight: so the power of the region, saith he, is equivalent to the third part of Asia, and its Principality, which the Persians call a Satrapy, is far the best of all the Provinces.
Babylon [[427]] was a square city of 120 furlongs, or 15 miles on every side, compassed first with a broad and deep ditch, and then with a wall fifty cubits thick, and two hundred high. Euphrates flowed through the middle of it southward, a few leagues on this side Tigris: and in the middle of one half westward stood the King's new Palace, built by Nebuchadnezzar; and in the middle of the other half stood the Temple of Belus, with the old Palace between that Temple and the river: this old Palace was built by the Assyrians, according to [[428]] Isaiah, and by consequence, by Pul and his son Nabonassar, as above: they founded the city for the Arabians, and set up the towers thereof, and raised the Palaces thereof: and at that time Sabacon the Ethiopian invaded Egypt, and made great multitudes of Egyptians fly from him into Chaldæa, and carry thither their Astronomy, and Astrology, and Architecture, and the form of their year, which they preserved there in the Æra of Nabonassar: for the practice of observing the Stars began in Egypt in the days of Ammon, as above, and was propagated from thence in the Reign of his son Sesac into Afric, Europe, and Asia by conquest; and then Atlas formed the Sphere of the Libyans, and Chiron that of the Greeks, and the Chaldæans also made a Sphere of their own. But Astrology was invented in Egypt by Nichepsos, or Necepsos, one of the Kings of the lower Egypt, and Petosiris his Priest, a little before the days of Sabacon, and propagated thence into Chaldæa, where Zoroaster the Legislator of the Magi met with it: so Paulinus,
Quique magos docuit mysteria vana Necepsos:
And Diodorus, [[429]] they say that the Chaldæans in Babylonia are colonies of the Egyptians, and being taught by the Priests of Egypt became famous for Astrology. By the influence of the same colonies, the Temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon seems to have been erected in the form of the Egyptian Pyramids: for [[430]] this Temple was a solid Tower or Pyramid a furlong square, and a furlong high, with seven retractions, which made it appear like eight towers standing upon one another, and growing less and less to the top: and in the eighth tower was a Temple with a bed and a golden table, kept by a woman, after the manner of the Egyptians in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon at Thebes; and above the Temple was a place for observing the Stars: they went up to the top of it by steps on the outside, and the bottom was compassed with a court, and the court with a building two furlongs in length on every side.
The Babylonians were extreamly addicted to Sorcery, Inchantments, Astrology and Divinations, Isa. xlvii. 9, 12, 13. Dan. ii. 2, & v. 11. and to the worship of Idols, Jer. l. 2, 40. and to feasting, wine and women. Nihil urbis ejus corruptius moribus, nec ad irritandas illiciendasque immodicas voluptates instructius. Liberos conjugesque cum hospitibus stupro coire, modo pretium flagitii detur, parentes maritique patiuntur. Convivales ludi tota Perside regibus purpuratisque cordi sunt: Babylonii maxime in vinum & quæ ebrietatem sequuntur effusi sunt. Fæminarum convivia ineuntium in principio modestus est habitus; dein summa quæque amicula exuunt, paulatimque pudorem profanant: ad ultimum, honos auribus sit, ima corporum velamenta projiciunt. Nec meretricum hoc dedecus est, sed matronarum virginumque, apud quas comitas habetur vulgati corporis vilitas. Q. Curtius, lib. v. cap. 1. And this lewdness of their women, coloured over with the name of civility, was encouraged even by their religion: for it was the custom for their women once in their life to sit in the Temple of Venus for the use of strangers; which Temple they called Succoth Benoth, the Temple of Women: and when any woman was once sat there, she was not to depart 'till some stranger threw money into her bosom, took her away and lay with her; and the money being for sacred uses, she was obliged to accept of it how little soever, and follow the stranger.
The Persians being conquered by the Medes about the middle of the Reign of Zedekiah, continued in subjection under them 'till the end of the Reign of Darius the Mede: and Cyrus, who was of the Royal Family of the Persians, might be Satrapa of Persia, and command a body of their forces under Darius; but was not yet an absolute and independant King: but after the taking of Babylon, when he had a victorious army at his devotion, and Darius was returned from Babylon into Media, he revolted from Darius, in conjunction with the Persians under him; [[431]] they being incited thereunto by Harpagus a Mede, whom Xenophon calls Artagerses and Atabazus, and who had assisted Cyrus in conquering Crœsus and Asia minor, and had been injured by Darius. Harpagus was sent by Darius with an army against Cyrus, and in the midst of a battel revolted with part of the army to Cyrus: Darius got up a fresh army, and the next year the two armies fought again: this last battel was fought at Pasargadæ in Persia, according to [[432]] Strabo; and there Darius was beaten and taken Prisoner by Cyrus, and the Monarchy was by this victory translated to the Persians. The last King of the Medes is by Xenophon called Cyaxares, and by Herodotus, Astyages the father of Mandane: but these Kings were dead before, and Daniel lets us know that Darius was the true name of the last King, and Herodotus, [[433]] that the last King was conquered by Cyrus in the manner above described; and the Darics coined by the last King testify that his name was Darius.
This victory over Darius was about two years after the taking of Babylon: for the Reign or Nabonnedus the last King of the Chaldees, whom Josephus calls Naboandel and Belshazzar, ended in the year of Nabonassar 210, nine years before the death of Cyrus, according to the Canon: but after the translation of the Kingdom of the Medes to the Persians, Cyrus Reigned only seven years, according to [[434]] Xenophon; and spending the seven winter months yearly at Babylon, the three spring months yearly at Susa, and the two Summer months at Ecbatane, he came the seventh time into Persia, and died there in the spring, and was buried at Pasargadae. By the Canon and the common consent of all Chronologers, he died in the year of Nabonassar 219, and therefore conquered Darius in the year of Nabonassar 212, seventy and two years after the destruction of Nineveh, and beat him the first time in the year of Nabonassar 211, and revolted from him, and became King of the Persians, either the same year, or in the end of the year before. At his death he was seventy years old according to Herodotus, and therefore he was born in the year of Nabonassar 149, his mother Mandane being the sister of Cyaxeres, at that time a young man, and also the sister of Amyite the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, and his father Cambyses being of the old Royal Family of the Persians.