&c., before his army, and thus march up to the walls; these being objects of worship with the Egyptians, they chose rather to be conquered, than to run the risk of killing any of the venerated animals. He made a second expedition to Ethiopia, which was unsuccessful. At this time he sent forty thousand men to destroy the temple of Jupiter Hammon, all of whom were overwhelmed in a storm of sand. Finding the people of Memphis rejoicing on account of the discovery of the bull Apis, he commanded that he should be brought to him, and on seeing the animal which the superstitious people adored, he ran his sword into the thigh of the bull, of which wound he died. The priests, he ordered to be whipped, and in every way manifested his contempt and detestation for the superstitions of the people; for the Persians worshipped no idols, but only the sun and fire.

It is related, that the king of Ethiopia sent Cambyses his bow, with a message, that when the Persians could bend such a bow, they might think of invading Ethiopia. Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, and brother of the king, being the only man in the army who could with ease bend the bow, Cambyses became jealous of him, and sent him off to Persia, where, in consequence of a dream, he had him put to death. He had one beautiful sister, the daughter of Cyrus, whose name was Meroe; her he married, contrary to all law and usage. From her is derived the name of an island in the Nile, between Egypt and Ethiopia. This woman he was accustomed to take with him in all his expeditions. But on a certain occasion, in a fit of passion, he struck her a blow, which, she being pregnant, caused her death.

Cambyses, having reigned nearly eight years, and being on his return from Egypt, a herald from Shushan, the palace of the kings of Persia, met the army, and proclaimed Smerdis the son of Cyrus, king. Now Smerdis had already been put to death, secretly, by the order of Cambyses, as stated above; but the case was this, the prince whom Cambyses had left to govern Persia in his absence, had a brother who bore a remarkable resemblance to Smerdis. This young man the crafty Magian set upon the throne, having learned the secret of the death of the true Smerdis. Cambyses seized the herald, and after a careful examination having ascertained that his own brother was really dead, and that this pretended Smerdis was the brother of the governor, set forward with his army to dethrone the impostor, and punish the governor; but as he mounted his horse, his sword slipping from its scabbard, gave him a wound in the thigh, of which he died in a few days. The Egyptians considered this as a special judgment on the king for his impiety, in

killing Apis; for they remarked, that the part of his thigh into which the sword entered, was the same which he had wounded in the bull.

During the reign of Cambyses, the work of rebuilding the temple, we have reason to believe, advanced very slowly. The Samaritans, we know, sent a petition to obtain an order to have the building arrested; but how it was received, or whether it produced any effect, we are not informed.

The pretended Smerdis reigned only seven months. By profane historians he is called by several other names; but in Scripture he is named Artaxerxes. As soon as he was settled on the throne, after the death of Cambyses, the Samaritans wrote a letter to him, setting forth that the Jews were rebuilding their city and temple at Jerusalem; and that, as they had always been a rebellious people, there was much reason to suspect, that as soon as the work was accomplished, they would withdraw their allegiance from the king. For proof of what they alleged, they referred to the ancient records of the kingdom; requesting, that search might be made, whether the facts stated by them were not true. Upon which, Artaxerxes having ascertained that the Jews had carried on obstinate wars with his predecessors, and that their city had been taken and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, gave order, that the building should cease; whereupon, the Samaritans came immediately to Jerusalem, and by force caused them to desist from the further prosecution of the work.

Smerdis, or Artaxerxes, endeavoured by every method to ingratiate himself with the people; and, with this view, remitted all the taxes due to the government. And to secure himself on the throne, he took to wife Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, who had before been the wife of Cambyses her brother.

At length, however, it began to be suspected among the nobles of Persia, that this was not the true Smerdis. One of them whose name was Otanes, undertook to make a discovery, by means of one of the wives of the king. He had ascertained, that the Magian who resembled Smerdis, had on some occasion lost his ears; wherefore this woman was to find out whether her husband had ears or not. It being found that he had none, it became certain that he was an impostor. Otanes, then, associated six others of the nobles of Persia with him, who entering into the palace slew the king, and his brother Patizethes, who had been the contriver of the whole plot; and bringing out their heads, showed them to the people, and laid open the whole imposture. Such was the indignation of the multitude against these men, that they slew all the Magians whom they could find.

The idolatry of the world, at this time, was divided between

the worshippers of images, who were called Sabeans, and the worshippers of fire, who were called Magians. The Magian sect, who were followers of Zoroaster, prevailed greatly in Persia, and a few of their successors are still found in the mountains of that country, under the name of Gauri or fire-worshippers.

Smerdis being now out of the way, a consultation was held by the nobles of Persia respecting the form of government which should be adopted. Otanes was in favour of democracy, Megabyzus of aristocracy, and Darius Hystaspes of monarchy. The last mentioned opinion prevailed, and Darius himself was advanced to the throne. He was the son of Hystaspes, a noble Persian, who had followed Cyrus in all his wars. The other nobles concerned in this revolution, stipulated that they should enjoy peculiar privileges, one of which was, that they should always have free access to the royal presence, without ceremony, except when the king was in his harem.

The building of the temple having been arrested by an edict of Smerdis, the work was not immediately resumed upon the accession of Darius. The remissness of the Jews in prosecuting this sacred object, occasioned severe judgments on the land; and to awake them from their apathy, Haggai the prophet was sent to them with a message from Jehovah, which is recorded. in the book which bears his name. This solemn exhortation, had the effect of stirring up the leaders and the people to return to the work of rebuilding the temple. Towards the close of the same year, another message was sent to the Jews, by the same prophet, announcing that the glory of the second house should be greater than the glory of the first; and that THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS should come, and that this temple should be filled with the glory of Jehovah. Zechariah the prophet was also commissioned to preach to the people at the close of the same year.

At the beginning of the second year of Darius, the work was recommenced; but the Samaritans betook themselves to their old malicious practices; and to obstruct the work, applied to Tatnai, who had been appointed governor, on this side the river. They alleged that the Jews were acting wholly without authority in this business. Tatnai, to satisfy himself, came to Jerusalem, and upon being shown a copy of the edict of Cyrus, did not forbid the work, but wrote an account of the whole matter to the king. Whereupon, search being made, the decree of Cyrus was found among the rolls, in the royal palace at Ecbatana, in Media. Darius, upon this, ordered that the decree of Cyrus should be carried into complete effect, and threatened severe punishments against any who should dare to obstruct the work.

The seventy years captivity, predicted by Jeremiah, may be considered as commencing either in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when the first Jews were carried captive to Babylon, and then the end of this period will be in the first year of Cyrus: or, eighteen years afterwards, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, and then the close of the seventy years will be on the second year of Darius, when the decree of Cyrus was renewed and republished, and all obstructions to the carrying on the work taken out of the way.

The kings of Persia having removed their residence from Babylon to Shushan, the inhabitants of the former city began. to think of a revolt from the dominion of the Persians. For several years they were employed in collecting and treasuring up provisions, within the walls of the city. In the fifth year of Darius, the revolt took place; the Babylonians openly renouncing their allegiance. Darius now collected a mighty army and besieged the city; but the walls were so thick and high, and the gates so strong, that all attempts to reduce it by force must have been ineffectual: and there was so much vacant ground within the city and so large a store of provisions had been accumulated, that there seemed no prospect of reducing it by famine. The desperate determination of the besieged was also manifested in a very extraordinary way. In order to lessen the number of consumers of their stock of provisions, they resolved to put to death all persons who could not be useful in the defence of the city; especially, all the females were slain, except one for each family. And the probability was strong that they would have been able to defend themselves successfully against the Persian army, had it not been for the device of a nobleman, by the name of Zopyrus, who having cut off his own ears and nose, fled to the Babylonians, pretending that he had been thus cruelly treated by Darius. They received him confidently, for there seemed to be no room to suspect treachery, in such a case; and, by degrees, he so insinuated himself into their favour, that they gave him the command of the city; upon which he immediately opened the gates to the Persians. Darius took signal vengeance on the leaders of this rebellion, by crucifying no less than three thousand of the nobles. And to prevent the danger of a second revolt, he almost levelled the walls of the city, reducing them from two hundred, to fifty cubits; and took away the hundred brazen gates, by which the entrance had been guarded. The reign of Darius was long, but turbu lent. He invaded Scythia with an army of seven hundred thousand men, but the expedition was not prosperous. He succeeded, however, in subduing Macedonia, and in bringing under his authority some of the western provinces of India. Towards the latter part of his reign he was involved in wars with the

Ionians, who had revolted, and with the states of Greece; which disputes led on to the great war between the Greeks and Persians, which was so signal in the reign of his successor.

In the sixth year of Darius, according to the Jewish computation, the temple of Jerusalem was finished, and was dedicated with great joy and solemnity, in the month Adar.

Twenty years had elapsed from the second of Cyrus to the seventh of Darius; so long was the second temple in building. At this dedication, it seems, that the 146th, 147th, and 148th Psalms were sung; for in the Septuagint version, they are called the Psalms of Haggai and Zechariah, by whom they were probably composed for this solemn occasion.

The decree of Darius for finishing the temple having been. granted at Shushan, the eastern gate, in memory of that event, received the name Shushan; on which was engraved a picture of that city, which remained until the final destruction of the temple by the Romans.

On the 14th of Nisan, the next month after the dedication of the temple, the passover was celebrated at Jerusalem. This was a season of great rejoicing to the Jews who had returned. to Judea.

SECTION II.

FROM THE COMPLETION OF THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE, TO THE MISSION OF NEHEMIAH.

THE Samaritans, when the temple was finished, refused to pay the tribute for carrying on the building which had been first assigned for this purpose by Cyrus, and afterwards by Darius. The Jews, therefore, sent Zerubbabel the governor, with Mordecai and Ananias, two principal men among them, to make a complaint to Darius, of the injury which they sustained, in being deprived of the king's bounty, contrary to the edict which he had made in their favour. The king, upon hearing this complaint, issued an order to his officers in Samaria, requiring them to see to it that the Samaritans obeyed his edict, in paying their tribute to Jerusalem, as formerly, and give the Jews no further cause to complain of them.

The Tyrians, after the taking of their city by Nebuchadnezzar, having been reduced to a state of servitude, continued under the yoke for seventy years, agreeably to the prophecy of Isaiah xxiii. 15-17. But when this time was expired, Darius permitted them again to have a king of their own, which favour seems to have been granted, because of the service rendered to him in his naval expeditions. After this