B.C. 534 534 532 SIXTH ERA. At the commencement of the following year, Cyrus issued an edict, whereby permission was granted to the Jews to return to their country and rebuild the Temple; and he also restored to them the vessels of gold and silver which had been carried off by Nebuchadnezzar. In this manifest, that king, although a pagan, recognised that Jehovah the God of heaven had delivered into his hands the several kingdoms of the earth. The Jews in consequence set forwards under the direction of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, grand-son of Jehoiakim, and consequently of the race of David. Jesus, son of Joshua, being elected sovereign pontiff. It was during this year that the prophet Daniel beheld in a dream the four great empires: 1st. that of the Assyrians and Babylonians; 2d. the Persians under Cyrus; 3dly. the Greeks under Alexander; and 4thly. that of the Romans. Daniel saw his last vision, mentioned in the tenth and following chapters of his prophecies. Zerubbabel and Jesus, or Joshua, laid the foundation of a new Temple at Jerusalem; but they were compelled to stop the progress of the work, in consequence of the Samaritans having prejudiced Cyrus against them. During the same year Tullia, daughter of Servius Tullius, wife of Tarquin, grandson of the king so named, undertook, in conjunction with her husband, to dethrone the king; this conspiracy terminated in his assassination, when the body of the unfortunate monarch was rode over by the chariot wheels of his execrable daughter. During a reign of 44 years, he had, as before stated, triumphed over the Etrusci; to facilitate the levying of imposts, he had separated the people into different classes, and he commanded that the verifying of the citizens should take place every five years, which was called Lustres, whereby periods were calculated as by Olympiads among the Greeks. He was succeeded by Tarquin, surnamed the Proud. Cyrus attacked the Massagete, and gained a complete victory; during which he killed with his own hand the son of their queen Thomyris. Irritated at not being able to subdue that princess, after having conquered so many nations, Cyrus pursued the Massagetæ into the defiles of their mountains, where he fell into an ambuscade and there lost his life. body was then carried to Thomyris, who commanded his His head to be struck off, and plunged into a vessel filled with B.C human blood, exclaiming, at the same time, "Now surfeit thyself with blood, for which thou hast so long thirsted.” Cambyses, called in scripture Ahasuerus, son and suc- 529 cessor of Cyrus, gave the government of Armenia, Media, and Judæa to Smerdis, his brother, and then prepared to carry on a war against Egypt. Four years afterwards he entered that country at the head of a powerful army, and followed up Rhameses, king of Egypt, to Memphis, who was the successor of Amasis. Memphis was taken after a siege of some months, when Rhameses was made prisoner and exiled to Susa, after having beheld his daughter in the costume of a slave compelled to draw water for the Persians. Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, died, after reigning 33 years, though twice interrupted during his government, and was succeeded by his sons Hipparchus and Hippias Learning was encouraged at Athens, and a public library 526 founded. Psammenitus succeeded his father in Egypt, and after a 525 reign of six months, was defeated and made prisoner by Cambyses, and compelled to terminate his existence by swallowing bullocks' blood, by which Egypt was rendered tributary to the Persians. Cambyses caused the body of Amasis to be disinterred and burned; the Egyptian god Apis to be slain, and his priests inhumanly scourged; which created the most implacable hatred in the Egyptians against the Persian people. After having exercised the most barbarous cruelties in 524 Egypt, Cambyses carried war into Ethiopia, which he subjugated; but a want of provisions at length forced him to march back. Being ignorant of what had become of his brother Smerdis, he appointed Ariandes governor of Egypt, and died some months after at Ecbatane, near Mount Carmel. Cambyses, when at Thebes, caused all the temples to be pillaged and burnt; out of the flames of which were saved 300 talents of gold and 2300 of silver, which he carried away, together with the famous golden circle that had encompassed the tomb of king Ozymandias. After the death of Cambyses, who was accidentally wounded in the thigh, one of the Magi, named Smerdis, who greatly resembled the deceased Smerdis, brother of the king, counterfeited that prince, and took possession of the throne. After a reign of five months, the deceit was discovered, wher he was put to death by seven nobles of the court, who recognised for king, Darius (the Artaxerxes of scripture), son of Hystaspes, who married Atossa, daughter of Cyrus. F B.C. During the second year of the reign of Darius, under the high-priest Jesus, or Joshua, the Jews proceeded in re-erecting the temple of Jerusalem, after a new edict to that effect had been published by the king of Persia. Zerubbabel and Joshua were intrusted with the superintendence of the works, while the labourers were encouraged by the exhor tations of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. 516 During the 6th year of the reign of Darius, in the month Adar, which coincided with the 10th of March, the temple was completed, and the festival of Easter was celebrated on the 18th of April following*. 510 510 509 Darius had been engaged for 20 months in besieging Babylon, which had revolted; when Zopyrus, one of the nobles of his court, having voluntarily cut off his ears and his nose, repaired in that mutilated condition, and presented himself to the Babylonians, making them believe that he had received that treatment at the hands of Darius, after which he succeeded in persuading the inhabitants to yield up their city. Hippias, on account of his tyranny and dreadful cruelties, was expelled from Athens, together with all the Pisistratidæ, and the democracy was re-instated. Tarquin the Proud made himself detested at Rome by his cruelties and sumptuous mode of life; while his son Sextus completely wearied out the patience of the people by the rape of Lucretia, a Roman lady, who killed herself in despair. While Tarquin was occupied in besieging Ardea, the senate condemned himself and his posterity to eternal exile; by which means royalty was abolished at Rome, after having continued 244 years under seven kings, and one year of interregnum. *The care of superintending religious customs and laws among the Jews was confided to two orders. All the descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses, were engaged in the sacrifices, which were divided into 24 families, called Sacerdotals; each having its particular chief. The other was composed of the scribes, or doctors of the law; who were of the tribe of Levi, equally with those whose province it was to superintend the ser The regal government at Rome was replaced by two con- B.C. suls, whose functions continued only for one year. The two first were Lucius Junius Brutus, chief of the conspiracy, and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the husband of Lucretia. Collatinus was a descendant of Demaratus, the father of Tarquin Priscus; and Brutus was son of Tarquinia, daughter of that monarch. Collatinus was compelled to renounce the consulate on account of his near affinity to the house of Tarquin, and was replaced by Publius Valerius; and Brutus being killed in combat with Aruns, the son of Tarquin, was re-instated by Marcus Horatius. Darius undertook an expedition against the Scythians, and 508 caused a bridge to be built over the Bosphorus, in Thrace, and another across the Ister, which he confided to the care of the Ionian chiefs. He lost the major part of his numerous army in pursuing the Scythians, when he hastened to return to Asia, leaving 30,000 troops in Greece. During the ensu ing year Porsenna, king of the Etrusci, declared war against the Romans, in support of the rights of Tarquin the Proud, when Horatius Cocles and Mutius Scævola, distinguished themselves by their intrepidity and patriotism. Valerius and Lucretius revived the census and lustrum, and found that there were 130,000 men past the age of puberty. The Carthagenians concluded the first treaty of alliance with the Romans. Megobazius, a general of the king of Persia, rendered himself master of Thrace and Macedonia. Darius, having ascertained that the Athenians had burned 502 Sardis, formed the determination of invading Greece; and issued an order that he should daily be put in mind of that resolution during his repast. The following year Joachim, the son of Jesus, or Joshua, was nominated sovereign priest of the Jews, in place of his father, who had governed that nation for a period of 48 years. The Seventieth Olympiad. vice of religion. Their duty consisted in reading the law to the people in the temple, as well as in the synagogues, and explaining the same when requisite. They were also denominated rabbis, or rabbons, that is to say, masters, in all probability derived from the rank of the magi among the Assyrians. The order of the rabbi was regularly preserved during the Babylonian captivity, for Esdras, who led back the people to Judea, was one of those principal doctors of the law. The mode adopted in authorizing any one to interpret the law and the prophets, consisted in confiding to his care a key, accompanied by certain ceremonies. 500 KINGS OF JUDEA. 980 Rehoboam, son of Solomon The kingdom of Judæa termi- KINGS OF ISRAEL. 980 Jeroboam, one of Solomon's officers, usurper of the throne 959 Nadab, son of Jeroboam 957 Baasha, a usurper 933 Ela, son of Baasha 932 Zimri, a usurper 932 Omri, a usurper 923 Ahab, son of Omri 902 Ahaziah, son of Ahab 901 Jehoram, brother of Ahaziah 861 Jehoahaz, son of Jehu 769 Zachariah, son of Jeroboam the 769 Shallum, a usurper The kingdom of Israel terminated in his person, in 718, after having subsisted 262 years. 597 $96 695 594 592 IN THIS CENTURY FLOURISHED, The prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. Chilo, a Spartan philosopher, called one of the seven sages of Greece; one of whose maxims was, "Know thyself." Epimenides, of Crete, a philosopher and poet, who was the master of Pythogoras. Solon, one of the seven sages of Greece. Mimnermus, of Smyrna, an elegiac poet and satyrist, who wrote against Solon. Anacharsis, a philosopher, who was brother of the king of the Scythians. |