(saith Viginier'), because Strabo in his eleventh book reciteth, that Cyrus surprised the Sacians by the same stratagem by which Justin saith he defeated the son of Tomyris. And the same Ctesias also reporteth, that the last war which Cyrus made was against Amorrheus king of the Derbicians, a nation (as the rest) of Scythia; whom though he overcame, yet he then received the wound of his death, which he suffered three days after. Strabo also affirmeth3, that he was buried in his own city of Pasagardes, which himself had built, and where his epitaph was to be read in his time; which is said to have been this: O vir, quicunque es, et undecunque advenis, neque enim te adventurum ignoravi: ego sum Cyrus qui Persis impe⚫ rium constitui, pusillum hoc terræ, quo meum tegitur corpus, mihi ne invidias: O thou man whoever thou art, or whencesoever thou comest, for I was not ignorant that thou shouldst come,-I am Cyrus that founded the Persian empire; do not envy unto me this little earth with which my body is 'covered.' This tomb was opened by Alexander, as Quintus Curtius, 1. i. reporteth, either upon hope of treasure, supposed to have been buried with him, or upon desire to honour his dead body with certain ceremonies; in which there was found an old rotten target, two Scythian bows, and a sword. The coffin wherein his body lay, Alexander caused to be covered with his own garment, and a crown of gold to be set upon it. These things well considered, as they give credit to the reports of Xenophon and Zonaras, so they derogate much from Herodotus, who leaves his body in the hands of Tomyris. And surely, had Cyrus lost the army of Persia in Scythia, it is not likely, that his son would so soon have transported all his remaining forces into Egypt, 1 Vig. prim. part. Bib. 2 Ctes. 1. xv. hist. part. 3 Strab. I. xv. so far off from that quarter; the Scythian nation then victorious, and bordering Media: neither had Cambyses been able in such haste to have undertaken and performed so great a conquest. Wherefore I rather believe Xenophon, saying, that Cyrus died aged, and in peace; and that finding in himself, that he could not long enjoy the world, he called unto him his nobility, with his two sons Cambyses and Smerdis; or, after Xenophon, Tanaoxares,-and, after a long oration, wherein he assured himself, and taught others, of the immortality of the soul, and of the punishments and rewards following the good and ill deserving of every man in this life, he exhorted his sons, by the strongest arguments he had, to a perpetual concord and agreement. Many other things he uttered, which make it probable that he received the knowledge of the true God from Daniel, when he governed Susa and Persia; and that Cyrus himself had read the prophecy of Isaiah, wherein he was expressly named, and by God (for the delivery of his people) pre-ordained. Which act of delivering the Jews from their captivity, and of restoring the holy temple and city of Jerusalem, was in true consideration the noblest work that ever Cyrus performed. For in other actions he was an instrument of God's power, used for the chastising of many nations, and the establishing of a government in those parts of the world, which was not long to continue. But herein he had the grace to be an instrument of God's goodness, and a willing advancer of his kingdom upon earth; which must last for ever, though heaven and earth shall perish. 003 SECT. VII. Of Cyrus's decree for building the temple of God in Jerusalem. HAVING therefore spoken of his great victories, mentioned by sundry historians, the glory of all which was a reward of this his service done unto him that was author of them and of all goodness; I hold it meet at length to speak of the decree made in the first of his reign, being perhaps the first that ever he made after his possession of the Babylonian empire; that the captive Jews should return again into their own territory, and re-build the house of God in Jerusalem, having now endured and finished seventy years captivity, by the prophets foretold. For the accomplishing whereof, he gave order to his treasurers to furnish them with all things necessary and wanting. He also restored unto them five thousand four hundred and sixty-nine vessels of gold and silver, whereof Nabuchodonosor, the grandfather of Balthasar, had formerly robbed the temple. The number of the Jews which returned out of Chaldæa under their leader Zerubbabel', the son of Shealtiel, and nephew to king Jechoniah, and Jesus, or Jeshua, the son of Jozadek, were about fifty thousand; where, as soon as they arrived, they built an altar to the living God, and sacrificed thereon, according to their own law, and afterwards bethought themselves how to prepare materials for the rebuilding of the temple. But no sooner did the Jews begin to lay any one stone, than the Samaritans, and other idolatrous nations adjoining, gave all the impediment they could. So did the governors of those provinces under Cyrus altogether countenance the disturbers, and in no sort favoured the Jews, nor the labours nor purpo 11 Esd. 2. 2 Esd. 7. Phil. in Bre. Josh. 1. Ant. 11. 1 Esd. ii. 16. 1 Esd. 4. 2 Esd. iii. 3. Esd. 5. Esd. ii, 16. 1 Esd. v. 33. Esd. 4. & 5 1 Esd. 4. 5. ses they had in hand. And not only those which were but provincial lieutenants, and other officers of less place, but Cambyses himself, who having the charge of the whole empire, while Cyrus was busied otherwise, countermanded the building begun. And whereas some authors make doubt, that whatsoever Cambyses did when himself had obtained the empire, yet, during the life of Cyrus, there was no such impediment or prohibition; they may herein resolve themselves out of Esdras, that, by the conspiracies of the neighbouring nations, the building was hindered all the time of king Cyrus's life, &c. And therefore it is true, what the Jews themselves affirm, as it is writ ten in the second of John, that the temple was fortysix years in setting up, having received so many hindrances from the first foundation to the second of Darius. And if we seek the natural and politic courses which moved Cambyses to withstand his father's de-. cree, as well while he governed under him, as when himself became sole and sovereign monarch, we shall find them in that epistle remembered by Esdras, written by Belemus, Mithridates, and the rest, presidents and counsellors in Phoenicia, wherein they complain that the Jews were evermore rebellious and troublers of kings; that their city being once built, they would then refuse to pay tribute, and fall from the obedience of the empire, as they had formerly done in the times of other kings. But that which for that present seemed the most forcible impediment, was, that Cambyses having it in his resolution to invade Egypt, and that it was a common opinion that the Jews were descended of those nations, because they issued thence under Moses, when they conquered Judæa, their city being once repaired and fortified, they might return to their old vomit, and give the same disturbance to Cambyses's conquest, which they did to Sennacherib, Nabuchodonosor, and other kings of Babylon. For, as it is written in Ezekiel, Egypt was the confidence ' of the house of Israel."' But it is to be understood, as Codoman and others have observed, that Artaxerxes, to whom the counsellors and governors of Phoenicia complained against the Jews, did not precede, but succeed Darius Hystaspes, as in the sixth and seventh chapters of Esdras it is made plain; and also that those governors, (whose epistle sheweth as much,) did not withstand the building of the temple, but the fortifying and enclosing of the city, as by the reasons given in the said epistle, and by the king's answer, it is evi dent. Also in the sixth of Ezra, the fourteenth verse, the kings are named in order as they governed, and Artaxerxes written after Darius: as, And they built and finished it, (to wit the temple,) by the appointment of the God of Israel, and by the command⚫ment of Cyrus and Darius, and Artahshaste, kings of Persia. Lastly, in the seventh of Ezra it is written, Now after these things, in the reign of Artahshaste king of Persia:' which was as much as to say, after the finishing of the temple in Darius's time. And therefore Artaxerxes in the second of Esdras is there named by anticipation, not in his own time and place. And thus much concerning the re-building of the city and temple of Jerusalem. Which action, though prospered by the hand of God, was very slowly pursued by the men whom it most concerned, but first set on foot by Cyrus. The other ordinances of Cyrus, with his form and manner of government, are to be found in Xenophon. At his death, he bequeathed the empire unto his eldest son Cambyses, appointing Smerdis or Tanaoxares his younger son to be Satrapa, or lieutenant of Media, Armenia, and Cadusia; and then died, after he had reigned, (saith 3 Ezek. 29. |