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at last yielded to her solicitations. But how blind, Artax. how barbarously weak must this king have been, to Longim. break through the most solemn engagements merely through complaisance; who (deaf to remorse) violated the law of nations, solely to avoid offending a most unjust mother. This inhuman princess, without regard to the faith of solemn treaties, caused Inarus to be crucified, and beheaded all the rest. Megabysus was in the deepest affliction on that account; for as he had promised that no injury should be done them, the affront reflected principally on him. He therefore left the court, and withdrew to Syria, of which he was governor; and his discontent was so great, that he raised an army and revolted openly.

417.

The king sent Osiris, who was one of the greatest A. M. lords of the court, against him with an army of two 3557. hundred thousand men. Megabysus engaged Osiris, Ant. J. C. wounded him, took him prisoner, and put his army to flight. Artaxerxes sending to demand Osiris, Megabysus generously dismissed him, as soon as his wounds were cured.

The next year Artaxerxessent another army against him, the command of which he gave to Menostanes, son to Artarius the king's brother, and governor of Babylon. This general was not more fortunate than the former. He also was defeated and put to flight, and Megabysus gained as signal a victory as the former.

Artaxerxes finding he could not reduce him by force of arms, sent his brother Artarius and Amytis his sister, who was the wife of Megabysus, with several other persons of the first quality, to persuade the latter to return to his allegiance. They succeeded in their negotiation; the king pardoned him, and he returned to court.

One day as they were hunting, a lion raising himself on his hinder feet, was going to rush upon the king, when Megabysus seeing the danger he was in,

Thucyd. 1. i, p. 72.

A. M. 3558.

Ant. J.C.

446.

Artax.

and fired with zeal and affection for his sovereign, Longim, hurled a dart at the lion, which killed him. But Ar

taxerxes, upon pretence that he had affronted him, in darting at the lion first, commanded Megabysus's head to be struck off: Amytis the king's sister, and Amestris, with the greatest difficulty prevailed upon the king to change this sentence into perpetual ba nishment. Megabysus was therefore sent to Cyrta, a city on the Red-sea, and condemned to end his days there: However, five years after, disguising himself like a leper, he made his escape and returned to Susa, where, by the assistance of his wife and mother-inlaw, he was restored to favour, and continued so till his death, which happened some years after, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Megabysus was extremely regretted by the king and the whole court. He was a man of the greatest abilities in the kingdom, and at the same time the best general. Artaxerxes owed both his crown and life to him: * But it is of dangerous consequence for a subject, when his sovereign is under too many obligations to him. This was the cause of all the misfortunes of Megabysus.

It is surprizing that so judicious a prince as Artaxerxes should have been so imprudent, as to be fired with jealousy against a nobleman of his court, merely because, in a party of hunting, he had wounded the beast they were pursuing before him. Could any thing be so weak? and was this placing the point of honour in a manner worthy a king? Nevertheless, history furnishes us with many instances of this kind. I am apt to believe, from some expressions of

Plutarch, that Artaxerxes was ashamed of the wild fury to which this false delicacy had raised him, and that he made some publick kind of atonement for it; For, according to this author, he published a decree,

Plut. in Apophthegm, p. 173,

Beneficia cò usque Leta sunt, dum videntur exolci posse; ubi multum antevertere, pro gratia edium redditur. Tacit. Annal, 1. iv, c. 18.

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importing, that any man who was hunting with the Artax.
king, should be allowed to throw his javelin first at Longim.
the beast, if opportunity should offer; and he, ac-
cording to Plutarch, was the first Persian monarch
who granted such a permission.

SECT. VI. Artaxerxes sends Esdras, and afterwards
Nehemiah, to Jerusalem.

BEFORE I proceed in the history of the Persians

and Greeks, I shall relate, in few words, the several things which happened to the people of God, during the first twenty years of Artaxerxes, which is an essential part of the history of that prince.

467.

In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, A. M. Esdras obtained of the king and his seven counsellors 3537. an ample commission, impowering him to return to Ant. J. C. Jerusalem with all such Jews as would follow him thither, in order to settle the Jewish government and religion agreeably to their own laws. Esdras was descended from Saraia, who was high-priest of Jerusalem, when destroyed by Nabuchodonosor, and was put to death by his command. Esdras was a

very learned and pious man, and was chiefly distinguished from the rest of the Jews, by his great knowledge in the scriptures; it being said of him,

That he was very ready in the law of Moses that was given by the God of Israel. He now set out from Babylon with the gifts and offerings which the king, his courtiers, and such Israelites as had staid in Babylon, had put into his hands for the service of the temple, and which he gave to the priests upon his arrival in Jerusalem. It appears by the commission which Artaxerxes gave him, that this prince had a high veneration for the God of Israel, as, in commanding his officers to furnish the Jews with all things necessary for their worship, he adds, "Let all things be performed after the law of God diligently, unto the most high God, that wrath come not upon the kingdom

1 Esdras vii, &c. 1 Esdras viii. 3. h1 Esdras viii, 21.

Artax. of the king and his son. This commission, as I obLongim. served, impowered him to settle the religion and government of the Jews, pursuant to the law of Moses; to appoint magistrates and judges to punish evil doers, not only by imprisoning their persons, and confiscating their possessions, but also by sending them into banishment, and even sentencing them to death, according to the crimes they should commit. Such was the power with which Esdras was invested, and which he exercised faithfully during A. M. thirteen years, till Nehemiah brought a new commission from the Persian court.

3550. Ant. J. C.

454.

Nehemiah was also a Jew of distinguished merit and piety, and one of the cup-bearers to king Artaxerxes. This was a very considerable employment in the Persian court, because of the privilege annexed to it, viz. of being often near the king's person, and of being allowed to speak to him in the most favourable moments. However, neither his exalted station, nor the settlement of his family in that land of captivity, could obliterate from his mind the country of his ancestors, nor their religion: Neither his love for the one, nor his zeal for the other, were abated; and his heart was still in Sion. Some Jews who were come from Jerusalem, having informed him of the sad state of that city, that its walls lay in ruin, its gates were burnt down, and the inhabitants thereby exposed to the insults of their enemies, and made the scorn of all their neighbours; the affliction of his brethren, and the dangers with which they were menaced, made such an impression on his mind, as might naturally be expected from one of his piety. One day as he was waiting upon the king, the latter observing an unusual air of melancholy in Nehemiah's countenance, asked him the cause of it; a proof that this monarch had a tenderness of heart rarely found in kings, and which is nevertheless much more valuable than the most shining qualities. Ne

i Nehem, c. i. & ii,

hemiah took this opportunity to acquaint him with Artax, the calamitous state of his country; owned that was Longim the subject of his grief; and humbly intreated that leave might be given him to go to Jerusalem, in order to repair the fortifications of it. The kings of Persia his predecessors had permitted the Jews to rebuild the temple, but not the walls of Jerusalem. But Artaxerxes immediately decreed, that the walls and gates of Jerusalem should be rebuilt; and Nehe miah, as governor of Judea, was appointed to put this decree in execution. The king, to do him the greater honour, ordered a body of horse, commanded by a considerable officer, to escort him thither. He likewise writ to all the govenors of the provinces on this side the Euphrates, to give him all the assis tance possible in forwarding the work for which he was sent. This pious Jew executed every part of his commission with incredible zeal and activity.

It is from this decree, enacted by Artaxerxes in the twentieth year of his reign, for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, that we date the beginning of the seventy weeks mentioned in the famous pro phecy of Daniel, after which the Messiah was to ap pear and to be put to death. I shall here insert the whole prophecy, but without giving the explication of it, as it may be found in other writers, and is not a part of this history.

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"Thou art greatly beloved, therefore under"stand the matter, and consider the vision. Seven"ty weeks are determined upon thy people, and "upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and "to make an end of sins, and to make reconcilia

tion for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righ ❝teousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore "and understand, THAT FROM THE GOING FORTH

OF THE COMMANDMENT TO RESTORE AND TO

BUILD JERUSALEM, unto the Messiah the prince,

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