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

restoration, they arose speedily to a state of prosperity and power.

Darius lived to be an old man, and was a prince distinguished for wisdom, clemency, and justice. Before his death, being desirous of fixing the succession to the throne, he appointed Xerxes the son of Atossa (the daughter of Cyrus) to be his successor; for, although he had other sons who were older than Xerxes, yet they having been born before Darius ascended the throne, he judged that it was most proper to grant the kingdom to him who was first born after his accession to royal authority; and, no doubt, the influence which Atossa had over Darius was the principal reason of this determination. But it deserves to be remarked, as an uncommon fact, and much to the honour of the parties concerned, that while this matter was under consideration, it created no alienation of the affections of the competitors for the crown, from each other. And, when Xerxes was raised to the throne, Artabazanes, the eldest son, gave no indications of envy or dissatisfaction, but treated his brother with all affection, served him with fidelity in his wars, and at last died in his service, being slain in battle.

Darius did not long survive the settlement of the succession to the throne upon his son Xerxes. He died in the thirtysixth year of his reign, and four hundred and eighty-six years before the birth of Christ.

The tradition of the Jews is, that in the last year of Darius, died the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, from which time the spirit of prophecy ceased from among the children of Israel.

Xerxes, having ascended the throne, confirmed to the Jews all the privileges granted by his father; especially, the right to the tribute from Samaria, for furnishing the temple with sacrifices for the service of God, according to the law of Moses. The Egyptians having revolted before the death of Darius, Xerxes went against them with an army; and, in a short time, the rebels were reduced again, and their yoke made heavier than before.

Xerxes, being much elated by his success against the Egyptians, listened the more readily to the counsel of his son-in-law Mardonius and others, who persuaded him to undertake an expedition against Greece. Three years were spent in making preparations for this war, and troops were collected from every part of the Persian empire. In the fifth year of his reign, which was the four hundred and eighty-first before the Christian era, he led his enormous army towards Asia Minor, and took up his winter quarters at Sardis.

To distract the attention of the Greeks, Xerxes entered into

a league with the Carthagenians, who it was agreed should fall upon the Greeks who dwelt in Sicily and Italy.

The army with which Xerxes marched into Greece was much the most numerous recorded in history. The infantry alone. are said to have been one million seven hundred thousand men, and the cavalry eighty thousand; which, with the necessary drivers of the chariots and camels, must raise the number of his land-army to one million eight hundred thousand men. His fleet consisted of twelve hundred and seven ships, besides gallies, transports, &c., which were three thousand more, manned by five hundred and seventeen thousand six hundred men. It was moreover, reckoned, that the nations who submitted to him on the way, and after he crossed the Hellespont, increased his army by the addition of three hundred thousand men, besides those on board of the two hundred and twenty ships added to his fleet, who were calculated to be at least twentyfour thousand more. Herodotus says, the whole number of fighting men were two millions six hundred and forty-one thousand six hundred and ten; who, with the servants, sutlers, mariners, women and children, make the whole number of persons not less than five millions. Other historians make the number smaller; but no one makes it less than two millions. Xerxes occupied a whole week, day and night, in crossing the Hellespont, by two bridges of boats; the army passing upon one, and the carriages and beasts of burden on the other. At the straits of Thermopyle, he was met by Leonidas, king of Sparta, who, with a band of six thousand men, had the desperate resolution to oppose the progress of this mighty host; and for three days, this devoted band of patriots actually hindered the Persian army from proceeding, and killed twenty thousand of their men. But at length a passage was effected over the dead bodies of the devoted Spartans, who determined to perish, rather than see their country laid waste by a hostile army. The Persian monarch had the pusillanimity to treat the dead body of the brave Leonidas with dishonour, by cutting off the head, and suspending the trunk upon a gallows.

Xerxes would not have succeeded so soon in forcing his way through the straits of Thermopylæ, had not a secret path been pointed out by a treacherous Greek, by means of which the Persians were enabled to attack the Greeks in the rear. Upon this, all fled except Leonidas and three hundred of his followers, who had resolved to devote themselves for their country. Besides the twenty thousand Persians slain on this occasion, Xerxes lost two of his own brothers.

The fleets of the belligerents soon met in conflict, and naval battles occurred, in which much blood was spilt, and much execution done; but nothing decisive took place until the battle of

Salamis, in which the Grecian fleet, under the command of Themistocles, gained a great decisive victory. To witness this action, Xerxes had ascended an eminence on the neighbouring promontory, where, seated on a splendid throne, he had the mortification to see the utter ruin of his great fleet; and fearing lest his retreat should be cut off, he hastened to recross the Hellespont; but upon his arrival found that the bridges which he had erected with so much labour and expense, had been broken by a storm; so that he was forced to cross in a common fishing boat, and betake himself immediately to Sardis.

On the same day, according to Herodotus, on which the victory of Salamis took place, the Carthagenians, the confederates of Xerxes, met with a dreadful overthrow at Panormus in Sicily; where their fleet was burnt, their general, Hamilcar, slain, and one hundred and fifty thousand fell in the field of battle. Others, however, maintain, with more probability, that this defeat occurred on the day in which Leonidas arrested the progress of the Persian army at Thermopyla.

Mardonius, the general of Xerxes, being left in Greece with three hundred thousand men, (the rest of the army having followed the king to Sardis,) endeavoured to make peace with the Grecians, but they, elated with victory, and confident in their own strength, declined all negotiation, and collected an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, on the isthmus of Corinth. Mardonius, however, although his army was now not less than three hundred and fifty thousand, withdrew from their neighbourhood. The Grecian army under the command of Pausanias the Lacedemonian, and Aristides the Athenian, pursued him; and, at the city of Platea, a decisive engagement took place, in which Mardonius was slain, and the Persian army cut to pieces. Artabazus, one of the Persian generals, foreseeing the event of the battle, made his escape with forty thousand men: all the rest were destroyed, except about four thousand. On the same day a naval action took place, at Mycale, in which the Persian fleet was burnt.

Xer

Thus was this vast armament, the greatest which the world ever saw, almost annihilated by a mere handful of men. xes returned home chagrined and mortified; and taking Babylon on his way to Shushan, plundered the temple of Belus, and carried away the dedicated treasures; and, especially a golden table, which Darius had not ventured to remove.

Scaliger is of opinion that Xerxes was the Ahasuerus of Scripture, in which he is followed by many, especially by Jahn in his history of the Hebrew Commonwealth. One principal reason alleged in favour of this opinion, is derived from the name of one of Xerxes' queens, which was Hamestris, between which and Esther there is a strong resemblance; but Prideaux objects,

that Xerxes had a son by Hamestris, who was of marriageble. age, according to Herodotus, in the seventh year of his reign: whereas, Esther was not married to Ahasuerus until the seventh year of his reign; and the putting away of Vashti occurred in the fourth year of his reign, when Esther was first selected, among other virgins, for the king's purposes. It seems, therefore, impossible, that Hamestris the wife of Xerxes, and Esther the wife of Ahasuerus, were the same person. Moreover, Hamestris was a woman of licentious character, of which many instances are given by the Greek historian; but no such thing can be said of Esther. But Jahn considers Xerxes to be not only Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, but also the Artaxerxes. of the book of Ezra, as he is mentioned next after Darius Hystaspes; and observes, that the names Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, were given to many kings; and that Daniel, (ch. ix. 1.) calls Astyages of the Median line, Ahasuerus. The opinion of Usher is, that Darius Hystaspes was the Ahasuerus of Scripture, and that Atossa the daughter of Cyrus, was Vashti, and Artysona the Esther of the Scriptures; but according to Herodotus, this queen was also the daughter of Cyrus, but Esther we know was a Jewess. Moreover, he informs us that Atossa, before she was divorced, had four sons and one daughter, all born after Darius was king, which is altogether inconsistent with what we read in the book of Esther-that Vashti was put away in the fourth year of the reign of Ahasuerus.

Josephus mentions that there were many Jews in the great army of Xerxes which marched into Greece, and the same may be inferred from the description of the various nations and languages, composing this immense army, by Herodotus; and, as a great multitude of Jews were still resident in Babylonia and Media, it would be strange if this had not been the fact.

The restored Hebrews do not appear, during all this time, to have been in a prosperous condition. They seem to have had no stable and regular government, and the administration of justice was exceedingly defective.

Xerxes, after many unsuccessful efforts to subdue the Greeks, relinquished all further attention to this war, and gave himself entirely to a life of voluptuous ease; in consequence of which he fell into contempt with the people. Artabanus, the captain of his guards, formed a conspiracy against him, and having slain him in his bed, went to Artaxerxes his third son, and charged the murder on his elder brother, Darius; which the young man believing, went immediately to the chamber of Darius, and by the assistance of Artabanus slew him also. The second son, Hystaspes, was absent; Artabanus, therefore, had no difficulty in placing Artaxerxes on the throne; but his real object, in this plot, was to secure the kingdom for himself and