DANDOLO, EXIUCO. 



DANIEL, LE PERE GABRIEL, 



D.VXUOLO, ENRICO, a patrician of Venice, who wu elected doge 

 in 1 192 at a very advanced age. In the year 1201 tba Fnmch crusaders 

 applied to the Venetian senate for assistance in their expedition to 

 Palestine. Dandolo warmly supported their petition, lent them money 

 and provisions and ship*, and Btipulated in return that they ihould 

 assist him in conquering the town of Zara for the republic. Dandolo, 

 though aged and nearly blind, embarked in the admiral's ship. Tb 

 crusader* took Zara, and afterwards, being invited by Alexius, son of 

 Isaac Angelua, who bad been driven from the throne of Constantinople, 

 the Venetians and crusaders, forgetting the Holy Lnnd, sailed for 

 Constantinople, attacked it, and took it by storm, in 1204. Old 

 Dan iolo, then nearly ninety yean of age, was the null uf this expe- 

 dition ; he was one of the first to land, on the first attack iu 1203, and 

 to take possession of part of the rauiparta, on which be planted the 

 standard of St. Mark. For other particulars of this expedition and its 

 results tee BALDWIN I., emperor of Constantinople. Doudolo refused 

 the imperial crown which the crusaders bad offered to him, but accepted 

 the title of lieopot of Romania. He died shorly after, in 1205, and 

 was buried in the church of Santa Sophia. Dandolo is one of those 

 who contributed moet to the establishment of the maritime power of 

 Venice. Tbera have been other senators and doges of the same name. 



DANIEL, one of the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekicl, 

 Daniel). From the first chapter of the book of this prophet we learn 

 that he was of the tribe of Jndah ; that wh> u a child he was carried 

 captive to Babylon by N t buclmdnezzar, iu the third year of the reign 

 of Jehoiakim, king of Judali, n.c. 606; and that he was one of the 

 "children (verse 4) in whom was no blemish, but well-favoured, and 

 skilful in all wisdom, nud cunning in knowledge, and understanding 

 science,' who were cho*eu by the master of tho king of Babylou's 

 eunuch* to be taught " the learning and the tongue of the Chnldeaua," 

 and to Ktaud before the king. It appears to have been required of 

 there children to have countenances fair and fat iu fle-h, and tlmt t licy 

 mitht acquire th> se qualiiira they were furuUhed with " a daily pro- 

 vis on of tue king's meat and wine;" but Daniol, otherwise Belteshazzur, 

 and his three companions, Shadrach, Meshacb, and Abeduego, purposing 

 not to defile tbemselvta with the royal meat, obtained permission to 

 adopt a diet of pulie and water instead, and partaking of thit food they 

 excelled in appearance all the other children who were being trained in 

 the palace. "Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams, and 

 in all matters of wisdom and understanding the king found him and his 

 three companions ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers 

 that were in nil bin realm " (17, 20). In reward for the interpretation 

 of a dream related iu chapter 2, " King Nebuchadnezzar not only gave 

 Daniel many valuable gift", and made him ruler over the whole 

 province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men 

 uf Babylon, but he fell upon his face and worshipped him, and com- 

 manded an oblation and sweet odours to be offered unto him " (46, 48). 

 Daniel* ChaldtMu name of Belteshazzar was that of a Babylonian 

 deity, the god cf Nebuchadnezzar; and the prophet is repeatedly said 

 to have poueased the spirit of the holy gods, and to have been made 

 master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers (iv. 

 8, 9; T. 11). For interpreting the mysterious writing on the wall, 

 king Bclsbazcar clothed him in scarlet, put a chain of gold about his 

 neck, and made him third ruler in tho kingdom. Danial also prospered 

 in the reign of the Median monarch Darius (probably the Cyaxares of 

 the Greek bi-torians), who appointed him the first of three presidents 

 over 120 princes, whom he set ovir the whole kingdom (vL 2). Having 

 escaped unhurt from the lions' den into which be was thrown by 

 I 'arm-, be continued to proper in the reign of Cyrus the Persian (28). 

 Hi did not rrturu to Ju.lica on tin- termination of the captivity, but 

 remained with the large portion of his countrymen who continued at 

 Babylon, where he U generally supposed to have died. Some however 

 tat- that be die-1 at SUM, on tho Eulum*. Ha wu contemporary with 

 Ezekiel (xiv. 14, id; xxviii. 3). Among the Kabbis it in gen- rally 

 maintain"! tint D.imel was not a true prophet ; that he did not dwell 

 iu UIK Holy Land, out of which they say the spirit of prophecy doe* 

 not reside ; that ha spent hi* life, not as the other Jewish prophet*, in 

 solitude, |K>veny, and abstinence, but amid the grandeur, pomp, and 

 luxury of a royal |laoa ; that ha was a euuuch (i Kingi, xx. 18), one 

 of a cla-s who arc excluded from the congregation of the Lord (Deut 

 5 XHI. 1). Some place bis writings among the mere Hxgiographia, as 

 Laving lea* authority than the canonical books. They account for the 

 (act of hi* not t-emg mentioned when hi* three companions were cast 

 into the furnace, by saying that bo wai absent from Babylon on an 

 expedition to Egypt, for the purpose of stealing hogs (Colinct'.- 

 of tha liible ') ; and they object to bis prophecies that they all relate 

 to drams and vuions, wuich they consider tho most imperfect model 

 of revelation. However it U said by JoMphus (' Ant Jud.,' L x. c. 12), 

 that Dauiel wu a gnat and true prophet, wbo wu favoured with 

 eomumnioaUou* from Jehovah ; h ays also that Daniel built a famous 

 palace at Htua, or Ecbataoa. Dr. Adam Clarke and others think that 

 Zoroaster ws Danial. 



Tba twelve chapters of tba canonical book of Daniel are partly in the 

 HaOPtw and p.,rtly in the Cbaldaic language. The uncanouical or 

 apocryplial bw>k attributed to this prophet, consisting of the stories 

 of Susannah and Bel and the Dragon, and the Song of the Three 

 Children, are extant only in the Greek of Theodotian, which is adopted 

 in all the Greek churches of the East, the version of the Septuogint 



being lost Tho following are tho principal prophetical subjects of tha 

 canonical book of Daniel Chapter 2 contains the account of Nebu- 

 chadnezzar'* dream of the great image of gold, silver, bras", iron, aud 

 clay, with Daniel's interpretation. The stone which became a great 

 mountain U considered as prophetic of the Messiah. Chapter 4 relate* 

 the same monarch'* dream of the great tree, representing himself, u 

 interpreted by Dani.-l, and which wu speedily fulfilled. In chapter 5 

 is recounted Daniel's interpretation of the writing on the wall at tha 

 feast of BeUhazair. Chapter 7 contains the prophet's description aud 

 interpretation of his own dream of tho four great brasta. The com- 

 mentators state that the four kingdoms of the earth designed by those 

 four beasts were the Babylonian, the Medo- Persian, the Macedo- 

 Orecian, and the Roman. The ten horns of the fourth beast are said 

 to be ten kingdoms, rising out of the Roman empire ; bat what parti- 

 cular kingdoms are meant appears rather difficult to determine, if wo 

 may judge from the conflicting opinions of different writer*. Tho 

 Rev. I lurtucll Home, in his ' Introduction to the Bible,' has tabulated 

 the theories of some of tho most eminent commentators, which exhibit 

 scarcely a single instance of agreement in any particular. Th 

 explaining the meaning of the first born, Machiavel applies it to the 

 Ostrogoths, Dr. Mede to the Britons, Drs. Lloyd aud Hales to the 

 Huns, Sir Isaac Newton to tha Vandals, and Bishop Newton to 

 the senate of Rome. This dream has always been much insiite'l on 

 by Protestant writers as a prophecy relating to the destinies of tho 

 Church of Rome. Daniel's vision of tho ram and the he-goat described 

 in chapter 8 is considered to signify tho destruction of the Medo- 

 Persian empire by the Macedonians, who were anciently called .Egadie, 

 or Xge*tas, that is, the goat-people. The prophecy of tho seventy 

 weeks, communicated to Daniel by the angel called the man Qabriel iu 

 chapter 9, is regarded by all Christians as a striking prediction of the 

 advent of Jesus as the Messiah. Sir Isaac Newton, iu his ' Commentary 

 on Dani. 1,' declares it to be the foundation of the Christian religion. 

 The weeks ore understood as being prophetic weeks, consisting each 

 of seven years. (Leviticus, xxv. 8.) No scriptural authority is to be 

 found for this interpretation (Le Clerc, 'Biblioth.' torn. xv. p. 201); 

 but an instance of this mode of reckoning occurs iu Macrobius, 

 ' Souiu. Scip.,' L i. c. 6. In the 25th and 26th verses it is said that 

 from the first year of the reign of Darius (ver. 1, 3, 23) unto the 

 Messiah the prince would be 69 weeks, or 483 years, aud that then 

 Messiah would be cut oH, which disagree* with the best chrouologiata, 

 who make the first year of Darius 538 ac. (A. Clarke's ' Bib.') Tba 

 chronological difficulties of this important prophecy have occasioned a 

 great variety of interpretations, aud exercised the pens of the most 

 learned of the fathers and of modern divines. (' Improved Version of 

 Daniel,' by the Rev. Tho". Wiutlc, 8vo. 1S36 ; frideaux'e ' Connect." 

 vol. i. p. 306 ; Vossius, * De 70 Hebdomad. Dan.,' p. 183). In the 10th 

 and llth chapters other visions are described which relate chiefly to 

 the conquests and revolutions of several Asiatic nations. The prophecy 

 in the 12th and last chapter extends to the end of time, and speaks of 

 the resurrection and the day of judgment. In the time of Jerome 

 some few rabbis admitted the story of Susannah ca canonical, while 

 others rejected it as such ; and Josephua, in speaking of Daniel, says 

 nothing either of Susannah or of Bel and the Dragon. (Hieronyuiun, 

 ' In Dan.') A learned dissertation on these book* i* given by Kichhorn 

 in his ' Kinleitung in die Apokriphishen Scrifteu,' p. 419. 1'orphyry, 

 iu the twelfth of his fifteen books against the Christian*, impugns the 

 genuineness and authority of the prophecies of Daniel, contending 

 that they are falsely ascribed to him, and that they are really historical, 

 and were written after the occurrence of the .vents to which they 

 relate. Dr. N. Larduer has collected some of these objections, and 

 accompanied ih-m with the replies of Jerome (Lardner's ' Work.*,' 

 vol. viii. | .p. ls5-'J04). Bishop Chandler, in his 'Vindication of tha 

 Defence ot L'hri-tiauily,' and Dr. Samuel Chandler, iu a ' Vindication 

 of the Prophet-its of Daniel,' have elaborately discussed the subject of 

 the genuineness aud canonical authority of this prophetical book. It 

 is remarked by Mr. Hon.e, that " Uf all the old prophets Daniel is the 

 easiest to be understood ; " aud that " he writes more like an historian 

 than a prophet." Orotius, Le Clerc, and several other learned , 

 have maintained that all the prophecies of Daui. 1 relate to and termi- 

 nated in the persecution of the Jews under ANiiochus Kuiphaues, in 

 the age succeeding that of the prophet In Mr. Home's ' Introduction," 

 vol. ii. p. 792-3, an account is given of the principal commentators on 

 I. '.uiiil, as Sir Isaac aud Bishop Newton, Drs. Faber, Frere, Hales, ic., 

 and of the numerous disquisitions on the particular propheci. s, espe- 

 cially that of the seventy weeks. Numerous sermons ou text*, and 

 commentaries on the book of Daniel, are named in the 'Bibliothcca 

 Ilritannica' by Watts. Tho b.ok of Daniel has greatly occupied tho 

 attention of recent British writers ou the prophecies ; and especially iu 

 c onnection with tin; church of Koine and tin- Millrnn urn. 



liAXIKU LK PERE GABRIEL, a Jesuit, boru at Kouen iu 1619, 

 wrote the history of France from the commencement of the monarchy, 

 3 vol*. foL, 1713, which he dedicated to Louis XIV., who made him 

 historiographer of the kingdom, with a pension of 2000 francs. The 

 most valuable part of his history i* that which relate* to the reigns 

 previous to Louis XI., and he is more correct with regard to facts than 

 Mdzerai But the work altogether is very impcrlui -t : tho author say* 

 little concerning the state of society : it is a history of tho kings rather 

 than of the people. Ho enters very largely into religious coutru- 



