119 



PIKHAT MAT GU - TI - UM U ZABANI KU - RAS 

 prefect of the land of Gutium and the soldiers of Ci/rtcs 



BA - LA ZAL - TUT 



loithont fighting 



ANA BABILI ERUBU ARKU NABU - NAID KI 



To Babylon entered. Afterwards when Nahonidns 



IRKA- SA INA BABILI ZA - BIT 



had bound into Babylon he brought. 



Such is the brief account which a contemporary scribe gives 

 of the fall of Babylon. The narrative is most important for 

 our consideration on account of the great light it throws 

 upon this important event, enabling us to fix the year, month, 

 and day of the capture of the city, and as proving its 

 agreement with the statements of the classical writers and the 

 author of the book of Daniel. The ancient writers all agree 

 that the fall of Babylon took place by a surprise-attack on the 

 night of a great festival. Herodotus thus describes it : — 

 '^The outer part of the city had been already taken, while 

 those in the centre, who, as the Babylonians say, knew 

 nothing of the matter owing to the extent of the city, were 

 dancing and making merry, for it so happened that a festival 

 was being celebrated.'^ So also Xenophon says, ''When 

 Cyrus perceived that the Babylonians celebrated a festival at 

 a fixed time, at which they feasted for the whole night.'' Or 

 do the Hebrew prophets seem unaware of this surprise of the 

 city of the doomed Chaldeans, as in Jeremiah, " In their heat 

 I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that 

 they may rejoice " ; and again, " I will make drunk her 

 princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers and 

 her mighty men" (Jer. li. 39, 57); also, ''The night of 

 thy pleasure is turned to horror; — the table is prepared, 

 there is eating and drinking." We have also the record of 

 the writer of the book of Daniel (Dan. v. 1). Among the 

 inscriptions obtained from Babylon is a large tablet con- 



VOL. XVIII. K 



