THE CRADLE OE CIVILIZATION 



161 



tante, but a great soldier, and such a man 

 she could not show. 



When Cyrus with his Persians and 

 Medes invaded Babylonia, Nabuna'id 

 sent against them his son Belshar-utsur — 

 the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel. 

 There is still extant a cylinder of Nabu- 

 na'id inscribed with a prayer to the gods 

 on behalf of the young prince. 



The prayer was not heard. Belshazzar 

 was totally defeated. Nabuna'id shut 

 himself up in Babylon, whose mighty 

 walls and storehouses should have with- 

 stood siege for years, probably until the 

 strength of the army of Cyrus Was bro- 

 ken ; but there was treachery within the 

 gates. We are all familiar with the old 

 story of how Cyrus diverted the Eu- 

 phrates, marched his troops up the dry 

 river-bed into the town and took it by 

 surprise on a night of feasting. That is 

 all pure romance. 



CYRUS "A MAN WITH A MISSION" 



We have the actual account of Cyrus's 

 triumph, written by the hands of the men 

 who in all probability were responsible 

 for it — the treacherous priests of Mar- 

 duk, the great god of Babylon. The rela- 

 tive part of the Cylinder of Cyrus runs 

 thus : "Cyrus, King of Anshan. he ( Mar- 

 duk ) , called by name ; to sovereignty over 

 the whole world he appointed him. . . . 

 Marduk, the great lord, guardian of his 

 people, looked with joy on his pious 

 works and his upright heart ; he com- 

 manded him to go to his city Babylon, 

 and he caused him to take the road to 

 Babylon, going by his side as a friend and 

 companion. . . . Without skirmish or 

 battle he permitted him to enter Baby- 

 lon." 



In other words, the priests of Marduk 

 intrigued with Cyrus, inviting him to ad- 

 vance against Babylon at first, and on his 

 arrival delivering the city into his hands. 



Gubaru (Gobryas), general of Cyrus, 

 marched in unopposed. Nabuna'id was 

 taken prisoner and kindly treated. But 

 Belshazzar was of different metal. He, 

 with the remainder of his forces, made a 

 last desperate stand, and was slain in the 



hopeless defense of a city already con- 

 quered. 



It is to this last despairing effort of the 

 Babylonian crown prince that we must 

 probably refer the scene of Belshazzar's 

 feast (Daniel v). Such an ending — the 

 last wild revel before the slaughter — 

 would be perfectly in accordance with 

 Mesopotamian and Babylonian traditions 

 for the fall of royalty. 



"BABYLON IS FALLEN" 



• So ended the Neo-Babylonian empire 

 after a brief but splendid existence. The 

 whole period of its endurance from the 

 fall of Nineveh to that of Babylon was 

 only 90 years (626-536 B. C.) ; but if we 

 want to realize something of how the 

 great city of the Euphrates and its mon- 

 archs had impressed the imagination of 

 the subject peoples, we have only to turn 

 to the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, where, 

 in one of the most wonderful pieces of 

 taunting poetry in the literature of any 

 land, Isaiah, himself in all probability a 

 spectator of the fall of Babylon, records 

 his thoughts and emotions at the ruin of 

 the queen of cities and her king: 



"Hell from beneath is moved for thee, 

 to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up 

 the dead for thee, even all the chief ones 

 of the earth ; it hath raised up from their 

 thrones all the kings of the nations. All 

 they shall speak and say unto thee : 'Art 

 thou also become weak as Ave ? Art thou 

 become like unto us?' 



"Thy pomp is brought down to the 

 grave, and the noise of thy viols ; the 

 worm is spread under thee, and the 

 worms cover thee. How art thou fallen 

 from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morn- 

 ing! How art thou cut down to the 

 ground which didst weaken the nations. 

 For thou hast said in thine heart : 'I will 

 ascend into heaven ; I will exalt my throne 

 above the stars of God ; I will also sit 

 upon the mount of the congregation in 

 the sides of the north ; I will ascend above 

 the heights of the clouds ; I will be like 

 the Most High.' Yet thou shall be 

 brought down to hell, to the sides of the 

 pit." 



