80 



THE FALL 01' BABYLON AND DANIEL 30. 



suddenly caused a further great volume of the water to flow into 

 the " very wide and deep trenches" which his army had dug. We 

 know how, by the receding of the tide, the southern shore of a great 

 river like the Thames is left quite bare; and we can therefore 

 understand how the water at the eastern shore of the Euphrates — 

 though by a different agency — could have been so reduced in 

 depth that the soldiers of Cyrus could advance along it ; the water, 

 according to Herodotus, reaching to their thighs. 



Xenophon has explained very particularly how Cyrus concealed 

 from the besieged the stratagem which he planned. Where the 

 trenches approached the river he left a space on which he 

 erected towers, resting on immense palm trees laid across the space, 

 under which, later on, communication could be opened with the river. 

 Thus the Babylonians could not suspect that the trenches had any 

 reference to the river whatsoever. Even to his own officers, Cyrus 

 pretended that he was going to reduce the city by famine. 



Mr. Schwartz refers to the policy adopted by Nabonidus, by 

 which he seems to have become unpopular, of bringing the images 

 of the gods from other cities into Babylon. Now the Annalistic 

 Tablet shows that this policy of Nabonidus continued down to the 

 month Elul (Aug.-Sep.); that is to say, for more than two 

 months after Gobryas had entered Babylon, and Nabonidus had 

 been captured. But from the month Chisleu (Nov.) the reverse 

 policy of Cyrus was carried out, and the images restored to their 

 cities. So that previous to the 11th Marchesvan, the policy of 

 Nabonidus continued ; after the 11th Marchesvan, the policy of 

 Cyrus began ; pointing again to that night as the date upon which 

 Babylon fell. 



Mr. Schwartz's statement with regard to Professor Sayce is too 

 indefinite to call for an answer. The points with regard to 

 Belshazzar have been already dealt with. The question of Darius 

 the Mede is not so simple as suggested, but I have fully discussed it 

 in my book, " What about the Old Testament 1 " to which I must 

 refer Mr. Schwartz for my answer. 



