TOMB OF DANIEL. 
413 
modern structure, no doubt is held by Jew, Arab, or Mussul¬ 
man, of the great antiquity of the tomb beneath ; all bearing 
the same tradition, that it indeed contains the remains of the 
prophet. Prideaux calculates that he died at Susa, some time in 
the third or fourth year of Cyrus’s empire over the Babylonians, 
of a great age; having been placed in government there by that 
king : and the same author remarks, that Josephus mentions 
a famous edifice built by Daniel at Susa, in the manner of a 
castle, which, the Jewish historian adds, was remaining in his 
time, and had been finished with such wonderful art, that 
even then it seemed as fresh and beautiful as if only newly 
built. Within this edifice, he continues, was the place where 
the Persian and Parthian kings used to be buried; and, for the 
sake of the founder, the keeping of it was committed to one of 
the Jewish nation, even at that day. It must be observed that 
the copies of Josephus now extant do indeed place this build¬ 
ing in Ecbatana in Media ; but St. Jerome, who also gives an 
account of it, and professes to do so word for word out of Jose¬ 
phus, places it in Susa in Persia ; which makes it plain that the 
copy of Josephus he quoted, had it so. And that most likely is 
the true reading ; for Susa having been within the Babylonian 
empire, (before it came into the possession of Cyrus,) the Scrip¬ 
tures tell us that Daniel sometimes resided there; and a com¬ 
mon tradition has existed in those parts for ages, that Daniel 
died in that city, and there they shew his monument unto this 
day. Besides, it is to be observed that Josephus calls this 
building Baris, the same name by which Daniel himself dis¬ 
tinguishes the castle or palace of Shushan. For what we 
translate at Shushan in the palace , (Dan. viii. 2.) is in the original 
Besli Shushan Ha Birah: here, no doubt, the Birah of Daniel 
