BUSINESS THE KING’S
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“Annalistic Tablet.” It gives certain particulars of several years of the reign of Nabonidos who was King and in the 17th year of his reign when Cyrus came against the Babylonian kingdom. Belshazzar—whom the in scriptions refer to as the king’s son— would seem most likely to have been associated with his father in the kingly power. The most remarkable pas sages in the tablet bearing immediately on the fall of Babylon are as follows: “In the month Tammuz (June-July) Cyrus made battle at Opis on the Ti gris. . . . Sippar was taken on the 14th day without fighting. Nabonidos fled. On the 16th day Gubaru (Gob- ryas) governor of the land of Gutium and the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting. After Na bonidos they pursued; he was captured in Babylon. . . . Marchesvan (Octo- ber-November) the 3rd day Cyrus de scended to Babylon. They filled the roads before him . . . Cyrus promised peace to Babylon all of it. Gubaru (Gobryas) his governor appointed governors in Babylonia. . . . The fol lowing very important passage is un fortunately mutilated. “On the 11th day of Marchesvan, during the night, Gubaru made an assault (?... and slew the king’s son ( ?).” Professor Sayce observing an ap parent discrepancy between the ac count of the fall of Babylon given in this inscription, and the account which has come down from the classical writers—in the particular point—that the inscription seems to say simply that Gobryas and the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon ‘without fighting” ;— whilst the classical writers say that Babylon was taken only after a siege —came to the conclusion that the ac count of the classical authorities, was unhistorical, and Daniel 5., which seemed to involve the same view of the story was unhistorical, too. The Critics as might be expected eagerly
Cyrus for a while from the principal scene of operations is another point to be particularly noted. But when the trenches were dug, Xenophon relates, Cyrus selected a night on which he heard there was to be some great feast in Babylon, and as soon as darkness fell, taking a num ber of his troops, he caused the trenches to be opened—the water poured into them—and soon the river became shallower. Then Cyrus com manded two of his most trusted officers Gobryas and Gadatas, to lead the troops up the bed of the river, now ren dered shallow, and enter the city by the river gates, which they seem to have expected to find open. Babylon was holding high festival— the streets were full of revellers. The soldiers of Gobryas, mingling with the merry throng, pressed on to the palace —burst in through the guards, and reached the hall where the king was. They found him standing up—his sword already drawn, but overpowered by numbers, he fell, sword in hand, slain by the soldiers of Gobryas. Such appears to have been the tragic end of Belshazzar. Cyrus instantly sent cavalry through the city and had proclamation made that the Babylonians should keep with in their houses on pain of being slain. Next.morning all arms and the towers of the city were surrendered—and thus ^-—almost without fighting or bloodshed —Great Babylon was his. And'so there is little or no exagger ation in the boast of one of the In scriptions of that time known as the “Cyrus Cylinder,” which says that without fighting and battle the great god Merodach, as they put it, caused Cyrus to enter Babylon. III. The Evidence of the Cuneiform Inscription. The other principal cuneiform in scription of the age:.is known as the
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