closed till the reign of
Darius, who, upon his breaking it open, instead of those immense treasures
he had flattered himself with discovering, found nothing but the following
inscription:

IF THOU HADST NOT AN INSATIABLE THIRST AFTER MONEY, AND A MOST
SORDID, AVARICIOUS SOUL, THOU WOULDST NEVER HAVE BROKEN OPEN THE
MONUMENTS OF THE DEAD.

In the first year of Belshazzar's reign, Daniel had the vision of the four
beasts, which represented the four great monarchies, and the kingdom of
the Messiah, which was to succeed them.(1059) In the third year of the
same reign he had the vision of the ram and the he-goat, which prefigured
the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great, and the
persecution which Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, should bring upon
the Jews.(1060) I shall hereafter make some reflections upon these
prophecies, and give a larger account of them.

Belshazzar, whilst his enemies were besieging Babylon, gave a great
entertainment to his whole court, upon a certain festival, which was
annually celebrated with great rejoicing.(1061) The joy of this feast was
greatly disturbed by a vision, and still more so by the explication which
Daniel gave of it to the king. The sentence written upon the wall
imported, that his kingdom was taken from him, and given to the Medes and
Persians. That very night the city was taken, and Belshazzar killed.

(M182) Thus ended the Babylonian empire, after having subsisted two
hundred and ten years from the destruction of the great Assyrian empire.

The particular circumstances of the siege, and the taking of Babylon,
shall be related in the history of Cyrus.

Chapter III. The History of the Kingdom of the Medes.

(M183) I took notice, in speaking of the destruction of the ancient
Assyrian empire, that Arbaces, general of the Median army, was one of the
chief authors of the conspiracy against Sardanapalus: and several writers
believe, that he then immediately became sovereign master of Media and
many other provinces, and assumed the title of king. Herodotus is not of
this opinion. I shall relate what that celebrated historian says upon the
subject.

The Assyrians, who had for many ages held the empire of Asia, began to
decline in their power by the revolt of several nations.(1062) The Medes
first threw off their yoke, and maintained for some time the liberty they
had acquired by their valour: but that liberty degenerating into
licentio