n
and Gerastratus six years, all of them no doubt in the midst of endless
disturbances; whereupon a certain Baalezor restored the royal dignity,
but only to enjoy it for the space of one year. On his death, the
inhabitants begged the Chaldaeans to send them, as a successor to the
crown, one of those princes whom, according to custom, Baal had not long
previously given over as hostages for a guarantee of his loyalty, and
Nergal-sharuzur for this purpose selected from their number Mahar-baal,
who was probably a son of Ithobaal (558-557).* When, at the end of four
years, the death of Mahar-baal left the throne vacant (554-553), the
Tyrians petitioned for his brother Hirom, and Nabonidus, who was then
engaged in Syria, came south as far as Phoenicia and installed the
prince.**

* The fragment of Menander does not give the Babylonian
king's name, but a simple chronological calculation proves
him to have been Nergal-sharuzur.

** _Annals of Nabonidus_, where mention is made of a certain
Nabu-makhdan-uzur--but the reading of the name is uncertain
--who seems to be in revolt against the Chaldaeans. Floigl has
very ingeniously harmonised the dates of the Annals with
those obtained from the fragment of Menander, and has thence
concluded that the object of the expedition of the third
year was the enthroning of Hirom which is mentioned in the
fragment, and during whose fourteenth year Cyrus became King
of Babylon.

This took place at the very moment when Cyrus was preparing his
expedition against Astyages; and the Babylonian monarch took advantage
of the agitation into which the Medes were thrown by this invasion, to
carry into execution a project which he had been planning ever since his
accession. Shortly after that event he had had a dream, in which Marduk,
the great lord, and Sin, the light of heaven and earth, had appeared
on either side of his couch, the former addressing him in the following
words: "Nabonidus, King of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot bring
brick, rebuild E-khul-khul, the temple of Harran, that Sin, the great
lord, may take up his abode therein." Nabonidus had respectfully pointed
out that the town was in the hands of the Scythians, who were subjects
of the Medes, but the god had replied: "The Scythian of whom thou
speakest, he, his country and the kings his protectors, are no more."
Cyrus was the instrument of the fulfilment of the prophe