Art. II.—Chronology of the Medes, from the Reign of Deioces to the Reign of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, or Darius the Mede

I. W. Bosanquet

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00094545

Art. II.—Chronology of the Medes, from the Reign of Deioces to the Reign of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, or Darius the Mede

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011

I. W. Bosanquet

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The origin and duration of the empire of the Medes, which occupied 80 important a position in early Asiatic history, has been the subject of attention to many recent writers. The Lectures of Niebuhr on the Medes and Persians are probably familiar to us all. Dr. Leonard Schmitz, the translator of Niebuhr's works, has recently published his matured views on the same subject. Mr. Johannes Von Gumpach in 1852, Professor Brandis in 1853, and Jacob Kruger in 1856, have also expressed their views upon Median history and chronology; and within the last twelve months, the works of Marcus Von Niebuhr on Assyrian and Babylonian history, and the translation of Herodotus by the Rev. George Rawlinson, have appeared, embracing and commenting upon the early history of the Medes.

Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 17 , January 1860 , pp. 39 - 69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00094545 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1860

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^{page 39 note 1} Schmitz's Ancient History.

^{page 39 note 2} Die Zeitrecknung der Babyl. und Assyrer: Chronological Table.

^{page 39 note 3} Rerum Assyriarura tempora emendata, pp. 1–10.

^{page 39 note 4} Geschichte der Assyrier und Iranier.

^{page 40 note 1} ⋯ξαπινης “suddenly.” The sudden failure of light on this occasion forms an important element in considering the nature of the eclipse. An eye-witness of the total eclipse in Norway in 1853 observes: “As long as the least bit of the solar disk was visible, there was a diminution of light, though not absolute darkness; but, the moment the disk was completely covered by the moon, darkness was as suddenly produced, as when in a room the last candle out of several is put out.”

^{page 40 note 2} Herodotus, L. i. 74.

^{page 41 note 1} “The phenomenon, in fact, is one of the most terrible that man can witness; and no degree of partial eclipses gives any idea of its horror.”—Airy's Lecture at Roy. Inst., Feb. 4, 1853.

^{page 41 note 2} Herod., L. i. 103—136.

^{page 41 note 3} Philosophical Transactions, A.D. 1754.

^{page 41 note 4} Athenæum, Aug. 16, 1856.

^{page 41 note 5} Handbuch der Chron., vol. i. p. 209.

^{page 41 note 6} Grote's History of Greece, vol. iii., p. 314, note 2.

^{page 42 note 1} Hist. Nat., ii. 12.

^{page 42 note 2} Clem. Alex. Strom. 8.

^{page 42 note 3} Solinus, cap. xv. p. 25.

^{page 42 note 4} Athenæum, Aug. 1852.

^{page 42 note 5} Diodorus, L. xx. p. 735.

^{page 42 note 6} Justin. Hist., L. xxii. c. v.

^{page 42 note 7} Mr. Airy's paper, Phil. Trans., 1853.

^{page 43 note 1} See also Mr. Hind's Letter to the Athenæum, 28th August, 1852.

^{page 43 note 2} Lecture at the Royal Institution, Feb. 1853.

^{page 43 note 3} A translation of Professor Hansteen's paper on the Eclipse of Stiklastad be found in the Transactions of the Chronological Institute, vol. i. p. 209. It is clear, from the account of the battle fought near Stiklastad during this eclipse, that the line of shadow must have passed farther north than would appear Hansen's Tables. It is also clear, that the shadow in the time of Agathocles must have passed much further north than the Tables place it, from these words Justin: “Nullo militum sciente quo veheretur, cursum in Africam dirigit; cum omnes aut in Italiam prædatum se, aut in Sardinam ituros crederent.” The correction of the position of these two shadows would have the effect of throwing shadow in B.C. 585 much farther north in Asia Minor, so as to bring it upon road leading from Sardis to Susa, so fully described by Herodotus, L. v. 52; the shadows of the three eclipses are all affected in the same direction, being all at the ascending node.

^{page 44 note 1} A recent writer in the Journal of Sacred Literature, in a studied article on the date of the fall of Nineveh, suggests, that it was merely “a sudden thunder storm of unusual gloom and violence,” which terrified the two armies.—J. S. L., April 1858, p. 151.

^{page 44 note 2} Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 212.

^{page 44 note 3} Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xviii. p. 148.

^{page 45 note 1} Herodotus does not speak of him as king of Babylon, but as λα⋯νητος 'ο Bαβ υλώνιος, L. i. 74.

^{page 45 note 2} Euseb. Chron. Arm. Aucher., Part I, p. 27. Abydenus here speaks of the daughter of Astyages, not of Cyaxares, having married Nebuchadnezzar. But he has probably written Astyages, for Astibares, who was Cyaxares, as we may infer from a fragment of Eupolemus (Muller's Frag., vol. iii. p. 229), who records an expedition of Nebuchadnezzar and Astibares against Syria and Judsea. The same error may have led Cicero and Solinus to have placed the eclipse of Thales in the reign of Astyages, which is clearly incorrect.

^{page 46 note 1} Journ. R. A. S., vol. xv. part 2, p. 420.

^{page 46 note 2} See a paper on this subject in the Trans, of Chron. Inst, vol. i. p. 131.

^{page 47 note 1} See Jour. E. A. S., vol. xv. part 2, p. 423.

^{page 47 note 3} Petavius. Rat. Temp., vol. ii. p. 916.

^{page 48 note 1} This transposition of compound titles is very common in the Hebrew Scriptures. For instance: “Eli-am” for “Ammi-el,” “Ahaz-iah” for “Jeho-ahaz,” “Asah-el” for “El-asah,” “Eli-shama” for “Ishma-el.”—See Lord A. Hervey on the Genealogies, p. 116.

^{page 49 note 1} Trans. Chron. Inst., vol. i. pp. 63, 113, 131, 194, 270.

^{page 49 note 2} Josephus, Con., Ap. i.

^{page 50 note 1} Euseb. Chron. Arm., p. 27.

^{page 50 note 2} Clem. Alex. Strom., i.

^{page 50 note 3} Trans. Chron. Inst., vol. i. p. 63.

^{page 50 note 4} Herod., i. 184; i. 142.

^{page 51 note 1} Dan. viii. 20.

^{page 52 note 1} Esther, i. 2; x. 2.

^{page 52 note 2} Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. x. p. xviii.

^{page 52 note 3} Dan. v. 29.

^{page 53 note 1} Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv. part 1, p. 125.

^{page 53 note 2} Zend., vol. ii. p. 422.

^{page 54 note 1} Esther, ch. ii. 5, 6.

^{page 55 note 1} Xenophon, v. 2.

^{page 55 note 2} Herodotus affirms, that it was against Labynetus, son of Labynetus and Nitocris who were living at the time of the eclipse in B.C. 585, that Cyrus made war, i.e., against Nebuchadnezzar, sou of Nabopalassar, which latter was living till the destruction of Nineveh after the eclipse.—L. i., 188 and 74.

^{page 55 note 3} Darius had entered his seventy-second year, in the year B.C. 485, when he died, according to Ctesias. He had entered, therefore, his twenty-second in. B.C. 535, and his twentieth in B.C. 537. Herodotus, in the confusion of his chronology, places on the throne of Persia, Cambyses, grandson of this Cambyses, instead of Cambyses, son of Cyrus, who married Mandane.

^{page 56 note 1} Enseb. Præp. Evan., 1. 10.

^{page 56 note 2} Dan., iv. 9.

^{page 56 note 3} Philos. of Universal History, vol. i. p. 217.

^{page 58 note 1} Ezra, vi. 2.

^{page 58 note 2} Compare Xenophon III., ch. iii. 43, and IV., ch. i. 8.

^{page 58 note 3} Xenophon IV., ch. vi. 3.

^{page 58 note 4} Ibid. VII., ch. i. 32.

^{page 58 note 5} Ibid. VII., ch. ii. 3.

^{page 58 note 6} Ibid. VI., ch. iii. 2.

^{page 59 note 1} In the Ecelebiastieal Canon, Nereglissar is identified with Belshazzar.

^{page 60 note 1} Xen. I., ch. i. 6.

^{page 60 note 2} Ibid. VIII., ch. v. 20.

^{page 61 note 1} This was an age of deep religious and philosophical speculation throughout the East—the age of Daniel, of Pythagoras, and, according to Persian tradition, of Zoroaster, the two latter of whom are said to have sought the banks of the Euphrates, to drink the cup of wisdom from the hands of the wise men and astrologers of Babylon.

^{page 61 note 2} Prideaux argues, from his thorough knowledge of the Jewish religion and the sacred writings of the Old Testament, that probably he was of Jewish origin.—Prid. Con., vol. i., p. 300.

^{page 62 note 1} See some excellent remarks of Mr. Rawlinson on this subject.—Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 548.

^{page 64 note 1} This practice of adoption is referred to in the modern Persian history of Cyrus, though not exactly in accordance with our views of that history. Sir John Malcolm writes: “Kai-Khosro resolved to devote the remainder of his life to religious retirement. He delivered over Cabul, Zabulistan, and Neemr, oz to Roostum as hereditary possessions; and resigned his throne to Lohrasp, the son-in-law of Kai-Kaoos, and his own son of adoption and affection.”—History of Persia, vol. i. p. 53.

^{page 64 note 2} The Septuagint translation of Daniel makes Darius the Mede also to have reigned over 127 provinces.

^{page 67 note 1} Dan. vi. 25.

^{page 67 note 2} Ezra, vi. 22.

^{page 67 note 3} Hyde's Religio Veterum Persarum, p. 317.

^{page 68 note 1} Shea's Translation of Mirkond, p. 285.

^{page 68 note 2} Religio Veterum Persarum, p. 310.

^{page 69 note 1} See Bunsen's Egypt's Place, &c, vol. iii. p. 457.

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Art. II.—Chronology of the Medes, from the Reign of Deioces to the Reign of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, or Darius the Mede

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