by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #131, posted on December 27, 2021
Much effort has been devoted to reconstructing the Fall of Babylon, and the various versions of it differ considerably and are stricken with inconsistencies.
I start with the Bible. Daniel 5 describes how Belshazzar, the son and co-regent of King Nabonidus, was giving a feast for “a thousand of his lords” (v. 1), and he commanded his servants to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple in Jerusalem into the dining hall so that his guests might drink wine from them. Thus, his guests “drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone” (v.4). Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on a wall, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN” (V.25), and Belshazzar was greatly troubled. He called upon his wise counselors to tell him what the words meant, but they could not. Then he called upon Daniel, who first reminded him that he had given the vessels from the Temple to his guests for drinking wine and had praised the gods of inanimate metals, but had not glorified “the God in whose hands thy breath is” (v.23). Thus, this God had ‘weighed him in the balance, found him wanting’ (v.27), and decreed that his kingdom was “finished” (v.26). That night, Babylon fell to Darius the Mede (v.31) and Belshazzar was slain (v.30).
The foregoing account completely disqualifies such stories as Cyrus-the-Great besieging the city and diverting the Euphrates to gain access to it. If that were true, would the Babylonians have been feasting in the palace while an immense Persian army was clambering at their walls and gates? Furthermore, it completely contradicts the identity of the story’s central character: Babylon fell to Darius-the-Mede, not Cyrus-the-Great.
Elsewhere, I establish to my general satisfaction that the rulers of the Medo-Persian Empire were as follows:
Achaemenes (PE-01) reigned for an unknown number of years (unknown date-c.667 BC). He probably (a) probably began his reign during the reign of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V (NA-11), and later attacked the Assyrian king Sennacherib (S-02).
Teispes (PE-02), who was probably also known as Deioces, reigned for 35 years (c.667-c.632 BC).. He was the king of Ashan (Persia?).
Phraortes (PE-03), who was probably the son of Teispes=Deioces and the father of Cyrus I=Cyaxerxes, reigned for 22 years (c.632-610 BC. He was probably the king of Ashan. He was killed in a battle with Assurbanipal (SD-04), the king of Assyria.
———-Hiatus (c.632-c.599 BC) – There appears to have been roughly a decade here when the Scythians exercised a measure of control over Anshan (Persia?).
Cyrus I (PE-04), who was (a) the son of Phraortes and the father of Cambyses I and (b) also called Cyaxerxes, reigned for 20 years (599-579 BC).
Cambyses I (PE-05), who was also called Cambyses-the-Elder, reigned for 21 years (579-558 BC),. He was king of Ashan, but a vassal of Astyages, King of Medea. He was married to Mandane, daughter of Astyages.
Cyrus II (PE-06), who was also called Cyrus-the-Great and Cyrus-the-Elder, reigned for 29 years (558-529 BC). He conquered Medea in 548 BC and then Lydia in 546 BC.
Cambyses II (PE-07), who was also called Ahasuerus I, reigned for 7 years (529-522 BC). He conquered Egypt in 525 BC.
Bardiya (PE-08) reigned for a few months in 522 BC. He was killed by a distant relative, Darius I, who succeeded him.
Darius I (PE-09), who (a) was also called Darius-the-Mede and Darius-the-Great, reigned for 37 years (522-485 BC). He (a) conquered Egypt in 522 BC, (b) invaded the Indus Valley in 516 BC, (c) failed in his siege of Naxos in 499 BC, (d) lost the battle with the Greeks at Marathon in 490 BC, and (e) conquered Babylon in 487 BC.
Cyrus-the-Persian of the Bible (PE-10), whom I identify as Cyrus III (see Daniel 6:28, which describes the order of the Persian kings in Babylon as first “the reign of Darius” and then “the reign of Cyrus the Persian”) and who was undoubtedly the eldest son of Darius I, reigned for 3 years (485-482 BC). I believed that he was killed by assassins who were hired by his younger brother, Xerxes I, who probably (a) was in Persepolis at the time and (b) erased all traces of him in Persia, and (c) claimed that his own reign started in 485 BC. Thus, the only record of Cyrus III’s existence is contained in the Bible.
Xerxes I (PE-11), who was also known as Xerxes-the-Great, probably served as co-regent to his older brother for 3 years (485-482 BC) and then as king of Persia for 17 years (482-465 BC). He held a feast in 479 BC and probably married Esther c. 475 BC.
Artaxerxes I–Longimanus (PE-12), who was the son of Xerxes I and the father of Xerxes II, Sogdianus, and Darius II, reigned for 41 years (465-424 BC). He sent his cup-bearer Nehemiah to Jerusalem in 444 BC to govern Judea. He recalled Nehemiah (a) in 432 BC for a brief time and (b) again in 424 BC for good.
Xerxes II (PE-13), who was also known as Ahaseurus 3, reigned for less that a year in 424 BC. He was killed by his brother Sogdianus, who was following the example of his grandfather Xerxes I.
Sogdianus (PE-14) reigned for 1 year (424-423 BC). He was killed by his brother Darius II, who was also following the example of his grandfather Xerxes I.
Darius II (PE-15), who was also known as Nothus and Ochus, reigned for 18 years (423-405 BC)
Artaxerxes II (PE-16), who was also known as Arcases, reigned for 46 years (405-359 BC).
Artaxerxes III (PE-17) reigned for 21 years (359-338 BC.
Xerxes III (PE-18), who was also knowns as Arses, reigned for 2 years (338-336 BC).
Darius III (PE-19), who was also known as Codomanus, reigned for 6 years (336-330 BC). He was defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
Ariobarzane (PE-20) reigned for 1 year (330-329 BC). He rebelled against and was defeated by Alexander.
Phrasaortes (PE-21) spent 1 year (329-328 BC) as a satrap under Alexander.
The orthodox chronology indicates (a) that Cyrus-the-Great reigned 29 years (559-530 BC), (b) that he conquered Babylon in 539 BC, which was year 17 of the Babylonian king Nabonidus, (c) that Darius II reigned for 36 years (522-486 BC), and that in his first 2 years (522-521 BC), he was forced to dispose of two members of the Babylonian royal line, Nebuchadnezzar III and Nebuchadnezzar IV, each of whom claimed to be (a) a son of Nabonidus and (b) entitled to the Babylonian throne. The foregoing is surprising in that Darius I’s trouble with the Babylonian contenders would have occurred 17-19 years after the end of the Babylonian Empire in 539 BC.
On the other hand, if my chronology is correct, and the Fall of Babylon occurred in 487 BC, this trouble would have occurred in the last two years (487-485 BC) of Darius I’s reign, exactly where I would expect it. Moreover it would have added to the confusion surrounding the transition from Darius I to the next Persian king, whom I identify as Cyrus III, not Xerxes I.
© 2021 John Holbrook Jr.
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