The events which transpired during this succes sion of Persian kings, so far as they are connected with the Biblical history, may be thus briefly nar rated :—Cyrus, having conquered Babylon, per mitted the Jews to quit their captivity and return into Palestine, affording them aid for the recon struction of their national house of worship. Under Cambyses, who invaded Egypt and became master of the land, adversaries of the Jews tried to render them objects of suspicion at the court ; which intrigues, however, had full effect only in the reign of his successor, Smerdis, who issued a decree expressly commanding the building of the temple to cease (Ezra iv. 21) ; in which prohibition Smerdis, as he was of the Magian tribe, and therefore of the priestly caste, may have been influenced by reli gious considerations. A milder and more liberal policy ensued. Darius, having by search in the national records ascertained what Cyrus had done towards the Jews, took off the prohibition, and promoted the rebuilding of the temple. Darius Hystaspis was distinguished for great enterprises as well as liberal ideas. He carried the renown of the Persian arms to India, Libya, and Europe, and began the Persian attempt to subjugate Greece. What Xerxes undertook, and what success he had in his warlike undertakings against Greece, is known to all. His conduct towards the Jews, as well as his own despotism and luxuriousness, are exhibited in the book of Esther with great force as well as truth. Artaxerxes Longimanus led an army into Egypt, which had rebelled against its Persian masters. He was compelled to make peace with the Greeks. Palestine must have suffered much by the passage of troops through its borders on their way from Persia to Egypt ; the new colony at Jerusalem began to sink, when the monarch per mitted Nehemiah to proceed with full powers to the Jewish capital, in order to strengthen the hands of his brethren. Darius Nothus had to fight on all sides of his kingdom, and made Phoenicia the scene of a war against the combined forces of Egypt and Arabia. Even Artaxerxes Mnemon, though long busied with his arms in other parts, did not lose sight of Egypt, which had thrown off his yoke, and sent new Persian armies into the vicinity of Pales tine. In consequence, the Jews had much to endure from the insolence of a Persian general, namely, Bagoses, who polluted the temple, and punished the Jews seven years' (Joseph. Antiq. xi. 7. r). Ochus followed the plan of his father, subdued the revolted Phoenicians, and again fell upon Egypt. The remaining period of the Persian dominion over the Jews passed away peaceably (Winer, Real-Wort. ; Joseph. Antiq., lib. xi. ; Jahn, Archaol. ii. r, 231-312 ; Schlosser, Allen Welt, i. 242, seq. ; J. G. Eichhorn, G'eschichle Der Alt. Welt, i. 8o, seq.) The Biblical books, Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezra, combine to present a true as well as high idea of the Persian court and government. We will give a few particulars from Esther, a book of deep and vivid interest, not only in its story, but also, and by no means less, in the indirect history (as it may be termed) which it contains regarding the (perhaps) most splendid dominion that ever existed upon earth. The extent of the government was from India to Ethiopia, including 127 provinces. The empire was under the control of vassal princes and nobles, the power of Persia and Media,' under whom were governors of various ranks, and officers for every species of duty. It was specially the duty of seven ministers of state (` chamberlains') to serve in the immediate presence of the monarch. Other officers, however high in rank, were admitted to the royal person only through the barriers of a strictly-observed ceremonial. Even the prime minister himself, and the favoured concubine, who was honoured with the title of queen, durst come no nearer than the outer court, unless, on making their appearance, the king extended towards them his sceptre of gold. The gorgeousness of the court dazzles the mind, and surpasses imagination. When the king sat upon his throne, his chief vizier and his beloved queen on either side, with rows of princes and nobles, like lessening stars, running in a line of fire-points from the monarch, the sun in whose light they shone, and in whose warm smile they were happy, feasting a hundred and fourscore days with his great men, in a hall and a palace of which the praise is too little to say they were not unworthy the grandeur of the monarch on an occasion when he sheaved the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honour of his excellent majesty ;'—or when the stately autocrat, relaxing in a measure the rigour of his greatness, and descending from his god-like throne to a nearer level with ordinary mortals, made a feast unto the people, both unto great and small, seven days in the court of the garden of the palace,' where were white, green, and blue pavi lions, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble ; couches, gold and silver, upon a tesselated pavement of red and blue, white and black marble; and drink was served all around in golden vessels of curious fabric and divers shapes; and wine in abundance, whose worth had gained for it the name of Royal, of which each person by express ordinance drank what he pleased ; —or when, at the end of these seven days of popular enjoyment, the king feasted with Vashti, the queen, at a banquet for the women in her own palace, when the monarch commanded his seven high officers of state to bring Vashti, the queen, before the king with the crown royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty, for she was fair to look on ;—or, finally, when a favourite servant, being clothed in the royal apparel, and set upon the horse that the king rode upon, with the crown royal upon his head, was conducted by the hand of one of the king's most noble princes through the highways of the glittering city, while heralds proclaimed before the resplend ent retinue, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour ;'—then blazed forth the glory of the Persian greatness, in pomp and splendour correspondent with the brilliancy of the heavens and the luxuriance of the earth under which and on which these luminaries shone. Nor, in the midst of all this outward pomp, were there wanting internal regulations fitted to sustain and give effect to the will of the monarch and his council. A body of law was in existence, to which additions were constantly made by omnipotent decrees issued by the king. These rescripts were made out by offi eials, a body of men who are designated royal scribes or secretaries ; and being drawn up in the prescribed form, were copied and translated for every people after their language.' Being then ' sealed with the king's ring,' the letters were sent ' by post,"on horseback and on mules, camels and young dromedaries,' to the king's lieutenants, and to the governors over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every one of the 127 provinces. History, as well as law, received dili gent and systematic attention. 'A book of records of the chronicles' was kept, in which the events of each reign were entered, probably under the super vision of the learned caste, the Magi. This book the monarch used to consult on occasions of im portance and perplexity, partly for instruction, partly for guidance; so that the present was mo delled after the past, and the legislation and the conduct of the king formed one entire and, to some extent, consistent whole. Whence it appears that though the monarch was despotic, he was not strictly arbitrary. Aided by a council, controlled by a priesthood, guided by the past as well as in fluenced by the present, the king, much as he may have been given up to his personal pleasures, must yet have had a difficult office to fill, and heavy duties to discharge. Rulers are generally insecure
in proportion to the degree of their despotism ; and so we find, from the plot against the life of Aha suerus (Xerxes, B.C. 485-465), which Mordecai discovered and made known, that even the recesses of a palace did not protect the kings of Persia from the attempts of the assassin. In the punish ment, however, which fell upon the wicked Haman, we see the summary means which the Persian monarchs employed for avenging or' defending themselves, as well as the unshared and unqualified power which they held over the life of their sub jects even in the highest grades. Indeed it is not possible to read the book of Esther without fancy ing more than once that you are in the midst of the court of the Grand Seignior. Not least among the causes of this illusion is what is narrated in regard to the harem of Xerxes. The women, it seems, had a palace of their own, and dwelt there apart from the king, who paid them visits of ceremony. This their abode, and they themselves, were under the care of a royal chamberlain, whose power in the narem was supreme, and who had abundance of resources for increasing the state and promoting the comfort of those who pleased him ; nor may he have been without an influence in determining the king in his choice of his favourite mistress. To supply the harem, officers were appointed in the several provinces, whose duty it was to find out and procure for the monarch the fairest maidens in the world. Each of these, after she had been in the women's houso.a twelvemonth, and had gone through a certain course of preparation, visited the king for one night in turn ; but she came in unto the king no more except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name, in which case she became queen. And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins ; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.' The greatness of the power of the chief viziers of the Persian monarchy is illustrated in the re corded acts of Haman and Mordecai. The mode of delegating power was by presenting to the en trusted person the royal signet, which appears to have licensed him to do what he would, by such means as he pleased.
The great influence which Esther and Mordecai possessed with Xerxes is attributable to the noble qualities, both of mind and body, for which the Hebrew race were, and still are, conspicuous. These qualities won the heart and gained the favour of the king, and thereby proved instrumental in saving the Jews scattered throughout the empire from the bloody slaughter which Haman had de signed should take place everywhere on the same day. Nor is it improbable that to influences con nected with the same high qualities the decree may have been owing by which Cyrus set the people of the captivity free, that they might return home and build again the walls of Jerusalem. Cyrus, it is true, may have had some regard to justice ; he may have thought it prudent to send away from his country at least the best of these highly-endowed men ; he may not have been unwilling to see Jeru salem rise again into power, and prove a friendly barrier against Egypt ; but the munificent manner in which the Jews were dismissed seems to betoken the agency of some personal influence, if not of some personal affection. Nehemiah (xiii. 6; comp. ii. 1, seg.) speaks expressly of a favour which he obtained of Artaxerxes (Longimanus, B. C. 465), or Xerxes II. (u.c. 424), after an interval of several days. By no means inconsistent with this personal favour, nor improbable in themselves, are the re ligious considerations by which the scriptural writers represent Cyrus as being actuated in setting the Jews at liberty. The religion of the Persians was in its essential and primitive form monotheistic, and must therefore have been anything but alien, in spirit at least, to that of the Hebrews. Nor is there anything extravagant in assuming that so great a prince as Cyrus, who could scarcely have yielded to the luxurious effeminacy in which his successors indulged, and whose mind must have been elevated as well as powerful, understood in a measure, and highly appreciated, the excellences of the Mosaic religion ; while the same general feeling which directed the storm of the Persians against the polytheistic temples of Greece, may have prompted an earlier and better sovereign to liberate the Jews, and bring about the restoration of the monotheistic worship on Mount Zion. Cer tainly the terms are distinct and emphatic in which Cyrus is made to speak in our sacred books ; nor do we see any reason to suppose that a Jewish colouring has been given to these passages, or to question that we have in them a faithful translation of the original state documents (Ezra i. 1-4 ; i• ; vii. 23 ; viii. 22). The two last passages here referred to would seem to justify the inference that the favour of the Persian government was owing not merely to general religious influences, but also to specific instances of good and ill connected with the will of the Almighty ; probably national re verses, more or less directly and believingly ascribed to God, may have been in operation to aid the restoration of the temple worship.
A general impression prevails that, to use the words of Winer (Real-Worterb. s. v. Persien'), no edict published bearing the king's signature could be revoked,' so that the ' laws of the Medes and Persians' altered not in the sense of being diminished or reformed. Winer refers, as an au thority, to Esther i. 19 ; yet this book contains a striking fact which proves the contrary ; for the decree which Haman had got promulgated for the destruction of the Jews was superseded by another procured by the influence of Esther and Mordecai, and this other of so decided a character as to give the Jews in all the provinces of the empire the power of assaulting and slaying their enemies. In truth, the words that it be not altered' seem, at least in the period to which the Biblical records refer, to signify little more than the general stability of the law, and the certainty of its penalties.
The extraordinary power entrusted to the Jews serves to show that the social constitution of the Persian empire was open to the greatest abuses. What could be worse than for the government itself to let loose on society a scattered horde of people, trembling for their lives, yet united in the strong bonds of religious fellowship ? They would want no encouragement, if only relieved of the penalties commanded by the decree of Haman, to do all they could privately to be ready to avenge themselves on their enemies' (Esther viii. 13) ; but when couriers came riding post into all parts where they were, bearing the royal behests to the effect that, on the very day on which they themselves expected unsparing slaughter, they were allowed not only to stand for their life,' but to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey' (Esther viii. I I), then, we may well believe, a dreadful vengeance would be taken, and frightful disorder caused, the possibility of which, in any social condition, is a proof that the first principles of justice are not understood ; and the actual existence of which shows that, whenever occasion required, they were recklessly set at nought.