CHAP. V.

Of Places fituated in, or bordering on, the ancient Perfian
Empire, and mentioned in the Old Testament, but not
Spoken of already.

1..

whence

WE meet not with the name of Perfia in the facred Hif-
tory, before the time of Daniel the prophet, who lived Perfia,
in the reign of Cyrus, the founder of the Perfian empire. called.
This great and famous Emperor is faid, not only to have
taught the inhabitants of Perfia properly fo called, the art
of horsemanship; but alfo to have publifhed an edict or
law, importing, that it fhould be esteemed mean and
fcandalous for any man of that country to go on foot,
whether the journey he went were long or short; by this
means enjoining the inhabitants to become horsemen.
Now the word Paras in the Oriental tongues denoting
an horfeman, hence it is not improbably thought, that
upon the said inhabitants thus becoming universally horse-
men, the country and people came to be denoted by the
name of Paras, first in the days of Cyrus; whereas, in
former days, both country and people were denoted by
the name of Elam, one of the fons of Shem, who first set-
tled in these parts after the Flood. From the word Paras,
the Greeks easily framed the word Perfis, and from it the
Latins the word Perfia.

2.

what.

Paras, or Perfis, in its most proper acceptation, denoted only one province of the Perfian empire, which adjoined perfia, proPerfis, or on to the east fide of Sufiana, formerly spoken of; and perly taken, which is faid to this day to be called Phars, or Pharfiftan, names which apparently retain footsteps of the ancient Oriental name Paras. But this name is also used to denote several other and large provinces, that were fubdued by the Perfians, properly fo called, and lay chiefly to the north and east of the province of Perfis. As to the extent of the Perfian empire, we find that it was in the days of Ahasuerus,

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PART III. Ahafuerus, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and feven and twenty provinces. Esth. i. 1.

3.

Ethiopia.

The word here rendered Ethiopia is Cush; which has Of Cuth or been largely fhewn to denote in Scripture, Arabia, not Libya or Africa; and therefore, by Ethiopia here mentioned is probably to be understood only the Afiatick Ethiopians, i. e. fome Arabians denoted by this name in Herodotus the hiftorian.

4.

The word rendered India is in the original Hoddu, or Of India. Hondu, as it is now-a-days read. But it is likely, that it was formerly read Hiddu, or Hindu. Whence the Greeks derived the names India and Indus, the latter given by them to the great river, which has been generally esteemed the eastern boundary of Perfia, and the former to the country lying on the east side of the faid river, called nowa-days by us most commonly the Eaft-Indies, to dif tinguish it from the Weft-Indies, otherwife called America, and unknown to the ancients; who therefore called the Eaft-Indies fimply India, as knowing no other than that.

5.

Of Shufhan.

It is evident from Dan. viii. 2. and Efth. i. 2. that the Kings of Perfia had a palace in a city called Shushan, which we may well suppose to be the fame called by the Greeks Sufa, and fo fituated in the province of Sufiana, which is the first province of Perfia that lies on the east of the Euphrates, or Tigris. This city probably took its name from the lilies which abound in these parts, for the lily is called fhushan in the Hebrew tongue. As from Shufhan, the Greeks called the city itself Sufa; so from their Greek name of the city, they called the province it lay in Sufiana. The city is thought to have been founded by Tithonus, brother to Priamus King of Troy, and father of Memnon from whom the citadel was called Memnonium; the palace and walls, Memnonians; and Sufa itfelf, the city of Memnon. But others will for these reafons have the city to have been built not by Tithonus the father, but by the fon himself, Memnon. The walls of this city are faid by Caffiodorus, as Heylin relates, to

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be cemented with gold. It was doubtlefs a very great, CHAP. V. ftately, and rich city. Alexander the Great is faid to have found therein fifty thousand talents of uncoined gold, befides wedges of filver, and jewels of an inestimable value. It is now faid to be nothing but ruins, and perhaps not that.

In the forecited chap. viii. ver. 2. of Daniel, the prophet tells us, that he had a vifion by the river of Ulai, which doubtlefs is the fame called by the Greeks, Euleus. That it ran by the city, nay the palace of Shufhan, is also clear from the forecited text. It is faid to be the greatest river of the province of Sufiana, and of fo rare a stream, that the Perfian Kings would drink of no other water.

To the north of Perfia lay the country called Media, frequently mentioned in the facred Hiftory, and that in conjunction with Perfia; not only on account of their neighbouring fituation one to the other, but of their being for a long time under one and the fame prince. It is generally believed, that it took its name from Madai, one of the sons of Japhet. But upon weighing what is offered by the judicious and learned Mr. Mede on this fubject, I am inclined to embrace rather his opinion; that though it is not to be doubted but this country, called in Hebrew Madai, took its name from one Madai, yet probably he was not the fame with the son of Japhet, (who rather settled himself in Myfia in Leffer Afia, and in Æmathia or Macedonia in Europe,) but was a defcendant of Shem.

6.

Of the river
Ulai.

a

7.

Of Media.

8. Of Achmetha, or

In Ezr. vi. 2. we read, that there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, tha, or Ec &c. Now the word Achmetha may denote (as is ob- batana. served in the margin of our Bible) a coffer; but it is rather understood by the learned to denote the principal city of Media, called by the Greeks Ecbatana, and often mentioned in the Apocryphal books of Efdras or Ezra, and of Tobit and Judith. It was built not long after Babylon. For we find, faith Dr. Heylin, that Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, in a war against the Medes, who had then rebelled, taking

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PART III. taking an affection to the place, caufed water-courses to be made to it, from the further fide of the mountain Orontes, digging a paffage through the hills with great labour and charge. It being deftroyed by the injury of time, it was re-edified by Deioces, the fixth King of the Medes, and afterwards much beautified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicanor, one of the fucceffors of Alexander the Great in his Afian conquefts. For beauty and magnificence it was little inferior to Babylon or Nineveh. In compass it is faid to be one hundred and eighty, or two hundred furlongs, which make about twenty-four of our miles. The walls thereof are affirmed in the book of Judith to be seventy cubits high, fifty cubits broad, and the towers upon the gates an hundred cubits higher; all built of hewn and polished ftones, each ftone being fix cubits in length, and three in breadth. But this is to be understood only of the innermoft wall, there being seven in all about it; each of them higher than the other, and each distinguished by the colour of their several pinnacles, which gave unto the eye a most pleasant prospect. It was the ordinary refidence of the Kings of Perfia in the heat of fummer, as Sufa, before mentioned and described, was in the cold of winter. The royal palace was about a mile in compass, and built with all the cost and skill that a ftately edifice did require. Some of its beams are faid to be of filver, and the reft of cedar, which were strengthened with plates of gold. Jofephus, the Jewish historian, relates, that it was built by the prophet Daniel; which must be understood no otherwise than that he overlooked the work, or contrived the model, appointed to do fo by the order of Darius the Mede, to whom the building of the fame is afcribed by others. Neglected at length by the Kings of the Parthian race, it became a ruin.

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

Of the more remarkable Places mentioned in the Apocryphal
Books, and not fpoken of before.

I SHALL in this last chapter take notice of the more re

1.

Of Thisbe, and the city

markable places mentioned in the Apocryphal books, and which have not been spoken of before. I have not ob- Nephtali. ferved any place or country mentioned in the two Apo-. cryphal books of Efdras, but what has fomewhere or other been before taken notice of; and therefore, paffing by them, we come to the book of Tobit. In chap. i. ver. 2. we read, that in the time of Enemaffar, (who is fupposed to be the fame called 2 Kings xvii. 3. Shalmanefer,) King of the Affyrians, Tobit was led captive out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of that city, which is properly called Nephtali in Galilee. Now it is thought with great probability, that the city here faid to be properly called Nephtali was the fame with that which was otherwise called Kadesh-Nephtali, this being the principal city of Nephtali in the more early times. And as it was called KadeshNephtali, to distinguish it from other cities called by the name of Kadesh; fo it is very likely, that it was also for brevity's fake (omitting the former part of the compound name, namely Kadesh, as common to it with other places) called Nephtali, and the rather, as being the most eminent city in the tribe of Nephtali. For it was not only a Levitical city, but also one of the three cities of refuge on the weft of Jordan.

2.

In ver. 14. of this firft chapter of Tobit, we have mention made of Rages, a city of Media. This is probably of the city enough thought to be the fame with Ragau, inentioned in Rages. chap. i. ver. 15. of the book of Judith. Nor is it a conjecture without any foundation, that it was built by Reu the fon of Peleg. For not only the defcendants of Arphaxad (of whom came Peleg, the father of Reu) fettled in these and the adjacent parts; but Reu is called by the

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