the Priest, of the race of Aaron, who had been carried away with his fathers to return to his country, in order that the ancient rites of the sacred worship might be re-established by the experience of an experienced priest. The Jews therefore returning to Jerusalem, began to rebuild the temple of the Lord. But as the Samaritans hindered them, the work was interrupted, till at last it was completed under Darius, in the second year of his reign ; and we must remark that at one and the same time that Babylon was taken, by Babylon Borne was delivered from the arrogant domination of the profligate king Tarquin. Moreover, after die haughtiness of ancient Babylon had been chastised by that most mighty monarch Cyrus, he built in the same spot the city which is at present inhabited under the name of Babylon, rejecting all the superstition of the ancient Babylon ; and so the old Babylon, according to the prophecy of the holy prophet Isaiah, was reduced to the waste condition of a desert. At this time the prophets Haggai, and Zachariah and Malachi, flourished in Judea. Cambyses, the son of the before-mentioned Cyrus, is called Nebuchadnezzar the Second. In his time, the events which are contained in the history of Judith are supposed to have happened. After his death two Magi reigned for eight years ; and after their death, Darius,1 the son of Antipastes, was appointed king, who had married the daughter of Cyrus the king, and had secured to himself the kingdom by his marriage with the royal family, so that the kingdom did not appear to be transferred to another house, but rather to be brought back again to the family of Cyrus. And in the second year of the reign of this Darius, as I have already said, the rebuilding of the temple was completed in the forty-sixth year, that is, after it was begun to be rebuilt. . On which account, the Jews in the gospel are reported to have said to our Lord, that " this temple was forty and six years in building," &c. &c. 1 A great deal of this account is evidently taken from Herodotus i. 178, who, however, does not mention the enormous and impossible height of the tower here spoken of. Our author is mistaken in saying that the taking of Babylon, which took place B.C. 536, was the same year as the expulsion of the Kings, B.C. 509. Also only one Magus, named Smerdis, reigned after Cambyses, and he only reigned a few months. The name of the father of Darius was Hystaspes, not Antipastes. VOL . I . Ο