Page:A Short History of the World.djvu/129

The Last Babylonian Empire log I ai SraZ Si.iS >bly less e^^tcnsivz... The lensth of fhe great road frcfni 3ardis to 5usa . across Attth would be avar i60O FVnTuapal TTiountain worked out by his investigators for the accession of Sargon I he com- memorated the fact by inscriptions. But there were many signs of disunion in his empire, and he sought to centralize it by bringing a number of the various local gods to Babylon and setting up temples to them there. This device was to be practised quite successfully by the Romans in later times, but in Babylon it roused the jealousy of the powerful priesthood of Bel Marduk, the dominant god of the Baby- lonians. They cast about for a possible alternative to Nabonidus and found it in Cyrus the Persian, the ruler of the adjacent Median Empire. Cyrus had already distinguished himself by conquering Croesus, the rich king of Lydia in Eastern Asia Minor. He came up against Babylon, there was a battle outside the walls, and the gates of the city were opened to him (538 B.C.). His soldiers entered the city without fighting. The crown prince Belshazzar, the son of Nabonidus, was feasting, the Bible relates, when a hand appeared and wrote in letters of fire upon the wall these mystical words : " Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, which was interpreted by the prophet Daniel, whom he summoned to read the riddle, as " God has numbered thy kingdom and finished it ; thou art weighed in the balance and