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seized by some god in his royal palace, and speaking, he said: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, O Babylonians, announce to you the coming disaster, which neither Belus my ancestor nor queen 9.41.3 Beltis have the strength to persuade the Fates to avert. A Persian mule will come, using your own deities as allies; and he will bring slavery. The cause of this will be a Mede, the boast of the Assyrians. Would that, before he betrayed his fellow citizens, some Charybdis or the sea had received and utterly destroyed him; or that he had turned to other paths and been carried through the desert, where there are neither cities nor the track of men, but wild beasts have their pasture and birds wander, roaming alone among rocks and ravines; and that I, before taking these things to mind, had met a better end.” 9.41.4 Having prophesied, he immediately disappeared; and his son Amilmarudocus became king. His brother-in-law Iglisares killed him and left a son, Labassoarascus. And when this one died a violent death, they appointed Nabonnedochus king, who was no relation to him. And Cyrus, having captured Babylon, grants him the governorship of Carmania.” 9.41.5 And concerning Nebuchadnezzar's founding of Babylon, the same author writes these things:

45. FROM THE SAME, CONCERNING THE FOUNDING OF BABYLON

“It is said that in the beginning all was water, called the sea. And Belus made it cease, assigning a region to each, and surrounded Babylon with a wall, 9.41.6 which in the course of time disappeared. And Nebuchadnezzar walled it again, which remained until the rule of the Macedonians, it having bronze gates.” And after other things he adds: 9.41.7 “And Nebuchadnezzar, having succeeded to the rule, walled Babylon with a triple enclosure in fifteen days, and he diverted the river Armacales, which is a branch of the Euphrates, and the Acracanus. And above the city of the Sipparenes he dug a lake, forty parasangs in circumference, and twenty fathoms in depth, and he set up gates, which they opened to irrigate the plain; and 9.41.8 they call them sluice-gates. And he walled off the flooding of the Red Sea and founded the city of Teredon near the entrances to Arabia; and he adorned the royal palace with trees, calling it the hanging gardens.” 9.41.9 And let these things from the indicated writing be set down by me because it is reported in the prophecy of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar, walking in the temple of his kingdom in Babylon, being greatly proud, spoke arrogantly, saying: “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, for the honor of my glory? When the word was still in his mouth” the things of the subsequent catastrophe happened to him. 9.42.1 These things, then, are sufficient for us concerning these matters. And let there be added to all these things those also from the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus, where, having quoted verbatim the words of countless writers, he adds these things:

9.42.2 40. OF JOSEPHUS, CONCERNING THOSE WHO MENTIONED THE JEWISH NATION

“Nevertheless, the records of the Syrians and Chaldeans and Phoenicians are sufficient for the proof of antiquity, and in addition to them, so many of the Greek writers, and further, in addition to those mentioned, Theophilus and Theodotus and Mnaseas and Aristophanes and Hermogenes, Euhemerus and Conon and Zopyrion and many others indeed—for I have not myself encountered all the books— 9.42.3 have mentioned us not incidentally. The

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βασιλήϊα κατασχεθείη θεῷ ὅτεῳ δή, φθεγξάμενος δὲ εἶπεν· «Οὗτος ἐγὼ Ναβουκοδρόσορος, ὦ Βαβυλώνιοι, τὴν μέλλουσαν ὑμῖν προαγγέλλω συμφορήν, τὴν οὔτε Βῆλος ἐμὸς πρόγονος οὔτε βασίλεια 9.41.3 Βηλτὶς ἀποτρέψαι Μοίρας πεῖσαι σθένουσιν. ἥξει Πέρσης ἡμίονος, τοῖσιν ὑμετέροισι δαίμοσι χρεώμενος συμμάχοισιν· ἐπάξει δὲ δουλοσύνην. οὗ δὴ ἂν αἴτιος ἔσται Μήδης, τὸ Ἀσσύριον αὔχημα. ὡς εἴθε μιν, πρόσθεν ἢ προδοῦναι τοὺς πολιήτας, Χάρυβδίν τινα ἢ θάλασσαν εἰσδεξαμένην ἀϊστῶσαι πρόρριζον· ἤ μιν ἄλλας ὁδοὺς στραφέντα φέρεσθαι διὰ τῆς ἐρήμου, ἵνα οὔτε ἄστεα οὔτε πάτος ἀνθρώπων, θῆρες δὲ νομὸν ἔχουσι καὶ ὄρνιθες πλάζονται, ἔν τε πέτρῃσι καὶ χαράδρῃσι μοῦνον ἀλώμενον· ἐμέ τε πρὶν εἰς νόον βαλέσθαι ταῦτα, τέλεος 9.41.4 ἀμείνονος κυρῆσαι.» ὁ μὲν θεσπίσας παραχρῆμα ἠφάνιστο· ὁ δέ οἱ παῖς Ἀμιλμαρούδοκος ἐβασίλευε. τὸν δ' ὁ κηδεστὴς ἀποκτείνας Ἰγλισάρης λείπει παῖδα Λαβασσοάρασκον. τούτου δὲ ἀποθανόντος βιαίῳ μόρῳ Ναβαννήδοχον ἀποδείκνυσι βασιλέα, προσήκοντά οἱ οὐδέν. τὸν δὲ Κῦρος ἑλὼν Βαβυλῶνα Καρμανίης ἡγεμονίῃ δωρέεται.» 9.41.5 Καὶ περὶ τοῦ κτίσαι δὲ τὸν Ναβουχοδονόσορ τὴν Βαβυλῶνα ὁ αὐτὸς ταῦτα γράφει·

μεʹ. ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΒΑΒΥΛΩΝΟΣ ΚΤΙΣΕΩΣ «Λέγεται δὲ πάντα μὲν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὕδωρ εἶναι, θάλασσαν καλεομένην. Βῆλον δέ σφεα παῦσαι, χώρην ἑκάστῳ ἀπονείμαντα, καὶ Βαβυλῶνα τείχει 9.41.6 περιβαλεῖν, τῷ χρόνῳ δὲ τῷ ἱκνευμένῳ ἀφανισθῆναι. τειχίσαι δὲ αὖθις Ναβουχοδονόσορον τὸ μέχρι τῆς Μακεδονίων ἀρχῆς διαμεῖναν, ἐὸν χαλκόπυλον.» Καὶ μεθ' ἕτερα ἐπιλέγει· 9.41.7 «Ναβουχοδονόσορος δὲ διαδεξάμενος τὴν ἀρχὴν Βαβυλῶνα μὲν ἐτείχισε τριπλῷ περιβόλῳ ἐν πεντεκαίδεκα ἡμέρῃσι τόν τε Ἀρμακάλην ποταμὸν ἐξήγαγεν, ἐόντα κέρας Εὐφρήτεω, τόν τε Ἀκράκανον. ὑπὲρ δὲ τῆς Σιππαρηνῶν πόλιος λάκκον ὀρυξάμενος, περίμετρον μὲν τεσσαράκοντα παρασαγγέων, βάθος δ' ὀργυιέων εἴκοσι, πύλας ἐπέστησε, τὰς ἀνοίγοντες ἄρδεσκον τὸ πεδίον· κα 9.41.8 λέουσι δ' αὐτὰς ὀχετογνώμονας. ἀπετείχισε δὲ καὶ τῆς Ἐρυθρῆς Θαλάσσης τὴν ἐπίκλυσιν καὶ Τερηδόνα πόλιν ἔκτισε κατὰ τὰς Ἀράβων εἰσβολάς· τά τε βασιλήϊα δένδροις ἤσκησε, κρεμαστοὺς παραδείσους ὀνομάσας.» 9.41.9 Καὶ ταῦτα δέ μοι ἀπὸ τῆς δηλωθείσης κείσθω γραφῆς διὰ τὸ φέρεσθαι ἐν τῇ τοῦ ∆ανιὴλ προφητείᾳ ὡς ἄρα Ναβουχοδονόσορ ἐν τῷ ναῷ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ τῷ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι περιπατῶν μέγα φρονήσας ἀπηυθαδίσατο εἰπών· «Οὐχ αὕτη ἐστὶ Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη, ἣν ἐγὼ ᾠκοδόμησα εἰς οἶκον βασιλείας, ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος μου, εἰς τιμὴν τῆς δόξης μου; ὅτε ἔτι τοῦ λόγου ἐπὶ στόματος ὄντος αὐτοῦ» τὰ τῆς μετελθούσης καταστροφῆς αὐτῷ γέγονε. 9.42.1 Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἡμῖν αὐτάρκως περὶ τῶνδε. προσκείσθω δὲ ἐπὶ πᾶσι καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰουδαίων Ἀρχαιότητος Ἰωσήπου, ἔνθα μυρίων συγγραφέων αὐτολεξεὶ παραθεὶς φωνὰς ταῦτα ἐπιλέγει·

9.42.2 μʹ. ΙΩΣΗΠΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΜΝΗΜΟΝΕΥΣΑΝΤΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΙΟΥΛΑΙΩΝ ΕΘΝΟΥΣ

«Ἀρκοῦσι δ' ὅμως εἰς τὴν ἀπόδειξιν τῆς ἀρχαιότητος αἵ τε Σύρων καὶ Χαλδαίων καὶ Φοινίκων ἀναγραφαὶ πρὸς ἐκείναις τε τοσοῦτοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων συγγραφεῖς, ἔτι δὲ πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις Θεόφιλος καὶ Θεόδοτος καὶ Μνασέας καὶ Ἀριστοφάνης καὶ Ἑρμογένης Εὐήμερός τε καὶ Κόμων καὶ Ζωπυρίων καὶ πολλοί τινες ἄλλοι τάχα οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγε πᾶσιν ἐντετύχηκα τοῖς βιβλίοις 9.42.3 οὐ παρέργως ἡμῶν μεμνημονεύκασιν. οἱ