and Palestine. Lysimachus took Thrace, Bithynia, and some other provinces along the Hellespont. Cassander, Macedon, and Greece; and Seleucus all the rest of Asia.

159. This division of the empire, into four great kingdoms, did not take place until about twenty-two years after the death of Alexander. These were the four horns of "the he-goat" which came up in the place of "the great horn;" the four heads of the leopard; and the four kingdoms, into which the kingdom of the mighty should be broken, and divided towards the four winds of heaven, who should not be of his posterity.

CHAPTER VI.

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS, FROM THE ACCESSION OF SIMON THE JUST-MEGASTHENES, HISTORIAN OF INDIA-THE BUILDING OF SELEUCIA-DESTRUCTION AND DESOLATION OF BABYLON, AS PREDICTED BY ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH-THE DEATH OF SIMON.

160. In the year 300 B. C., died Onias the high priest of the Jews. He was succeeded by his son Simon, surnamed the Just, on account of the holiness of his life, and the strict justice which marked all his actions. He was the first of that name who was invested with this office, and continued in it nine years. He is the last, according to the Jewish tradition, of the Great Synagogue, who, they say, assisted Ezra in preparing the sacred books, and settling the canon.

161. After the battle in which Antigonus was slain and his army defeated, Seleucus took possession of the greater part of Asia Minor, and gave himself up very much to the building of cities. Sixteen he called by the name of Antioch, in honor of his father and son, both of whom were named Antiochus. The principal of these was on the river Orontes, about seventy miles from its mouth, which became the most famous city in all the western part of Asia. There Christianity early took root, and flourished under the ministry of Paul, Barnabas and others. Here the disciples were first

called Christians. In the early ages of Christianity it was a metropolitan city, and its bishop held rank with the first four in the world. This city continued to be famous, in the East, for sixteen hundred years.

162. In A. D. 1265, Antioch was taken from the Christians by the sultan of Egypt, soon after which it fell into decline, and since that time Aleppo has become the chief city in those regions; which, however, has itself been recently overthrown by an earthquake.

Another town by the name of Antioch, in Pisidia, is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

163. About this time flourished Megasthenes, who wrote a history of India, some fragments of which are preserved by Josephus, and Eusebius. He is often quoted by Strabo, Athenæus, Arrian, Pliny, Cicero, and Solinus. In this work, mention was made of Nebuchadnezzar and the greatness of his power. But the book is not now extant.

164. In the year 293 B. C., Seleucus built Seleucia, on the Tigris, about forty miles from Babylon. It was situated on the West side of the river, opposite to the place where Bagdad now stands, and soon grew to be a very great city. Pliny tells us, it had six hundred thousand inhabitants. One reason of its rapid growth was, that Babylon becoming every year less habitable, on account of the inundation of the river, which turned its level grounds into a fen, the inhabitants were glad to seek a more commodious habitation. The Babylonians, therefore, flocked in great numbers to the new city. And, moreover, Seleucus having called it after his own name, gave it many privileges, above the other cities of the East.

165. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah respecting the utter desolation of this great city, have been

most remarkably fulfilled, even to this day. Three hundred years before Christ, it began to be forsaken. Pliny says, that in his time it was exhausted of its inhabitants, and brought to desolation. Strabo says the same. Pausanias tells us, that Babylon, once the greatest city in the world, had, in his time, (second century,) nothing left but the walls. These remained long, for they served as a park for the Parthian kings, for the keeping of wild beasts for their hunting. And in this state it was in Jerome's time, in the fourth century, for he tells us, that "except the walls which were repaired for enclosing wild beasts, all within was desolation." And in another place, "that Babylon was nothing else, but a chace of wild beasts, kept within its ancient walls, for the hunting of the king." For in Jerome's time, a race of Persian kings had possession of this country, who continued until they were dispossessed by the Saracens.

166. From the time of Jerome, no writer speaks of Babylon, for several centuries. How the walls were demolished we know not. Benjamin the Jew, tells us, in his itinerary, that he was on the place, where the old city formerly stood, and found it then wholly desolate. "Only" says he, "some ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace were then still remaining; but men were afraid to go near them, by reason of the many serpents and scorpions, that were then in the place."

167. Texeira, a Portuguese traveller, tells us, "that there was nothing then remaining of this old and famous city, but only some faint vestiges; and that there was no place in all the country less frequented than that tract of ground, wheron it formerly stood." 168. Rawolf, a German traveller, who passed that

way A. D. 1574, says, "the village of Elugo lieth on the place, where old Babylon, the metropolis of Chaldea did stand. The harbor lieth a quarter of a league off, where those are to go who intend to travel to the famous city of Bagdad, which is situated further to the East on the river Tigris, at the distance of a journey of a day and a half. This country is so dry and barren, that it cannot be tilled, and so bare that I should have doubted very much, whether this powerful city (which was once the most famous in the world) did stand there, if I should not have known it by its situation and antiquities, that are still standing hereabout in great desolation. First, by the old bridge over the Euphrates, of which some piers and arches are still remaining, built of burnt brick, and so strong, that it is admirable. Just before Elugo is the hill on which the castle did stand, in a plain, were some ruins are still visible. Behind it, and near it, did stand the town of Babylon. This we see still, and it is half a league in diameter; but is so completely ruined and low, and so full of venemous reptiles, that have bored holes through it, that we cannot come near it, within half a mile, but only in two months in the winter, when they come not out of their holes. Among these reptiles, there is a species, in the Persian language called Eglo, that are very poisonous. They are bigger than any lizards."

169. Of the ruins of Babylon on the Western side of the river, none of these travellers makes the least mention, for they speak of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, which we know was on the Eastern side.

170. One reason for introducing, here, a description of the situation of Babylon is, that the reader may compare it with the prophecy of Isaiah, (c, xiii.. v. 19