vations to be made in the various temples of Babylonia, in
order to discover the memorial-stones of their founders and verify the
history of them that had been handed down. But he offended local
interests by endeavouring to centralise the religious worship of the
country at Babylon, in the sanctuary of Bel-Merodach, as Hezekiah had
done in the case of Judah. The images of the gods were removed from the
shrines in which they had stood from time immemorial, and the local
priesthoods attached to them were absorbed in that of the capital. The
result was the rise of a powerful party opposed to the king, and a
spirit of disaffection which the gifts showered upon the temples of
Babylon and a few other large cities were unable to allay. The standing
army, however, under the command of the king's son, Belshazzar,
prevented this spirit from showing itself in action.

But a new power was growing steadily in the East. The larger part of
Elam, which went by the name of Anzan, had been seized by the Persians
in the closing days of the Assyrian empire, and a line of kings of
Persian origin had taken the place of the old sovereigns of Shushan.
Cyrus II., who was still but a youth, was now on the throne of Anzan,
and, like his predecessors, acknowledged as his liege-lord the Scythian
king of Ekbatana, Istuvegu or Astyages. His first act was to defeat and
dethrone his suzerain, in B.C. 549, and so make himself master of Media.
A year or two later he obtained possession of Persia, and a war with
Lydia in B.C. 545 led to the conquest of Asia Minor. Nabonidos had
doubtless looked on with satisfaction while the Scythian power was being
overthrown, and had taken advantage of its fall to rebuild the temple of
the Moon-god at Harran, which had been destroyed by the Scythians
fifty-four years before. But his eyes were opened by the conquest of his
ally the King of Lydia, and he accordingly began to prepare for a war
which he saw was inevitable. The camp was fixed near Sippara, towards
the northern boundary of Babylonia, and every effort was made to put the
country into a state of defence.

Cyrus, however, was assisted by the disaffected party in Babylonia
itself, amongst whose members must doubtless be included the Jewish
exiles. In B.C. 538 a revolt broke out in the south, in the old district
of the Chaldaeans, and Cyrus took advantage of it to march into the
country. The Babylonian army moved northward to meet him, but was
utterly defeated an