Josephus [397] relates out of the Tyrian records, that in the Reign of Ithobalus King of Tyre, that city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar thirteen years together:  in the end of that siege Ithobalus their King was slain, Ezek. xxviii. 8, 9, 10. and after him, according to the Tyrian records, Reigned Baal ten years, Ecnibalus and Chelbes one year, Abbarus three months, Mytgonus and Gerastratus six years, Balatorus one year, Merbalus four years, and Iromus twenty years:  and in the fourteenth year of Iromus, say the Tyrian records, the Reign of Cyrus began in Babylonia; therefore the siege of Tyre began 48 years and some months before the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia:  it began when Jerusalem had been newly taken and burnt, with the Temple, Ezek. xxvi and by consequence after the eleventh year of Jeconiah’s captivity, or 160th year of Nabonassar, and therefore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began after the year of Nabonassar 208:  it ended before the eight and twentieth year of Jeconiah’s captivity, or 176th year of Nabonassar, Ezek. xxix. 17. and therefore the Reign of Cyrus in Babylonia began before the year of Nabonassar 211.  By this argument the first year of Cyrus in Babylonia was one of the two intermediate years 209, 210. Cyrus invaded Babylonia in the year of Nabonassar 209; [398] Babylon held out, and the next year was taken, Jer. li. 39, 57. by diverting the river Euphrates, and entring the city through the emptied channel, and by consequence after midsummer:  for the river, by the melting of the snow in Armenia, overflows yearly in the beginning of summer, but in the heat of dimmer grows low. [399] And that night was the King of Babylon_ slain, and Darius the Mede, or King of the Medes, took the Kingdom being about threescore and two years old_:  so then Babylon was taken a month or two after the summer solstice, in the year of Nabonassar 210; as the Canon also represents.

The Kings of the Medes before Cyrus were Dejoces, Phraortes, Astyages, Cyaxeres, or Cyaxares, and Darius:  the three first Reigned before the Kingdom grew great, the two last were great conquerors, and erected the Empire; for AEschylus, who flourished in the Reigns of Darius Hystaspis, and Xerxes, and died in the 76th Olympiad, introduces Darius thus complaining of those who persuaded his son Xerxes to invade Greece; [400]