This victory over Darius was about two years after the taking of Babylon:  for the Reign or Nabonnedus the last King of the Chaldees, whom Josephus calls Naboandel and Belshazzar, ended in the year of Nabonassar 210, nine years before the death of Cyrus, according to the Canon:  but after the translation of the Kingdom of the Medes to the Persians, Cyrus Reigned only seven years, according to [434] Xenophon; and spending the seven winter months yearly at Babylon, the three spring months yearly at Susa, and the two Summer months at Ecbatane, he came the seventh time into Persia, and died there in the spring, and was buried at Pasargadae.  By the Canon and the common consent of all Chronologers, he died in the year of Nabonassar 219, and therefore conquered Darius in the year of Nabonassar 212, seventy and two years after the destruction of Nineveh, and beat him the first time in the year of Nabonassar 211, and revolted from him, and became King of the Persians, either the same year, or in the end of the year before.  At his death he was seventy years old according to Herodotus, and therefore he was born in the year of Nabonassar 149, his mother Mandane being the sister of Cyaxeres, at that time a young man, and also the sister of Amyite the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, and his father Cambyses being of the old Royal Family of the Persians.

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CHAP.  V.

A Description of the TEMPLE_ of Solomon._

[435] The Temple of Solomon being destroyed by the Babylonians, it may not be amiss here to give a description of that edifice.

This [436] Temple looked eastward, and stood in a square area, called the Separate Place:  and [437] before it stood the Altar, in the center of another square area, called the Inner Court, or Court of the Priests:  and these two square areas, being parted only by a marble rail, made an area 200 cubits long from west to east, and 100 cubits broad:  this area was compassed on the west with a wall, and [438] on the other three sides with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which stood the buildings for the Priests, with cloysters under them:  and the pavement was faced on the inside with a marble rail before the cloysters:  the whole made an area 250 cubits long from west to east, and 200 broad, and was compassed with an outward Court, called also the Great Court, or Court of the People, [439] which was an hundred cubits on every side; for there were but two Courts built by Solomon:  and the outward Court was about four cubits lower than the inward, and was compassed on the west with a wall, and on the other three sides [440] with a pavement fifty cubits broad, upon which