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[19]
WHEN the foundations of the temple were laying, and when the Jews
were very zealous about building it, the neighboring nations, and especially
the Cutheans, whom Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, had brought out of Persia
and Media, and had planted in Samaria, when he carried the people of Israel
captives, besought the governors, and those that had the care of such affairs,
that they would interrupt the Jews, both in the rebuilding of their city,
and in the building of their temple. Now as these men were corrupted by
them with money, they sold the Cutheans their interest for rendering this
building a slow and a careless work, for Cyrus, who was busy about other
wars, knew nothing of all this; and it so happened, that when he had led
his army against the Massagetae, he ended his life. 1
But when Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, had taken the kingdom, the governors
in Syria, and Phoenicia, and in the countries of Amlnon, and Moab, and
Samaria, wrote an epistle to Calnbyses; whose contents were as follow:
"To our lord Cambyses. We thy servants, Rathumus the historiographer,
and Semellius the scribe, and the rest that are thy judges in Syria and
Phoenicia, send greeting. It is fit, O king, that thou shouldst know that
those Jews which were carried to Babylon are come into our country, and
are building that rebellious and wicked city, and its market-places, and
setting up its walls, and raising up the temple; know therefore, that when
these things are finished, they will not be willing to pay tribute, nor
will they submit to thy commands, but will resist kings, and will choose
rather to rule over others than be ruled over themselves. We therefore
thought it proper to write to thee, O king, while the works about the temple
are going on so fast, and not to overlook this matter, that thou mayst
search into the books of thy fathers, for thou wilt find in them that the
Jews have been rebels, and enemies to kings, as hath their city been also,
which, for that reason, hath been till now laid waste. We thought proper
also to inform thee of this matter, because thou mayst otherwise perhaps
be ignorant of it, that if this city be once inhabited and be entirely
encompassed with walls, thou wilt be excluded from thy passage to Celesyria
and Phoenicia."
1 Josephus here follows Herodotus, and those that related how Cyrus made war with the Scythians and Massagets, near the Caspian Sea, and perished in it; while Xenophon's account, which appears never to have been seen by Josephus, that Cyrus died in peace in his own country of Persia, is attested to by the writers of the affairs of Alexander the Great, when they agree that he found Cyrus's sepulcher at Pasargadae, near Persepolis. This account of Xenophon is also confirmed by the circumstances of Cambyses, upon his succession to Cyrus, who, instead of a war to avenge his father's death upon the Scythians and Massagets, and to prevent those nations from overrunning his northern provinces, which would have been the natural consequence of his father's ill success and death there, went immediately to an Egyptian war, long ago begun by Cyrus, according to Xenophon, p. 644, and conquered that kingdom; nor is there, that I ever heard of, the least mention in the reign of Cambyses of any war against the Scythians and Massagets that he was ever engaged in all his life.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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