THE FALL OF BABYLON IN 539 BC BABYLONIAN KINGS NABONIDAS AND HIS SON BELSHAZZAR Vs. CYRUS THE GREAT OF PERSIA. Xenephon, Cyropaedia, Bk. VII. The Greek historian Xenephon (ca. 400 BC) writes that Cyrus the Great had several times defeated the Babylonian army in the field, but the Babylonians had fled inside the tall, massive walls around their city; these walls had been built earlier by Nebuchadnezzar and were impossible to take by a direct attack. Cyrus then set his troops to work on two construction projects, the first was a long siege trench with periodic wooden towers that completely surrounded the walls of Babylon, and the second project was a series of ditches north of Babylon which he intended to use to divert the flow of the Euphrates River. The siege trench and towers surrounding Babylon were only a diversion by Cyrus, and were intended to make the Babylonians think that he was trying to starve them into submission. The Babylonians were confident that their city could not be taken by siege, as Xenephon relates 13. While Cyrus's men were digging the siege trench surrounding Babylon and building its towers, the Babylonians upon their city’s walls laughed them to scorn; they had so much food stored up that they believed it would last them for more than twenty years. 15. At last the ditches connected to the Euphrates River north of Babylon were completed. ‘Cyrus then waited until a religious festival was being celebrated in Babylon during which the Babylonians would drink and party all night long. Cyrus then took a large number of his men, and during the night he opened up the ditches so that the Euphrates River began flowing through them into a large, nearby lake. When this was done, the depth of the water in the bed of the Euphrates River, where it passes through the city, dropped so that his soldiers could wade it. Before the attack on Babylon, Cyrus gave a speech to his soldiers in which he says: 20. My friends, the Euphrates now provides us a way to gain access into the city of Babylon. Let us, therefore, enter it with courageous hearts, fearing nothing and remembering that we have repeatedly defeated these same men when they were drawn up in full battle array and with their allies beside them; and in addition we defeated them when they were all wide awake, sober, and fully armed. Now we are going to attack them at night while many of them are asleep or drunk, and none in battle array. When they discover that we are inside of their walls, they will be panic stricken, and they will be even more helpless.Cyrus tells his two generals Gobryas and Gadatas to center their attack inside of Babylon on the royal palace. Gobryas, who knew the layout of the city and palace very well, responds: 25. Because of their drunken revelry, | would not be surprised to find that the gates leading into the palace are open, because the entire city is feasting tonight. However, we will stil have to fight against the troop of soldiers that will be guarding the palace gates, for a guard is, always posted there. Cyrus's army of Medes and Persians then entered Babylon in the middle of the night by wading in the bed of the Euphrates River. The Babylonians had built walls with gates along each side of the River, but they had not closed these river gates because some of their citizens wanted to party on the banks of the River, and also because they never imagined an attack could come against them from the River, since it was normally about 10 feet deep. Once Cyrus's troops got inside of the city of Babylon by wading in the bed of the Euphrates River and after entering trough the River gates, they pretended that they were just fellow revelers at the festival. Xenephon writes: 26-30. They killed with the sword any of their enemies who resisted them on their way to the palace, and some Babylonians fled in fear back into their houses. Other Babylonians shouted at them (to keep quite), but Gobryas and his men shouted back at them and pretended that they were fellow revelers. Gobryas and Gadatas and their soldiers advanced quickly inside of Babylon and were soon at the palace, but they found the palace gates shut. Nevertheless, they quickly attacked the palace guards, who were drinking by a blazing fire, and began killing them. When those who were drinking and feasting inside of the palace with the King heard the noisy clamor from the fighting at the gates, the King (Belshazzar) sent some of his men to find out what the ruckus was all about. When they opened the palace gates to find out about the uproar, Gadatas and his men dashed into the palace through the open gates, dealing blows left and right to their fleeing enemies. They soon fought their way into the presence of the King (Belshazzar) himself; and they found him standing, having arisen with a dagger in his hand. Gadatas and Gobryas and their men killed him, and those around the King also perished, some while trying to hide, others while running away, and still others while trying to defend themselves with whatever weapons that they could find. Thus the great city of Babylon fell in one night to Cyrus the Great, King of the Medes and Persians, just as is stated in the Daniel ch. 5. ‘The above passages are my translations of Xengphon’s Cyropuedia from Walter Miller's Xenephon's Cyropaedia. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1960.