CHAPTER I.

can these accounts be reconciled ? The invasion

and conquest of Elam is noticed Jer. xxv. 25, THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF PERSIA.

26; xlix. 34—39, the latter of which prophecies

is PERSIA, called in the Old Testament Paras,

very remarkable, and reads thus :

“ The word of the Lord that came to Jereand by Arabic and Persian writers, Fars, or Farsistan, is used in two significations: first, it of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

miah the prophet against Elam in the beginning is applied to the country originally inhabited by the Persians; and, secondly, to the various Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Asiatic countries included in the Persian em- “Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, pire founded by Cyrus, which empire extended The chief of their might. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, and from

And upon Elam will I bring the four winds

From the four quarters of heaven, the Black and Caspian Seas to the Persian Gulf

And will scatter them toward all those winds; and the Indian Ocean.

And there shall be no nation Herodotus says, that the Persians were once

Whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. called Cephenes by the Greeks, but by them

For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their

enemies; selves and their neighbours Artæi, or heroes ; And before them that seek their life: which is a proof of that national vanity in which And I will bring evil upon them, people of different countries are prone to in

Even my fierce anger, saith the Lord;

And I will send the sword after them, dulge. The latter word, probably, contains the

Till I have consumed them :
same root as Arii, the original name of the And I will set my throne in Elam,
Medes, and Arya, by which the followers of the And will destroy from thence
Brahminic religion are designated in Sanscrit.

The king and the princes, saith the Lord.

But it shall come to pass in the latter days, The same root occurs in Aria and Ariana, from

That I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the latter of which the modern Persian name

the Lord.” Iran, seems to be derived. Commentators on the Sacred Scriptures are

“ Here,” says a modern writer, * “ the dispergenerally agreed that Elam is the Scripture sion of the Elamites is foretold, and their eventname of Persia till the days of the prophet ual restoration. But who are these outcasts, and Daniel. Modern historians also write to this

when is their restoration to be dated ?” It is a effect. Ancient historians and geographers, question too difficult for solution, but it is certain however, distinguish Elam or Elymais from

that it does not refer to the Persians. This will Persia, and Media, and even Susiana ; and it is be manifest upon a review of its confirmation by difficult to reconcile this with their opinion who

the prophet Ezekiel. That prophet, enumerathold that Elam and Persia are the same, and ing the various nations conquered by Nebuchadthat wherever we meet, in Scripture, with the

nezzar, as, the Egyptians with Pharaoh-Hophra, name Elam, it signifies Persia. Besides, from or Apries, Meshech, Tubal, and all her multiXenophon's account, before the time of Cyrus, tude, Edom with her kings and princes, the Persia was comparatively an insignificant and princes of the north and the Sidonians, says of thinly populated region, containing only 120,000 men fit for war, which would not make the

“There is Elam, and all her multitude round about her population more than half a million of persons.

All of them slain, fallen by the sword, The Scripture account of Elam represents it as a powerful monarchy in ages before the ompires of • See the “ CAPTIVITY OF THE Jews,” published by Nineveh and Babylon had begun to rise. How the Religious Tract Society.

a

Elam :

grave,

B

Which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether included the whole south-west part of the moparts of the earth,

dern Irac Ajemi, bounded by the alluvial disWhich caused their terror in the land of the living; Yet have they borne their shame with them that go

trict Susiana on the south, and comprehending down to the pit.

all the mountain ranges, called the Looristan They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain

and Bactiari mountains, a tract almost unknown With all her multitude: ker graves are round about

to Europeans, and terminated by Fars or Persia him : All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: on the south-east. The terms Elymais and ElyThough their terror was caused in the land of the living,

means, do not occur in the writings of ancient Yet have they borne their shame with them that go historians till after the Macedonian conquest, down to the pit :

when they are spoken of as an independent and He is put in the midst of them that be slain."

Ezek. xxxii. 24, 25. ferocious nation, neither subject to the Syro

Macedonians, nor the Parthians, and altogether Now, the former of these nations was con- distinct from the Persians properly so termed. quered by the united forces of Nebuchadnezzar Persia proper was bounded on the north and and Cyaxares. Elam, therefore, was either a north-west by Media or Irak Ajemi; on the province of the Assyrian empire, and, therefore, south by the Persian Gulf; on the east by Caralso became the prey of the conquerors, or it mania or Kerman; and on the west by Susiana was an independent kingdom, which fell before or Khusistan. The extent of this country, acthese conquerors, and became a province of cording to Chardin’s estimate, is as large as Media, in conformity to Jeremiah's prediction. France: this, however, forms but a small porBut the passage in Ezekiel does not harmonize tion of what is now denominated Persia. with Xenophon's account of the Persians before This extent of country contained the tribes of the days of Cyrus, nor with that of Herodotus, the Persæ, Pasagardæ, Arteatæ, Maraphii, and who represents Cambyses, the father of Cyrus, Maspians. Of these the Pasagardæ were the though” descended from an ancient Persian noblest, and to the chief clan of which, called family, as inferior to a Mede of the middle rank. the Achæmenidæ, the royal family of Persia be

Then again, by Daniel the prophet, Shushan the longed. In addition to these tribes, Herodotus palace, and the river Ulai, are placed in the pro- mentions three agricultural tribes, called the vince of Elam; or, in other words, in Susiana. Panthialæ, Derusiæ, and Germanii; and four And in the Acts of the Apostles, the Elamites nomadic tribes, denominated the Dai, Mardi, are mentioned along with the Parthians, Medes, Dropici, and Sangartii

. The Persæ and Pasaand the dwellers in Mesopotamia, (chap. ii. 9,) gardæ inhabited the middle part, or what Strabo in a sense which conveys the idea that they has happily denominated Cava, or Hollow Perdwelt to the west of the Medes. It would, per- sia, corresponding to the vale of Istaker, and the haps, be safer, therefore, to understand by Elam, celebrated plain of Shiraz. It is not known what not Persia, but the province of Elymais, which part the Arteatæ inhabited, but the agricultural extended to the south and south-east of Ecba- tribes probably inhabited the quarter near Kertana, as far as Susiana, or the whole mountainous man or Carmania; the others were mountain region of south-western Media, of which Cor- tribes. bienno, or the Carbiana of Strabo, now called Such was Persia proper : the empire of Persia, Khorremabad, was the capital. Strabo makes as before stated, was of far greater limits. How Massabatica, Gabiana, and Cyrbiana provinces great it was will be seen in the following masof the Elymeans, and conjoins Elymais with terly geographical arrangement of the Western, Susiana on the north and north-west. He also Middle, and Eastern provinces of the empire, by says that Elymais was joined to Media, and was Major Rennell, who compiled it from a curious a very mountainous country, and that the Ely- original document, furnished by Herodotus. In means were great robbers. This description it will be discerned, also, the annual revenue of agrees with the mountaineers of the modern this once potent empire, an empire that was Looristaun, in the south of Media, and harmo- master of almost all the then known world. nizes with sacred history, which represents Chedorlaomer the Elamite, making a predatory inroad, with other rulers, as robbers, as

S. Talents early as the patriarchal era. Pliny, Elymais was inhabited by the Uxii

, the Æolians, Carians, Lycians, Melyeans,* According to

1. The Ionians and Magnesians of Asia, Mizæi, Parthusi, Mardi, Saitæ, Hyi , Cossæi, and Pamphylians

.$400 Parætaceni, and Messabatæ. The Cossæi These occupied an extent of 450 geograhere are represented as inhabiting part of Media, phical miles of sea coast in Asia Minor, from but by the ancients, generally, they were considered as a people of Media. "'The Messabatæ, the Gulf of Adramyttium, and the Troade,

on the north, round by Cnidus to Cilicia on also, inhabited the district of Mesobatene, which

the east. is a Greek appellation, meaning the midland

2. The Mysians, Lydians, Alysonians, country, or tract between Media and Susiana, Cabalians, and Hygennians

500 and which is probably derived from the Chaldee

The greatness of the tribute paid by this,
Misa, or middle.
The facts respecting Elymais and the Elymeans result of the gold and silver mines of Lydia,

1

I. WESTERN PROVINCES.