It must, however, be borne in mind that no minute certainty about the exact dates is attainable. Many authorities, from Prideaux[585] down to Schürer,[586] place the desecration of the Temple towards the close of B.C. 168. Kuenen sees reason to place it a year later. Our authorities for this period of history are numerous, but they are fragmentary, abbreviated, and often inexact. Fortunately, so far as we are able to see, no very important lesson is lost by our inability to furnish an undoubted or a rigidly scientific explanation of the minuter details.
APPROXIMATE DATES, AS INFERRED BY CORNILL AND OTHERS[587]
Jeremiah's prophecy in Jer. xxv. 12 605 Jeremiah's prophecy in Jer. xxix. 10 594 Destruction of the Temple 586 or 588 Return of the Jewish exiles 537 Decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Ezra vii. 1) 458 Second decree (Neh. ii. 1) 445 Accession of Antiochus Epiphanes (August, Clinton) 175 Usurpation of the high-priesthood by Jason 175 Jason displaced by Menelaus 172(?) Murder of Onias III. (June) 171 Apollonius defiles the Temple 168 War of independence 166 Purification of the Temple by Judas the Maccabee (December) 165 Death of Antiochus 163
[537] Ezra vi. 2; Neh. i. 1; Herod., v. 49; Polyb., v. 48. A supposed tomb of Daniel has long been revered at Shushan.
[538] Pers., _baru_; Skr., _bura_; Assyr., _birtu_; Gk., βάρις. Comp. Æsch., _Pers._, 554; Herod., ii. 96.
[539] Theodot., οὐβάλ; Ewald, _Stromgebiet_--a place where several rivers meet. The Jews prayed on river-banks (Acts xvi. 13), and Ezekiel had seen his vision on the Chebar (Ezek. i. 1, iii. 15, etc.); but this Ulai is here mentioned because the palace stood on its bank. Both the LXX. and Theodotion omit the word Ulai.
[540] "Susianam ab Elymaide disterminat amnis Eulæus" (Plin., _H. N._, vi. 27).
[541] See Loftus, _Chaldæa_, p. 346, who visited Shush in 1854; Herzog, _R. E._, _s.v._ "Susa." A tile was found by Layard at Kuyunjik representing a large city between two rivers. It probably represents Susa. Loftus says that the city stood between the Choaspes and the Kopratas (now the Dizful).
[542] The Latin word for "to butt" is _arietare_, from _aries_, "a ram." It butts in three directions (comp. Dan. vii. 5). Its conquests in the East were apart from the writer's purpose. Crœsus called the Persians ὑβρισταί, and Æschylus ὑπέρκομποι ἄγαν, _Pers._, 795 (Stuart). For horns as the symbol of strength see Amos vi. 13; Psalm lxxv. 5.