Commentaria in I Esdrae
24. Then the work of the house of the Lord (the building of the temple) in Jerusalem was intermitted, and it was not done till the second year of the reign of Darius king of the Persians. You will ask: Who was this Darius? Scaliger and Sulpitius Severus, book 2 of the History, hold that he is Darius Nothus, who was the bastard or spurious son of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and reigned after him 19 years. For Scaliger contends that Assuerus, mentioned in verse 6, is Xerxes; that Artaxerxes of verse 7 is Longimanus, the son of Xerxes; that the Darius of this verse is Nothus; that the Artaxerxes who in chapter 7, verse 1, sent Esdras and Nehemias to Jerusalem is Artaxerxes surnamed Mnemon, son and successor of Darius Nothus. Wherefore the temple was built under Darius Nothus, but the city of Jerusalem under Artaxerxes Mnemon, and the 70 weeks, which flowed on to the birth of Christ, of which Daniel chapter 9, are to be begun from the second year of Darius Nothus.
So Scaliger, who, while he alone plays the keen Aristarchus against all the chronologers, in turn provokes against himself keener Aristarchuses of all kinds.
Refutation. For that the temple and the city were built under Darius, not Nothus but the son of Hystaspes, who succeeded Cambyses, is plain from the common consent of the Chronologers, Interpreters and Doctors. Secondly, from Josephus, who teaches it expressly. Thirdly, from the third book of Esdras, chapter 4, verse 43, where this Darius vows to rebuild the temple if he should become king, of which more presently. Fourthly, because according to Scaliger, from Cyrus and the release of the captivity until the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem there would have flowed 144 years; for so many are from Cyrus to Darius Nothus: which although Scaliger admits, Aggeus 2:4 is against it, where those who had first been carried captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, still surviving, seeing the new building of the new temple of Zorobabel, held it as of little or no worth compared with the former temple of Solomon.
Yet from the burning of Solomon’s temple by the Chaldeans to Darius Nothus there flowed 176 years, says Scaliger himself. Who, I ask, in that age prolonged his life to 176 years? Again, if Esdras was sent by Artaxerxes Mnemon to Jerusalem, then Esdras lived almost two hundred years: for he was begotten of Saraias the Pontiff, who was killed by the Chaldeans in the first year of the captivity. Moreover Zorobabel, and Jesus the son of Josedec, who under Cyrus took part in the return from captivity, and afterwards were present at this rebuilding of the temple under Darius, would have been 130 or 140 years old, whereas in the book of 3 Esdras, chapter 4:4, Zorobabel is called “a young man, one of the guards of Darius.” This Darius was therefore not Nothus but the son of Hystaspes. So Josephus, book 11 of the Antiquities, chapter 4, Eusebius in the Chronicle, St. Jerome on Daniel chapter 9, Bellarmine, Genebrard, Tornielli, Salianus, and the recent writers generally. The arguments of Scaliger I shall answer on Nehemias 12:10 and 12:28; for he will have it that Sanaballat, of whom it is there treated, was a contemporary of Jaddus the Pontiff and of Alexander the Great, but falsely. In the second year of Darius Hystaspes, therefore, the building of the temple, interrupted for nine years, was resumed, and in the sixth year of the same it was finished, namely the building of the Holy and the Holy of Holies; for the court or outer part of the temple, and consequently the whole temple in all respects, was completed in the 6th year of Darius, as Josephus has, book 11, chapter 4, 16. Moreover the cause which moved Darius to rebuild the temple was Zorobabel, who was a most welcome courtier of Darius and in his favour, and who, while Darius was still a prince, suggested to him that he should make a vow concerning the rebuilding of the temple if he were made king; being made king, a question was proposed: “What is the strongest of all things?” When one had said it was wine, another women, a third the king, Zorobabel said it was truth, and discoursed on the matter so wisely and elegantly that Darius ordered him to ask whatever he wished: which heard, Zorobabel began thus, 3 Esdras chapter 4:43: “Remember the vow of thy father, which thou didst vow, to build Jerusalem in the day in which thou shouldst receive the kingdom, and to send back all the vessels that were taken out of Jerusalem, which Cyrus set apart when he overthrew Babylon, and wished to send them back there. And thou didst vow to build the temple which the Idumeans burnt when Judea was laid waste by the Chaldeans. And now this is what I ask, O lord, and what I seek: this is, O majesty, what I ask of thee, that thou do the vow which thou didst vow to the King of heaven from thy mouth. Then Darius the king arose and kissed him, and wrote letters to all the stewards and prefects and purple-clad nobles, that they should conduct him and those who were with him going up to build Jerusalem. And to all the Prefects who were in Syria and Phoenicia and Libanus he wrote letters, that they should draw cedar wood from Libanus to Jerusalem, that they might build the city with it.”
Finally, “Darius” in Persian signifies prudent, says Hesychius. For prudence and providence is the first endowment of a king for ruling rightly; whence Herodotus, book 1, near the end, relates this dream of Cyrus as he marched against the Scythians (where he also perished): “Cyrus seemed in his dreams to see the eldest of the sons of Hystaspes having wings on his shoulders, of which one overshadowed Asia, the other Europe. Of the children of Hystaspes, son of Arsames the Achaemenid, the eldest, Darius, then about twenty years of age, had been left in Persia, because he was not ripe for military service. Cyrus, awakening, turned his vision over within himself. And since it seemed to him of great moment, having called Hystaspes, the witnesses being removed, he said: Thy son Hystaspes is found to be plotting against me and my kingdom.”
He added then that he had learned this from the dream just mentioned, which he related to Hystaspes.
“Wherefore,” he said, “return with all speed to Persia, and see that when I return thither, the Massagetae having been subdued, you present your son to me to plead his cause.”
But Cyrus, being killed, left Cambyses as his successor, to whom Darius succeeded. Hence “Darius” in Greek is the same as coercer, says Herodotus book 6, for [. . .] is the same as he will be beaten, from dero, that is, I flay, I beat, I skin. In Hebrew, however, “Darius” is the same as investigator, from the root daras, that is, he sought, he investigated: this is the work of a prudent man, such as “Darius” was, who in Persian is the same as prudent: or “Darius” is the same as generation and duration; for dor is generation and duration. Aptly: for the stock of Darius lasted in the Persian empire down to Darius Ochus.