Darius the Mede
(Dan. v. 31) succeeded Belshazzar as king in
Babylon b.c. 538, the date assigned in
Dan. ix. 1 to the prophecy of the 70
years. But “Darius the king” in whose 6th year
(b.c. 516) the Temple was finished
(Ezra vi.
15) was Darius
Hystaspis, king of Persia, whom Cyril here confounds with “Darius
the Mede.” He also fails to distinguish the rebuilding of
the Temple, b.c. 516, from the rebuilding of
the City by permission of Artaxerxes Longimanus, b.c. 444 (Nehemiah, ii. 1).