有一个事实，足以让世界上每一个手握权力的人夜不能寀：古代世界最强大的帝国，不是被围城攻破的，是在一场宴会上亡的国。公元前539年10月12日夜晚，巴比伦——人类有史以来防御最坚固的城市，城墙厚到可以在上面赛马车——在统治者喝得烂醉的时候被人端了。波斯大军就在城门外。而城里呢？还在倒酒。
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先知与朝圣者·6/6·1′
The place
Babylon
墙上的字
弥尼、弥尼、提客勒、乌法珥新——凭空出现的手指，在巴比伦宫墙上写下帝国的死刑
October 12, 539 BCE -- the night Babylon fell to PersiaBabylon
故事寓意
“帝国不会宣布自己的终结。它们摆宴席，举金杯，数着城墙告诉自己：屹立了几百年的东西不可能一夜倒塔。但历史有自己的账本，每个王国都要被放上天平——弥尼、提客勒、乌法珥新——数算了，称量了，分裂了。判决永远写在墙上。唯一的问题是：有没有人清醒到能读懂它？”
人物
B
Belshazzar -- crown prince of Babylon, regent in his father's absenceN
Nabonidus -- the last king of Babylon, absent in Tayma for a decadeD
Daniel -- Jewish exile who read the mysterious writingC
Cyrus the Great -- Persian king whose army conquered Babylon in a single nightG
Gobryas (Ugbaru) -- Persian general who entered Babylon through the dry riverbed来源
Daniel 5 (biblical account of Belshazzar's feast); The Nabonidus Chronicle (BM 35382, British Museum); The Cyrus Cylinder (BM 90920, British Museum); Herodotus, Histories I.191 (fall of Babylon); Xenophon, Cyropaedia VII.5 (festival and river diversion); The Verse Account of Nabonidus (BM 38299); Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon 556-539 B.C., Yale University Press, 1989; Kuhrt, Amélie. 'The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid Imperial Policy,' Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 25, 1983; Collins, John J. Daniel: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel, Fortress Press, 1993