=63.= The defeat of the Persians at Cyprus, 449 B. C., operated to a certain degree in favor of the Jews; for all the maritime ports of the empire having been ceded, the natural fortress of Zion, commanding the roads between Egypt and the capital, became of great importance. Hitherto the Persian monarchs had forbidden Jerusalem to be fortified, but in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign, Nehemi´ah, the Jewish cup-bearer of the great king, received a commission to rebuild its walls. He moved with great celerity and secrecy, for the neighboring Samaritans, Ammonites, and Arabians, no longer awed, as formerly, by a decree of the empire, violently opposed the work. Laboring by night, with tools in one hand and weapons in the other, the Jews of every rank gave themselves so zealously to the task, that in fifty-two days Jerusalem was inclosed by walls and towers strong enough to defy her foes. (Nehemiah i-v: 16.) Meanwhile Ezra, relieved from the civil command, labored at his great work, the collection and editing of the Sacred Books. During the captivity many writings had been lost, among them the Book of Jasher, that of “The Wars of the Lord,” the writings of Gad and Iddo, the prophets, and the works of Solomon on Natural History. The sacred books which remained were arranged in three great divisions: the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa; the latter including Job, the Psalms, and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Ruth, Daniel, and the Chronicles. The Books of Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther were afterward added, and the canon closed. =64.= On the departure of Nehemiah the old disorders returned. Ezra died; the high priest allied himself with the deadliest enemy of the Jewish faith, Tobi´ah the Ammonite, to whom he gave lodgings in the temple. The Sabbath was broken; Tyrian traders sold their merchandise in the gates of Jerusalem on the Holy Day. Nehemiah returned with the power of a satrap, and with his usual skill reformed these abuses. He expelled Manasseh, who had now become high priest, because he had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. The pagan father-in-law hereupon built a rival temple on the summit of Mount Gerizim, of which Manasseh became high priest. The bitter hatred arising from this schism continued for centuries, and did not cease even with the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, A. D. 70. “The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.” From the time of the division there was no more intermingling of pagan elements in the religion and customs of Judæa. The Hebrews became not only the most rigidly monotheistic, but, in spite of their later wanderings, the most nearly isolated of all the nations. =65.= XERXES II. Artaxerxes died B. C. 425, and was succeeded by his son, Xerxes II. After a reign of only forty-five days, the young king was assassinated by his half-brother, Sogdia´nus; and the funeral train of his father was overtaken, on its way to the royal tombs at Persepolis, by his own.