At that time, saith the Lord— "The Chaldeans shall regard neither the living nor the dead. They shall put the living to death without remorse; and shall break open and defile the tombs of the dead, in hopes of finding riches deposited there. They shall cast them out of their sepulchres, and leave them upon the ground, without staying to collect them together and replace them:" See Bar 2:24-25. Among the insults of the victorious soldiery toward the cities of the enemy, Horace does not omit that of violating the tombs, as one of the most cruel and detestable:
Barbarians fell shall wanton with success, Scatter her city's flaming ruins wide, Or through her streets in vengeful triumph ride; And her great founder's hallow'd ashes spurn, That slept uninjur'd in their sacred urn. EPODE XVI. FRANCIS.
We learn from Josephus (Ant. lib. 7: cap. ult.) that king Solomon laid up vast treasures in his father's sepulchre, which remained untouched till the pontificate of Hyrcanus, who on a public emergency opened one of the cells, and took out at once three thousand talents of silver. And afterwards Herod the Great opened another cell, out of which he also took considerable wealth. Whether the Chaldeans had any notion of this particular deposit, or whether they were tempted by a prevailing custom of burying valuable things together with the bodies of the deceased, does not appear.