this he made great lamentations, that being deceived by a dream, and the identity of the names, he had been induced to destroy his own brother; and immediately gave orders for his army to march, and cut off the usurper. But, as he was mounting his horse for this expedition, his sword slipped out of his scabbard, and gave him a wound in his thigh, of which he died soon after. The Egyptians remarking that it was the same part of the body where he had wounded their god Apis, considered this accident as a just judgment from Heaven, which thus avenged the sacrilegious impiety of Cambyses.

While he was in Egypt, having consulted the oracle of Butos, which was famous in that country, he was told that he should die at Ecbatana : understanding this of Ecbatana in Media, he resolved to preserve his life by never going thither; but what he thought to avoid in Media, he found in Syria. For the town where he lay sick of this wound, was of the same name, being also called Ecbatana. Of which when he was informed, taking it for certain that he must die there, he assembled all the chief of the Persians together, and representing to them the true state of the case, that it was Smerdis the Magian who had usurped the throne, earnestly exhorted them not to submit to that impostor, nor to suffer the sovereignty to pass from the Persians again to the Medes, of which nation the Magian was, but to take care to set up a king over them of their own people. The Persians, thinking that he said all this merely out of hatred to his brother, paid no regard to it; but upon his death quietly submitted to him whom they found upon the throne, supposing him to be the true Smerdis.

Cambyses reigned seven years and five months. In Scripture he is called Ahasuerus. When he first came to the crown, the enemies of the Jews made an application directly to him, desiring him to hinder the building of the temple; and their application was not in vain. Indeed, he did not revoke the edict of his father Cyrus, perhaps out of some remains of respect for his memory, but in a great measure frustrated its intent, by the many discouragements under which he laid the Jews; so that the work went on very slowly during his reign.

A. M. 3482.

CHAPTER III.

THE HISTORY OF SMERDIS THE MAGIAN.

THIS prince is called in Scripture Artaxerxes. He Ant. J. C. 522. reigned little more than seven months. As soon as he was set upon the throne, by the death of Cambyses, the inhabitants of Samaria wrote a letter to him,‡ setting forth what a turbulent,

*Herod. 1. iii. c. 64-66.

↑ Ezra, iv. 4. 6.

+ Ibid. 7-24.

seditious, and rebellious people the Jews were. By virtue of this letter they obtained an order from the king, prohibiting the Jews from proceeding any farther in the rebuilding of their city and temple. So that the work was suspended till the second year of Darius, for about the space of two years.

The Magian, sensible how important it was for him, that the imposture should not be discovered, affected, from the very beginning of his reign, never to appear in public, but to live retired in his palace, and there transact all his affairs by the intervention of his eunuchs, without admitting any but his most intimate confidants to his presence.

And,* the better to secure himself in the possession of the throne he had usurped, he studied from his first accession to gain the affections of his subjects, by granting them an exemption from taxes, and from all military service for three years; and did so many things for their benefit, that his death was much lamented by most of the nations of Asia, except the Persians, on the revolution that happened soon afterwards.

But these very precautions which he made use of to keep himself out of the way of being discovered either by the nobility or the people,† did but make it the more suspected that he was not the true Smerdis. He had married all his predecessor's wives, and among the rest Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus, and Phedyma, a daughter of Otanes, a noble Persian of the first quality. This nobleman sent a trusty messenger to his daughter, to know of her, whether the king was really Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, or some other man. She answered that, having never seen Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, she could not tell. He then by a second message desired her to inquire of Atossa (who could not but know her own brother,) whether this were he or not. Whereupon she informed him that the present king, be he who he might, from the first day of his accession to the throne, had lodged his wives in separate apartments, so that they never could converse with one another, and that therefore she could not come at Atossa, to ask this question of her. He sent her a third message, whereby he directed her, that when he should next lie with her, she should take the opportunity, when he was fast asleep, to feel whether he had any ears or not: for Cyrus having caused the ears of Smerdis, the Magian, to be cut off for some crime, he told her, that if the person she lay with was Smerdis, the Magian, he was unworthy of possessing either the crown or her. Phedyma, having received these instructions, took the next opportunity of making the trial she was directed to, and finding the person she lay with had no ears, she sent word to her father of it, whereby the whole fraud was discovered.

Otanes immediately entered into a conspiracy with five more of the chief Persian nobility;‡ and Darius an illustrious Persian noble

Herod. 1. iii. c. 67.

† Ibid. c. 69.

Herod. 1. iii. c. 70-73.

man, whose father, Hystaspes, was governor of Persia,* coming very seasonably as they were forming their plan, was admitted into the association, and vigorously promoted the execution. The affair was conducted with great secrecy, and the very day fixed, lest it should be discovered.

While they were concerting their measures,† an extraordinary occurrence, of which they had not the least expectation, strangely perplexed the Magians. In order to remove all suspicion, they had proposed to Prexaspes, and obtained a promise from him, that he would publicly declare before the people, who were to be assembled for that purpose, that the king upon the throne was truly Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. When the people were assembled, which was on the very same day, Prexaspes spoke from the top of a tower, and to the great astonishment of all present, sincerely declared all that had passed; that he had killed with his own hand Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, by Cambyses' order; that the person who now possessed the throne was Smerdis, the Magian; that he begged pardon of the gods and men for the crime he had committed by compulsion and against his will. Having said this, he threw himself headlong from the top of the tower, and broke his neck. It is easy to imagine, what confusion the news of this accident occasioned in the palace.

The conspirators, without knowing any thing of what had happened, were going to the palace at this juncture, and were suffered to enter unsuspected. For the outer guard, knowing them to be persons of the first rank at court, did not so much as ask them any questions. But when they came near the king's apartment, and found the officers there unwilling to give them admittance, they drew their scimitars, fell upon the guards, and forced their passage. Smerdis, the Magian, and his brother, who were deliberating together upon the affair of Prexaspes, hearing a sudden uproar, snatched up their arms, made the best defence they could, and wounded some of the conspirators. One of the two brothers being quickly killed, the other fled into a distant room to save himself, but was pursued thither by Gobryas and Darius. Gobryas having seized him, held him fast in his arms; but, as it was quite dark, Darius was afraid to strike, lest at the same time he should kill his friend. Gobryas, judging what it was that restrained him, obliged him to run his sword through the Magian's body, though he should happen to kill them both together. But Darius did it with so much dexterity and good fortune, that he killed the Magian without hurting his companion.

In the same instant, with their hands all smeared with blood, they went out of the palace, exposed the heads of the false Smerdis and his brother Patisithes to the eyes of the public, and declared the whole imposture. Upon this the people grew so enraged, that they fell upon the whole sect to which the usurper belonged, and slew as

*The province so called. § Ibid. c. 79.

† Herod. 1. iii. c. 74, 75.

Ibid. c. 76-78.

the day on

many of them as they could find. For which reason, which this was done, thenceforward became an annual festival among the Persians, by whom it was celebrated with great rejoicings. It was called The slaughter of the Magi; nor durst any of that sect appear in public upon that festival.

When the tumult and disorder,* inseparable from such an event, were appeased, the lords who had slain the usurper entered into consultation among themselves what sort of government was most proper for them to establish. Otanes, who spoke first, declared directly against monarchy, strongly representing and exaggerating the dangers and inconveniences to which that form of government was liable; chiefly flowing, according to him, from the absolute and unlimited power annexed to it, by which the most virtuous man is almost unavoidably corrupted. He therefore concluded, by declaring for a popular government. Megabyzus, who next delivered his opinion, admitting all that the other had said against a monarchical government, confuted his reasons for a democracy. He represented the people as a violent, fierce, and ungovernable A king, said he, at animal, that acts only by caprice and passion. hear any least knows what he does: but the people neither know nor thing, and blindly give themselves up to those that know how to manage them. He therefore declared for an aristocracy, wherein the supreme power is confided to a few wise and experienced persons. Darius, who spoke last, showed the inconvenience of an aristocracy, otherwise called an oligarchy; wherein reign distrust, envy, dissensions, and ambition, the natural sources of faction, sedition, and murder; for which there is usually no other remedy than submitting to the authority of one man; and this is called monarchy, which of all forms of government is the most commendable, the safest, and the most advantageous: inexpressibly great being the good that can be done by a prince, whose power is equal to the In short, said he, to determine this goodness of his inclinations. point by a fact which to me seems decisive and undeniable, to what form of government is owing the present greatness of the Persian empire? Is it not to that which I am now recommending? Darius's opinion was embraced by the rest of the lords; and they resolved, that the monarchy should be continued on the same footing whereon it had been established by Cyrus.

The next question was to know, which of them should be king, and how they should proceed to the election. This they thought fit to refer to the gods. Accordingly they agreed to meet the next morning by sun-rising, on horseback, at a certain place in the suburbs of the city; and that he, whose horse first neighed, should be king. For the sun being the chief deity of the Persians, they would be giving him the honour imagined, that taking this course, of the election. Darius's groom, hearing of the agreement, made

use of the following artifice to secure the crown to his master. The night before, he carried a mare to the place appointed for their meeting the next day, and brought to her his master's horse. The lords assembling the next morning at the rendezvous, no sooner was Darius's horse come to the place where he had smelt the mare, than he fell a neighing; whereupon Darius was saluted king by the others, and placed on the throne. He was the son of Hystaspes, a Persian by birth, and of the royal family of Acha

menes.

The Persian empire being thus restored and settled by the wisdom and valour of these seven lords,* they were raised by the new king to the highest dignities, and honoured with the most ample privileges. They had access to his person whenever they would, and in all public affairs were allowed to deliver their opinions the first. And whereas the Persians wore their tiara or turban with the top bent backwards, except the king, who wore his erect; these lords had the privilege of wearing theirs with the top bent forwards, because, when they attacked the Magi, they had bent theirs in that manner, the better to know one another in the hurry and confusion. From that time forwards, the Persian kings of this family always had seven counsellors, honoured with the same privilege.

Here I shall conclude the history of the Persian empire, reserving the remainder of it for the following volumes.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ASSYRIANS, BABYLONIANS, LYDIANS, MEDES, AND PERSIANS.

I shall give in this place an account of the manners and customs of all these several nations conjointly, because they agree in several points; and if I was to treat them separately, I should be obliged to make frequent repetitions; and, moreover, excepting the Persians, the ancient authors say very little of the manners of the other nations. I shall reduce what I have to say of them to these four heads:

I. Their government.

II. Their art of war.

III. Their arts and sciences: and,

IV. Their religion.

After which I shall narrate the causes of the declension and ruin of the great Persian empire.

*Herod. 1. iii. c. 84-87.