menia, and reducing many of their cities, ftruck fuch a terror into the people, that their king Barzanes came with many rich prefents, and fubmitted himself. Ninus left him in poffeffion of his kingdom, on condition that he should become his vaffal, and ferve him in his wars when required. Encouraged by his fuccefs he invaded Media, and totally routing the Median king Pharnus, and taking him prifoner with his wife and seven children, he caufed them to be crucified. Committing the government of Media to an intimate friend, he marched westwards with his victorious troops, and in feventeen years made an entire conqueft of all the western kingdoms of Afia, of Egypt, and of all the countries as far east as Bactria. The Bactrians being a numerous and warlike people, and their country fecured by difficult paffes, he deferred his expedition against them till he fhould be better affured of fuccefs, and returning to his own country, and difmiffing his faithful Arabian allies with many He builds rich fpoils and noble gifts, he then employed his troops in Nineveh. building a city, which for extent and ftatelinefs fhould not only far furpafs all that had ever before been in the world, but alfo be fuch as fhould, with the greateft difficulty, be equalled by any other prince, that fhould come after him. He allowed not only the Affyrians but people of all nations to fettle in this city, which he honoured with his own name Ninus or Nineve, and allowed to the citizens a large territory next adjoining to them. His expeHaving finished this great undertaking, he affembled a new dition army for his expedition against the Bactrians, and marched into againft their country at the head of 1,700,000 foot, above 210,000 Badria. horfe, and no less than 10,000 armed chariots. Here he met with a more powerful refiftance than he had before experienced.A hundred thousand of his men were killed in a battle upon his firft entering the country, and though he afterwards made himfelf mafter of the many populous cities of the Bactrians, yet he was baffled in all his attempts to reduce Bactra the capital, which was defended by the king Oxyartes. After his army had continued for fome time at the fiege, he at length made himself mafter of the place by the contrivance and conduct of Semiramis, wife to one of his chief officers named Menon. This famous woman, Diodorus tells us, was faid to be the daughter of Derceto the goddess of Afcalon, who being afterwards afhamed of her guilt, expofed the infant among the rocks of a defert, murdered the father, and overwhelmed with grief and difhonour, threw herself headlong into a lake near the city, and became a fifh; on which account the Syrians eat no fish, but adore them as Gods, and fhe was worshiped by the inhabitants of Afcalon, under the fhape of a fish with the head of a woman. The unhappy infant was miracuously fuftained and nourished by a flock of doves, which kept her warm with their wings, and fed her with milk from the neighbouring cottages, and with pieces of cheefe after fhe was a year old. The neighbouring shepherds having thrus difcovered her, they took hcr her home with them, and fent her to Simma, the chief of the king's fhepherds, who being childless, adopted her and called her Semiramis. Semiramis as the grew up exceeded all of her sex for wit and beauty, and one Menon, governor of all Syria, lodging at Simma's house, when fent thither to furvey the king's cattle, fell in love with her, married her, and had two fons by her. Her husband was altogether at her devotion, and never would do any thing without her advice, which was always fuccefsful. During the fiege of Bactria, being impatient to fee her, he fent for her to the camp; and fhe being defirous to difplay the fuperiority of her understanding and other excellencies, immediately fet out, in a habit fo prudently contrived, as at once to preserve her beauty and conceal her fex. Upon ar- He reriving at the camp, fhe obferved that the befiegers only attack- duces the ed the weakest places of the city, which were therefore care- capital by fully defended by the befieged. She therefore, with a few the conchofen men, that were skilful in climbing up rocks, got poffef- duct of fion of the ftrongest part of the citadel, that had been neglec- Semiramis. ted by the garrifon, which were now ftruck with fuch a pannic, that when the Affyrians, by a signal from her, made a general affault, they cafily became mafters of the place, in which they found an immense treasure. The bravery and spirit of Semiramis, joined with her beauty fo charmed Ninus, that falling deeply in love with her, he fo threatned her husband for fcrupling to part with her, that the poor man killed himself, after which Ninus married her and ad- He marvanced her to the imperial dignity. Ninus after his return to ries her. Nineveh had a fon by her whom he called Ninyas, and dying foon after in the fifty-fecond year of his reign, left his child His death. to the guardianfhip of Semiramis, whom he appointed regent of the empire. Athenæus indeed relates that Semiramis never forgave Ninus for the death of her firft husband, and having fecured the chief men of the ftate by her benefactions and promifes, the prevailed upon the king to indulge her with the fovereign authority for five days, and was no fooner invefted with the fupreme power, than the ordered him to be imprisoned and put to death. These particulars are not mentioned by Diodorus, who relates, that from her regard to Ninus, fhe raifed over his grave a mount of earth of wonderful dimenfions, no lefs than nine ftades in height and ten in breadth, which remained a ftupendous monument many ages after the fubverfion of the city and empire. Semiramis Semiramis for feveral years having had a great fhare in the administration, and having always acquitted herfelf to the public affumes fatisfaction, there feems no need of her perfonating her fon, as the gois pretended, for obtaining the government. Being of a high vernment. afpiring fpirit, fhe was no fooner feated on the throne than the refolved to excel all her predeceffors in glorious actions. To this end fhe determined to erect a city in the province of Babylon, making incredible preparation for the work, in which She builds The employed 2,000,000 of men, affembled from all parts of Babylon. B 4 her And feveral other cities. her empire. The river Euphrates ran through the middle of That the work might be more speedily dispatched, fhe allotted a spot of a furlong to as many of her truftieft friends as the greatnefs of the furface required, affigning to each every thing that was neceflary for the undertaking, and the whole being finished within a year to her approbation, fhe then caufed a moft curious bridge to be built over the river 30 feet broad, and five furlongs in length, according to Diodorus, but according to Strabo the Euphrates was but one furlong broad. On each fide of the river a wharf or key was raised of the breadth of the walls, and 100 ftades in length, and at each end of the bridge fhe erected a magnificent palace, where fhe might occafionally furvey and awe both parts of the city. The weftern palace was furrounded with a lofty wall of brick full fixty ftades in circuit, within which was a fecond, curioufly adorned with figures, wrought as it were from the very life. This magnificent wall was forty ftades in circumference, 300 bricks thick, fifty fathoms high, adorned with turrets feventy fathoms in height. Within this there was a third wall far furpaffing the fecond in height and breadth, adorned with the figures of various kinds of animals, in the midst of which appeared Semiramis herfelf mounted on a fteed, and piercing a leopard with a dart; and her husband Ninus near, in clofe combat with a lion, whom he pierced with a lance. The palace on the other fide was neither fo large nor magnificent. Thefe being compleated, fhe funk a vaft lake, each fide of which was 300 ftades in length, the whole lined with brick cemented with bitumen, and no lefs than thirty-five feet in depth. This lake was funk on purpole to receive the waters of the Euphrates, which the diverted while fhe erected a covert paffage or vault across the bottom of the river, whereby to have a communication between her two oppofite palaces. In the midft of the city fhe built a temple to Jupiter Belus of a furprizing height, and on its top were placed the ftatues of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea, all of beaten goid. Thofe of Jupiter and Rhea weighed each 1000 talents, and that of Juno 800, before them was a table or altar of gold weighing 500 talents, and on this were feveral vafes of the fame metal, weighing upwards of 3000 talents. Semiramis befides built feveral other cities on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and fhe farther diftinguished her capital by a moft extraordinary obelifk, hewn out of the mountains of Armenia 125 feet high, five broad and five deep. This fhe removed to the river by many yokes of oxen and affes, and then shipping it on a float conveyed it to Babylon, and crected it in a remarkable part in the neighbourhood of the city. Semi Semiramis having finifhed all thefe works, put herself at the Her pro-, head of a vaft army, and marching into Media, encamped near grefies a mountain called Bagistan, where the made a garden twelve through furlongs in compafs in an open champain country, well watered the emby a great fountain. On one fide of the garden the mountain pire. rofe by fteep rocks 17 furlongs; the however afcended to the top on the packs and loads carried by the beafts of burden that followed her. In another place of Media near the city Chaone, fhe made another great garden upon the top of a very lofty rock, on which alfo fhe built ftately houfes of pleasure, which commanded a view of the garden, and the army encamped upon the plain. Here the wafted much of her time, and gave herself up to wanton dalliances and amours; for jealous of her power and high cominand, he would take no partner to her bed, but chofe rather to admit the comelieft men of her army to her embraces, which were fatal to all that enjoyed them, for fhe immediately after doomed them to death. Moving from this place fhe advanced towards Echatana, and in her way levelled the mountain Zarcæum, which was many ftades in extent, and almoft impaffable, on account of its frequent precipices. She built a magnificent palace at Ecbatana, and did more there than fhe had any where elfe done, fupplying the city with water, which it greatly wanted, with her ufual toil and expence, From Media the continued her progrefs through Perfia, and the reft of her Afiatic provinces, levelling both rocks and mountains before her, and on the contrary in champain countries raifing hills to vary and adorn them. On thefe the fometimes erected fepulchres for her chief commanders, and at other times towns and cities; and it was conftantly her cuftom to raise an eminence whereon to erect her own pavilion, that fo fhe might have a profpect of her whole army. Many of these things are faid to have remained a long time after her in Afia, and to have been commonly called Semiramis's Works. She afterwards paffed thro' all Egypt, and having conquered the greatest part of Lybia, enquired at the oracle of Jupiter Hammon, how long fhe had to live; and was anfwered, that when Ninyas made an attempt upon her life fhe would difappear. She then made war upon Ethiopia, and having fettled things there, and taken a view of the rarities of the country, fhe marched back into Afia and halted at Bactria. She refolves to In A few years after fhe refolved upon the conqueft of India, which had been reprefented to her as the richest and most delightful country in the world. Having ordered an army of the invade lachoiceft of her youth to affemble within three years at Batra, dia compleatly armed with new armour, fhe caufed fhipwrights from Phenice, Syria, Cyprus, and other maritime parts, to make the frames of 2000 tranfport vefels, which were to be carried by camels to the banks of the Indus, as the countries adjacent to that river were deftitute of wood. She likewife caufed counter feit elephants to be made of the fkins of 300,000 black oxen which Her mock were ftuffed out, and carried by a camel within, and guided each elephants. by a man on the outfide, thinking by this ftratagem to terrify the She paffes the river Indus. Is routed the Indians, who were poffeffed with a notion that the elephant was no where bred but in their country. All things being provided, the marched from Bactra with an army of 3,000,000 of foot, 200,000 horfe, 100,000 chariots, and 100,000 men mounted upon camels, who wielded fwords four cubits long. Stabrobates king of India, having intelligence of the defigned in vafion, made great preparations for oppofing the enemy. Having built 4000 boats of the canes or bamboos which grew in the rivers and fens of India, and with great diligence got together a far greater army than that of Semiramis, he added to the number of his elephants, and apparelled them with every thing that might make them dreadful to an enemy. He then fent embaffadors to Semiramis, reproaching her for offering to make war upon him, without the leaft provocation, and by a private letter upbraided her with her infamous life, vowing that if he conquered he would crucify her. To this fhe replied, that the Indian fhould prefently have a trial of her valour by her actions. After an obftinate engagement, fhe routed the enemies flect, which was drawn up to oppofe her, and having funk 1000 of their veffels, fhe reduced the cities and islands of the river, and made 100,000 captives. Stabrobates then drawing off his army, to decoy Semiramis over the river, fhe thinking that he fled, immediately by a broad bridge of boats paffed with her army, and leaving 60,000 men to guard the bridge, went in purfuit of the enemy. The Indian king being foon undeceived with regard to her mock-elephants by fome deferters from her camp, publifhed the difcovery to his army. A general engagement foon after enfuing, Semiramis, who in the beginning gained fome advantage, was in the end entirely defeated, havwith great ing received two wounds from Stabrobates. Her troops flying flaughter with precipitation to the bridge, great multitudes of them by the In- miferably perifhed, being either trampled upon or preffed to death, or pufhed into the river. When the laft of them had croffed the river, fhe ordered the bridge to be cut down, by which means many of the Indians, who had been eager in the purfuit were drowned. Semiramis having paffed the river, an exchange of prifoners was afterwards made, and the returned to Bactra with scarce a third part of the army fhe had carried out, According to Arrian fhe died in this expedition to India; but by Strabo's account fhe returned but with 20 men only. dians. Soon after her return, being affaulted by an eunuch thro' the treacherous contrivance of her fon, fhe concluded from thence that according to the anfwer of the oracle the time for She is fuc- her leaving this world was near at hand. She therefore fupceeded by preffed all thoughts of revenge, and furrendering the govern her fon Ninyas. ment to her fon, commanded all her fubjects to obey him as their king, and was tranflated from the fight of men, as the oracle had foretold, in the 62d year of her age and 42d of her reign. It was fabled fhe left the world in the form of a dove, together with a flock of that kind, which then fettled upon her |