was very fenfible that the French tongue is not fufceptible of the fame elegant fimplicity, has enlivened his fables with a fprightly and original turn of thought and expreffion, peculiar to himlelf, which no other perfon has yet been able to imitate.

It is not eafy to conceive, why Seneca lays down as a fact, that the Romans to his time had never tried their pens in this kind of compofition. Were the fables of Phædrus unknown to him?

(e) Plutarch relates the manner of fop's death. He went to Delphos with a great quantity of gold and filver, to offer, in the name of Crafus, a great facrifice to Apollo, and to give each inhabitant a † confiderable fum. A quarrel which arofe between him and the people of Delphos, occafioned him, after the facrifice, to fend back the money to Crafus, and to inform him, that those for whom it was intended had rendered themselves unworthy of his bounty. The inhabitants of Delphos caufed him to be condemned as guilty of facrilege, and to be thrown down from the top of a rock. The god, offended by this action, punished them with a plague and famine; fo that to put an end to thofe evils, they caused it to be fignifed in all the affemblies of Greece, that if any one, for the honour of Alop, would come and claim vengeance for his death, they would give him fatisfaction. ( At the third generation a man from Samos prefented himself, who had no other relation to fop, but being defcended from the perfons who had bought that fabulift. The Delphians made this man fatisfaction, and thereby delivered themselves from the pestilence and famine that diftreffed them.

The Athenians, thofe excellent judges of true glory, erected a noble ftatue to this learned and ingenious flave; to let all the people know, fays (g) Phædrus, that the ways of honour were open indiferently to all mankind, and that it was not to birth, but merit, they paid fo diftinguishing an honour.

fopo ingentem ftatuam pofuere Attici,
Servumque collocarunt æterna in bafi,
Patêre honoris fcirent ut cun&ti viam,
Nec generi tribui, fed virtuti gloriam.

(e) De fera Murainis vindictas p. 556, 557. (f) Herod. lib. ii. cap, 134′′ (2) Lib. ii.

* Non audeo te ufque eo producere, ur fabellas quoque & lopeos logos, INTENTATUMROMANISINGENIia

orus, folita tibi venuftate conneēza Senec, de Confol. ad Polyb. c. xxvii.

† Four mina's, equal to 240 livres,

BOOK THE SIXTH.

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

PERSIANS and GRECIANS.

This book contains the hiftory of the PERSIANS and GRE CIANS, in the reigns of DARIUS I. and XERXES I. during the space of forty-eight years, from the year of the world 3483 to the year 3531.

CHA P. L.

The history of DARIUS intermixed with that of the GREEKS..

(a)

B

EFORE Darius came to be king, he was called Ochus. At his acceffion he took the name of Darius, which, according to Herodotus, in the Perfan language, fignifies an Avenger, or a man that defeats the fchemes of another; probably because he had punished and put an end to the infolence of the Magian impoftor. He reigned thirty years.

SECT. I. DARIUS's marriages. The impofition of tributes. The infolence and punishment of INTAPHERNES. The death of ORETES The story of DEMOCEDES a phyfician. The JBW permitted to carry on the building of their temple. The generosity SYLOSON rewarded.

of

B

EFORE Darius was elected king, he had married the daughter of Gobryas, whofe name is not known. Artabarzanes, his eldeft fon by her, afterwards difputed the empire with Xerxes.

Q6

(a) Herod. I. vi. c. 98. Val. Max. 1, ix. 5, 25.

Whem

(b) When Darius was feated in the throne, the better to fe cure himself therein, he married two of Cyrus's daughters, Atoffa and Ariftona. The former had been wife to Cambyfes, her own brother, and afterwards to Smerdis the Magian, du ring the time he poffeffed the throne, Ariftona was still a vir gin, when Darius married her; and of all his wives, was the perfon he most loved. He likewife married Parmys, daughter of the true Smerdis, who was Cambyfes's brother, as alfo Phedyma, daughter to Otanes, by whofe management the impolture of the Magian was difcovered. By thefe wives he had a great number of children of both fexes.

We have already feen, that the feven confpirators, who put the Magus to death, had agreed among themfelves, that he, whofe horfe, on a day appointed, first neighed, at the rifing of the fun, fhould be declared king; and that Darius's horfe, by an artifice of his groom, procured his mafter that honour. (c) The king, defiring to tranfmit to future ages his gratitude for this fignal and extraordinary fervice, caufed an equestrian ftatue to be fet up with this infcription: Darius, the Jon of Hyftafpes, acquired the kingdom of Perfia by means of his horfe (whofe name was inferted) and of his groom, Oebares. There is in this infcription, in which we fee the king is not afhamed to own himfelf indebted to his horfe and his groom for fo tranfcendent a benefaction as the regal diadem, when it was his intereft, one would think, to have it confidered as the fruits of a fuperior merit: There is, I fay, in this infcription, a fimplicity and fincerity peculiar to the genius of thofe ancient times, and extremely remote from the pride and vanity of ours.

(d) One of the first cares of Darius, when he was fettled in the throne, was to regulate the ftate of the provinces, and to put his finances into good order. Before his time, Cyrus and Cambyfes had contented themselves with receiving from the conquered nations fuch free gifts only, as they voluntarily offered, and with requiring a certain number of troops when. they had occafion for them. But Darius conceived, that it was impoffible for him to preferve all the nations, fubje&t to him, in peace and fecurity, without keeping up regular forces, and without affigning them a certain pay; or to be able punctually to give them that pay, without laying taxes and impofitions upon the people.

In order therefore to regulate the administration of his finances, he divided the whole empire into twenty districts, or governments, each of which was annually to pay a certain

(b) A. M. 348. Ant. J. C. 521. Herod. 1. iii. c. 88. 4.iti, c. 88. (d) Ibid, c. 89-97.

fum

(c) Herod,

fum to the fattap, of governor appointed for that purpose: The natural fubjects, that is, the Perfians, were exempt from all impofts. Herodotus has an exact enumeration of thefe provinces, which may very much contribute to give us a juft idea of the extent of the Perfian empire.

In Afia it comprehended all that now belongs to the Perfians and Turks; in Africa, it took in Egypt and part of Nubia; as alfo the coafts of the Mediterranean, as far as the kingdom of Barca; in Europe, part of Thrace and Macedonia. But it must be obferved, that in this vaft extent of country, there were several nations, which were only tributary,' and not properly fubjects to Perfia; as is the cafe at this day with respect to the Turkish empire.

(e) Hiftory obferves, that Darius, in impofing these tributes, fhewed great wifdom and moderation. He fent for the principal inhabitants of every province; fuch as were best acquainted with the condition and ability of their country, and' were obliged in intereft to give him a true and impartial account. He then asked them, if fuch and fuch fums, which he proposed to each of them for their refpective provinces, were not too great, or did not exceed what they were able to pay ;: his intention being, as he told them, not to opprefs his fub jects, but only to require fuch aids from them, as were proportioned to their incomes, and abfolutely neceffary for the defence of the ftate. They all anfwered, that the fums he propofed were very reasonable, and fuch as would not be bur then fome to the people. The king, however, was pleafed to abate one half, chufing rather to keep a great deal within bounds, than to risk a poffibility of exceeding them.

But notwithstanding this extraordinary moderation on the king's part, as there is fomething odious in all imposts, the Perfians, who gave the furname of father to Cyrus, and of mafter to Cambyfes, thought fit to characterize Darius with that of merchant.

The feveral fuins levied by the impofition of these tributes or taxes, as far as we can infer from the calculation of Herodotus, which is attended with great difficulties, amounted in the whole to about forty-four millions per annum French, or fomething less than two millions English money.

*

(f) After the death of the Magian impoftor, it was agreed, that the Perfian noblemen, who had confpired against him, fhould,

(e) Plut, in Apophthegm. p. 172. * Kárnλ fignifies fomething ftill more mean and contemptible; but I do mot know how to exprefs it in our lan.

(ƒ) Herod. I. iii. c. 118, 119. guage. It may fignify a Broker, or a Retailer, any one that buys to fell again.

fhould, befides feveral other marks of diftinelon, have the li berty of free accefs to the king's prefence at at all times, except when he was alone with the queen. Intaphernes, one of thefe noblemen, being refused admittance into the king's apartment, at a time when the king and queen were in private together, in a violent rage feel foul upon the officers of the palace, abufed them outrageoudy, cutting their faces with his feymitar. Darius highly refented fo heinous an infult; and at fra apprehended it might be a confpiracy amongst the noblemen. But when he was well affured of the contrary, he caused Intaphernes, with his children and all that were of his family, to be taken up, and had them all condemned to be put to death, confounding, through a blind excefs of feverity, the innocent with the guilty. In thefe unhappy circumstances the criminal's lady went every day to the gates of the palace, crying and weeping in the most lamentable manner, and never ceafing to implore the king's clemency with all the pathetick eloquence of forrow and diftrefs. The king could not refist so moving a fpectacle, and besides her own, granted her the pardon of any of her family, whom the fhould chufe. This gave the unhappy lady great perplexity, who defired, no doubt, to fave them all. At laft, after a long deliberation, the determined in favour of her brother.

This choice, wherein the feemed not to have followed the fentiments which nature should dictate to a mother and a wife, furprized the king, who defiring her to be asked the reafon of it, the made anfwer, that by a fecond marriage the lofs of an hafband and children might be retrieved; but that, her father and mother being dead, there was no poffibility of recovering a brother. Darius, befides the life of her brother, granted her the fame favour for the eldest of her children.

(g) I have already related, in this volume, by what an inftance of perfidioufnefs Qretes, one of the king's governors in Afia minor, brought about the death of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. So black and deteftable a crime did not go unpunished. Darius found out, that Oretes ftrangely abused his power, making no account of the blood of thofe perfons, who had the misfortune to difpleafe him. This fatrap carried his infolence fo far, as to put to death a meffenger fent him by the king,. because the orders he had brought him were disagreeable. Darius, who did not yet think himself well fettled in the throne, would not venture to attack him openly: For the fatrap had no less than a thousand foldiers for his guard, not to mention the forces he was able to raife from his government, which included

(g) Herod, 1. iii, 6, 120, 128..