The prospect of it was magnificent and beautiful for, besides the disposition of the walls, which formed a kind of amphitheatre, the different colours wherewith the several parapets were painted formed a delightful variety. After the city was finished, and Dejoces had obliged part of the Medes to settle in it, he turned all his thoughts to composing of laws for the good of the state. But being persuaded, that the majesty of kings is most respected afar off, [major ex longinquo reverentia, Tacit.] he began to keep himself at a distance from his people; was almost inaccessible, and, as it were, invisible to his subjects, not suffering them to speak, or communicate their affairs to him, but only by petitions, and the interpositions of his officers. And even those that had the privilege of approaching him, might neither laugh nor spit in his presence. This able statesman acted in this manner, in order the better to secure to himself the possession of the crown. For having to deal with men yet uncivilized, and no very good judges of true merit, he was afraid, that too great a familiarity with him might induce contempt, and occasion plots and conspiracies against a growing power, which is generally looked upon with invidious and discontented eyes. But by keeping himself thus concealed from the eyes of the people, and making himself known only by the wise laws he made, and the strict justice he took care to administer to every one, he acquired the respect and esteem of all his subjects. It is said, that from the innermost part of his palace he saw every thing that was done in his dominions, by means of his emissaries, who brought him accounts, and informed him of all transactions. By this means no crime escaped either the knowledge of the prince, or the rigour of the law; and the punishment treading upon the heals of the offence, kept the wicked in awe, and stopped the course of violence and injustice. Things might possibly pass in this manner to a certain degree during his administration: but there is nothing more obvious than the great inconveniences necessarily resulting from the custom introduced by Dejoces, and wherein he has been imitated by the rest of the Eastern potentates; the custom, I mean, of living concealed in his palace, of governing by spies dispersed throughout his kingdom, of relying solely upon their sincerity for the truth of facts; of not suffering truth, the complaints of the oppressed, and the just reasons of innocent persons, to be conveyed to him any other way than through foreign channels, able, and an almost impassable range of mountains in front, examined the prisoners respecting the direction of their course, who told them, that four roads branched off at that place; one led south to Babylon and Media, another to the east led to Susa and Echatana, a third led west over the Tigris to Lydia and Ionia, and a fourth went north to the Carduchian territories. At this day such a branching off of four different roads actually takes place at the very spot mentioned by Xenophon. It is the modern village of Hatarrah, forty miles S. E. of the city of Zaku; where one road leads to Mosul and Bagdad, south; another to Hamadan by the pass of Derbend, or the Iron Gate over the Kara Dagh or Zagros; a third to Amadia, the ancient Marde; and a fourth into Mesopotamia, or Al-Jezeerah, by a ford over the Tigris, a few miles north of Eski or Old Mosul. This clearly identifies Hamadan with Ecbatan. Hamadan contains a great number of Mohammedan antiquities, as sepulchral stones, towers, mosques, old bazars, and Cufick inscriptions. Great numbers of Arsacidan and Sassanian coins are also to be found here, of which latter, Sir R. K. Porter brought away nine to England. A cylindrical stone with Persepolitan figures and characters on it fell into Morier's hands; Morier supposes that if exoavations were permitted to be made on what he judges was the site of the royal treasury, that valuable discoveries would be made. In the days of Benjamin of Tudela, the Spanish Jew, 50,000 Jews resided at this place. It was captured and totally ruined by Timur Bek in the 14th century, and though partly rebuilt, has never fully recovered its ancient splendour; and a great proportion of the population is now employed in tanning and dressing leather, the best that is manufactured in Persia.] that is, by men liable to be prejudiced or corrupted, men that stopped up all avenues to remonstrances, or the reparation of injuries, and that were capable of doing the greatest of injustice themselves, with so much the more ease and assurance, as their iniquity remained undiscovered, and consequently unpunished. But besides all this, methinks, that very affectation in princes of making themselves invisible, shows them to be conscious of their slender merit, which shuns tho light, and dares not stand the test of a near exam nation. Dejoces was so wholly taken up in humanizing and softening the manners, and in making laws for the good government of his people, that he never engaged in any enterprise against his neighbours, though his reign was very long, for he did not die till after having reigned fifty-three years. A. M. 3347. PHRAORTES reigned twenty-two years. After the death of Dejoces, his son Phraortes, called otherwise Ant. J. C. 657. Aphraartes, succeeded. The affinity between these two names would alone make one believe that this is the king called in Scripture Arphaxad; but that opinion has many other substantial reasons to support it, as may be seen in Father Montfaucon's learned dissertation, of which I have here made great use. The passage in Judith, That Arphaxad built a very strong city, and called it Ecbatana, has deceived most authors, and made them believe, that Arphaxad must be Dejoces, who was certainly the founder of that city. But the Greek text of Judith, which the Vulgate translation renders ædificavit, says only, That Arphaxad added new buildings to Ecbatana.* And what can be more natural, than that, the father not having entirely perfected so considerable a work, the son should put the last hand to it, and make such additions as were wanting? Phraortes, being of a very warlike temper, and not contented with the kingdom of Media left him by his father, attacked the Persians; and defeating them in a decisive battle, brought them under subjection to his empire. Then strengthened by the accession of their troops, he attacked other neighbouring nations, one after another, till he made himself master of almost all the Upper Asia, which comprehends all that lies north of Mount Taurus from Media as far as the river Halys. Elate with this good success, he ventured to turn his arms against the Assyrians, at that time indeed weakened through the revolt of several nations, but their king, otherwise called Saosduchinus, raised yet very powerful in themselves. Nabuchodonosor, great army in his own country, and sent ambassadors to several other nations in the East, to require their assistance. They all refused him with contempt, and ignominiously treated his ambassadors, letting him see, that they no longer dreaded that empire, which had formerly kept the greatest part of them in a slavish subjection. The king, highly enraged at such insolent treatment, swore by his throne and his reign, that he would be revenged of all those nations, and put them every one to the sword. He then prepared for battle, with what forces he had, in the plain of Ragau. A great battle ensued there, which proved fatal to Phraortes. 1 Herod. c. 102. He is called so by Eusebius, Chron. Græc. and by Geor. Syncel. Judith, i. 1, 2. Judith, Text. Gr. * Επωκοδόμησε ἐπὶ Ἐκβατάνοις. Herod. l.i. c. 102. This is a large and extensive plain to the south of Teheran, the present capital of Persia. It extends east and west to a great distance, and is bounded on the norih by the mountains of Mazanderan, and south by an infertor range that separates it from the western limit of the Great Salt Desert. I suppose the mountains of Ragau, to which the unfortunate Phraortes fled, to have been those of Mazanderan, as being difficult of access, in a great degree to cavalry, and therefore the fittest place to which he could have fled. He was defeated, his cavalry fled, his chariots were | tence of cultivating and strengthening the alliance overturned and put into disorder, and Nabuchodonosor they had made together, they invited the greatest part gained a complete victory. Then taking advantage of them to a general feast, which was made in every of the defeat and confusion of the Medes, he entered family. Each master of the feast made his guests their country, took their cities, pushed on his conquest drunk, and in that condition were the Scythians maseven to Ecbatana, forced the towers and the walls by sacred. The Medes then repossessed themselves of storm, and gave the city to be pillaged by his soldiers, the provinces they had lost, and once more extended who plundered it, and stripped it of all its ornaments. their empire to the banks of the Halys, which was The unfortunate Phraortes, who had escaped into their ancient boundary westward. the mountains of Ragau, fell at last into the hands of Nabuchodonosor, who cruelly caused him to be shot to death with darts. After that, he returned to Nineveh with all his army, which was still very numerous, and for four months together did nothing but feast and divert himself with those that had accompanied him in this expedition. In Judith we read that the king of Assyria sent Holofernes with a powerful army, to revenge himself of those that had refused him succours; the progress and cruelty of that commander, the general consternation of all the people, the courageous resolution of the Israelites to withstand him, in assurance that their God would defend them, the extremity to which Bethulia, and the whole nation was reduced, the miraculous deliverance of that city by the courage and conduct of the brave Judith, and the complete overthrow of the Assyrian army, are all related in the same book. CYAXARES I. reigned forty years. A. M. 3369. This prince succeeded to the throne Ant. J. C. 635. immediately after his father's death. He was a very brave, enterprising prince, and knew how to make his advantage of the late overthrow of the Assyrian army. He first settled himself well in his kingdom of Media, and then conquered all Upper Asia. But what he had most at heart, was to go and attack Nineveh, to revenge the death of his father by the destruction of that great city. The Assyrians came out to meet him, having only the remains of that great army, which was destroyed before Bethulia. A battle ensued, wherein the Assyrians were defeated, and driven back to Nineveh. Cyaxares, pursuing his victory, laid siege to the city, which was upon the point of falling inevitably into his hands, but the time had not yet come, when God designed to punish that city for her crimes, and for the calamities she had brought upon his people, as well as other nations. It was delivered from its present danger in the following manner. The remaining Scythians, who were not at this feast, having heard of the massacre of their countrymen, fled into Lydia to king Halyattes, who received them with great humanity. This occasioned a war between the two princes. Cyaxares immediately led his troops to the frontiers of Lydia. Many battles were fought during the space of five years, with almost equal advantage on both sides. But the battle fought in the sixth year was very remarkable on account of an eclipse of the sun, which happened during the engagement, when on a sudden the day was turned into a dark night. Thales, the Milesian, had foretold this eclipse. The Medes and Lydians, who were then in the heat of the battle, equally terrified with this unforeseen event, which they looked upon as a sign of the anger of the gods, immediately retreated on both sides, and made peace. Syenesis, king of Cilicia, and Nabuchodnosor, king of Babylon, were the mediators. To render it more firm and inviolable, the two princes were willing to strengthen it by the tie of marriage, and agreed, that Halyattes should give his daughter Aryenis to Astyages, eldest son of Cyaxares. The manner these people had of contracting an alliance with one another, is very remarkable. Besides other ceremonies, which they had in common with the Greeks, they had this in particular; the two contracting parties made incisions in their own arms, and licked one another's blood. A. M. 3378. Ant. J. C. 626. Cyaxares's first care, as soon as he found himself again in peace, was to resume the siege of Nineveh, which the irruption of the Scythians had obliged him to raise. Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, with whom he had lately contracted a particular alliliance, joined with him in a league against the Assyrians. Having therefore united their forces, they besieged Nineveh, took it, killed Saracus the king and utterly destroyed that mighty city. Herod. I. i. c. 74. Labynetus. In Herodotus he is called A formidable army of Scythians, from the neigh4 Herod. l. i. c. 106. bourhood of the Palus Mæotis, had driven the Cimme- up the stream than the city of Mosul, situated on its west"On the eastern bank of the Tigris, but a mile higher rians out of Europe, and was still marching under the ern bank," (says Kinnier, who visited this place in 1814) conduct of king Madyes in pursuit of them. The "are two extensive mounds and large ramparts supposed to Cimmerians had found means to escape from the Scy-be the ruins of ancient Nineveh. The first is three-fourths of thians, who had advanced as far as Media. Cyaxares, hearing of this irruption, raised the siege from before Nineveh, and marched with all his forces against that mighty army, which, like an impetuous torrent, was going to overrun all Asia. The two armies engaged, and the Medes were vanquished. The Barbarians, finding no other obstacle in their way, overspread not only Media, but almost all Asia. After that, they marched towards Egypt, from whence Psammiticus diverted their course by presents. They then returned into Palestine, where some of them plundered the temple of Venus at Ascalon, the most ancient of the temples dedicated to that goddess. Some of the Scythians settled at Bethshan, a city in the tribe of Manasseh, on this side Jordan, which from them was afterwards called Scythopolis. The Scythians for the space of twenty-eight years were masters of the Upper Asia, namely, the two Armenias, Cappadocia, Pontus, Cholchis and Iberia; during which time they spread desolation wherever they came. The Medes had no way of getting rid of them, but by a dangerous stratagem. Under pre 1 Herod. l. i. c. 103-106. a mile in circumference, 150 feet in height, and has the same Archilochus, the poet, lived at this time, and as Herodotus informs us, spoke of this adventure of Gyges in his poems. I cannot forbear mentioning in this place what is related by Herodotus, that amongst the Lydians, and almost all other Barbarians, it was reckoned shameful and infamous even for a man to appear naked. These footsteps of modesty, which are niet with amongst pagans, ought to be reckoned valuable. We are assured, that among the Romans, a son, who was coming to the age of maturity, never went into the baths with his father, nor even a son-in-law with his father-in-law and this modesty and decency were looked upon by them as enjoined by the law of nature, the violation whereof was criminal. It is astonishing, that amongst us our magistrates take no care to prevent this disorder, which in the midst of Paris, at the season of bathing, is openly committed with impunity; a disorder so visibly contrary to the rules of common decency, so dangerous to young persons of both sexes, and so severely condemned by paganism itself. Plato relates the story of Gyges in a different manner from Herodotus. He tells us that Gyges wore a ring, the stone of which, when turned towards him, rendered him invisible; so that he had the advantage of seeing others, without being seen himself; and that by means of this ring, with the concurrence of the queen, he deprived Candaules of his life and throne. This probably signifies, that in order to compass his criminal design, he used all the tricks and stratagems, which the world calls subtle and refined policy, which penetrates into the most secret purposes of others, without making the least discovery of its own. This story, thus explained, carries in it a greater appearance of truth, than what we read in Herodotus. Cicero, after having related this fable of Gyges's famous ring, adds, that if a wise man had such a ring, he would not use it to any wicked purpose; because virtue considers what is honourable and just, and has no occasion for darkness. GYGES reigned thirty-eight years.* A. M. 3286. The murder of Candaules raised a Ant. J. C. 718. sedition among the Lydians. The two parties, instead of coming to blows, agreed to refer the matter to the decision of the Delphic oracle, which declared in favour of Gyges. The king made large presents to the temple of Delphi, which undoubtedly preceded, and had no little influence upon, the oracle's answer. Among other things of value, Herodotus mentions six golden cups, weighing thirty talents, amounting to near a million of French money, which is about 48,000l. sterling. As soon as he was in peaceable possession of the throne, he made war against Miletus, Smyrna, and Colophon, three powerful cities belonging to the neighbouring states. After he had reigned thirty-eight years, he died, and was succeeded by his son ARDYS, who reigned forty-nine A. M. 3324. years. It was in the reign of this Ant. J. C. 680. prince, that the Cimmerians, driven out of their country by the Scythæ Nomades, went into Asia, and took the city of Sardis, with the exception of the citadel. SADYATTES reigned twelve years." A. M. 3373. This prince declared war against Ant. J. C. 631. the Milesians, and laid siege to their Nostro quidem morecum parentibus puberes filii, cum soceris generi, non lavantur. Retinenda est igitur hajus generis verecundia, præsertim naturâ ipsâ magistrâ et duce. Cic. 1. i. de Offic. n. 129. Nudare se nefas esse credebatur. Val. Max. 1. ii. cap. 1. 2 Plato de Rep. 1. ii. p. 359. Hunc ipsum annulum si habeat sapiens, nihilo plus bi licere putet peccare, quàm si non haberet. Honesta enim bonis viris, non occulta quæruntur. Lib. iii. de Offic. n. 38. Herod. 1. i. c. 13, 14. Ibid. l. i. c. 15. Ibid. l. i. c. 16-22. city. In those days the sieges, which were generally nothing more than blockades, were carried on very slowly, and lasted many years. This king died before he had finished that of Miletus, and was succeeded by his son. A. M. 3385. Ant. J. C. 619. HALYATTES reigned fifty-seven years. This is the prince who made war against Cyaxares, king of Media. He likewise drove the Cimmerians out of Asia. He attacked and took the cities of Smyrna and Clazomenæ. He vigorously prosecuted the war against the Milesians, begun by his father; and continued the siege of their city, which had lasted six years under his father, and continued as many under him. It ended at length in the following manner: Halyattes, upon an answer he received from the Delphic oracle, had sent an ambassador into the city, to propose a truce for some months. Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, having notice of his coming, ordered all the corn, and other provisions, assembled by him and his subjects for their support, to be brought into the public market; and commanded the citizens, at the sight of a signal that should be given, to be all in a general humour of feasting and jollity. The thing was executed according to his orders. The Lydian ambassador at his arrival was in the utmost surprise to see such plenty in the market, and such cheerfulness in the city. His master, to whom he gave an account of what he had seen, concluding that his project of reducing the place by famine would never succeed, preferred peace to so apparently fruitless a war, and immediately raised the siege. A. M. 3442. Ant. J. C. 562. CRESUS. His very name, which is become a proverb, conveys an idea of immense riches. The wealth of this prince, to judge of it only by the presents he made to the temple of Delphi, must have been excessively great. Most of those presents were still to be seen in the time of Herodotus, and were worth several millions. We may partly account for the treasures of this prince, from certain mines that he had, situate, according to Strabo, between Pergamus and Atarna; as also from the little river Pactolus, the sand of which was gold. But in Strabo's time this river had no longer the same advantage. He What is very extraordinary, this affluence did not enervate or soften the courage of Croesus. thought it unworthy of a prince to spend his time in idleness and pleasure. For his part, he was perpetually in arms, made several conquests, and enlarged his dominions by the addition of all the contiguous provinces, at Phrygia, Mysia, Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Pamphylia, and all the country of the Carians, Ionians, Dorians, and Eolians. Herodotus observes, that he was the first conqueror of the Greeks, who till then had never been subject to a foreign power. Doubtless he must mean the Greeks settled in Asia Minor. But what is still more extraordinary in this prince, though he was so immensely rich, and so great a warrior, yet his chief delight was in literature and the sciences. His court was the ordinary residence of those famous learned men, so revered by antiquity, and distinguished by the name of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Solon,10 one of the most celebrated amongst them, after having established new laws at Athens, thought he might absent himself for some years, and improve that time by travelling. He went to Sardis, where he was received in a manner suitable to the reputation of so great a man. The king, attended with a numerous court, appeared in all his regal pomp and splendour, dressed in the most magnificent apparel, which was all over enriched with gold, and glittered with Herod. 1. i. c. 19-22. Strab. I. xiii. p. 625. and 1. xiv. p. 680. 10 Ibid. l. i. c. 29-33. Plut. in Sol. p. 93 94 diamonds. Notwithstanding the novelty of this spectacle to Solon, it did not appear that he was the least moved at it, nor did he utter a word which discovered the least surprise or admiration; on the contrary, people of sense might sufficiently discern from his behaviour, that he looked upon all this outward pomp, as an indication of a little mind, which knows not in what true greatness and dignity consist. This coldness and indifference in Solon's first approach, gave the king no favourable opinion of his new guest. He afterwards ordered that all his treasures, his magnificent apartments, and costly furniture, should be showed him; as if he expected, by the multitude of his fine vessels, jewels, statues, and paintings, to conquer the philosopher's indifference. But these things were not the king; and it was the king that Solon was come to visit, and not the walls and chambers of his palace. He had no notion of making a judgment of the king, or an estimate of his worth, by these outward appendages, but by himself and his own personal qualities. Were we to judge at present by the same rule, we should find many of our great men wretchedly naked and desolate. When Solon had seen all, he was brought back to the king. Croesus then asked him, which of mankind in all his travels he had found the most truly happy? One Tellus, replied Solon, a citizen of Athens, a very honest and good man, who, after having lived all his days without indigence, having always seen his country in a flourishing condition, has left children that are universally esteemed, has had the satisfaction of seeing those children's children, and at last died gloriously in fighting for his country. 1 Such an answer as this, in which gold and silver were accounted as nothing, seemed to Croesus to denote a strange ignorance and stupidity. However, as he flattered himself that he should be ranked at least in the second degree of happiness, he asked him, Who of all those he had seen, was the next in felicity to Tellus? Solon answered, Cleobis and Biton, of Argos, two brothers, who had left behind them a perfect pattern of fraternal affection, and of the respect due from children to their parents. Upon a solemn festival, when their mother, a priestess of Juno, was to go to the temple, the oxen that were to draw her not being ready, the two sons put themselves to the yoke, and drew their mother's chariot thither, which was above five miles distant. All the mothers of the place, ravished with admiration, congratulated the priestess on being the mother of such sons. She, in the transports of her joy and thankfulness, earnestly entreated the goddess to reward her children with the best thing that heaven can give to man. Her prayers were heard. When the sacrifice was over, her two sons fell asleep in the very temple, and there died in a soft and peaceful slumber. In honour of their piety, the people of Argos consecrated statues to them in the temple of Delphi. What, then, says Croesus, in a tone that showed his discontent, you do not reckon me in the number of the happy? Solon, who was not willing either to flatter or exasperate him any farther, replied calmly: King of Lydia, besides many other advantages, the gods have given us Grecians a spirit of moderation and reserve, which has produced amongst us a plain, popular kind of philosophy, accompanied with a certain generous freedom, void of pride or ostentation, and therefore not well suited to the courts of kings: this philosophy, considering what an infinite number of vicissitudes and accidents the life of man is liable to, does not allow us either to glory in any prosperity we enjoy ourselves, or to admire happiness in others, which perhaps may prove only transient or superficial. From hence he took occasion to represent to him farther, That the life of man seldom exceeds seventy years, which make up in all 6250 days, of which no two are exactly alike; so that the time to come is nothing but a series of various accidents, which cannot be foreseen. Therefore, in our opinion, continued he, 1 Φιλαδελφοὺς καὶ φιλομήτορας διαφερόντως ἄνδρας. The fatigue of drawing the chariot might be the cause of it. no man can be esteemed happy, but he whose happiness God continues to the end of his life: as for others, who are perpetually exposed to a thousand dangers, we account their happiness as uncertain as the crown is to a person that is still engaged in battle, and has not yet obtained the victory. Solon retired, when he had spoken these words, which served only to mortify Croesus, but not to reform him. Esop, the author of the Fables, was then at the court of this prince, by whom he was very kindly entertained. He was concerned at the unhandsome treatment Solon received, and said to him by way of advice: Solon, we must either not come near princes at all, or speak things that are agreeable to them. Say rather, replied Solon, that we should either never come near them at all, or else speak such things as may be for their good. In Plutarch's time some of the learned were of opi nion, that this interview between Solon and Croesus did not agree with the dates of chronology. But as those dates are very uncertain, that judicious author did not think this objection ought to prevail against the authority of several credible writers, by whom this story is attested. What we have now related of Croesus is a very natural picture of the behaviour of kings and great men, who for the most part are seduced by flattery; and shows us at the same time the two sources from whence that blindness generally proceeds. The one is, a secret inclination which all men have, but especially the great, of receiving praise without any precaution, and of judging favourably of all that admire them, and show an unlimited submission and complaisance to their humours. The other is, the great resemblance there is between flattery and a sincere affection, or a reasonable respect; which is sometimes counterfeited so exactly, that the wisest may be deceived, if they are not very much upon their guard. Croesus, if we judged of him by the character he bears in history, was a very good prince, and worthy of esteem in many respects. He had a great deal of good nature, affability, and humanity. His palace was a receptacle for men of wit and learning, which shows that he himself was a person of learning, and had a taste for the sciences. His weakness was, that he laid too great stress upon riches and magnificence, thought himself great and happy in proportion to his possessions, mistook regal pomp and splendour for true and solid greatness, and fed his vanity with the excessive submissions of those that stood in a kind of adoration before him. Those learned men, those wits and other courtiers, that surrounded this prince, ate at his table, partook of his pleasures, shared his confidence, and enriched themselves by his bounty and liberality, took care not to thwart the prince's taste, and never thought of undeceiving him with respect to his errors or false ideas. On the contrary, they made it their business to cherish and fortify them in him, extolling him perpetually as the most opulent prince of his age, and never speaking of his wealth, or the magnificence of his palace, but in terms of admiration and rapture; because they knew this was the sure way to please him, and to secure his favour. For flattery is nothing else but a commerce of falsehood and lying, founded upon interest on one side, and vanity on the other. The flatterer desires to advance himself, and make his fortune; the prince to be praised and admired, because he is his own first flatterer, and carries within himself a more subtle and better prepared poison than any adulation gives him. That maxim of Esop, who had formerly been a slave, and still retained somewhat of the spirit and |