rived upon the frontiers, he was informed that Amasis was just dead, and that Psammenitus, his son, who succeeded him, was busy in gathering all his forces together, to hinder him from penetrating into his kingdom. Before Cambyses could open a passage into the country, it was necessary he should render himself master of Pelusium, which was the key of Egypt on the side he invaded it. Now Pelusium was so strong a place, that in all likelihood it must have stopped him a great while. But, according to Polyænus, to facilitate the capture of this city, Cambyses invented the following stratagem. Being informed that the whole garrison consisted of Egyptians, he placed in the front of his army a great number of cats, dogs, sheep, and other animals, which were looked upon as sacred by that nation; and then attacked the city by storm. The soldiers of the garrison not daring either to fling a dart, or shoot an arrow that way, for fear of hitting some of these animals, Cambyses became master of the place without opposition. 2 When Cambyses had got possession of the city, Psammenitus advanced with a great army, to stop his progress; and a fierce battle ensued between them. But before they engaged, the Greeks who were in Psammenitus's army, in order to be revenged of Phanes for his revolt, took his children, which he had been obliged to leave in Egypt when he fled, and in the presence of the two armies, cut their throats and drank their blood. This outrageous cruelty did not procure them the victory. The Persians, enraged at so horrid a spectacle, fell upon them with such fury, that they quickly routed and overthrew the whole Egyptian army, of which the greatest part were killed upon the spot. Those that could save themselves escaped to Memphis. On the occasion of this battle,' Herodotus takes notice of an extraordinary circumstance, of which he himself was a witness. The bones of the Persians and Egyptians were still in the place where the battle was fought, but separated from one another. The skulls of the Egyptians were so hard, that a violent stroke of a stone would hardly break them; and those of the Persians so soft, that they might be pierced through with the greatest ease imaginable. The reason of this difference was, that the former, from their infancy, were accustomed to have their heads shaved, and go uncovered, whereas the latter ad their heads always covered with their tiaras, which is one of their principal ornaments. to be cast into the fire, and to be burnt; which was a thing equally contrary to the customs of the Persians and Egyptians. The rage which this prince testified against the dead body of Amasis shows to what a degree he hated his person. Whatever was the cause of that aversion, it seems to have been one of the chief motives that induced Cambyses to carry his arms into Egypt. The next year, which was the sixth of his reign, he resolved to make war in three different quarters; against the Carthaginians, the Ammonians, and the Ethiopians. The first of these projects he was obliged to lay aside, because the Phoenicians, without whose assistance he could not carry on that war, refused to aid him against the Carthaginians, who were descended from them, Carthage being originally a Tyrian colony. But being determined to invade the other two nations, he sent ambassadors into Ethiopia, who, under that character, were to act as spies for him, and to learn the state and strength of the country, and give him intelligence of both. They carried presents along with them, such as the Persians were used to make, as purple, golden bracelets, compound perfumes, and wine. These presents amongst which there was nothing useful, or serviceable to life, except the wine, were despised by the Ethiopians; neither did they make much more account of his ambassadors, whom they took for what they really were, that is, for spies. However, the king of Ethiopia was willing, after his way, to make a present to the king of Persia; and, taking a bow in his hands, which a Persian was so far from being able to draw, that he could scarce lift it, he bent it in presence of the ambassadors, and told them: This is the present, and the counsel the king of Ethiopia gives the king of Persia. When the Persians shall be able to use a bow of this bigness and strength, with as much ease as I have now bent it, then let them come to attack the Ethiopians, and bring more troops with them than Cambyses is master of. In the mean time, let them thank the gods for not having put into the hearts of the Ethiopians a wish to extend their dominions beyond their own country. 10 This answer having enraged Cambyses, he commanded his army to begin their march immediately, without considering, that he neither had provisions nor any thing necessary for such an expedition; but he left the Grecians behind him, in his new conquered country, to keep it in subjection during his absence. Cambyses, having pursued the runaways to Mem- As soon as he arrived at Thebes, in Upper Egypt, phis, sent a herald into the city, in a vessel of Mity-he detached 50,000 of his men against the Ammonilene, by the river Nile, on which Memphis stood, to ans, ordering them to ravage the country, and to summon the inhabitants to surrender. But the people, destroy the temple of Jupiter Ammon,1o which was transported with rage, fell upon the herald, and tore Herod. l. iii. c. 17-19. Ibid. c. 20-24. him to pieces, and all that were with him. Cambyses, Ibid. c. 25. 9 Ibid. c. 25-26. having soon after taken the place, fully revenged the indignity, causing ten times as many Egyptians, of the highest rank, as there had been persons massacred in the vessel, to be publicly executed. Among these was the eldest son of Psammenitus. As for the king himself, Cambyses was inclined to treat him kindly. He not only spared his life, but appointed him an honourable maintenance. But the Egyptian monarch, little affected with this kind usage, endeavoured to raise new troubles and commotions, in order to recover his kingdom; as a punishment for which he was made to drink bull's blood, and died immediately. His reign lasted but six months; after which all Egypt.submitted to the conqueror. On the news of this success, the Libyans, the Cyrenians, and the Barceans, all sent ambassadors with presents to Cambyses, to make their submission. From Memphis he went to the city of Sais, which was the burying-place of the kings of Egypt. As soon as he entered the palace, he caused the body of Amasis to be taken out of its tomb; and after having exposed it to a thousand indignities in his own presence, he ordered it Polyæn. 1. vii. Ibid. c. 12. 1 • Ibid. c. 13. Herod. l. iii. c. 11. Ibid. c. 16. [The Oasis of Seewah, where the Temple of Jupiter Ammon was situated, was 6 miles long, by 4 or 5 wide. It is distant 12 days' journey west of Cairo; the same from Charje, the principal village of El-wah, or the Greater Oasis; and 14 days' journey from Dernah, on the coast, and 118 miles south of Parætonium, on the coast now called Al Bareton. This last was the place whence Alexander set out inland to visit the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, after having gone along the shore for a space of 1600 stadia. Brown's description of Seewah, or the Oasis of Ammon, exactly harmonizes with those of Herodotus, Diodorus, Arrian, Curtius, Strabo, and with the Arabian geographers, as Edrisi, Jacut, Abulfeda, and Ebn al Wardi; so that there can be no reasonable doubt of the identity of the modern Seewah, or Schantariah, with the ancient Oasis of Ammon. striking similarity to the Egyptian temples, in point of form The ruins, so far as they have been examined, bear a and architecture. Mr. Brown thought he discovered two figures sculptured on the walls with rams' heads. Jupiter Ammon's statue was represented with the head of a ram, and was worshipped at Carthage, Lybia, and Ethiopia. There was a temple and oracle of Ammon at Meroe, according to Herodotus and Pliny; and the latter says, that round the track of Meroe, there were many Sacella or chapels. Osiris was the principal deity of the EgyptiansAmmon of the Ethiopians; from whom it is probable it situated there. But after several days' march in the desert, a violent wind blowing from the south, brought such a vast quantity of sand upon the army, that the men were all overwhelmed and buried under it. In the mean time Cambyses marched forwards like a madman against the Ethiopians, notwithstanding his being destitute of all sorts of provisions; which quickly caused a terrible famine in his army. He had still time, says Herodotus, to remedy this evil; but Cambyses would have thought it a dishonour to have desisted from his undertaking, and therefore he proceeded in his expedition. At first his army was obliged to live upon herbs, roots, and leaves of trees; but coming afterwards into a country entirely barren, they were reduced to the necessity of eating their beasts of burden. At last they were brought to such a cruel extremity, as to be obliged to eat one another; every tenth man, upon whom the lot fell, being doomed to serve as food for his companions; a food, says Seneca, more cruel and terrible than famine itself: Decimum quemque sortiti, alimentum habuerunt fame sævius. Notwithstanding all this, the king still persisted in his design, or rather in his madness, nor did the miserable desolation of his army make him sensible of his error. But at length, beginning to be | afraid of his own person, he ordered them to return. During all this dreadful famine among the troops (who would believe it?) there was no abatement of delicacies at his table, and the camels were still reserved which were loaded with every thing that was requisite to set out a sumptuous table. Servabantur illi interim generosa aves, et instrumenta epularum camelis vehebantur, cùm sortirentur milites ejus quis malè periret, quis pejùs viveret.2 beast; and then upbraiding the priests for their stupidity in worshipping a brute for a god, he ordered them to be severely scourged, and all the Egyptians in Memphis, that should be found celebrating the feast of Apis, to be slain. The god was carried back to the temple, where he languished of his wound for some time, and then died. The Egyptians say, that after this fact, which they reckon to have been the highest instance of impiety that ever was committed among them, Cambyses grew mad. But his actions showed him to have been mad long before, of which he continued to give various instances: among the rest are these following. He had a brother, the only son of Cyrus besides himself, and born of the same mother: his name, according to Xenophon, was Tanaoxares, but Herodotus calls him Smerdis, and Justin, Mergis. He accompanied Cambyses in his Egyptian expedition: but being the only person among all the Persians that could draw the bow which had been brought from the king of Ethiopia, Cambyses from hence conceived such a jealousy against him, that he could bear him no longer in the army, but sent him back into Persia. And not long after, dreaming that a messenger had arrived to inform him that Smerdis sat on the throne, he conceived a suspicion that his brother aspired to the kingdom, and sent after him into Persia Prexaspes, one of his chief confidants, with orders to put him to death, which were accordingly executed. This murder was the cause of another still more criminal. Cambyses had with him in the camp his youngest sister, whose name was Meroe. Herodotus acquaints us after what a strange manner this sister The remainder of his army, of which the greatest became his wife. As the princess was exceedingly part was lost in his expedition, he brought back to beautiful, Cambyses absolutely resolved to marry her. Thebes; where he succeeded much better in the war To that end he called together all the judges of the he declared against the gods, whom he found more Persian nation, to whom belonged the interpretation easy to be conquered than men. Thebes was full of of their laws, to know of them whether there was temples, whose riches and magnificence were almost any law that would allow a brother to marry a sister. incredible. All these Cambyses pillaged, and then The judges being unwilling on the one hand directly set them on fire. The wealth of these temples must to authorise such an incestuous marriage, and on the have been vastly great, since the very remains saved other, fearing the king's violent temper, should they from the flames amounted to an immense sum, 300 contradict him, endeavoured to find out a salvo, and talents of gold, and 2300 talents of silver. He like- gave him this crafty answer: That they had no law wise carried away at this time the famous circle of which permitted a brother to marry his sister, but gold that encompassed the tomb of king Osymandyas, they had a law which allowed the king of Persia to which was 365 cubits in circumference, and in which do what he pleased. And this answer serving his were represented all the motions of the several constel-purpose as well as a direct approbation, he solemnly lations. married her, and hereby gave the first example of that incest, which was afterwards practised by most of his successors, and by some of them carried so far as to marry their own daughters, how repugnant soever it be to modesty and good order. This princess he carried with him in all his expeditions, and from her he gave the name of Meroe to an island in the Nile, between Egypt and Ethiopia, so far he advanced in his wild march against the Ethiopians. The circumstance that gave occasion to his murdering this princess was as follows. One day Cambyses was diverting himself in seeing a combat between a young lion and a young dog; the lion having the better, another dog, brother to him that was engaged, came to his assistance, and helped him to master the lion. This incident highly delighted Cambyses, but drew tears from Meroe, who being obliged to tell her husband the reason of her weeping, confessed that this combat made her call to mind the fate of her brother Smerdis, who had not the same good fortune as that little dog. There needed no more than this to excite the rage of this brutal prince, who immediately gave her, notwithstanding her being with child, such a blow with his foot on the belly, that she died of it. So abominable a marriage deserved no better an end. 4 From Thebes he went back to Memphis, where he dismissed all the Greeks, and sent them to their respective homes; but on his return into the city, finding it full of rejoicings, he fell into a great rage, supposing this exultation to be on account of the ill success of his expedition. He therefore called the magistrates before him, to know the meaning of these public rejoicings; and upon their telling him, that it was because they had found their god Apis, he would not believe them, but caused them to be put to death as impostors that insulted him and his misfortunes. He then sent for the priests, who made hin the same answer: upon which he replied, that since their god was so kind and familiar as to appear among them, he would be acquainted with him, and therefore commanded him forthwith to be brought to him. But when, instead of a god, he saw a calf, he was strangely astonished, and falling again into a rage, he drew out his dagger and run it into the thigh of the descended the Nile, and spread west into Lybia. There De Irâ. 1. iii. c. 20. 2 Ibid. Diod. Sic. l. i. p. 43. lowers to be buried alive,' and daily sacrificed some or other of them to his wild fury. He had obliged Prexaspes, one of his principal officers and his chief confidant, to declare to him what his Persian subjects thought and said of him, They admire, Sir, says Prexaspes, a great many excellent qualities which they see in you, but they are somewhat mortified at your immoderate love of wine. I understand you, replied the king; that is, they pretend that wine deprives me of my reason. You shall be judge of that immediately. Upon which he began to drink excessively, pouring it down in larger quantities than ever he had done at any time before. Then ordering Prexaspes's son, who was his chief cup-bearer, to stand upright at the end of the room, with his left hand upon his head, he took his bow, and levelled it at him; and declaring that he aimed at his heart, let fly, and actually shot him in the heart. He then ordered his side to be opened, and showing Prexaspes the heart of his son, which the arrow had pierced, asked him in an exulting and scoffing manner, if he had not a steady hand? The wretched father, who ought not to have had either voice or life remaining after a stroke like this, was so meanspirited as to reply, Apollo himself could not have shot better. Seneca, who copied this story from Herodotus, after having shown his detestation of the barbarous cruelty of the prince, condemns still more the cowardly and monstrous flattery of the father: Sceleratiùs telum illud laudatum est, quàm missum. When Croesus took upon him to advise Cambyses against his conduct, which disgusted every one, and laid before him the ill consequences that might result from it, he ordered him to be put to death. And when those who received his orders, knowing he would repent of it the next day, deferred the execution, he caused them all to be put to death, because they had not obeyed his commands, though at the same time he expressed great joy that Croesus was alive. It was about this time that Oretes, one of Camoyses's satrapæ, who had the government of Sardis, afler a very strange and extraordinary manner brought about the death of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. The story of this Polycrates is of so singular a nature, that the reader will not be displeased if I repeat it here. This Polycrates was a prince, who through the whole course of his life had been uniformly prosperous and successful in all his affairs, and had never met with the least disappointment or unfortunate accident to disturb his felicity. Amasis, king of Egypt, his friend and ally, thought himself obliged to send him a letter of admonition upon that subject. He declared to him, that he had alarming apprehensions concerning his condition; that such a long and uninterrupted course of prosperity was to be suspected; that some malignant, invidious god, who looks upon the fortune of men with a jealous eye, would certainly sooner or later bring ruin and destruction upon him; that in order to prevent such a fatal stroke, he advised him to procure some misfortune to himself, by some voluntary loss, that he was persuaded would prove a sensible mortification to him. The tyrant followed this advice. Having an emerald ring, which he highly esteemed, particularly for its curious workmanship, as he was walking upon the deck of one of his galleys with his courtiers, he threw it into the sea without any one's perceiving what he had done. Not many days after, some fishermen, having caught a fish of an extraordinary size, made a present of it to Polycrates. When the fish came to be opened, the king's ring was found in the belly of it. His surprise was very great, and his joy still greater. When Amasis heard what had happened, he was very differently affected with it. He wrote another letter to Polycrates, telling him that, to avoid the 1 Herod. l. iii. 34. 35. Sen. l. iii. de Irâ. c. 14. * Herod. l. iii. c. 36, Ibid. 39-43. mortification of seeing his friend and ally fall into some grievous calamity, he from that time renounced his friendship and alliance. A strange whimsical notion this! as if friendship was merely a name, or a title, destitute of all substance and reality. Be that as it will, the thing, however, did really happen as the Egyptian king apprehended. Some years after, about the time Cambyses fell sick, Oretes, who, as I said before, was his governor at Sardis, not being able to bear the reproach which another satrap had made him in a private quarrel, of his not having yet conquered the isle of Samos, which lay so near his government, and would be so commodious for his master; upon this resolved at any rate to destroy Polycrates, that he might get possession of the island. The way he took to effect his design was this. He wrote to Polycrates that, in consequence of information upon which he could depend, Cambyses intended to destroy him by assassination, he designed to withdraw to Samos, and there to secure his treasure and effects; for which end he was determined to deposit them in the hands of Polycrates, and at the same time make him a present of one half of it, which would enable him to conquer Ionia and the adjacent islands, a project he had long had in view. Oretes knew the tyrant loved money, and passionately coveted to enlarge his dominions. He therefore laid that double bait before him, by which he equally tempted his avarice and ambition. Polycrates, that he might not rashly engage in an affair of that importance, thought it proper to inform himself more surely of the truth of the matter, and to that end sent a messenger of his own to Sardis. Oretes had caused eight large chests to be filled with stones almost to the top, but had covered the stones with pieces of gold coin. These chests were packed up, and appeared ready to be sent on board ship: but they were opened before the messenger, on his arrival, and he supposed that they were filled with gold. As soon as he was returned home, Polycrates, impatient to go and seize his prey, set out for Sardis, contrary to the advice of all his friends; and took along with him Democedes, a celebrated physician of Crotona. Immediately on his arrival, Oretes had him arrested, as an enemy to the state, and as such caused him to be hanged in such an ignominious and shameful manner did he end a life which had been but one continued series of prosperity and good fortune. 5 Cambyses, in the beginning of the eighth year of his reign, left Egypt, in order to return into Persia. When he came into Syria, he found a herald there, sent from Susa to the army to let them know that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, had been proclaimed king, and to command them all to obey him. This event had been brought about in the following manner: Cambyses, at his departure from Susa on his Egyptian expedition, had left the administration of affairs during his absence in the hands of Patisithes, one of the chief of the Magi. This Patisithes had a brother extremely like Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, and who perhaps for that reason was called by the same name. As soon as Patisithes was fully assured of the death of that prince, which had been concealed from the public, knowing, at the same time, that Cambyses indulged his extravagance to such a degree that he was grown insupportable, he placed his own brother upon the throne, giving out that he was the true Smerdis, the son of Cyrus; and immediately despatched heralds into all parts of the empire, to give notice of Smerdis's accession, and to require all the subjects thereof to pay him their obedience. Cambyses caused the herald, that came with these orders into Syria, to be arrested; and having strictly examined him in the presence of Prexaspes, who had received orders to kill his brother, he found that the true Smerdis was certainly dead, and he who had usurped the throne, was no other than Smerdis the Magian. Upon 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 its scabbard, and gave him a wound in his thigh, of which he died soon after. The Egyptians remarking that it was in 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. things for their benefit, that his death was much la mented 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 se 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: understand-cond message desired her to enquire of Atossa (who ing 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 only 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. CHAPTER III. THE HISTORY OF SMERDIS THE MAGIAN. THIS prince is called in ScripA. M. 3482. ture Artaxerxes. He reigned litAnt. J. C. 522. tle 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, 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 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 nobleman, 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. 8 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 VOL. 1.-19 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 many of them as they could find. For which reason, the day on 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 animal, that acts only by caprice and passion. A king, said he, at least knows what he does; but the people neither know nor hear any 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 inconveniences 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 he most advantageous: inexpressibly great being the good that can be done by a prince, whose power is equal to the goodness of his inclinations. In short, said he, to determine this 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 foot 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 imagined, that taking this course, would be giving him the honour 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 Achæmenes. The Persian empire being thus restored and settled by the wisdom and valour of these geven 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, BABY LONIANS, 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 After which I shall narrate the causes of the declension and ruin of the great Persian empire. ARTICLE I. OF THEIR GOVERNMENT. After a short account of the nature of the government of Persia, and the manner of educating the children of their kings, I shall proceed to consider these four things: Their public council, wherein the affairs of state were considered; the administration of justice; their care of the provinces; and the good order observed in their finances. SECTION I.-THEIR MONARCHICAL FORM OF GOVERN MENT. THE RESPECT THEY PAID THEIR KINGS. THE is of all others the most ancient, the most universal, MONARCHICAL, or regal government, as we call it, the best adapted to keep the people in peace and vicissitudes incident to states. For these reasons the union, and the least exposed to the revolutions and wisest writers among the ancients, as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and, before them all, Herodotus, have been induced to prefer decidedly this form of government to all others. It is likewise the only form, that was ever established among the eastern nations, a republican government being utterly unknown in that part of the world. Herod. l. iii. c. 84-87. |