had for his service in conducting the Persian noble- | pleased to send him instructions how he was to act in men thither, particularly to the maritime towns, in or- the affair. Darius having commanded the registers der to observe their situa on and strength: at the to be examined, the edict was found at Ecbatana, same time earnestly desiring him, that, when that in Media, the place where Cyrus was at the time of its was done, he would return back with them to Persia. being granted. Now Darius having a great respect The king permitted him to carry all his moveables for the memory of that prince, confirmed his edict, with him, and give them, if he pleased, to his father and caused another to be drawn up, wherein the forand brothers, promising, at his return, to give him as mer was referred to, and ratified. This motive of remany of greater value; and signified to him farther, gard to the memory of Cyrus, had there been nothing that he would order the galley in which he was to else to influence the king, would be very laudable; sail, to be laden with very rich presents, for him to be- but the Scripture informs us, that it was God himself stow as he thought fit on the rest of his family. The who influenced the mind and heart of the king, and king's intention appeared, by this manner of speaking, inspired him with a favourable disposition to the Jews. to be undisguised and without artifice: but Demo- The truth of this appears pretty plain from the edict cedes was afraid it might be a snare laid for him, to itself. In the first place it ordains, that all the vicdiscover whether he intended to return to Persia or tims, oblations, and other expenses of the temple, be not; and therefore, to remove all suspicion, he left his abundantly furnished the Jews, as the priests should own goods behind him at Susa, and only took with require: in the second place it enjoins the priests of him the presents designed for his family. Jerusalem, when they offered their sacrifices to the God of Heaven, to pray for the preservation of the life of the king and the princes his children; and lastly, it goes so far as to denounce imprecations against all princes and people, that should hinder the carrying on of the building of the temple, or that should attempt to destroy it: by all which Darius evidently acknowledges, that the God of Israel is able to overturn the kingdoms of the world, and to dethrone the most mighty and powerful princes. The first place the commissioners landed at was Sidon in Phoenicia, where they equipped two large vessels for themselves, and put all they had brought along with them on board a transport. After having passed through, and carefully examined the chief cities of Greece, they went to Tarentum in Italy. Here the Persian noblemen were taken up as spies; and Democedes, taking advantage of this arrest, made his escape from them, and fled to Crotona. When the Persian lords had recovered their liberty, they pursued him thither, but could not prevail upon the Crotonians to deliver up their fellow-citizen. The city moreover seized the loaded vessel; and the Persians, having lost their guide, laid aside the thoughts of going through the other parts of Greece, and set out for their own country. Democedes let them know, at their departure, that he was going to marry the daughter of Milo, a famous wrestler of Crotona, whose name was very well known to the king. This voyage of the Persian noblemen into Greece, was attended with no immediate consequence; because, on their return home, they found the king engaged in other affairs. By virtue of this edict, the Jews were not only authorized to proceed in the building of their temple, but all the expenses thereof were also to be furnished to them out of the taxes and imposts of the province. What must have become of the Jews, when the crimes of disobedience and rebellion were laid to their charge, if at such a juncture their superiors had only hearkened to their enemies, and not given them leave to justify themselves! 3 The same prince, some time after, gave a still more signal proof of his love for justice, and of his abhorrence of informers, a detestable race of men, by their very nature and condition enemies to all merit and all virtue. It is pretty obvious that I mean the faIn the third year of this king's mous edict, published by this prince against Haman, A. M. 3485. reign, which was but the second ac-in favour of the Jews, at the request of Esther, whom Ant. J. C. 519. cording to the Jewish computation, the king had taken to his bed in the room of Vashti, the Samaritans gave the Jews new one of his wives. According to Archbishop Usher, trouble. In the preceding reigns, they had procured this Vashti is the same person as is called by profane an order to prohibit the Jews from proceeding any writers Atossa; and the Ahasuerus of the Holy farther in building of the temple of Jerusalem. But Scriptures the same as Darius; but according to othupon the earnest exhortation of the prophets, and the ers, it is Artaxerxes. The fact is well known, being express order of God, the Israelites had lately resum-related in the sacred history: I have given, however, ed the work, which had been interrupted for several a brief account of it in this volume. years, and carried it on with great vigour. The Samaritans had recourse to their ancient practices, to prevent them. To this end they applied to Tatnai, whom Darius had made governor of the provinces of Syria and Palestine. They complained to him of the audacious proceeding of the Jews, who, of their own authority, and in defiance of the prohibitions to the contrary, presumed to rebuild their temple: which must necessarily be prejudicial to the king's interests. Upon this representation of theirs, the governor thought fit to go himself to Jerusalem. And being a person of great equity and moderation, when he had inspected the work, he did not think proper to proceed violently, and to put a stop to it without any farther deliberation; but inquired of the Jewish elders what license they had for entering upon a work of that nature. The Jews hereupon producing the edict of Cyrus, he would not of himself ordain any thing in contradiction to it, but sent an account of the matter to the king, and desired to know his pleasure. He gave the king a true representation of the matter, acquainting him with the edict of Cyrus, which the Jews alleged in their justification, and desired him to order the registers to be consulted, to know whether Cyrus had really published such an edict, and to be Ezra Such actions of justice do great honour to a prince's memory; as do also those of gratitude, of which Darius, on a certain occasion, gave a very laudable instance. Syloson, brother to Polycrates tyrant of Samos, had once made Darius a present of a suit of clothes, of a curious red colour, which extremely pleased Darius's fancy, and would never suffer him to make any return for it. Darius at that time was but a private gentleman, an officer in the guards of Cambyses, whom he accompanied to Memphis, in his Egyptian expedition. When Darius was on the throne of Persia, Syloson went to Susa, presented himself at the gate of his palace, and caused himself to be announced as a Grecian, to whom his majesty was under some obligation. Darius, surprized at such a message, and curious to know the truth of it, ordered him to be brought in. When he saw him, he remembered him, and acknowledged him to have been his benefactor; and was so far from being ashamed of an adventure which might seem not to be much for his honour, that he ingeniously applauded the gentleman's generosity, which proceeded from no other motive than that of doing a pleasure to a person from whom he could have no expectations; and then proposed to make him a considerable present of gold and silver. But money was not the thing Syloson desi- | before him all over blood, with his nose and ears red: the love of his country was his predominant passion. The favour he required of the king was, that he would settle him at Samos, without shedding the blood of his citizens, by driving out the person that had usurped the government since the death of his brother. Darius consented, and committed the conduct of the expedition to Otanes, one of the principal lords of his court, who undertook it with joy, and performed it with success.1 SECTION II.-REVOLT AND REDUCTION OF BABYLON. In the beginning of the fifth year of A. M. 3488. Darius, Babylon revolted, and could Ant. J. C. 516. not be reduced till after a twenty months' siege. This city, formerly mistress of the East, grew impatient of the Persian yoke, especially after the removing of the imperial seat to Susa, which very much diminished Babylon's wealth and grandeur. The Babylonians, taking advantage of the revolution that happened in Persia, first on the death of Cambyses, and afterwards on the massacre of the Magians, made secretly for four years together all kinds of preparations for war. When they thought the city sufficiently stored with provisions for many years, they set up the standard of rebellion; which obliged Darius to besiege them with all his forces. Now God continued to accomplish those terrible threatenings he had denounced against Babylon that he would not only humble and bring down that proud and impious city, but depopulate and lay it waste with fire and blood, utterly exterminate it, and reduce it to an eternal solitude. In order to fulfil these predictions, God permitted the Babylonians to rebel against Darius, and by that means to draw upon themselves the whole force of the Persian empire; and they themselves were the first to put these prophecies in execution, by destroying a great number of their own people, as will be seen presently. It is probable that the Jews, of whom a considerable number remained at Babylon, went out of the city before the siege was formed, as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah had exhorted them long before, and Zechariah very lately in the following terms: Thou Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon, flee from the country, and save thyself. The Babylonians, to make their provision last the longer, and to enable them to hold out with the greater vigour, took the most desperate and barbarous resolution that ever was heard of; which was, to destroy all such of their own people as were unserviceable on this occasion. For this purpose they assembled together all their wives and children, and strangled them. Only every man was allowed to keep his best beloved wife, and one servant-maid to do the business of the family. After this cruel execution, the unhappy remainder of the inhabitants, thinking themselves out of all danger both on account of their fortifications, which they Tooked upon as impregnable, and the vast quantity of provisions they had laid up, began to insult the besiegers from the tops of their walls, and to provoke them with opprobrious language. The Persians, for the space of eighteen months, did all that force or stratagem was capable of, to make themselves masters of the city; nor did they forget to make use of the same means as had so happily succeeded with Cyrus some years before; I mean that of turning the course of the river. But all their efforts were fruitless; and Darius began almost to despair of taking the place, when a stratagem, till then unheard of, opened the gates of the city to him. He was strangely surprised one morning to see Zopyrus, one of the chief noblemen of his court, and son of Megabyzus, who was one of the seven lords that made the association against the Magians; to see him, I say, appear 1 Herod. l. iii. c. 150-160, Isa. xlviii. 20. Jer. 1. 8. li. 6, 9, 45. Zech. ii. 6-9. cut off, and his whole body disfigured with wounds. Starting up from his throne, he cried out, Who is it, Zopyrus, that has dared to treat you thus ?—You yourself, O king, replied Zopyrus. The desire I had of rendering you service has put me into this condition. As I was fully persuaded that you never would have consented to this me thod, I took counsel alone of the zeal which I have for your service. He then opened to him his design of going over to the enemy; and they settled every thing together that was proper to be done. The king could not see him set out upon this extraordinary project without the utmost affliction and concern. Zopyrus approached the walls of the city; and having told them who he was, was soon admitted. They then carried him before the governor, to whom he laid open his misfortune, and the cruel treatment he had met with from Darius, for having dissuaded him from continuing any longer before a city which it was impossible for him to take. He offered the Babylonians his service, which could not fail of being highly useful to them, since he was acquainted with all the designs of the Persians, and since the desire of revenge would inspire him with fresh courage and resolution. His name and person were both well known at Babylon; the condition in which he appeared, his blood and his wounds, testified for him; and, by proofs not to be suspected, confirmed the truth of all he advanced. They therefore placed implicit confidence in whatsoever he told them, and gave him moreover the command of as many troops as he desired. In the first sally he made he cut off 1000 of the besiegers: a few days after he killed double the number; and on the third time, 4000 of their men lay dead upon the spot. All this had been before agreed upon between him and Darius. Nothing was now talked of in Babylon but Zopyrus; the whole city strove who should extol him most, and they had not words sufficient to express their high value for him, and how happy they esteemed themselves in having gained so great a man. He was now declared generalissimo of their forces, and intrusted with the care of guarding the walls of the city. Darius approaching with his army at the time agreed on between them, Zopyrus opened the gates to him, and made him by that means master of a city, which he never could have been able to take either by force or famine. As powerful as this prince was, he found himself incapable of making a sufficient recompense for so great a service; and he used often to say, that he would with pleasure sacrifice 100 Babylons, if he had them, to restore Zopyrus to the condition he was in before he inflicted that cruel treatment upon himself. He settled upon him, during life, the whole revenue of this opulent city, of which he alone had procured him the possession, and heaped all the honours upon him that a king could possibly confer upon a subject. Megabyzus, who commanded the Persian army in Egypt against the Athenians, was the son to this ZoPyrus: and that Zopyrus who went over to the Athenians as a deserter, was his grandson. No sooner was Darius in possession of Babylon, than he ordered the 100 gates to be pulled down, and all the walls of that proud city to be entirely demolished, that she might never be in a condition to rebel more against him. If he had pleased to make use of all the rights of a conqueror, he might upon this occasion have exterminated all the inhabitants. But he contented himself with causing 3000 of those who and granted a pardon to all the rest. And, in order were principally concerned in the revolt to be impaled, to hinder the depopulation of the city, he caused 50,000 women to be brought from the several provinces of his empire, to supply the place of those whom the inhabitants had so cruelly destroyed at the beginand thus did God execute his vengeance on that impi ning of the siege. Such was the fate of Babylon; ous city, for the cruelty she had exercised towards the Jews, in falling upon a free people without any reason or provocation; in destroying their government, laws, TION AGAINST THE SCYTHIANS. A DIGRESSION UPON AFTER the reduction of Babylon, A. M. 3490. Darius made great preparations for Ant. J. C. 514. war against the Scythians, who inhabited that large tract of land which lies between the Danube and the Tanais. His pretence for undertaking this war was, to be revenged of that nation for the invasion of Asia by their ancestors: a very frivolous and sorry pretext; and a very ridiculous ground for reviving an old quarrel, which had ceased 120 years before. with a knife, let some of their blood run into the wine, and stained likewise their armour therein; after which they themselves, and all that were present, drank of that liquor, uttering the heaviest imprecations against the person that should violate the treaty. But what the same historian relates, concerning the ceremonies observed at the funeral of their kings, of those ceremonies, as may serve to give us an idea. is still more extraordinary. I shall only mention such of the cruel barbarity of this people. When their king died, they embalmed his body, and wrapped it up in wax; this done, they put it into an open chariot, and carried it from city to city, exposing it to the view of all the people under his dominion. When this circuit was finished, they laid the body down in the place appointed for the burial of it, and there they made a large grave, in which they interred the king, and with him one of his wives, his chief cup-bearer, his great chamberlain, his master of horse, his chancellor, his secretary of state, who were all put to death for that purpose. To these they added several horses, While the Scythians were employed in that irrup- a great number of drinking vessels, and a certain part tion, which lasted eight-and-twenty years, the Scy- of all the furniture belonging to their deceased mothians' wives married their slaves. When the hus-narch: after which they filled up the grave, and coverbands were on their return home, these slaves went ed it with earth. This was not all. When the anniout to meet them with a numerous army, and disputed versary of his interment came, they cut the throats of their entrance into their country. After some battles fifty more of the dead king's officers, and of the same fought with nearly equal loss on both sides, the mas- number of horses, and, having first prepared their bo ters considering that it was doing too much honour to dies for the purpose, by embowelling them and stufftheir slaves to put them upon the foot of soldiers, ing them with straw, they placed the officers on marched against them in the next encounter with horseback round the king's tomb, probably to serve whips in their hands, to make them remember their him as guards. These ceremonies in all appearance proper condition. This stratagem had the intended took their rise from a notion they might have of their effect for not being able to bear the sight of their king's being still alive; and upon this supposition masters thus armed, they all ran away. they judged it necessary, that he should have his court and ordinary officers still about him. Whether employments, which terminated in this manner, were much sought after, I will not determine. I designed in this place to imitate Herodotus, who in writing of this war takes occasion to give an ample account of all that relates to the customs and manners of the Scythians. But I shall be much more brief in my account of this matter than he is. A Digression concerning the Scythians. Formerly there were Scythians both in Europe and Asia, most of them inhabiting those parts that lie towards the North. I design now chiefly to treat of the first, namely, of the European Scythians. Historians, in the accounts they have left us of the manners and character of the Scythians, relate things of them that are entirely opposite and contradictory to one another. One while they represent them as the justest and most moderate people in the world: another while they describe them as a fierce and barbarous nation, which carried its cruelty to such excesses, as are shocking to human nature. This contrariety is a manifest proof, that those different characters are to be applied to different nations in that vast and extensive tract of country; and that, though they were all comprehended under one and the same general denomination of Scythians, we ought not to confound them or their characters together. It is now time to pass to the consideration of their manners and customs, milder and more humane; though possibly in another sense they may appear to be equally savage. The account I am going to give of them is chiefly taken from Justin.8 According to this author, the Scythians lived in great innocence and simplicity. They were ignorant indeed of all arts and sciences, but then they were equally unacquainted with vice. They did not make any division of their lands amongst themselves, says Justin: it would have been in vain for them to have done it; since they did not apply themselves to cultivate them. Horace, in one of his odes, of which I shall insert a part by and by, tells us, that some of them did cultivate a certain portion of land allotted to them for one year only, at the expiration of which they were relieved by others, who succeeded them on the same conditions. They had no houses, nor settled habita tion; but wandered continually with their cattle and their flocks from country to country. Their wives and children they carried along with them in waggons, covered with the skins of beasts, which were all the houses they had to dwell in. Justice? was observed and maintained amongst them through the natural Strabo has quoted authors, who mention some Scythians dwelling upon the coast of the Euxine sea, that cut the throats of all strangers who came amongst them, fed upon their flesh, and made pots and drink-temper and disposition of the people, and not by any ing vessels of their skulls, when they had dried them. Herodotus, in describing the sacrifices which the Scythians offered to the god Mars, says, they used to offer human victims. Their manner of making treaties, according to this author's account, was very strange and particular. They first poured wine into a large earthen vessel, and then the contracting parties, cutting their arms 1 Herod. l. iv. c. 1. Justin. 1. ii. c. 5. 2 Mention is made of this before. Strabo. 1. vii, p. 298. Herod. 1. iv. c. 62. This custom was still practised by the Iberians, who were originally Scythians, in the time of Tacitus, who makes mention of it. Ann. l. xii. c. 47. Herod, 1. iv. c. 70. compulsion of laws, with which they where wholly un- Herod, I. iv. c. 71, 72. I said before, that these manners of the Scythians | miums. That of Horace, I shall transcribe at large. might appear to some people very wild and savage. That poet does not confine it entirely to the ScythiAnd indeed, what can be said for a nation that has ans, but joins the Gete with them, who were their lands, and yet does not cultivate them; that has herds near neighbours. It is in that beautiful ode, where of cattle, of which they content themselves with eat- he inveighs against the luxury and irregularities of ing the milk, and neglect the flesh? The wool of the age in which he lived. After having told us, that their sheep might supply them with warm and com- peace and tranquillity of mind is not to be procured fortable clothes, and yet they use no other raiment either by immense riches, or sumptuous buildings, he than the skins of animals. But that which is the adds, A hundred times happier are the Scythians, who greatest demonstration of their ignorance and savage- roam about in their itinerant houses, their waggons; and ness, according to the general opinion of mankind, is happier even are the frozen Geta. With them the earth, their utter neglect of gold and silver, which have al- without being divided by landmarks, produceth her fruits, ways been had in such great request in all civilized which are gathered in common. There each man's tillage is but of one year's continuance; and when that term of his labour is expired, he is relieved by a successor, who takes his place, and manures the ground on the same conditions. There the innocent step-mothers form no cruel designs against the lives of their husbands' children by a former wife. The wives do no pretend to domineer over their husbands on account of their fortunes, nor are to be corrupted by the insinuating language of spruce adulterers. The greatest portion of the maiden is her father's and mother's virtue, her inviolable attachment to her husband, and her perfect disregard of all other men. They dare not be unfaithful, because they are convinced that infidelity is a crime, and its reward is death. nations. But, oh! how happy was this ignorance; how vastly preferable this savage state to our pretended politeness! This contempt of all the conveniences of life, says Justin, was attended with such an honesty and uprightness of manners, as hindered them from ever coveting their neighbours' goods. For the desire of riches can only take place, where riches can be made use of. And would to God, says the same author, we could see the same moderation prevail among the rest of mankind, and the like indifference to the goods of other people! The world would not then have seen wars perpetually succeeding one another in all ages, and in all countries: nor would the number of those that are cut off by the sword, exceed that of those who fall by the irreversible decree and law of nature. Justin finishes his character of the Scythians with a very judicious reflection. It is a surprising thing, says he, that a happy natural disposition, without the assistance of education, should have inspired the Scythians with such a wisdom and moderation, as the Grecians could not attain to, neither by the institutions of their legislators, nor the rules and precepts of all their philosophers; and that the manners of a barbarous nation should be preferable to those of a people so much improved and refined by the polite arts and sciences. So much more happy effects were produced by the ignorance of vice in the one, than by the knowledge of virtue in the other! The Scythian fathers thought with good reason that they left their children a valuable inheritance, when they left them in peace and union with one another. One of their kings, whose name was Scylurus, finding himself draw near his end, sent for all his children, and giving to each of them one after another a bundle of arrows tied fast together, desired them to break them. Each used his endeavours, but was not able to do it. Then untying the bundle, and giving them the arrows one by one, they were very easily broken.-Let this image, says the father, be a lesson to you of the mighty advantage that results from union and concord. In order to strengthen and enlarge these domestic advantages, the Scythians used to admit their friends into the same terms of union with them as their relations. Friendship was considered by them as a sacred and inviolable alliance, which differed but little from that which nature has put between brethren, and which they could not infringe without being guilty of a heinous crime. Ancient authors seem to have vied with each other who should most extol the innocence of manners, that reigned among the Scythians, by magnificent enco Hæc continentia illis morum quoque justitiam indidit, nihil alienum concupiscentibus. Quippe ibidem divitiarum cupido est, ubi et usus. Atque utinam reliquis mortalibus similis moderatio et abstinentia alieni foret! profectò non tantum bellorum per omnia secula terris omnibus continuaretur; neque plus hominum ferrum et arma, quàm naturalis fatorum conditio raperet. 2 Prorsus ut admirabile videatur, hoc illis naturam dare, quod Græci longâ sapientium doctrinà præceptisque philosophorum consequi nequeunt, coltosque mores inculta barbariæ collatione superari. Tantò plus in illis proficit vitiorum ignoratio, quàm in his cognitio virtutis! Plut. de garrul. p. 511. When we consider the manners and character of the Scythians without prejudice, can we possibly forbear to look upon them with esteem and admiration? Does not their manner of living, as to the exterior part of it at least, bear a great resemblance to that of the patriarchs, who had no fixed habitation; who did not till the ground; who had no other occupation than that of feeding their flocks and herds; and who dwelt in tents? Can we believe this people were much to be pitied, for not understanding, or rather for despising, the use of gold and silver? Is it not to be wished that those metals had for ever lain buried in the bowels of the earth,6 and that they had never been dug from thence to become the causes and instruments of almost every crime? What advantage could gold or silver be of to the Scythians, who valued nothing but what the necessities of men actually require, and who took care to set narrow bounds to those necessities? It is no wonder, that, living as they did, without houses, they should make no account of those arts that were so highly valued in other places, as architecture, sculpture, and painting; or that they should despise fine clothes and costly furniture, since they found the skins of beasts sufficient to defend them against the inclemency of the seasons. After all, can we truly say, that these pretended advantages contribute to the real happiness of life? Were those nations that had them in the greatest plenty, more healthful or robust than the Scythians? Did they live to a greater age than they? Or did they spend their lives in greater freedom and tranquillity, or a greater exemption from cares and troubles? Let us acknowledge, to the shame of ancient philosophy; the Scythians, who did Campestres meliùs Scythæ, Quorum plaustra vagas ritè trahunt domos, Dos est magna parentium Et peccare nefas, aut pretium est mori. • Aurum irrepertum, et sic meliùs situm Hor. Lib. iii. Od. 3. not particularly apply themselves to the study of wis- Asia; but in reality he had no other end than to satisfy dom, carried it however to a greater height in their his own ambition, and to extend his conquests. practice, than either the Egyptians, Grecians, or any His brother Artabanes, for whom he had a great other civilized nation. They did not give the name regard, and who, on his side, had no less zeal for the of goods or riches to any thing, but what, humanly true interests of the king his brother, thought it speaking, truly deserved that title; as health, strength, his duty on this occasion to speak his sentiments with courage, the love of labour and liberty, innocence of all the freedom that an affair of such importance relife, sincerity, an abhorrence of all fraud and dissimu-quired. Great prince, says he to him, they who form lation, and, in a word, all such such qualities as render any great enterprise, ought carefully to consider, whether a man more virtuous and more valuable. If to these it will be beneficial or prejudicial to the state; whether happy dispositions, we could add the knowledge and the execution of it will be easy or difficult; whether it be love of the true God and of our Redeemer, without likely to augment or diminish their glory; and lastly, which the most exalted virtues are of no value, they whether the thing designed be consistent with, or contrary would have been a perfect people. to, the rules of justice. For my own part, I cannot perceive, sir, even though you were sure of success, what advantage you can propose to yourself in undertaking a war against the Scythians. Consider the vast distance between them and you; and the prodigious space of land and sea that separates them from your dominions; besides, they are a people that dwell in wild and uncultivated deinserts; that have neither towns nor houses; that have no fixed settlement, or place of habitation ; and that are destitute of all manner of riches. What have your troops to gain from such an expedition ? or, to speak more properly, what have they not rather to lose? When we compare the manners of the Scythians with those of the present age, we are tempted to believe, that the pencils which drew so beautiful a picture, were not free from partiality and flattery; and that both Justin and Horace have decked them with virtues that did not belong to them. But all antiquity agrees in giving the same testimony of them; and Homer particular, whose opinion ought to be of great weight, calls them the most just and upright of men. But at length (who could believe it?) luxury, which might be thought to thrive only in an agreeable and delightful soil, penetrated into this rough and unculti- Accustomed as the Scythians are to remove from counvated region; and breaking down the fences, which try to country, if they should think proper to fly before the constant practice of several ages, founded in the you, not out of cowardice or fear, for they are a very nature of the climate and the genius of the people, had courageous and warlike people, but only with a design to set against it, did at last effectually corrupt the man- | harass and ruin your army by continual and fatiguing ners of the Scythians, and bring them, in that respect, marches; what will become of us in such an uncultiva upon a level with the other nations, where it had long ted, barren, and naked country, where we shall neither been predominant. It is Strabo1 that acquaints us with find forage for our horses, nor provision for our men? this particular, which is very worthy of our notice: he I am afraid, sir, that through a false notion of glory, and lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius. After hav- the insinuations of flatterers, you may be hurried into a ing greatly commended the simplicity, frugality, and in-war, which may turn to the dishonour of the nation. You nocence, of the ancient Scythians, and their extreme aversion to all deceit and dissimulation, he owns, that their intercourse in later times with other nations, had extirpated those virtues, and planted the contrary vices in their stead. One would think, says he, that the natural effect of such an intercourse with civilized and polite nations, would only have been that of rendering them more humanized and courteous, by softening that air of savageness and ferocity, which they had before: but, instead of that, it introduced a total ruin of their ancient manners, and transformed them into quite different creatures. It is undoubtedly with reference to this change that Athenæus says,2 the Scythians abandoned themselves to voluptuousness and luxury, at the same time that they suffered self-interest and avarice to prevail amongst them. Strabo, in making the remark I have been mentioning, does not deny, but that it was to the Romans and Grecians this fatal change of manners was owing. Our example, says he, has perverted almost all the nations of the world: by carrying the refinements of luxury and pleasure amongst them, we have taught them insincerity and fraud, and a thousand kinds of shameful and infamous arts to get money. It is a miserable talent, and a very unhappy distinction for a nation, through its ingenuity in inventing modes, and refining upon every thing that tends to nourish and promote luxury, to become the corrupter of all its neighbours, and the author, as it were, of their vices and debauchery. It was against these Scythians, but at a time when they were yet uncorrupted, and in their utmost vigour, that Darius turned his arms. This expedition I am now going to relate. SECTION IV.-DARIUS'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE now enjoy the sweets of peace and tranquillity in the midst of your people, where you are the object of their admiration, and the author of their happiness. You are sensible the gods have placed you upon the throne to be their coadjutor, or, to speak more properly, to be the dispenser of their bounty, rather than the minister of their power. You pride yourself upon being the protector, the guardian, and the father of your subjects: and you often declare to us, because you really believe so, that you look upon yourself as invested with sovereign power, only to make your people happy. What exquisite joy must it be to so great a prince as you are, to be the source of so many blessings: and under the shadow of your name to preserve such infinite numbers of people in so desirable a tranquillity! Is not the glory of a king who loves his subjects, and is beloved by them; who, instead of waging war against neighbouring or distant nations, makes use of his power to keep them in peace and amity with each other; is not such a glory infinitely preferable to that of ravaging and spoiling a country, of filling the earth with slaughter and desolation, with horror, consternation, and despair? But there is one motive more, which ought to have a greater influence upon you than all others; I mean that of justice. Thanks to the gods, you are not of the number of those princes, who acknowledge no other law than that of force,5 and who imagine that they have a peculiar privilege annexed to their dignity, which private persons have not, of invading other men's properties. You do not make your greatness consist in being able to do whatever you will, but in willing only what may be done without infringing the laws, or violating justice. To speak plain, shall one man be reckoned unjust, and a robber, for seizing on a few acres of his neighbour's estate; and shall another be Omnes qui magnarum rerum consilia suscipiunt, æstimare debent, an, quod inchoatur, reipublicæ utile, ipsis gloriosum, aut promptum effectu, aut certè non arduum sit, Tacit. Hist. l. ii. c. 76. tinere privata domus: de alienis certare, regiam laudem Id in summâ fortunâ æquius, quod validius: et sua re esse. Tacit. Annal. 1. xxv. c. 1. Ut felicitatis est quantum velis posse, sic magnitudinis velle quantum possis. Plin, in Panegyr. Traj. |