The first Messenian War. 1 went and settled at Tarentum in Italy, after driving out the ancient inhabitants." The first Messenian war lasted A. M. 3261. twenty years, and broke out the seAnt. J. C.743. cond year of the ninth Olympiad. The Lacedæmonians pretended to have received several considerable injuries from the Messenians, and among others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the inhabitants of Messenia, when they went, according to custom, to a temple that stood on the borders of the two nations; as also that of the murder of Telecles, their king, which was a consequence of the former outrage: Probably a desire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a territory which lay so convenient for them, might be the true cause of the war. But be that as it may, the war broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus, kings of Sparta, at the time when the office of archon at Athens was still de-casion, and for the same end, killed five Lacedæ At last in the eighth year of the war, which was the thirteenth of Euphaes's reign, a fierce and bloody battle was fought near Ithome. Euphaes pierced through the battalions of Theopompus with too much heat and precipitation for a king. He there received a multitude of wounds, several of which were mortal. He fell, and seemed to give up the ghost. Whereupon wonderful efforts of courage were exerted on both sides; by the one, to carry off the king; by the other to save him. Cleonnis killed eight Spartans, who were dragging him along, and spoiled them of their arms, which he committed to the custody of cennial. Euphaes, the thirteenth descendant from Hercules, was then king of Messenia. He gave the command of his army to Cleonnis. The Lacedæmonians opened the campaign with the siege of Amphea, a small inconsiderable city, which, however, they thought would suit them very well as a place for military stores. The town was taken by storm, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. This first blow served only to animate the Messenians, by showing them what they were to expect from the enemy, if they did not defend themselves with vigour. The Lacedæmonians, on their part, bound themselves by an oath, not to lay down their arms, nor return to Sparta, till they had made themselves masters of all the cities and lands belonging to the Messenians: so much did they rely upon their strength and valour. Two battles were fought, wherein the loss was nearly equal on both sides. But after the second, the Messenians suffered extremely through the want of provisions, which occasioned a great desertion among their troops, and at last brought a pestilence among them. Hereupon they consulted the oracle of Delphi, which directed them, in order to appease the wrath of the gods, to offer up a virgin of the royal blood in sacrifice. Aristomenes, who was of the race of the Epytides, offered his own daughter. The Messenians then considering, that if they left garrisons in all their towns, they should extremely weaken their army, resolved to abandon them all, except Ithome, a little place seated on the top of a hill of the same name, about which they encamped and fortified themselves. In this situation were seven years spent, during which nothing passed but slight skirmishes on both sides, the Lacedæmonians not daring in all that time to force the enemy to a battle. some of his soldiers. He himself received several wounds, all on the fore-part of his body, which was a certain proof that he had never turned his back upon his enemies. Aristomenes, fighting on the same oc monians, whose spoils he likewise carried off, without receiving any wound. In short, the king, was saved and carried off by the Messenians; and, all mangled and bloody as he was, he expressed great joy that he had not been worsted. Aristomenes, after the battle was over, met Cleonnis, who, by reason of his wounds, could neither walk by himself, nor with the assistance of those that lent him their hands. He therefore took him upon his shoulders, without quitting his arms, and carried him to the camp. As soon as they had applied the first dressing to the wounds of the king of Messenia and of his officers, there arose a new contention among the Messenians, that was pursued with as much warmth as the former, but was of a very different kind, and yet the consequence of the other. The affair in question was, the his valour most in the late engagement. It was a cusadjudging the prize of glory to him that had signalized tom among them, which had long been established, publicly to proclaim, after a battle, the name of the man that had showed the greatest courage. Nothing could be more proper to animate the officers and soldiers, to inspire them with resolution and intrepidity, and to stifle the natural apprehension of death and danger. Two illustrious champions entered the lists on this occasion, namely, Cleonnis and Aristomenes. The king, notwithstanding his weak condition, attended by the principal officers of his army, presided in the council, where this important dispute was to be decided. Each competitor pleaded his own cause. Cleonnis founded his pretensions upon the great number of the enemies he had slain, and upon the multitude of wounds he had received in the action, which were so many undoubted testimonies of the courage with which he had faced both death and danger; whereas, the condition in which Aristomenes came out of the engagement, without hurt and without wound, seemed to show, that he had been very careful of his own person, or, at most, could only prove, that he had been more fortunate, but not more brave or courageous, than himself. And as to his having carried him on his shoulders into the camp, that action indeed might serve to prove the strength of his body, but nothing farther; and the thing in dispute at this time, says he, is not strength but valour. Indeed, they almost despaired of being able to reduce them: nor was there any thing but the obligation of the oath, by which they had bound themselves, that made them continue so burdensome a war. What gave them the greatest uneasiness was, their apprehension, lest their absence from their wives for so many years, an absence which might still continue many more, should destroy their families at home, and leave Sparta destitute of citizens. To prevent The only thing Aristomenes was reproached for, this misfortune, they sent home such of their soldiers was, his not being wounded; therefore he confined as were come to the army since the forementioned himself to that point. "I am," says he, "called foroath had been taken, and made no scruple of pros-tunate, because I have escaped from the battle withtituting their wives to their embraces. The chil-out wounds. If that were owing to my cowardice, I dren that sprung from this unlawful intercourse, were called Partheniæ, a name given them to denote the infamy of their birth. As soon as they were grown up, not being able to endure such an opprobrious distinction, they banished themselves from Sparta with one consent, and under the conduct of Phalantus, should deserve another epithet than that of fortunate; Et regnata petam Laconi rura Phalanto. Hor. Od. vi. 1. 2. stipulated, that the Messenians, both men and women, oppose me, it is no small degree of merit that I made | corn they should reap every harvest. It was likewise them fear me; or if, whilst they engaged me, I had at the same time strength to cut them in pieces, and skill to guard against their attacks, I must then have been at once both valiant and prudent. For whoever, in the midst of an engagement, can expose himself to dangers with caution and security, shows, that he excels at the same time both in the virtues of the mind and the body. As for courage, no man living can reproach Cleonnis with any want of it; but for his honour's sake, I am sorry that he should appear to want gratitude." After the conclusion of these harangues, the question was put to the vote. The whole army is in suspense, and impatiently waits for the decision. No dispute could be so warm and interesting as this. It is not a competition for gold or silver, but solely for honour. The proper reward of virtue is pure disinterested glory. Here the judges are unsuspected. The actions of the competitors still speak for them. It is the king himself, surrounded with his officers, who presides and adjudges. A whole army are the witnesses. The field of battle is a tribunal without partiality and cabal. In short, all the votes concurred in favour of Aristomenes, and adjudged him the prize. Euphaes died not many days after the decision of this affair. He had reigned thirteen years, and during all that time had been engaged in war with the Lacedæmonians. As he died without children, he left the Messenians at liberty to choose his successor. Cleonnis and Damis were candidates in opposition to Aristomenes; but he was elected king in preference to them. When he was on the throne, he did not scruple to confer on his two rivals the principal offices of the state: all strongly attached to the public good, even more than to their own glory; competitors, but not enemies; these great men were actuated by a zeal for their country, and were neither friends nor adversaries to one another, but for its preservation. In this relation, I have followed the opinion of the late Monsieur Boivin' the elder, and have made use of his learned dissertation upon a fragment of Diodorus Siculus, which the world was little acquainted with. He supposes and proves in it, that the king spoken of in that fragment is Euphaes; and that Aristomenes is the same that Pausanias calls Aristodemus, according to the custom of the ancients who were often called by two different names. Aristomenes, otherwise called Aristodemus, reigned near seven years, and was equally esteemed and beloved by his subjects. The war still continued all this time. Towards the end of his reign he beat the Lacedæmonians, took their king Theopompus, and in honour of Jupiter of Ithome, sacrificed three hundred of them, among whom their king was the principal victim. Shortly after, Aristodemus sacrificed himself upon the tomb of his daughter, in conformity to the answer of an oracle. Damis was his successor, but without taking upon him the title of king. After his death, the Messenians never had any success in their affairs, but found themselves in a very wretched and hopeless condition. Being reduced to the last extremity, and utterly destitute of provisions, they abandoned Ithome, and fled to such of their allies as were nearest to them. The city was immediately razed, and the other part of the country submitted. They were made to engage by oath never to forsake the party of the Lacedæmonians, and never to revolt from them; a very useless precaution, only proper to make them add the guilt of perjury to their rebellion. Their new masters imposed no tribute upon them; but contented themselves with obliging them to bring to the Spartan market one half of the Pausan. 1. v. p. 235, 241. THE SECOND MESSENIAN WAR. The lenity with which the Lacedæmonians treated the Messenians at first, was of no long duration. When once they found the whole country had submitted, and thought the people incapable of giving them any farther trouble, they returned to their natural character of insolence and haughtiness, that often degenerated into cruelty, and sometimes even into ferocity. Instead of treating the vanquished with kindness, as friends and allies, and endeavouring by gentle methods to win those whom they had subdued by force, they seemed intent upon nothing but aggravating their yoke, and making them feel the whole weight of subjection. They laid heavy taxes upon them, delivered them up to the avarice of the collectors of those taxes, gave no ear to their complaints, rendered them no justice, treated them with contempt like vile slaves, and committed the most heinous outrages against them. Man, who is born for liberty, can never reconcile himself to servitude: the most gentle slavery exasperates, and provokes him to rebel. What could be expected then from so cruel a one as that under which the Messenians groaned? After having endured it with great uneasiness near forty years, they resolved to throw off the yoke, and to recover their ancient liberty. This was in the fourth year of the twenty-third Olympiad : the office of archon at Athens was then made annual; and Anaxander and Anaxidamus reigned at Sparta. A. M. 3320. Ant. J. C. 684. The Messenians' first care was to strengthen themselves by the alliance of the neighbouring nations. These they found well inclined to enter into their views, as very agreeable to their own interests. For it was not without jealousy and apprehensions, that they saw so powerful a city rising up in the midst of them, which manifestly seemed to aim at extending her dominion over all the rest. The people therefore of Elis, the Argives and Sicyonians, declared for the Messenians. But before their forces were joined, a battle was fought between the Lacedæmonians and Messenians. Äristomenes," the second of that name, was at the head of the latter. He was a commander of intrepid courage, and of great abilities in war. The Lacedæmonians were beaten in this engagement. Aristomenes, to give the enemy at first an advanta geous opinion of his bravery, knowing what influence it has on the success of future enterprise, boldly ventured to enter into Sparta by night, and upon the gate of the temple of Minerva, surnamed Chalciccos, to hang up a shield, on which was an inscription, signifying, that it was a present offered by Aristomenes to the goddess out of the spoils of the Lacedæmonians. This bravado did in reality astonish the Lacedæmonians. But they were still more alarmed at the formidable league that was formed against them. The Delphic oracle, which they consulted, in order to know by what means they should be successful in this war, directed them to send to Athens for a com5 Pausan. p. 242. 261. Justin. 1. iii. c. 5. Cùm per complures annos gravia servitutis verbera, plerumque et vincula, cæteraque captivitatis mala perpessi 2 Memoirs of the Academy of inscriptions, vol. ii. p. 84-essent, post longam pœnarum patientiam bellum instaurant. Justin. l. iii, c. 5. Clem. Alex. in Protrep. p. 20. Euseb. in Præp. 1. iv, 113. c. 16. According to several historians, there was another Aristomenes in the first Messenian war. Diod. 1, xv. p 378, mander, and to submit to his counsel and conduct. I wholly intent upon the preservation of their country This was a very mortifying step to so haughty a city and their own glory. as Sparta. But the fear of incurring the god's displeasure, by a direct disobedience, prevailed over all other considerations. They sent an embassy therefore to the Athenians. The people of Athens were somewhat perplexed at the request. On the one hand they were not sorry to see the Lacedæmonians at war with their neighbours, and were far from desiring to furnish them with a good general: on the other, they were afraid also of disobeying the god. To extricate themselves out of this difficulty, they offered the Lacedæmonians Tyrtæus. He was a poet by profession, and had something original in the turn of his mind, and disagreeable in his person; for he was lame. Notwithstanding these defects, the Lacedæmonians received him as a general sent them by Heaven itself. Their success did not at first answer their expectation, for they lost three battles successively. The kings of Sparta, discouraged by so many disappointments, and out of all hopes of better success for the future, were absolutely bent upon returning to Sparta, and marching home again with their forces. Tyrtæus opposed this design very warmly, and at length brought them over to his opinion. He addressed the troops, and repeated to them some verses he had made with that intention, and on which he had bestowed great pains and application. He first endeavoured to comfort them for their past losses, which he imputed to no fault of theirs, but only to ill fortune, or to fate, which no human wisdom can surmount. He then represented to them, how shameful it would be for Spartans to fly from an enemy; and how glorious it would be for them rather to perish sword in hand, if it was so decreed by fate, in fighting for their country. Then, as if all danger was vanished, and the gods, fully satisfied and appeased with their late calamities, were entirely turned to their side, he set victory before their eyes as present and certain, and as if she herself were inviting them to battle. All the ancient authors, who have made any mention of the style and character of Tyrteus's poetry, observe, that it was full of a certain fire, ardour, and enthusiasm, that inflamed the minds of men, that exalted them above themselves, that inspired them with something generous and martial, that extinguished all fear and apprehension of danger or death, and made them 1 Tyrtaus's verses had really this effect on the soldiers upon this occasion. They all desired, with one voice, to march against the enemy. Being become indiffe rent as to their lives, they had no thoughts but to secure themselves the honour of a burial. To this end they all tied strings round their right arms, on which were inscribed their own and their fathers' names, that, if they chanced to be killed in the battle, and to have their faces so altered through time, or accidents, as not to be distinguishable, it might certainly be known who each of them was by these marks. Soldiers determined to die are very valiant. This appeared in the battle that ensued. It was very bloody, the victory being a long time disputed on both sides: but at last the Messenians gave way. When Tyrtaus went afterwards to Sparta, he was received with the greatest marks of distinction, and incorporated into the body of citizens. The gaining of this battle did not put an end to the war, which had already lasted three years. Aristomenes, having assembled the remains of his army, retired to the top of a mountain, of difficult access, which was called Ira. The conquerors attempted to carry the place by assault, but that brave prince defended himself there for the space of eleven years, and performed the most extraordinary actions of valour. He was at last obliged to quit it, only by surprise and treachery, after having defended it like a lion. Such of the Messenians as fell into the hands of the Lacedæmonians on this occasion, were reduced to the condition of the Helots. The rest, seeing their country ruined, went and settled at Zancle, a city in Sicily, which afterwards took its name from this people, and was called Messana; the same place as is called at this day Messina. Áristomenes, after having conducted one of his daughters to Rhodes, whom he had given in marriage to the tyrant of that place, thought of passing on to Sardis, to remain with Ardys, king of the Lydians, or to Ecbatana, with Phraortes, king of the Medes; but death prevented the execution of all his designs. The second Messenian war was of fourteen years' duration, and ended the first year of the twentyseventh Olympiad. A. M. 3333. Ant. J. C. 671. There was a third war between these people and the Lacedæmonians, which began both at the time, 1 Plat. l. i. de Legib. p. 629. Plut. in Agid. et Cleom. p. and on the occasion, of a great earthquake that hap 805. 2 Tyrtæusque mares animos in martia bella Versibus exacuit. Hor. in Art. Poet. pened at Sparta. We shall speak of this war in its place. VOLL-F INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF PHILIP KING OF MACEDONIA AND ALEXANDER THE GREAT. WHICH FORMED VOL. VI. OF THE 1st EDITION, AND COMMENCES PAGE 477. VOL. I. OF THIS EDITION THE reigns of Philip king of Macedon, and Alexander his son, which are the subject of this volume, contain the space of thirty-six years; the reign of the former including twenty-four, and that of the latter twelve. They extend from the first year of the cvth Olympiad, or the year of the world 3644, to the first year of the cxivth Olympiad, which answers to the year of the world 3680. The kings who reigned during that time in Persia, were Artaxerxes, Ochus, Arses, and Darius Codomanus. The Persian empire expired with the last. We know not any thing concerning the transactions of the Jews during these thirty-six years, except what we are told by Josephus, Book xi. chap. 7 and 8, of his Antiquities of the Jews, under the high-priests John or Johanan, and Jaddus. These will be mentioned in the course of this history, with which that of the Jews is intermixed. The above mentioned space of thirty-six years (with respect to the Roman history,) extends from the 393d to the 429th year from the foundation of Rome. The great men who made the most conspicuous figure among the Romans during that space of time, were Appius Claudius the dictator, T. Quinctius Capitolinus, Tit. Manlius Torquatus, L. Papirius Cursor, M. Valerius Corvinus, Q. Fabius Maximus, and the two Decii, who devoted themselves to death for the sake of their country. The names of Philip and Alexander, of whom we are now to speak, are so well known, that it would be superfluous to inform our readers, that the history of those two princes is very important and affecting. It were to be wished, that the entire life of Philip of Macedon, written by some ancient author, had come down to us; or (since we have no such life) that some modern writer had collected with care from various authors, the several circumstances relating to it. For want of this, I have had recourse chiefly to Demosthenes, and the interpreters of this orator; particularly to the notes of M. de Tourreil, and those of Signior Lucchesini, a noble patrician of Lucca, whose remarks are very learned. These notes were printed at Rome in 1732. With regard to Alexander the Great, not to mention Diodorus Siculus, and Justin; Quintus Curtius, Plutarch and Arrian, have treated very largely of that monarch. The latter, who was a disciple of Epicte tus, was of Nicomedia in Bithynia. He flourished under the emperor Adrian, and the two Antonines. Arrian was a soldier, as well as a philosopher and historian; and this appears from the descriptions he gives of battles, which are much more accurate and exact than those of Quintus Curtius. His style is simple and unadorned, and he makes but few or no reflections; but this simplicity is infinitely superior to the splendid diction of the Latin historian. Arrian wrote the campaigns of Alexander the Great in seven books, in imitation of Xenophon, who had related those of Cyrus, in the same number of books; which circumstance, with some resemblance in their styles, has occasioned his being sometimes called the modern Xenophon. His history of India, comprised in one book only, seems in some measure the sequel and conclusion of that of Alexander. Quintus Curtius wrote the same history in ten books; the two first of which were not transmitted to us but have been supplied by Freinshemius. The time in which Quintus Curtius lived is not exactly known, a circumstance which has occasioned a great dispute among the learned; some of whom place him under Augustus or Tiberius, others under Vespasian, and others again under Trajan. His style is florid and agreeable; his history abounds with judicious reflections and very beautiful speeches; but the latter are generally too long, and have too much the air of declamation. His thoughts though ingenious, and very often extremely just, have however a conceited glitter, an affected brightness, which do not seem to argue the character of the Augustan age. It would be surprising, if Quintus Curtius had lived before Quintilian, that the latter in his enumeration of the Latin authors, should have made no mention of so remarkable an historian. Be this as it will (for I leave the decision of it to the learned) I have made great use of that author, as well as of the excellent translation which M. de Vaugelas has given us of him. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER'S SUCCESSORS, WHICH OCCUPIES THE 7th, 8th, 9th, AND 10th VOLS. OF THE FIRST EDITION, AND WHICH COMMENCES AT PAGE 1. VOL. II. OF THIS EDITION. SECTION I. THE history, of which it remains for me to treat in this work, is that of the successors of Alexander, and comprehends the space of two hundred and ninetythree years; from the death of that morarch, and the commencement of the reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, in Egypt, to the death of Cleopatra, when that kingdom became a Roman province, under the emperor Augustus. tions and characters of men born for the calamity of the human race, and whose very name should not be transmitted to posterity? It may even be thought dangerous, to familiarize the minds of the generality of mankind to uninterrupted scenes of too successful iniquity; and to be particular in describing the unjust success which waited on those illustrious criminals, the long duration of whose prosperity being frequently attended with the privileges and rewards of virtue, may be thought an imputation on Providence, by persons of weak understandings. The history will present to our view a series of all the crimes which usually arise from inordinate ambi- This history, which seems likely to prove very tion; scenes of jealousy and perfidy, treason, ingra- disagreeable, from the reasons I have just mentioned, titude, and flagrant abuses of sovereign power; cruelty, will become more so from the obscurity and confusion impiety, an utter oblivion of the natural sentiments of in which the several transactions will be involved, and probity and honour, with the violation of all laws, which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to remedy. human and divine, will rise before us. We shall be- Ten or twelve of Alexander's captains were engaged hold nothing but fatal dissensions, destructive wars, in a course of hostilities against each other, for the and dreadful revolutions. Men, originally friends, partition of his empire after his death; and to secure brought up together, and natives of the same country, to themselves some portion greater or less, of that companions in the same dangers, and instruments in vast body. Sometimes feigned friends, sometimes the accomplishment of the same exploits and victories, declared enemies, they are continually forming differwill conspire to tear in pieces the empire they had all ent parties and leagues, which are to subsist no longconcurred to form at the expense of their blood. Weer than is consistent with the interest of each indivishall see the captains of Alexander sacrifice the dual. Macedonia changed its master five or six times mother, the wives, the brother, and sisters, of that in a very short space; by what means then can order prince, to their own ambition; without sparing even and perspicuity be preserved, in so prodigious a variethose to whom they themselves either owed, or gave, ty of events that are perpetually crossing and breaklife. We shall no longer behold those glorious times ing in upon each other? of Greece, that were once so productive of great men and great examples; or, if we should happen to discover some traces and remains of them, they will only resemble the gleams of lightning that shoot along in a rapid track, and attract attention only in consequence of the profound darkness that precedes and follows them. Besides which, I am no longer supported by any ancient authors capable of conducting me through this darkness and confusion. Diodorus will entirely abandon me, after having been my guide for some time; and no other historian will appear to take his place. No proper series of affairs will remain; the several events are not to be disposed into any regular connexion with each other; nor will it be possible to point out, either the motives to the resolutions formed, or the proper character of the principal actors in this scene of obscurity. I think myself happy when Polybius, or Plutarch, lend me their assistance. In my account of Alexander's successors, whose transactions are, perhaps, the most complicated and perplexed part of ancient history, Usher, Prideaux, and Vaillant, will be my usual guides; and on many occasions, I shall only transcribe from Prideaux; but, with all these aids, I shall not promise to throw so much light upon this his I acknowledge myself to be sufficiently sensible how much a writer is to be pitied, for being obliged to represent human nature in such colours and lineaments as dishonour her, and which cannot fail of inspiring disgust, and a secret affliction in the minds of those who are made spectators of such a picture. History loses whatever is most interesting and most capable of conveying pleasure and instruction, when she can only produce those effects, by inspiring the mind with horror for criminal actions, and by a representation of the calamities which usually succeed them, and are to be considered as their just punish-tory as I could desire. ment. It is difficult to engage the attention of a reader, for any considerable time, on objects which only raise his indignation; and it would be affronting him, to seem desirous of dissuading him from the excess of inordinate passions, of which he conceives himself incapable. How is it possible to diffuse any interest through a narration, which has nothing to offer but a uniform series of vices and great crimes; and which makes it necessary to enter into a particular detail of the ac After a war of more than twenty years, the number of the principal competitors was reduced to four : Ptolemy, Cassander, Seleucus, and Lysimachus; the empire of Alexander was divided into four fixed kingdoms, agreeably to the prediction of Daniel, by a solemn treaty concluded between the parties. Three of these kingdoms, Egypt, Macedonia, Syria, or Asia, will have a regular succession of monarchs, sufficiently clear and distinct; but the fourth, which comprehended Thrace, with part of the Lesser Asia, and some |