PART I. honourable; in the other, superstitious, weak and selfish. Be the motives of Amasis, however, what they might, for renouncing the alliance of the tyrant of Samos, the subtile genius of Polycrates turned that circumstance to his own advantage. When he understood Cambyses was preparing to invade Egypt, he desired him to ask assistance from the Samians; and sent, as we have seen, forty gallies, to augment the Persian naval force". These gallies the artful tyrant manned with such of the Samians as he suspected of seditious designs, and requested the Persian monarch never to suffer them to quit his service32. Ever That The disaffected Samians, however, returned to their native island. But they were not allowed to remain there, being violently expelled by Polycrates 33. In this extremity, they implored the assistance of the Lacedæmonians, who had long considered themselves as the arbiters of Greece. willing to extend their influence, the Lacedæmonians furnished the Samian exiles with an army. army was embarked on board a Corinthian fleet; and landed, without opposition, in the island of Samos3+. Polycrates put himself at the head of his forces, and repulsed the invaders. He was at length, however, obliged to take refuge within the walls of his capital, whence he made frequent sallies. And the Lacedæmonians, after lying before it six weeks, found themselves under the necessity of raising the siege; and returned, with their Corinthian confederates, to Peloponnesus35. The Samian exiles, now abandoned to their fate, commenced pirates; 31. Id. Historiar. lib. iii. cap. xliv. 32. Id. ibid. and and after plundering several islands, settled in Crete, LETTER where they built the city of Cydonia3. Thus finally rid of a dangerous body of malecontents, who had sought the subversion of his throne, and having resisted the combined force of the two greatest naval and military powers in European Greece, Polycrates became more formidable than ever. Nor did he fear a reverse of fortune. Laying it down as a maxim, "That he made more friends, 66 by restoring part of the booty he had unjustly seized, "than he could by abstaining from violence," he set no bounds to his piratical depredations37. King of the ocean, and in a manner lord of all the islands in the Egean sea, he aspired at the entire conquest of those islands, and also of the Grecian cities on the Asiatic coast38. A similar design seems, at the same time, to have been formed by Oroites, satrap of Sardis; who, having under his command all the Persian forces in Asia Minor, could compel the Asiatic Greeks, on the continent, to assist him with their naval force, in the reduction of the islands. The maritime strength of Polycrates was the chief obstacle to the execution of this ambitious project; which would have rendered Oroites the most powerful governor under the great king, or have enabled him to set his master at defiance, and erect an independent sovereignty. In conformity with such views, the crafty Persian insidiously drew Polycrates to Magnesia, in Lydia; and there ordered him to be seized, and ignominiously put to death, by crucifixion39. 36. Id. Historiar. lib. iii. cap. lix. 37. Herodot. lib. iii. cap. xxxix. cxxi. 38. Id. Historiar. lib. iii. cap. cxxii.-cxxv. Thucydid. lib. i. cap. xiii. Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 638. 99. Herodot. et Strabo, ubi sup. XI. The PART I. Ant. Chr. 521. Olympiad. Ixiv. 4. The death of Polycrates, however, was not immediately followed by the submission of Samos to the Persian dominion, or with liberty to its citizens. Mæandrus, who had been secretary to the tyrant, retained possession of the sovereignty, and held his fellow-subjects in obedience4°. Meanwhile Oroites, taking advantage of the weak state of the Persian government under the magian impostor, had put to death every person in authority, within his jurisdiction, that seemed to stand in the way of his ambition, or who gave umbrage to his pride". But the restoration of more vigorous councils, supported by legal sway, cut short his life and his tyrannical ad'ministration. No sooner was Darius seated on the imperial throne, than he saw the ambitious views of Oroites, and the necessity of divesting him of his authority. And his audacity and cruelty, in ordering a messenger, sent to him from the court of Susa, with unwelcome commands, to be assassinated, in his return, made the Persian monarch resolve instantly to accomplish his ruin12. But the government of Darius was not yet so fully established, as to enable him to dispatch an army for that purpose; and without a strong army it could not be openly effected, as Oroites could assemble a great body of troops, drawn from Phrygia, Lydia, Ionia, and other provinces under his jurisdiction43. The new king, therefore, summoned a council of war, and laid his design, and the reasons for carrying it into speedy execution, before the most eminent Persian leaders; then asked, who among them would bring him the body of Oroites dead or alive, without the as 40. Herodot. lib. iii. cap. cxliii. 43. Herodotus, lib. iii. cap. cxxvii. 41. Id. lib. iii. cap. cxxvi. sistance XI. sistance of an army44?-Thirty of those officers de LETTER clared themselves willing to undertake the dangerous service. And these competitors having drawn lots, the execution of the enterprise fell to Bagæus, the son of Artontes45. This determined soldier having procured official letters of his own framing, to the governor of Asia Minor, sealed with the signet of Darius, set out for Sardis 4. On his arrival there, he waited upon Oroites, and delivered the letters, one after another, to be read aloud by the king's secretary, according to the established custom. And when he found, that the guards shewed no disaffection, but paid great respect to the contents of the first letter, he ventured to put another into the hands of the secre tary, containing these authoritative words :-" Per "sians, king Darius forbids you to serve any longer "as guards to Oroites!"-This order the guards no sooner heard, than they dropped their lances. Thus emboldened, Bagæus delivered his last letter, com. manding, in the king's name, the Persians in Sardis to kill Oroites. That command was no sooner announced, than the guards drew their scimitars, and instantly slew the obnoxious satrap47. When Darius was informed of the death of Oroites, he sent the illustrious, and nobleminded Otanes, into Asia Minor, in order to re-establish the government of that important province +8. And while Otanes resided at Sardis, he undertook an expedition aginst the island of Samos; which, by the assistance of the Asiatic Greeks, on the continent, 44. Id. ibid. 45. Id. Historiar. lib. iii. cap. cxxviii. 46. Herodot. ubi sup. 47. Id. ibid. 48. Herodot. lib. iii. cap. cxli. VOL. II. he PARTI. he reduced under the Persian dominion, and left under the government of Syloson, brother of Polycrates, who had claims upon the friendship of the great king49. Ant. Chr. 518. Olympiad. lxv. 3. During the interval of peace that followed, or accompanied these events, it appears to have been that Darius issued his memorable decree in favour of the Jews. Though the edict of Cyrus, for rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem, had never been repealed, it had, in a great measure, been rendered ineffectual by the Samaritans, or Cuthians, whom we have seen settled in the kingdom of Israel, and who ob❤ structed the Jews in the prosecution of their pious work 50. They had even procured an order from the magian usurper, for putting an utter stop to the building of the sacred edifice". The decree of Darius not only confirmed that of Cyrus, but fur. nished the Jews with such assistance and support, for the furthering of their undertaking, that the temple was completely rebuilt within four years after the edict had been issued 52. Meanwhile the Babylonians revolted. Unable to brook the subjection into which they were fallen, under the Persian power, and enraged at the removal of the imperial seat to Susa; by which the wealth and grandeur of their proud capital, so long mistress of the east, was diminished, they resolved to retrieve their former consequence, by asserting their independency, They accordingly took advantage of the troubles in the Persian empire, first on the death of Cambyses, and afterward on the murder of the magian usurper, to prepare themselves for sustaining a siege, by secretly storing their magazines with arms 49. Id. cap. cxlii-cxlix. et cap. çxxxix-cxl. 50. Ezra, chap. iv. ver. 1-10. 51. Id. chap. iv. ver. 11-23. 52. Ezra, chap. vi. ver 1—15, and |