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"That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd,
And shall perform all my pleasure."-Isa. xliv. 28.

The comparison of a king to a shepherd was, however, in oriental writings, very common. The figure is, indeed, frequently met with in Scripture to denote the good king.

According to Cicero, and other ancient writers, the temperance of Cyrus was very remarkable. From this cause, they record that he enjoyed a vigorous state of health to the close of a long life.* By temperance, indeed, he was enabled to seize the opportunities of conquest, and to perfect his character. It has been well observed by Socrates, that that man bears the greatest resemblance to the Deity who contents himself with the fewest and most simple necessaries of life. Temperance keeps the senses clear and unembarrassed, and makes them seize the object they desire with greater satisfaction. It appears with life in the face, and decorum in the person; gives you the command of your senses; secures your health; and preserves you in a proper condition for your affairs both as regards time and eternity.

"Fly drunkenness, whose vile incontinence

Takes both away thy reason and thy sense,
Till with Circæan cups thy mind possess'd,
Leaves to be man, and wholly turns to beast.
Think, while thou swallowest the capacious bowl,
Thou lett'st in seas to wreck and drown thy soul;
That hell is open, to remembrance call,

And think how subject drunkards are to fall."
RANDOLPH.

Another favourable trait in the character of Cyrus was, his clemency Herodotus, it is true, represents him as the reverse of a merciful conqueror. By his strong prejudices against Cyrus, that historian has depreciated the fair fame of one of the wisest, best, and greatest princes that ever swayed a sceptre; one who was beloved by his subjects, honoured with the friendship of the prophet Daniel, blessed with the favour and protection of Heaven, and pre-ordained to perform all God's pleasure. No one, says Xenophon, was better qualified to conciliate universal love than Cyrus, who spent most of his time in procuring some pleasure and good to all, and ill to none. His merciful disposition was exhibited in beautiful colours in his conduct towards Croesus, as related in the life of that prince.

Ancient conquerors generally acknowledged no right but that of force; looked upon the common rules of justice as laws which only private persons were obliged to observe, and derogatory to the majesty of kings; set no other bounds to their designs and pretensions, than their incapacity of carrying them to an equal extent with their wishes; sacrificed the lives of millions to their ambition; made their glory consist in spreading desolation and destruction; and, to borrow an idea from Seneca, reigned as bears and lions would have done, had they been

masters.

The character of Cyrus seems to have been the reverse of this. He might have been actuated by ambition, but he reverenced the laws, and knew that there are unjust wars, in which who

* Lucan says he lived upwards of one hundred years.

The truth is,

ever unseasonably engages, renders himself accountable for all the blood that is shed, all the misery that ensues. In the beginning of his wars, Cyrus founded all his hopes of success on the justice of his cause, and represented to his soldiers, in order to inspire them with courage and confidence, that they were not the aggressors; that it was the enemy that attacked them; and that they were entitled to the protection of the gods, who seemed themselves to have put arms into their hands, that they might fight in defence of their friends and allies, who were Cyrus had the same principle of justice on their unjustly oppressed. The succeeding victories of side. Both the king of Lydia and the king of Babylon were the aggressors. Cyrus was a conqueror under the immediate guidance of God, who made use of him as an instrument in effecting his merciful purposes. The results of his conquests have been seen in they occurred. And very glorious are the reall ages of the world, from the period at which the Jews were released from their captivity in Through him Babylon, and through them the Gentile world has been offered deliverance from the captivity of sin, and death, and hell. This fact is one of those links in the chain of Divine love which cannot be sufficiently admired. In the language of the apostle Paul alone, can we give due utterance to our feelings: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Rom. xi. 33.

sults which have been witnessed.

CAMBYSES, OR LOHORASP.

On the death of Cyrus the Great, B.C. 529, his son, Cambyses, to whom, on his dying bed, he bequeathed the bulk of his dominions, ascended the throne of Persia.

Cambyses appears to have been the reverse of the character of Cyrus. The actions of his reign prove that he was neither actuated by reason nor justice in his enterprizes. In the fourth year of his reign, he invaded Egypt, and with what wild fury he ravaged that country, the reader may gather from the History of the Egyptians. See page 58.

Various and improbable accounts are given of this invasion by Herodotus. The true one appears to be, that Amasis, who had submitted to Cyrus, refused, upon the death of that conqueror, to pay his successor the same homage and tribute. This account is, indeed, confirmed by the Persian historians, who state, that Lohorasp, while he was regulating the eastern provinces of Iran, sent his general, Gudarz, or Raham, with an army, to recover the western provinces of Syria, etc. Gudarz conquered Syria as far as Damascus and Palestine, including the famous city of Jerusalem, called by the Persians, "the Holy City."

To secure a safe passage through the desert, between Palestine and Egypt, Cambyses, by the advice of Phanes, a Greek refugee from Amasis, made a treaty with the king of Arabia, to furnish his army with water, which he did by means of the skins of camels. On arriving at the Pelusiac, or eastern branch of the Nile, Cambyses found Psammenitus, the son and successor of Amasis,

(who was dead before the Persians arrived,) encamped with his army. A battle ensued, and the Egyptians were routed. The Persians pursued them to Memphis, which was soon reduced, and Psammenitus taken, after a reign of six months. He was soon after put to death, for fomenting rebellion, by Cambyses, B.C. 525.

After the conquest of Egypt, Cambyses resolved to make war in three different quarters: against the Carthaginians, Ammonians, and Macrobian, or long-lived Ethiopians. The first of these projects he was compelled to abandon, the Phenicians in his service refusing to fight against the Carthaginians, their descendants; but being resolved 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.

The ambassadors of Cambyses carried presents along with them, which they delivered to the king of Ethiopia with this address: "Cambyses, sovereign of Persia, from his anxious desire of becoming your friend and ally, has sent us to communicate with you, and to desire your acceptance of these presents, from the use of which he himself derives the greatest pleasure." Their designs were suspected, and the Ethiopian prince dismissed them with this reply: "The king of Persia has not sent you with these presents from any desire of obtaining my alliance; neither do you speak the truth, who, to facilitate the unjust designs of your master, are come to examine the state of my dominions. If he were influenced by principles of integrity, he would be satisfied with his own, and not covet the possessions of another; nor would he attempt to reduce those to servitude from whom he has received no injury. Give him, therefore, this bow, and in my name speak to him thus: The king of Ethiopia sends this counsel to the king of Persia, When his subjects shall be able to bend this bow with the same ease that I do, then, with a superiority of numbers, he may venture to attack the Macrobian Ethiopians. In the mean time, let him be thankful to the gods that the Ethiopians have not been inspired with the same ambitious views of extending their possessions."

When Cambyses received this message, he was enraged, and commanded his army to begin their march immediately, without providing, says Herodotus, for their necessary sustenance, or reflecting that he was about to visit the extremities of the earth. He left the Grecians behind him in his newly conquered country, to keep it in subjection during his absence.

On his arrival at Thebes, Cambyses selected from his army about 50,000 men, whom he ordered to make an incursion against the Ammonians,† and to plunder the Ammonium, or great

It is impossible to determine what particular nation is meant under this appellation. Rennell thinks they were the Abyssinians; and Bruce imagines that they were the Guabas and Gangas, who inhabit two small provinces or districts of Abyssinia. Whoever they were, they must have been a considerable nation, since their monarch sent a message of defiance to Cambyses.

+ The Ammonians, in the days of Herodotus, occupied a considerable space in Libya, between Upper Egypt on the east, and the desert of Barca on the west, and between the Nomadic tribes, along the coast of the Mediterranean,

temple of Jupiter Ammon, built on an oasis, in the midst of the desert.

In the mean time, Cambyses pushed madly forwards against the Ethiopians. Before, however, he had performed a fifth part of his expedition, the provisions he had with him were consumed. The army then proceeded to eat the beasts which carried the baggage, which also were soon consumed. Still the rage of Cambyses was unabated, and his infatuation still increased. He proceeded on his march, and his army, as long as the earth afforded them any sustenance, were content to feed on vegetables; but as soon as they arrived among the sands and the deserts, some of them, prompted by famine, proceeded to the most fearful extremities. They drew lots, and every tenth man was destined to satisfy the hunger of the rest.

This appalling action seemed to alarm even the mad Cambyses himself. Alarmed, says Herodotus, at the idea of his troops devouring one another, he abandoned his design upon the Ethiopians, and returned to Thebes. From Thebes he proceeded to Memphis, from whence he permitted the Greeks to embark.

The fate of the expedition of the Ammonians was still more disastrous. There was no road nor tract through the sandy waste that the invaders had to traverse; no hill nor tree which might serve to guide them onward in their course. The army, moreover, was placed at the mercy of Egyptian guides, whose minds were galled by their country's wrongs, and who felt a fraternal affection for the Ammonians. The result was, that the Persians were deserted by these guides, § and they wandered about in indescribable confusion. The greater part of them were, according to the Ammonians, finally overwhelmed by the moving sands that winds sometimes raise in the desert. This fearful catastrophe has been thus described by the poet:

"Now o'er their heads the whizzing whirlwinds breathe,
And the lone desert pants and heaves beneath;
Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise
Of eddying sand, and war amid the skies,
In red arcades the billowy plain surround,
And whirling turrets stalk along the ground.

on the north, and the great Libyan desert on the south. It included, consequently, the desert that contains the Wahs or Oasis, dependent on Egypt. The term means an insulated fertile spot, like an island in the midst of an expanse of sand or desert, surrounded commonly by higher lands. It was in one of these, (the Libyan Oasis,) that the Ammonians lived, and the temple and oracle of Jupiter Ammon was placed. This Oasis was visited by a traveller in 1798, who has described both it and the ruins of the ancient temple. It is now called the Oasis of Serwah.

From this it appears that Cambyses never penetrated beyond the desert of Selima, that is, says Rennell, on the supposition that he set out from Thebes, and that Senaar was the entrance into the country of the Macrobian Ethiopians. The desert alluded to was that in which Bruce suffered such dreadful hardships, namely, that above Syene.

§ Savary says, that the route of the army makes it plain that the guides, who detested the Persians, led them astray amidst the deserts; for they should have departed from the lake Mareotis to the temple of Ammon, or from the environs of Memphis. The Egyptians, intending the destruction of their enemies, led them from Thebes to the great Oasis, three days' journey from Abydos, and having brought them into the vast solitudes of Libya, they delivered them over to death.

Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend;
To demon gods their knees unhallow'd bend;
Wheel in wide circles, form in hollow square;
And now they fly, and now they front the air;
Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries
From their parched lips, and close their bloodshot eyes.

Gnomes! o'er the waste you led your myriad powers,

Climb'd on the whirls, and arm'd the flinty showers!
Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge;

Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;
Wave over wave the driving desert swims,
Bursts o'er their head, inhumes their struggling limbs;
Man mounts ou man; on camels camels rush:
Hosts march o'er hosts; and nations nations crush;
Wheeling in air, the winged islands fall,

And one great earthy ocean covers all.

Then ceased the storm. Night bow'd her Ethiop brow
To earth, and listened to the graves below;
Grim Horror shook: awhile the living hill
Heaved with convulsive throes, and all was still."

DARWIN.

The remainder of the reign of Cambyses was a tissue of the most extravagant cruelties and excesses of every kind, committed against the Egyptians, the Persians, and his own family. According to Herodotus, he slew the magistrates of Memphis at his return for suffering public rejoicing on the occasion of finding their new divinity Apis, wounded their calf god in the thigh, and commanded the priests to be scourged. He grew jealous of his brother Smerdis, because he was the only Persian able to bend the Ethiopian bow, sent him home to Persia, and soon after, on account of a dream portending that Smerdis would be advanced to the throne, had him put to death. He married two of his own sisters, and killed the younger for lamenting the death of her brother Smerdis. He shot the son of Prexaspes, one of his principal officers, through the heart with an arrow, by way of proving that he was neither drunk nor mad. He violated the tombs of the Egyptians, to examine the mummies. He insulted the pigmy statue of their chief god Vulcan, and burned those of the Cabiri. Finally, when Croesus ventured, as his father's friend, to remonstrate on the enormities he was committing, and to set before him the probable consequences, he snatched his bow to shoot him with an arrow. Croesus escaped by a precipitate flight, and he was instantly ordered to be put to death. His officers delayed the execution till the next day, which gave him apparent satisfaction, but he ordered them to be put to death for disobedience of orders.

It was about this time, B. C. 523, that Orastes, one of the satrapæ of Cambyses, who had the government of Sardis, brought about the death of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, to which reference has been made in the history of the Egyptians, page 57.

In the beginning of the eighth year of the reign of Cambyses, he left Egypt in order to return into Persia. On his way thither, he discovered that Smerdis Magus, who personated his brother whom he had slain, had been proclaimed king at Susa. This aroused him from his lethargy. He instantly prepared to lead his army thither, in order to crush the rebellion. But his days were numbered. As he hastily mounted his horse to set out, his sword fell from the scabbard, and wounded him mortally in the thigh.

Herodotus says, that when the accident occurred, he anxiously inquired the name of the place, and

found it was Ecbatana, an obscure town in Syria, where the Egyptian oracle of Butos warned him he should die; but which he mistook for Ecbatana the capital of Media, and the depôt of his treasures. Upon this it is recorded, that he bitterly lamented his error in destroying his brother Smerdis; "for," he said, "it was Smerdis Magus whom the deity foretold in vision should rise up against me." That Cambyses felt compunction for his guilt when death stared him in the face can be readily believed; for guilt sooner or later brings misery, and his was guilt of no ordinary nature. Reader, the life of Cambyses shows what a monster man may become if left to himself; if his actions have not a restraint put upon them by power from on high. It should teach us to pray with the psalmist,

"Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me:
Then shall I be upright,

And I shall be innocent from the great [or much] transgression."-Psa. xix. 13.

SMERDIS MAGUS.

As soon as Smerdis the Magian ascended the throne of Persia, in order to secure himself thereon, he sought to gain the affections of his subjects. His first act was to grant them an exemption from taxes and from all military service for three years. But his reign was brief. His gross imposture was discovered, and he was slain with his brother in a conspiracy formed by seven Persian nobles of the first rank and consequence in the state, at the end of seven months. It is probable that Smerdis was raised to the throne by a conspiracy of the priestly caste, who were desirous of restoring their own supremacy, and that of their allies, the Medes. The result of the attempt was very calamitous to them. When the head of the false Smerdis was shown to the people, and the imposture explained, they were so enraged, that they fell upon the magi, and put to death as many as could be discovered. The day on which this transaction occurred thenceforward became an annual festival among the Persians, by whom it was celebrated with great rejoicings. It was called "The slaughter of the magi;" and none of that sect would venture to appear in public upon that festival.

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Herodotus gives a romantic account of the adoption of a monarch by the conspirators after the tumult had subsided. He says that he gained the crown from his competitors by the stratagem of his groom procuring the first neighing of his horse, as recorded by a public monument: 'Darius, son of Hystaspes, gained the kingdom of the Persians by the merit of his horse and of his groom Ebares." The account which Eschylus gives of the transaction is more probable, and more consistent with the after character of Darius Hystaspes. According to this ancient writer, the seven conspirators agreed to reign in rotation. The first that governed was Maraphis, who is not found in the list of Herodotus; the next was Artaphrenes, whom Herodotus calls Intaphernes; and the next Darius. This last nobleman was possessed of superior abilities and a spirit of enterprize; he was also of the Achamenian or royal line, and his father, Hystaspes, was governor of Persia, the first province of the

empire. Upon these accounts, therefore, when the government came to his turn, he contrived to retain the possession of it for himself, and to transmit it to his family. That he was the most formidable competitor for the crown, appears even from the pages of Herodotus; for he relates, that his merit excited the jealousy of Cyrus himself, who expressed his suspicions to Hystaspes, the father, that Darius, then a youth, was engaged in some treasonable designs. Herodotus also represents him as possessing greater enterprize than the rest of the conspirators, by compelling them to a prompt execution of their plan, under a threat of informing against them if they delayed.

DARIUS HYSTASPES, OR GUSHTASP.

Darius Hystaspes commenced his reign B.C. 521. He appears to have been the first who used the old title of royalty, Darawesh, or Darius, as a proper name.

Before Darius obtained the kingdom, he had married the daughter of Gobryas, whose name is unknown. When seated on the throne, in order to secure himself thereon, he married two of the daughters of Cyrus, Atossa, formerly the wife of Cambyses, and Artistona. He likewise married Parmys, daughter of the true Smerdis, thereby freeing himself from all fear of a competitor for the crown.

One of the first acts of Darius was to regulate the state of the provinces, and the finances of the empire. Before his era, Cyrus and Cambyses had contented themselves with receiving from the conquered nations such free gifts only as they offered, and with requiring a certain number of troops when they were needed. Darius perceived that it was impossible for him to preserve all the nations subject to him in peace and security, without an establishment of regular forces; and that it was also impossible to maintain these forces without a revenue. In order, therefore, to effect these objects, he divided the whole empire into twenty districts or governments, each of which was to pay annually a certain sum to the satrap appointed for that purpose, as before recorded. The natural subjects, that is, the Persians, were exempt from all imposts.

Plutarch observes, that Darius, in imposing these tributes, showed great wisdom and moderation. He sent for the principal inhabitants of every province, such as were best acquainted with the condition and ability of their country, and were interested in giving him a true and impartial account. When they arrived, he asked them if such sums which he proposed to each exceeded what they were able to pay; his intention being, as he said, not to oppress his subjects, but to require of them such aid as was proportioned to their incomes, and required by the exigencies of the state. They replied, that the propositions were reasonable, and such as would not be burdensome to the people; but Darius reduced the proposed sums to one-half, choosing rather to keep within bounds, than to risk a possibility of exceeding them.

Concerning these imposts, it may be here mentioned, however, that the coinage of money was not known in Persia till about this time. Darius,

wishing to leave behind him some monument which should exceed the efforts of his predecessors, struck off a coin of the purest gold, the Daric, which retained its name down to the Macedonian dynasty. The impression on this famous coin, was Darius the king, crowned, in the attitude of an archer, with a bent bow, and kneeling on the right side, to take aim at the enemy.

After the death of Smerdis Magus, and the establishment of Darius on the throne, it was agreed that the Persian noblemen who had conspired against him should, besides several marks of distinction, have the liberty of free access to the king's presence at all times, except when the queen was with him. Intaphernes, one of these noblemen, being refused admittance under these circumstances, attacked the officers of the palace, inflicting on them severe wounds with his scymitar. Darius, enraged at this insult, caused him, with his children and kindred, to be appre hended, and condemned them to death, confounding thereby the innocent with the guilty. Through the importunities of his wife, however, her brother was first saved from destruction, and eventually the eldest of her children: the rest perished.

It has been seen, in the life of Cambyses, that the perfidious Orastes, one of the king's governors in Asia Minor, brought about the death of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, by treachery. His crime did not go unpunished. Darius, discovering that Orastes abused his power, by sporting with the lives of those persons who displeased him, sent an order to his troops at Sardis to put him to death, which order was executed without delay. All his effects were confiscated to the king, and all the persons belonging to his family and household were removed to Susa.

In the second year of the reign of Darius, the building of the temple at Jerusalem was resumed, chiefly by the exhortations of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Zerubbabel, the governor, and Joshua, the high priest, made application to the Persian court, and obtained a renewal of the original decree of Cyrus concerning its erection. With so much alacrity did they now carry on their work, that the top-stone was raised in joy within four years and a quarter from its recommencement, that is, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius. See Ezra v. and vi. 1-15; Hag. ii. 1—18.

When Darius served in Egypt, under Cambyses, he had received favours at the hands of Syloson, brother to Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. About this time, B.C. 516, Syloson repaired to the Persian court at Susa to solicit his aid in the regaining of Samos from the person who had usurped the government since the death of his brother. Darius acknowledged him as his benefactor, and granted him the aid he sought. He sent an expedition, under the command of Otanes, one of the principal lords of his court, who performed it with success.

During this Samian expedition, the Babylonians, who had taken advantage of the confusion of the times during the magian usurpation, to provide against a siege, revolted. In order to prevent famine, they took the strange and unnatural resolution of strangling all their women

and children, except their mothers, and one female to bake their bread: thus fulfilling the prediction of the prophet:

great preparations for the invasion of Scythia,* under the pretence of retaliation for their invasion of the Medes, nearly one hundred and twenty years before. His real motive was, the extension

"Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to plea of his conquests and empire.

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Darius besieged Babylon, and was derided by the insolence, and baffled by the vigilance of the enemy for a year and seven months. At the end of that time, as he was beginning to despair of success, it was put into his hands by a refined stratagem of Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus. This nobleman, who was one of the seven counsellors, voluntarily mutilated himself, and then deserted to the Babylonians, gained their confidence by a piteous tale of the cruelty of Darius, and after a few preconcerted successes over some devoted detachments of the Persian army, he was appointed commander in chief of the Babylonian troops, and intrusted with the care of the city, which, on the first favourable opportunity, he delivered to Darius.

No sooner was Darius in possession of Babylon, than he ordered its one hundred brazen gates to be pulled down, and the walls of that proud city to be demolished, that its inhabitants might never have another opportunity of rebelling against him. Besides this, he impaled about three thousand of its inhabitants; after which, he obliged the neighbouring provinces to furnish fifty thousand women, to supply wives for the remaining citizens, from whom the race of Babylonians living in the time of Herodotus were descended. This siege had been predicted by the prophet Zechariah two years before, who warned the Jews to flee from thence.

"Ho! ho! come forth,

And flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord :
For I have spread you abroad

As the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord.
Deliver thyself, O Zion,

That dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.

For thus saith the Lord of hosts;

After the glory hath he sent me

Unto the nations which spoiled you:

For he that toucheth you

Toucheth the apple of his eye."—Zech. ii. 6—8.

Dr. Hales remarks: "It is truly remarkable, that the Persian kings who punished the Babylonians, patronized the Jews. The first capture of Babylon was followed by the decree of Cyrus for liberating the Jews from captivity; when the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus' to make it, Ezra i. 1. And the second capture by Darius was followed by the finishing of the second temple, in the seventh year of his reign; when the Lord turned the heart of Darius unto them, strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel,'" Ezra vi. 1—22.

to

After the reduction of Babylon, Darius made

Darius crossed the Ister, or Lower Danube, over a bridge of boats, at the place where it first begins to branch off to form the different channels by which it enters the Euxine, a little above the fortress of Ismail, in Bessarabia. The Persian army is said by Herodotus and Justin to have consisted of seven hundred thousand men; it is probable that the real number was seventy thousand. When Darius had passed the Danube, he resolved upon having the bridge broken down, that his army might not be weakened by leaving the detachment necessary for its protection. In this, however, he was overruled by one of his officers, who represented to him, that, should the war prove unfortunate, they would not be able to escape from the enemy.

After crossing the Danube, it would appear that Darius marched eastward to the Tanais, or Don. After crossing the Tanais, he entered the territories of the Sauromatæ, extending northeast to the main branch of the Don itself, which he may be supposed to have crossed below the mouth of the Medweditza, or Lycus of Herodotus. From thence Darius entered the country of the Budians, which having also traversed, he finally entered a great desert that separated them from the Thyssagetæ, where he halted, and erected eight fortresses on the banks of the Oarus, probably the Wolga.

In the mean time, the Scythians hovered round his army, laying waste the country, stopping up the wells, intercepting convoys, cutting off stragglers, and keeping the army on the alert by incessant skirmishes, without running the hazard of a general engagement. The whole of the Persian army was eventually, indeed, reduced to so deplorable a condition, that they had nothing before their eyes but inevitable ruin. Darius saw his danger, and began to think of a retreat. Accordingly, in the dead of the night, the Persians, leaving the sick behind them in the camp, retraced their steps toward the Danube. The Scythians did not discover that they had retreated before the next morning, when they sent a considerable detachment to the Danube, in order to persuade the Ionians, who had the charge of the bridge, to break it down and return home.

The Ionians consulted among themselves whether they should comply with the request of the Scythians. Miltiades, prince of the Chersonesus of Thrace, having the public interest at heart, was for embracing this opportunity of shaking off the Persian yoke, and all the other commanders agreed with him, except Hystiæus, prince of Miletus, who represented to the Ionian chiefs that their power was linked to that of

* The ancients divided Scythia into two large portions. European and Asiatic; the former extending along the north of the Danube and the Euxine, and the other be

yond the Caspian and the Jaxartes, now Sihon. The latter was again subdivided into two parts by the chain of Imaus, or the Beloor Tagh, a branch projecting north from the Indian Caucasus, now the Hindoo Kho, or western part of the Himalaya; which subdivisions were denominated Scytlia intra and extra Imaum, or Scythia on this side and beyond Imaus. It was the European Scythia which the monarch of Persia invaded.

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