readers who would, from the general character of Diodorus, take with his affertion, without confulting the original author.

up

ift. The

The events of this reign must be collected from Herodotus. improvement of the military difcipline might begin with his acceffion to the throne, and continue in a progreffive ftate of amendment. The 2d is the war against Nineveh, to revenge his father's death, which was rendered ineffectual by the Scythian invafion of Media; which is the 3d great event. The 4th is the 2d war againft Nineveh, when that capital of Affyria was destroyed. The 5th is the war of this fame Cyaxares with Alyattes king of Lydia, the father of Crofus, terminated in the 6th year by a folar eclipfe. These are the facts mentioned by Herodotus, and, as I apprehend, they are here placed in their true order. Some are of opinion that the Lydian war was the first in point of time. This is grounded on fome expreffions of Herodotus, which fhall be impartially considered. The strongest objection is, that, as Eufebius fixes the taking of Sardes (which was the final close of the Lydian kingdom) to the year A. C. 548, then the first year of Alyattes falls in with the 19th of Cyaxares; and we must place the taking of Sardes about the year A. C. 566, to bring them together. This however will not quite folve the difficulty. We must add five years more at least; for Alyattes was at war with the Milefians for fo long a time after his acceffion to the throne, that he seems to have been perfonally engaged, and to have employed in it a large part of his forces. Many have conceived that Herodotus does not imply a continuation, but a renewal of the war. The first expreffion he uses may be rather equivocal, παραδεξάμενος τὸν πόλεμον παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς, taking up the war from his father; but the following words are pofitive and direct. The war continued, fays he, eleven years, of which Sadyattes reigned fix: τὰ δὲ πέντε τῶν ἐτέων τὰ ἙΠΟΜΕΝΑ τοῖσιν ἓξ, but the five years immediately following these fix, Alyattes, the fon of Sadyattes, carried on the war. Nor do the other expreffions of Herodotus imply that he arranged the acts of Alyattes in order of time. He wished to inform his hearers how the kingdoms of Lydia and Media grew up and flourifhed, which, in their days, were but a part of the empire of Perfia. For this reafon he tells them Alyattes made war with Cyaxares and the Medes: then afterwards, in defcribing that very Cyaxares, he fays, TOS ὁ τοῖσι Λυδοῖσίν ἐςι μαχεσάμενος, and adds the circumftance of the day becoming night during the battle. The time is not mentioned in either

paffage,

paffage; and all that Herodotus meant was only to identify the kings who engaged in that war, which, by remote and unforeseen confequences, extended the dominion of Cyrus over the whole of Afia Minor. If this difficulty be removed, let us suppose the first foreign war of Cyaxares to be that against Nineveh, to which he might be inftigated by policy, as well as from the hope of revenging his father's death; for this accords exactly with the time, when the king of Affyria sent his numerous armies to reduce the revolted provinces in the west, and must thereby have weakened his border to the east; and to this may be added the defeat of Holofernes. He is faid to have gained the victory, and befieged Nineveh; from which he was recalled by the alarming intelligence of a vast irruption of Scythians, who, paffing to the east of the Cafpian sea, fell upon Media. His forces were defeated, his country ravaged, and he himself deprived of a large part of his dominion. This emigration began probably about the year A. Ch. 635; but, as they made a large circuit in their march, they might not attack Media till 633: not that they met with hostilities to check them; for the scattered tribes of Hyrcania and Sacia were more probably better inclined to join their troops, than oppose their progress. The continuance of this invasion was to the 28th year; but they did not oppress Media all this time; for Herodotus informs us, that the Median kingdom lafted 128 years, exclufive of the time when the Scythians pofsessed the country. Now the collective number of these four reigns is 150 years; so that we must deduct 6 years, and give 22 for the oppreffion of Media. Soon after their fettlement in the northern parts of Asia, a large division of these plundering tribes marched off to make further depredations. It seems probable they marched by the way of Affyria and Mesopotamia, to the rich country of Tyre and Sidon, and paffing through a part of Palestine, arrived at the borders of Egypt. Pfammitichus was then king, who had now taken Ashdod or Azotus, and reduced it to a heap of ruins. Had it been supported with a strong garrison, it might

This battle and the eclipse are mentioned a third time by Herodotus, to account for the connection between Aftyages and Crafus, but without any point of time. L. i. c. 74.

• We cannot doubt but that the kingdom of Judah muft have fuffered from this invafion; but it might not be fo great an evil, as to be mentioned in the hiftorical text. I fubmit, how

ever, a conjecture to the learned; whether Jeremiah, in his firft prophecy, does not allude to it (ch. i. ver. 14, 15.); and whether the prophet Joel has not a reference to the fame event, typified by an army of locufts. The evil might threaten when Jeremiah wrote, and have paffed over when Joel prophefied. (Joel, ch. ii. pass.)

have checked the progrefs of the barbarians; but they proceeded fouthwards without molestation to Ascalon, where the king of Egypt, by force of large prefents, induced them to return. After the rear of the army had plundered the temple of Afcalon, they made a retreat. They do not feem to have formed any fettlement near Palestine; though fome have fuppofed that the city of Bethshean was, in after times, called Scythopolis, from a colony of these wandering Scythians. We hear no more of these fouthern emigrants; but Herodotus fays in general, that the Scythian forces mouldered away, being enervated by luxury and idleness, and weakened by the large detachment to the south, which, as he intimates, was afflicted with disease; fo that probably but few returned to Media. The remaining Scythians too were now grown odious to the country, for their tyrannical exactions; fo that an active and brave monarch might eafily recover his territories and authority, and join with the king of Babylon to attack Nineveh. All we know is, that thofe Scythians, whom the climate had spared, were barbarously murdered at a feast, under pretext of peace. The deftruction of Nineveh followed foon after. Jofephus, according to Dr. Prideaux, places it a year or two before; but the words. of that author do not directly affirm that Nineveh was then destroyed. In the 2d book of Kings we find that Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Affyria to the river Euphrates. His object was to make Carchemish his boundary, to form a barrier against the growing power of Babylon. This must have fallen out in the last year of Jofiah, year before Christ 607. About three years after (viz. in the year 604 before Chrift), Jeremiah fays, historically, that Nebuchadnezzar had recovered all that Necho had conquered. This nearly limits the destruction of Nineveh to the year 606. Cyaxares feems to have divided the kingdom with the Babylonians, and to have taken for his share the territories to the east of the Tigris. Having thus recovered his former dominion from the Cafpian to the Euxine fea, and enlarged it to the borders of Mefopotamia, he became again formidable to the kingdom of Lydia.. A pretext for war is foon found between two neighbouring powers. Cyaxares had affronted a body of Scythians, who in revenge committed a

a

d

Relandus, in Paleft. tom. ii. v. Scythopolis, ably contradicts this opinion.

Herod. l. i. c. 106.

b

most atrocious act of cruelty, and, conscious of their guilt, fled to Alyattes for protection. Being re-demanded, the Lydian king refused to deliver them up, and a war enfued, which lafted five full years with various fuccefs. In the 6th year a great battle was fought; but an eclipfe of the fun, foretold by Thales, alarming the combatants, a peace was made, and confirmed by the marriage of Aftyages, fon of Cyaxares, with Ariene, daughter of Alyattes. Such is the fimple narrative of Herodotus; but the time is not settled. As it depends on the calculation of a solar eclipse, it is an object of astronomical enquiry, and might be fixed to a certain year. These tables place it in the year 601 A. Ch. the 6th from the taking of Nineveh. I cannot place it higher without deviating from the chronology of Eufebius, and the relation of Herodotus; but it may be placed a year or two lower. Pliny fixes another time in a passage, which, though quoted often, must be repeated here. Apud Græcos investiga• vit primus omnium Thales Milefius, Olympiadis quadragefimæ octavæ anno quarto, prædicto folis defectu, qui Alyatte rege factus eft, urb. 'condit. anno 170.' This eclipse mentioned by Pliny being, as he says, the first that was predicted by Thales, must be the fame with that meant by Herodotus. It does not however fall within the reign of Cyaxares, but in the 10th of his fucceffor Aftyages. To reconcile these two authors, it might have been fuppofed, that the 48th olympiad had been written for the 44th by mistake; but the annus urb. condit. 170 falling in the 48th olympiad, confirms the integrity of the text. Pliny then supposed this eclipse to have been in the reign of Aftyages; and some of his copies read, fub Aftyage rege, instead of Alyatte. He followed Herodotus in the order of reigns, but imagined the latter had mistaken the time of the eclipfe. Funccius in his Chronology follows Pliny's date, and fixes it under Aftyages. Sir I. Newton takes up the fame calculation, and yet places it under Cyaxares. To reconcile this feeming contradiction,

a The refufal of Alyattes feems unaccountable, unless we suppose these fugitives were the few remains of that great Scythian emigration which had been faved by Cyaxares. Alyattes had most probably cultivated the alliance of the Scythians, while they formed a barrier against Media by poffeffing Armenia, Colchos, and Iberia. This will account for their anger against Cyaxares, and the partiality of the Lydian monarch.

Conjecture fhould not be indulged; but it seems at least probable that Darius Mcdus was the iffue of this marriage. He was 62 at the taking of Babylon in 538 A. Ch. and confequently born in 599, correfponding with the year after the nuptials of Aftyages and Ariene.

This reading is much reprobated, but moft probably is the true one.

he affirms that Herodotus has tranfpofed the two kings, and that Cyaxares was the fon of Aftyages, and grandfon of Phraortes. Yet it feems ftrange that Herodotus fhould have made fuch minute enquiries into the facts of the reign of Cyaxares, and yet be ignorant of his father's name. What is more strong, Eufebius, Syncellus, Cedrenus, Zonaras, &c. agree in the order of fucceffion; though, as they differ from Herodotus in the length of their reigns, they could not have copied from him.

The reign of Aftyages should be next confidered; but the little we know of his life, and that of Darius the Mede, is fo intimately connected with the acts of Cyrus (which fhall be difcuffed in their proper place) that the annals of Media must be difmiffed for the prefent time.

For the Egyptian antiquities, no full confidence can be placed in them before the reign of Pfammitichus, and from thence to the 5th of Cambyfes, king of Perfia; a period of 145 years. These annals indeed may be fhewn to be so consonant to the facred Scriptures, and the era of Nabonaffar, as may, it is hoped, fuppress almost every doubt of their accuracy. At prefent, however, it may be neceffary to dwell a little on the ages before that era commences, if only to point out the impoffibility of giving a distinct feries of reigns on any well established tradition. At first fight we should imagine the task was not difficult; for Egypt was the country where arts and learning flourished in the earliest ages, as the books of Mofes and the Greek hiftorians incontestably prove. The inhabitants were acute, ingenious, and industrious. The nature of the country too required a conftant attention, and prevented that languor of mind which dulls the faculties; but the produce was uncommonly luxuriant, and supplied materials for a great variety of manufactures. Add to this; from the days of the patriarch Joseph they seem to have refided in cities, which is a strong prefumption of early civilization, and to have built more than any other nation. The labours of the Ifraelites, during their captivity in Egypt, refer to the carrying on fome great defigns in building, which were probably for private houses, as their employment was making brick; and the temples and other public edifices were of stone, as we may judge from their remains. Thus, happily fettled in a country defenfible by situation, under an eafy government, with more abundance than their own wants could require, fupplied by nature, and improved by art, they were the general refort of all the furrounding nations, who enriched them by the purchase of their native products or manufactures. Under these circumftances