Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

them',' &c.; and by Jeremiah, The Lord hath • raised up the spirit of the king of the Medes, for his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it";' and in the eight and twentieth verse, Prepare against the nations, with the kings of the Medes, the dukes thereof, the princes thereof, and all the land of his dominion. These scriptures Julius Africanus doth well open, who, taking authority from Diodorus, Castor, Thallus, and others, delivereth that Babylon was taken before Cyrus began to reign; which also agreeth with Strabo 3, where he saith, that as the Medes were subjugated by the Persians, so, before that, both the Babylonians and Assyrians were mastered by the Medes; and therefore the reports of Justin and Herodotus are not to be received, who attribute the taking of Babylon to Cyrus alone.

SECT. II.

By what means the empire was translated from the Medes to the Persians.

How the kingdom of the Medes fell into the hands of Cyrus, it is a doubt not sufficiently cleared by historians; but rather their different relations of his beginnings have bred the former opinion of those who give the conquest of Babylon to the Persian only; for some there are who deny that Astyages had any other successor than Cyrus, his grandchild, by Mandane; whereas Ctesias, on the contrary side, affirmeth, that Cyrus was no way descended from Astyages, (whom he calleth Astygas, or Apama,) but only that having vanquished him in battle, and confined him to Bactria, he married his daughter Amytis. But I find the relations of Ctesias often

1 Isa. xiii. 17.

2 li. 11 and 28.

3 Lib. xvi.

cited, and seldom followed, and himself sometimes very justly reproved of wilful untruth.

Viginier, a diligent and learned historian of this age, produceth many probable reasons, that Astyages had no such son as Cyaxares, or Darius Medus; and to confirm his opinion the more, he citeth Diodorus, Justin, Strabo, Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, and, before them, Castor, Thallus, and Phlegon, who do not find any such successor. Neither do Tatianus, Theophilus, Antiochenus, Julius Africanus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Eusebius, St. Jerome, or St. Augustine, make report out of any faithful author by them read, that hath given other son or successor to Astyages than Cy

rus.

Yet, seeing that this manner of argument, 'ab authoritate negativè,' doth never enforce consent, we may be the bolder, (all this great list of noble writers by him alleged notwithstanding,) to affirm, that either Astyages himself must have been Darius of the Medes, which cannot agree with his place in the course of time; or else to give him some other successor, according to Josephus and Xenophon,* the same whom Daniel calleth Darius; for it is manifest, and without dispute, that the king of the Medes commanded in chief, and was absolute lord of that conquest, Cyrus, during his life, being no other than the lieutenant of his army, and subject to his authority; the strength of both nations, to wit, the Medes and Persians, with others the vassals of Da rius, being joined together to compound it,

But it is very certain, that the honour of that great victory over Babylon was wholly given to Cyrus, who was the instrument pre-ordained and forenamed by God himself, not only for this action, but for the delivery of his church; a greater work, in the eyes

4 Zon. l. i. c. 19. Jos. Ant. l. x. c. 13. Xen. 1. §. ped.

of God, than the subversion of any state or monarchy, how powerful soever.

And it may well be thought, that the soldiers employed in that service did rather ascribe the glory to him that was the best man of war, than to the Median, who was greatest in riches and power. All which also falling upon Cyrus by succession, and continuing in his posterity, did much augment the fame of his virtue, which, among profane historians, overgrew altogether the honour due to Cyaxares, both because he was old, and did nothing in person, as also because he soon after quitted the world, and left Cyrus, who was possessed of whatsoever belonged to Darius, before the fame of any such king or conqueror was carried far off.

And for the Greek historians, they took all things from the relation of the Persians, who gave to Cy rus all the praise of a most excellent prince, making none his equal. Only Daniel, in the first, fifth, and sixth chapters of his prophecies, makes it plain, that himself not only lived a great officer under king Darius, but that he continued in that estate to the first of Cyrus; which, being the year of Daniel's death, could not have been distinguished from the reign of Darius, if they had begun together and reigned jointly; neither can it be imagined that Da rius held the kingdom by Cyrus's permission, considering that Cyrus began after him.

SECT. III.

Xenophon's relation of the war which the Medes and Persians made with joint forces upon the Assyrians and others.

THESE testimonies of the scriptures, which need no other confirmation, are yet made more open to our understanding, by that which Xenophon hath

written of these wars; the cause whereof, according to his report, was this.

When the Assyrian had enlarged his empire with victories, and was become lord of all Syria and many other countries, he began to hope, that if the Medes could be brought under his subjection, there should not then be left any nation adjoining able to make head against him; for the king of the Medes was able to bring into the field threescore thousand foot and above ten thousand horse, to which the forces of Persia being joined, made an exceeding strong

army.

The Assyrian, considering the strength of such a neighbour, invited Croesus king of Lydia, a prince very mighty both in men and treasure, and with him. other lords of Asia the Less, to his assistance, alleging, that those eastern nations were very power. ful, and so firmly enjoined by league and many alliances, that it would not be easy, no not possible, for any one nation to resist them. With these incitements, and strengthened with great presents, he drew to himself so many adherents, as he compounded an army of two hundred thousand foot and threescore thousand horse; of which, ten thousand horse and forty thousand foot were led by Croesus, who had great cause of enmity with the Medes, in re-. gard of the war made by them against his father Alyattes but this great army was, by Cyaxares king of the Medes, and by Cyrus general of the Persian forces, utterly broken; upon which defeat, the Assyrian king being also slain, so many of the Assyrians revolted, as Babylon itself could not longer be assured without the succours of mercenaries, waged with great sums of money out of Asia the Less, Egypt, and elsewhere; which new-gathered forces were also scattered by Cyrus, who, following his advantage, possessed himself of a great part of the Lesser Asia; at which time it was, as I take it, that Croesus himself was also made prisoner.

The attempt of Babylon following soon after, the army lying before it being paid by Darius, whom Xenophon calleth Cyaxares, and led by Cyrus's sister's son, prevailed against Balthasar, as in due time shall be set down.

Those Persians which followed Cyrus, and by him levied, are numbered thirty thousand footmen, of which a thousand were armed gentlemen; the rest of the common sort were archers, or such as used the dart and the sling. So far Xenophon. Of whom in this argument, as it is true, that he described in Cyrus the pattern of a most heroical prince, with much poetical addition; so it cannot be denied, but that the bulk and gross of his narration was founded upon mere historical truth.

Neither can it indeed be affirmed of any the like writer, that in every speech and circumstance he hath precisely tied himself to the phrase of the speak er, or nature of the occasion, but borrowed in each out of his own invention, appropriating the same to the times and persons of whom he treated. Putting therefore apart the moral and political discourse, and examining but the history of things done, it will easily appear, that Xenophon hath handled his undertaken subject in such sort, that, by beautifying the face thereof, he hath not in any sort corrupted the body.

SECT. IV.

The estate of the Medes and Persians in times aforegoing this great war.

For it is commonly agreed upon, that Archemenes, the son of Perseus, being governor of Persia, did associate himself with Arbaces, who commanded in Media in that rebellion against Sardanapalus, and that each of them, after the victory obtained,

« AnteriorContinuar »