held for himself the dominion of those countries which he had formerly ruled for the Assyrians; as also, that they conveyed over the same honour and power to their posterity, which, in Media, was not absolutely regal, but with some restraint limited, until such time as Deioces took upon him the full authority and majesty of a kingdom. From the death of Sardanapalus to the reign of Deioces, are usually accounted about an hundred and forty years, in the last sixty whereof there reigned in Assyria mighty princes, namely, Salmanassar and his successors, whose great achievements in Syria and elsewhere witness, that the Medes and Persians found it not for their advantage to undertake any offensive war against those victorious kings; it being also probable that the league continued as yet between these the successors of Belochus and Arbaces, who had for merly shared the empire.

Now, from the beginning of Deioces to the first of Astyages, there passed above ninety years; in which, if Herodotus have written truly, that Phraortes conquered Persia, and how he and other the kings of Media, by many victories, greatly enlarged their dominions, and commanded many parts of Asia, it had been but an unadvised enterprise of the Assyrians and Babylonians, to have wasted themselves against the Syrians and Egyptians, leaving so able and victorious a nation on their backs. But that the Medes had done nothing upon the south parts of Persia, and that the Persians themselves were not masters of Susiana in Nabuchodonosor's time, it is manifest in Daniel, who was then governor for the Babylonians in Susa or Susan, the chief city thereof. It is true, indeed, that the Medians, either under Cyaxares or Astyages, or both, had quarrel with Halyattes, the father of Croesus, which, after some six years dispute, was compounded.

How the affairs of Persia stood in so many ages,

I do not find any memory. It seemeth, that the roughness of the mountainous country which they then possessed, with the confederacy which they continued with the Medes, gave them more security than fame; for if their kings, being the posterity of Achæmenes, had done any memorable acts, the greatness which they afterward obtained would not have suffered any forgetfulness thereof. But as we find all Xenophon's reports, both of these wars and the state of those countries to be very consonant and agreeable to the relation of many other good au thors, so it appears that the race of Achæmenes held the principality of Persia from father to son for many descents; and therefore we may better give credit to Xenophon, who affirmeth, that Cambyses, the father of Cyrus, was king of Persia, than to those who make him a mean man, and say, that Astyages gave him his daughter Mandane in marriage, to the end that her son, (whose nativity he feared,) might be disabled from any great undertaking by his father's ignobility.

For what cause of grief could it be to Astyages, that the son of his daughter should become lord of the best part of Asia? No, it was more likely, that, upon such a prophecy, his love to his grandchild should have increased, and his care been the greater to have married her to some prince of strength and eminent virtue.

Yea, the same Herodotus, who is the first author, and, as I think, the deviser of the mischief intended against Cyrus by his grandfather, doth confess, that the line of the Achæmenidae was so renowned, that the great king Xerxes, in the height of his prosperity, did thence derive himself, and vaunt of it; which he would never have done had they been ignoble, or had they been the vassals of any other king or monarch.

For in this sort Xerxes, in the seventh of Herodo tus, deriveth himself:

Of the Achæmenidæ there were two races; of the first was Cyrus the Great, whose issue-male failed in his two sons, Cambyses and Smerdis. This royal family is thus set down by the learned Reineccius :

Achæmenes, the son of Perseus, first king of Persia. Darius.

Cyrus, the first of that name, had Cambyses and Atossa, who, married to Pharnaces, king of Cappadocia, had Artystona and other daugh

ters.

Cambyses had

Cyrus the Great; Cyrus had

Cambyses, who succeeded him, and Smerdis, slain by his brother Cambyses.

Of the second, were those seven great princes of Persia, who, having overthrown the usurped royalty of the Magi, chose from among themselves Darius, the son of Hystaspes, king.

This kingdom of Persia was first known by the name of Elam, so called after Elam, the son of Shem, and the people therein inhabiting Elamita; by Elianus, Elymæ; by Josephus, Elymi.

Suidas derives this nation sometimes from Assur, sometimes from Magog, of whom they are called Magusai; which Magusæi, according to Eusebius', are not to be taken for the nation in general, but for those who were afterward called the Magi, or wise men. So do the Greeks, among many other their sayings of them, affirm, that the Persians were anciently called Artæi, and that they called themselves

Cephenes; but that they were Elamitæ, Moses, and the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Esdras, in many places confirm; which also St. Jerome, upon Jeremiah the twenty-fifth, upon Daniel the eighth, and in his Hebrew questions, approv eth; saying, Elam a quo Elamitæ principes Persidis;' Elam, of whom were the Elamites, princes of Persia.

And that city, which the author of the second book of the Maccabees calleth Persepolis 3, is by the author of the first called Elimais 4, but is now called Siras, being the same which Antiochus, for the great riches thereof, twice attempted in vain, and to his great dishonour. And yet this city, now called Siras, was not the old Persepolis; for Alexander, at the request of Thais the harlot, burnt it.

The first king of Persia to us known, if we follow the current of authors interpreting the 14th chapter of Genesis, was Chedorlaomer, who lived with Âmraphel, or Ninias, and joined with him in the war against those Arabians, who were afterwards extinguished by the forces of Abraham.

1 Euseb. 1. vi. c. 8. de Præp. Evang. 2 Gen. x. Is. xi. 21, 22. Jer. xXV. ánd xxix. 3 2 Mac. ix. Ezek. 32, Dan. viii. Esd. iv. 4 1 Mac. vi.

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CHAP. III.

OF CYRUS.

SECT. I.

Of Cyrus's name and first actions.

S touching the name of Cyrus', Strabo saith that the same was taken from a river which watereth Persia; this great prince having Agradatus for his proper name. But the great Cyrus was not the first of that name. Herodotus otherwise; and that Cyrus signifieth a father in the Persian tongue, and therefore so intitled by the people. It is true, that, for his justice and other excellent virtues, he was indeed called a father; but that the name of Cyrus had any such signification, I think it to be mistaken. Plutarch hath a third opinion, affirming, that Cyrus is as much as to say the sun, in the same language. Howsoever it be, yet the prophet Isaiah, almost two hundred years before Cyrus was born, gives him that name, Thus saith the Lord unto Cy. 'rus,' &c.

Before the conquest of Babylon, the victories which Cyrus obtained were many and great; among which the conquest of Lydia, and other provinces thereto subject, together with the taking of Croesus himself, are not recounted by Eusebius, Orosius, and