tue. And thefe, according to Tacitus, are the two ends, which every hiftorian ought to propofe to himself, by making a judicious choice of what is moft extraordinary both in good and evil, in order to occafion that public homage to be paid to virtue, which is justly due to it; and to create a greater abhorrence for vice, on account of that eternal infamy that attends it. The hiftory I write furnishes too many examples of the latter fort. With refpect to the Perfians, it will ap-pear by what is faid of their kings, that thofe princes, whofe power has no other bounds but thofe of their will, often abandon themselves to all their paffions; that nothing is more difficult than to refift the delufions of a man's own greatnefs, and the flatteries of thofe that furround him; that the liberty of gratifying all one's defires, and of doing evil with impunity, is a dangerous fituation; that the best difpofitions can hardly withstand fuch a temptation; that, even after having preferved themfelves in the beginning, they are infenfibly corrupted by foftnefs and effeminacy, by pride, and their averfion to fincere counfels; and that it rarely happens they are wife enough to confider that, when they find themfelves exalted above all laws and reftraints, they ftand then moft in need of moderation and wifdom, both in regard to themselves and others; and that in fuch a fituation they ought to be doubly wife, and doubly ftrong, in order to fet bounds within, by their reafon, to a power that has none without. With refpect to the Grecians, the Peloponnefian war will fhow the miserable effects of their inteftine divifions, and the fatal exceffes into which they were led by their thirft of dominion: fcenes of injuftice, ingratitude, and perfidy, together with the open violation of treaties, or mean artifices and unworthy tricks to elude their execu tion. It will fhew, how fcandaloufly the Lacedæmoni *Exequi fententias haud inflitui, nifi infignes per honeftum aut notabili dedeBores quod præcipuum munus annalium reor ne virtutes fileantur, atque pravis dictis factifque ex pofteritate et infamia metus fit. TACIT, Annal. I, iii. c. 65. ans ans and Athenians debafed themfelves to the Barbarians, in order to beg aids of money from them: how shame. fully the great deliverers of Greece renounced the glory of all their past labours and exploits, by ftooping and making their court to certain haughty and infolent fatrapæ, and by going fucceffively, with a kind of emulation, to implore the protection of the common enemy, whom they had fo often conquered; and in what manner they employed the fuccours they obtained from them, in oppreffing their ancient allies, and extending their own territories by unjuft and violent methods. On both fides, and fometimes in the fame perfon, wę fhall find a surprising mixture of good and bad, of virtues and vices, of glorious actions and mean fentiments; and fometimes, perhaps, we fhall be ready to ask ourfelves, whether thefe can be the fame persons and the fame people of whom such different things are related; and whether it be poffible that fuch a bright and fhining light, and fuch thick clouds of smoke and darkness, can proceed from the fame fund? I relate things as I find them in ancient authors, and the pictures I present the reader with are always drawn after thofe original monuments which hiftory has tranfmitted to us, concerning the perfons I speak of; and I might likewise add, after human nature itself. But in my opinion even this medley of good and evil may be of great advantage to us, and ferve as a prefervative against a danger fufficiently common and natural. For if we found, either in any nation or particular perfons, a probity and nobleness of fentiments always uniform and free from all blemish and weakness, we fhould be tempted to believe that heathenifm is capable of producing real and perfect virtues; though our religion teaches us, that thofe virtues we moft admire among the heathens, are really no more than the shadow and appearance of them. But when we fee the defects and imperfections,the vices and crimes, and those fometimes of the blackeft die, that are intermixed with them, and often very closely follow their most virtuous actions; we are ap. are taught to moderate our esteem and admiration of them, and at the fame time that we commend what pears noble, worthy, and great, among the Pagans, not prodigally to pay to the phantom of virtue, that entire and unreferved homage which is only due to virtue itself. With these reftrictions I defire to be understood, when I praise the great men of antiquity, and their illuftrious actions, and if, contrary to my intention, any expreffions fhould escape me, which may feem to exceed thefe bounds, I defire the reader to interpret them candidly, and reduce them to their juft value and meaning. The Perfian hiftory includes the space of one hundred and feventeen years, during the reigns of fix kings of Perfia: Darius, the firft of the name, the fon of Ayitafpes; Xerxes the firft; Artaxerxes, furnamed Longimanus; Xerxes the fecond; Sogdianus; (the two laft of which reigned but a very little time;) and Darius the fecond, commonly called Darius Nothus. This hiftory begins at the year of the world 3483, and extends to the year 3600. As this whole period naturally divides itself into two parts, I fhall alfo divide it into two distinct books. The first part, which confifts of ninety years, contains from the beginning of the reign of Darius the firft, to the forty-fecond year of Artaxerxes, the fame year in which the Peloponnefian war began; that is, from the year of the world 3483, to the year 3573. This part chiefly contains the different enterprifes and expeditions of the Perfians against Greece, which never produced more great men and great events, nor ever difplayed more confpicuous or more folid virtues. Here you will fee the famous battles of Marathon, Thermopyla, Artemifa, Salamin, Plata, Mycale, Eurymedon, &c. Here the most eminent commanders of Greece fignalized their courage; Miltiades, Leonidas, Themiftocles, Arif tides, Cimon, Paufanias, Pericles, Thucydides, &c. Te enable the reader the more easily to recollect what paffed within the space of time among the Jews, and alfo among the Romans, the history of both which nations is entirely foreign to that of the Perfians and Greeks, Greeks, I fhall here fet down in few words the princi pal epochas relating to them. Epochas of the Jewish hiftory. The people of God were at this time returned from their Babylonifh captivity to Jerufalem, under the conduct of Zorobabel. Ufher is of opinion, that the hif tory of Efther ought to be placed in the reign of Darius. The Ifraclites, under the fhadow of this prince's protection, and animated by the warm exhortations of the prophets Haggai and Żechariah, did at laft finifh the building of the temple, which had been interrupted for many years by the cabals of their enemies. Artaxerxes was no lefs favourable to the Jews than Darius: he first of all fent Ezra to Jerufalem, who reftored the public worfhip, and the obfervation of the law; then Nehemiah, who caufed walls to be built round the city, and fortified it against the attacks of their neighbours, who were jealous of its reviving greatnefs. It is thought.that Malachi, the laft of the prophets, was contemporary with Nehemiah, or that he prophefied not long after him. This interval of the facred history extends from the reign of Darius I. to the beginning of the reign of Darius Nothus; that is to fay, from the year of the world3485, to the year 3581. After which the fcripture is entirely filent till the time of the Maccabees. Epochas of the Roman Hiftory. The first year of Darius was the 233d of the building. of Rome. Tarquin the Proud was then on the throne, and about ten years afterwards was depofed, when the confular government was fabftituted to that of the kings.. In the fucceeding part of this period happened the war against Porfenna; the creation of the tribunes of the people; Coriolanus's retreat among the Volfci, and the war that enfued thereupon; the wars of the Romans against the Latin's, the Vejentes, the Volfci, and other neigh neighbouring nations: the death of Virginia under the Decemvirate; the difputes between the people and fenate about marriages and the confulfhip, which occafioned the creating of military tribunes instead of confuls. This period of time terminates in the 323d year from the foundation of Rome. The fecond part, which confifts of twenty-feven years, extends from the 43d year of Artaxerxes Longiinanus, to the death of Darius Nothus; that is, from the year of the world 3573, to the year 3600. It contains the nineteen first years of the Peloponnefian war, which continued twenty-feven, of which Greece and Sicily were the feat, and wherein the Greeks, who had before triumphed over the Barbarians, turned their arms. against each other. Among the Athenians, Pericles, Nicias, and Alcibiades; among the Lacedæmonians, Brafidas, Gylippus, and Lyfander, diftinguifhed themfelves in the most extraordinary manner. Rome continues to be agitated by different difputes between the fenate and people. Towards the end of this period, and about the 350th year of Rome, the Romans formed the fiege of Veji, which lafted ten years. 4 Eighty years after the taking of Troy,the Heraclides, that is, the defcendants of Hercules, returned into the Peloponnefus, and made themfelves mafters of Lacedæmon, where two of them, who were brothers, Eurifthenes and Procles, fons of Ariftodemus, reigned jointly together. Herodotus obferves, that thefe two brothers were, during their whole lives at variance; and that almoft all their defcendants inherited the like difpofition of mutual hatred and antipathy; fo true it is, that the fovereign power will admit of no partnership, and that two kings will always be too many for one kingdom! However, after the death of thefe two, the defcendants of both ftill continued to fway the fceptre jointly; and what is very remarkable, thefe two branches fubfifted for near nine hundred years, from the return of the Heraclides into the Peloponnefus, to the death of Cleomenes, Lib. vi. c. 50. 9 A. M. 2900. Ant. J. C. 1104. - and |