different things are related; and whether it be possible that such a bright and shining light, and such thick clouds of smoke and darkness, can proceed from the same source?

The Persian history includes the space of one hundred and seventeen years, during the reigns of six kings of Persia; Darius, the first of the name, the son of Hystaspes; Xerxes the first Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus Xerxes, the second; Sogdianus; (the two last reigned but a short time;) and Darius the second, commonly called Darius Nothus. This history 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 shall also divide it into two distinct books.

The first part, which consists of ninety years, extends from the beginning of the reign of Darius the first to the forty-second year of Artaxerxes, the same year in which the Peloponnesian war began; that is, from the year of the world 3483 to the year 3573. This part chiefly contains the different enterprises and expeditions of the Persians against Greece, which never produced more great men or greater events, nor ever displayed more conspicuous or more solid virtues. Here will be seen the famous battles of Marathon, Thermopyla, Artemisium, Salamis, Platæa, Mycale, Eurymedon, &c. Here the most eminent commanders of Greece signalized their courage; Miltiades, Leonidas, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pausanias, Pericies, Thucydides, &c.

To enable the reader the more easily to recollect what passed within this space of time among the Jews, and also among the Romans, the history of both which nations is entirely foreign to that of the Persians and Greeks, I shall here set down in few words the principal epochs relating to them.

EPOCHS OF THE JEWISH HISTORY.

THE people of God were at this time returned from their Babylonish captivity to Jerusalem, under the conduct of Zorobabel. Usher is of opinion, that the history of Esther ought to be placed in the reign of Darius. The Israelites, under the shadow of this prince's protection, and animated by the warm exhortations of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, did at last finish the building of the temple, which had been interrupted for many years by the cabals of their enemies. Artaxerxes was no less favourable to the Jews than Darius; he first of all sent Ezra to Jerusalem, who restored the public worship, and the observation of the law; then Nehemiah, who caused walls to be built round the city, and fortified it against the attacks of their neighbours, who were jealous of its reviving greatness. It is thought that Malachi, the last of the prophets, was contemporary with Nehemiah, or that he prophesied not long after him.

This interval of the sacred history extends from the reign of Darius I. to the beginning of the reign of Darius Nothus; that is to say, from the year of the world 3485 to the year 3581. After which the Scripture is entirely silent, till the time of the Maccabees.

EPOCHS OF THE ROMAN HISTORY.

THE first year of Darius I. was the 233d of the building of Rome. Tarquin the Proud was then on the throne, and about ten years afterwards was expelled, when the consular government was substituted for that of the kings. In the succeeding part of this period, happened the war against Porsenna; the creation of the tribunes of the people; Coriolanus's retreat among the Volsci, and the war that ensued thereupon; the wars of the Romans against the Latins, the Vejentes, the Volsci, and other neighbouring nations; the death of Virginia under the Decemvirate; the disputes between the people and senate about marriages and the consulship, which occasioned the creating of military tribunes instead of consuls. This period of time terminates in the 323d year from the foundation of Rome.

The second part, which consists of twenty-seven years, extends from the forty-third year of Artaxerxes Longimanus to the death of Darius Nothus; that is from the year of the world 3573 to the year 3600. It contains the first nineteen years of the Peloponnesian war, which continued twenty-seven, of which Greece and Sicily were the seat, 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, Brasidas, Gylippus, and Lysander, eminently distinguished themselves.

Rome continued t be agitated by different disputes between the senate and people. Towards the end of this period, and about the 350th year of Rome, the Romans formed the siege of Veji, which lasted ten years.

I have already observed, that eighty years after the taking of Troy,* the Heraclidæ, that is, the descendants of Hercules, returned into the Peloponnesus, and made themselves masters of Lacedæmon, where two of them, who were brothers, Euristhenes and Procles, sons of Aristodemus, reigned jointly together. Herodotus observes, that these two brothers were during their whole lives at variance, and that almost all their descendants inherited the like disposition of mutual hatred and antipathy; so true it is, that the sovereign power will admit of no partnership, and that two kings will always be too many for one kingdom! However, after the death of these two, the descendants of both still continued to sway the sceptre jointly; and what is very remarkable, these two branches subsisted for near nine hundred years, from the return of the Heraclidæ into the Peloponnesus to the death of Cleomenes, and supplied Sparta with kings without interruption, and that generally in a regular succession from father to son, especially in the elder branch of the family.

THE ORIGIN AND CONDITION OF THE ELOTE, OR HELOTS.

WHEN the Lacedæmonians first began to settle in Peloponnesus, they met with great opposition from the inhabitants of the country, whom they were obliged to subdue one after another by force of arms, or receive into their alliance on easy and equitable terms, with the imposition of a small tribute. Strabo speaks of a city, called Elos, not far from Sparta, which, after having submitted to the yoke, as others had done, revolted openly, and refused to pay the tribute. Agis, the son of Euristhenes, newly settled on the throne, was sensible of the dangerous tendency of this first revolt, and therefore immediately marched with an army against them, together with Soüs, his colleague. They laid siege to the city, which, after a pretty long resistance, was forced to surrender at discretion. This prince thought it proper to make such an example of them, as should intimidate all their neighbours, and deter them from the like attempts, and yet not alienate their minds by too cruel a treatment; for which reason he put none to death. He spared the lives of all the inhabitants, but at the same time deprived them of their liberty, and reduced them all to a state of slavery. From thenceforward they were employed in all mean and servile offices, and treated with extreme rigour. These were the people who were called Elotæ or Helots. The number of them exceedingly increased in process of time, the Lacedæmonians giving undoubtedly the same name to all the people whom they reduced to the same condition of servitude. As they themselves were averse to labour, and entirely addicted to war, they left the cultivation of their lands to these slaves, assigning every one of them a certain portion of ground, the produce of which they were obliged to carry every year to their respective masters, who endeavoured, by all sorts of ill usage, to make their yoke more grievous and insupportable. This was certainly very bad policy, and could only tend to breed a vast number of dangerous enemies in the very heart of the state, who were

A. M. 2900. Ant. J. C. 1104. VOL. I.

Lib. vi. c. 52.

6

D2

Lib. viii. p. 365. Plut. in Lycurg. p. 10

always ready to take arms and revolt on every occasion. The Romans acted more prudently in this respect; for they incorporated the conquered nations into their state, by admitting them to the freedom of their city, and thereby converted them from enemies into brethren and fellow citizens.

LYCURGUS, THE LACEDEMONIAN LAWGIVER.

EURYTION, or Eurypon, as he is named by others, succeeded Soüs. In order to gain the affections of the people, and render his government agreeable, he thought fit to recede, in some points, from the absolute power exercised by the kings, his predecessors; this rendered his name so dear to his subjects, that all his descendants were from him called Eurytionidæ.* But this relaxation gave birth to horrible confusion and an unbounded licentiousness in Sparta, which for a long time occasioned infinite mischiefs. The people became so insolent, that nothing could restrain them. If Eurytion's succes sors attempted to recover their authority by force, they became odious; and, if, through complaisance or weakness, they chose to dissemble, their mildness served only to render them contemptible; so that order was in a manner abolished, and the laws no longer regarded. These confusions hastened the death of Lycurgus's father, whose name was Eunomus, and who was killed in an insurrection. Polydectes, his eldest son and successor, dying soon after without children, every body expected Lycurgus would have been king. And indeed he was so in effect, as long as the pregnancy of his brother's wife was uncertain; but as soon as that was manifest, he declared that the kingdom belonged to her child, in case it proved a son; and from that moment he took upon himself the administration of the government, as guardian to his unborn nephew, under the title of prodicos, which was the name given by the Lacedæmonians to the guardians of their kings. When the child was born, Lycurgus took him up in his arms, and cried out to the company that were present, behold, my lords of Sparta, this new-born child is your king : and at the same time he put the infant in the king's seat, and named him Charilaus, because of the joy the people expressed upon occasion of his birth. The reader will find in the first volume of this history, all that relates to the history of Lycurgus, the reformation he made, and the excellent laws he established in Sparta. Agesilaus was at this time king in the elder branch of the family.

WAR BETWEEN THE ARGIVES AND THE LACEDEMONIANS.

SOME time after this, in the reign of Theopompus, a war broke out between the Argives and Lacedæmonians, on account of a little country, called Thyrea, that lay upon the confines of the two states, and to which each of them pretended a right. When the two armies were ready to engage, it was agreed on both sides, in order to spare the effusion of blood, that the quarrel should be decided by three hundred of the bravest men on both sides; and that the land in question should become the property of the victorious party. To leave the combatants more room to engage, the two armies retired to some distance. Those generous champions, then, who had all the courage of two mighty armies, boldly advanced towards each other, and fought with so much resolution and fury, that the whole number, except three men, two on the Argives, and one on that of the Lacedæmonians, lay dead upon the spot, and only the night parted them. The two Argives looking upon themselves as the conquerors, made what haste they could to Argos to carry the news: the single Lacedæmonian, Othryades by name, instead of retiring, stripped the dead bodies of the Argives, and carrying their arms into the Lacedæmonian camp, continued in his post. The next day the two armies returned to the field of battle. Both sides laid equal claim to the victory; the Argives, because they had more of their champions left alive than the enemy had; the

Lacedæmonians, because the two Argives that remained alive had fled; whereas their single soldier had remained master of the field of battle, and had carried off the spoils of the enemy; in short, they could not determine the dispute without coming to another engagement. Here fortune declared in favour of the Lacedæmonians, and the little territory of Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But Othryades, not able to bear the thought of surviving his brave companions, or of enduring the sight of Sparta after their death, killed himself on the same field of battle where they had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with them.

WARS BETWEEN THE MESSENIANS AND LACEDEMONIANS.

THERE were no less than three several wars between the Messenians and the Lacedæmonians, all of them very fierce and bloody. Messenia was a country in Peloponnesus, not far westward from Sparta; it was of considerable strength, and was governed by its own kings.

THE FIRST MESSENIAN WAR.

THE first Messenian war lasted twenty years, and broke out in the second year of the ninth Olympiad.* The Lacedæmonians pretended to have received several considerable injuries from the Messenians, and among others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the inhabitants of Messenia, when they went according to custom, to a temple that stood on the borders of the two nations; as also that of the murder of Telecles, their king, which was a consequence of the former outrage. Probably a desire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a territory which lay so convenient for them, might be the true cause of the war. But, be that as it will, the war broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus, kings of Sparta, at the time when the office of archon at Athens was still decennial.

Euphaes, the thirteenth descendant from Hercules, was then king of Messenia. He gave the command of his army to Cleonnis. The Lacedæmonians opened the campaign with the siege of Amphea, an inconsiderable city, which, however, they thought, would be a very convenient depot for arms. The town was taken by storm, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. This first blow served only to animate the Messenians, by showing them what they were to expect from the enemy, if they did not defend themselves with vigour. The Lacedæmonians, on their part, bound themselves by an oath, not to lay down their arms, or return to Sparta, till they had made themselves masters of all the cities and lands belonging to the Messenians; so much did they rely upon their strength and valour.

Two battles were fought, wherein the loss was nearly equal on both sides. But after the second, the Messenians suffered extremely through the want of provisions, which occasioned a great desertion in their troops, and at last brought pestilence among them.‡

Hereupon they consulted the oracle at Delphos, which directed them, in order to appease the wrath of the gods, to offer up a virgin of the royal blood in sacrifice. Aristomenes, who was of the race of the Epytides, offered his own daughter. The Messenians then considering, that if they left garrisons in all their towns, they should extremely weaken their army, resolved to abandon them all except Ithoma, a little place situated on the top of a hill of the same name, about which they encamped and fortified themselves. In this situation were seven years spent, during which nothing passed but slight skirmishes on both sides, the Lacedæmonians not daring, in all that time, to force the enemy to a battle.

Indeed, they almost despaired of being able to reduce them; nor was there any thing but the obligation of the oath, by which they had bound themselves,

* A. M. 3261. Ant. J. C. 743. Pausan. l. iv. p. 216-242. Justin. 1. iii. 4.

that made them continue so burdensome a war. What gave them the greatest uneasiness, was their apprehension lest their absence and distance from their wives for so many years, and which might still continue many more, should destroy their families at home, and leave Sparta destitute of citizens.* To prevent this misfortune, they sent home such of their soldiers as were come to the army since the fore-mentioned oath had been taken, and made no scruple of prostituting their wives to their embraces. The children that sprung from these unlawful connexions, were called Parthenic, a name given to them to denote the infamy of their birth. As soon as they were grown up, not being able to endure such an opprobrious distinction, they banished themselves from Sparta with one consent, and under the conduct of Phalanthus,† went and settled at Tarentum in Italy, after driving out the ancient inhabitants.

At last, in the eighth year of the war, which was the thirteenth of Euphaes's reign, a fierce and bloody battle was fought near Ithoma. Euphaes pierced through the battalions of Theopompus with too much heat and precipitation for a king. He there received a multitude of wounds, several of which were mortal. He fell, and seemed to have expired. Whereupon wonderful efforts of courage were exerted on both sides; by the one, to carry off the king; by the other, to save him. Cleonnis killed eight Spartans, wno were dragging him along, and spoiled them of their arms, which he committed to the custody of some of his soldiers. He himself received several wounds, all in the fore-part of his body, which was a certain proof that he had never turned his back upon his enemies. Aristomenes, fighting on the same occasion, and for the same end, killed five Lacedæmonians, whose spoils he likewise carried off, without receiving any wound. In short, the king was saved and carried off by the Messenians; and all mangled and bloody as he was, he expressed great joy that they had not been worsted. Aristomenes, after the battle was over, met Cleonnis, who, by reason of his wounds, could neither walk by himself, nor with the assistance of those that lent him their hands. He therefore took him upon his shoulders without quitting his arms, and carried him to the camp.

As soon as they had applied the first dressing to the wounds of the king of Messenia and of his officers, there arose a new contention among the Messenians, that was pursued with as much warmth as the former, but was of a very different kind, and yet the consequence of the other. The affair in question was the adjudging the prize of glory to him that had signalized his valour most in the late engagement. For it was a custom among them, publicly to proclaim after a battle the name of the man that had shown the greatest courage. Nothing could be more proper to animate the officers and soldiers, to inspire them with resolution and intrepidity, and to stifle the natural apprehension of death and danger. Two illustrious champions entered the lists on this occasion, namely, Cleonnis and Aristomenes.

The king, notwithstanding his weak condition, being attended with the principal officers of his army, presided in the council, where this important dispute was to be decided. Each competitor pleaded his own cause. Cleonnis began and founded his pretensions upon the great number of the enemies he had slain, and upon the multitude of wounds he had received in the action, which were so many undoubted testimonies of the courage with which he had faced both death and danger; whereas the condition in which Aristomenes came out of the engagement, without hurt and without wound, seemed to show that he had been very careful of his own person, or at most, could only prove that he had been more fortunate, but not more brave or courageous than himself. And as to his having carried the king on his shoulders into the camp, that action indeed might serve to prove the strength of his body, but