who had brought him his head, by thus rendering himself unto him; and accordingly commanded it to be paid him and then ordered him to fay what he had concerning the affairs of Greece to impart unto him. But Themistocles being then no otherwife able to deliver himfelf, than by an interpreter, begged leave, that he might be permitted first to learn the Perfian language; hoping that then he might be in a capacity to communicate to the king what he had to impart to him in a much more perfect manner, than he could then promise to do by the interpretation of another: which being granted to him, and, having after a year's time made himfelf thorough mafter of that tongue, he was again called into the king; to whom having communicated all that he thought proper, he grew very much into his favour, fo that when Mandana his fifter, who had loft feveral of her fons in the battle of Salamis, had profecuted an accufation against Themiftocles for their death, and was very impor tunate and clamorous to have him delivered up to her a facrifice to her revenge, he not only caused him to be acquitted by the fuffrages of all the nobility then attending the court, but conferred many royal bounties upon him; for he gave him a wife of a noble Perfian family, with an house, fervants, and an equi page in all things fuitable hereto, and an annual revenue fufficient to enable him in the best manner to support the same, and, on all occafions, much careffed him as long as he continued in his court. And it is mentioned as one particular inftance of his favour to him, that, by his efpecial command, he was a admitted to hear the lectures and difcourfes of the Magians, and was inftructed by them in all the fecrets of their philofophy. But at length, it being thought beft for the king's interest, that he fhould refide in fome of the maritime towns near Greece, that he might be there ready at hand for such services as the king might have occafion of from him in those parts, he was fent to live at Magnefia, on the river Meander; where he had not only all there venues of that city (which were 50 talents a-year), but also thofe of Myus and Lampfacus allowed him for his maintenance, amounting altogether to I go talents a-year, which was little less than 30,000 pounds of our money. And here he lived all the time of Xerxes, and feveral years after, in the reign of Artaxerxes his fon, in a very plentiful and fplendid manner, as well he might on fo large a revenue, till at length he ended. his days in that city in the manner as fhall be hereafter related. But, according to b Thucydides, Xerxes was dead, and Artaxerxes had newly fucceeded in the throne, when Themiftocles filed out of Greece to the Perfian court; and therefore he VOL. I. R tells us that it was Artaxerxes Longimanus, and not Xerxes, by whom Themistocles was received with fo much favour; and Thucydides being an hiftorian of great credit, and having wrote this not many years after the death of Artaxerxes, a the Lord Primate Ufher, moved by fo great an authority, follows him in this matter, and, to make it accord with the other transactions of those times, takes nine years from the reign of Xerxes, and adds them to the two following reigns, making Xerxes to end his reign nine years fooner, and Artaxerxes to begin his reign nine years fooner, than any other author fays. Hereby the learned primate doth exceedingly help his hypothefis of the computation of the 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy; and that, no doubt, induced him to prefer the authority of Thucydides before all others in this particular. For if we put the 20th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus (from whence he reckons the beginning of thefe 70 weeks, nine years higher than others do, the middle of the last week will fall exactly in with the time when Chrift was crucified. And therefore, were the authority of Thucydides fufficient to juftify him in this matter, the primate's computation would appear much more plaufible than now it doth. But the canon of Ptolemy, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Africanus, Eufebius, and all others that write of these times, being against him herein, it is much more probable, that Thucydides was out in this particular; for although he be a very exact hiftorian in the affairs of Greece, of which he profefledly writes, yet it is poffible he might be mistaken in those of Perfia, which he treats of only by the by. d In the interim, the Athenians, having fet out a fleet under the command of Cimon, the fon of Miltiades, conquered Eiene, on the river Strymon, and other parts of Thrace, and then took in the islands of Scyrus and Naxus, which had revolted from them; and, while they were affaulting the last of these, Themistocles paffed by them, in his flight into Afia, and diffcultly escaped falling into their hands. с The next year after, f Cimon, failing from Athens with a fleet In Annalibus Veteris Teftamenti fub anno Juliana Periodi, 4241. b. e. To the reigns of Artaxerxes and his fon Xerxes, whom the primate makes to reign one year after him. For thefe authors fay, that Xerxes reig, ed 21 years, and Artaxerxes 41. But according to the primate, Xerxes reigned but 12 years, and Artaxerxes 50. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. Plutarchus in Cimone. *Plutarchus in Themiftcele. 1 Diodorus et Plutarchus, ibid. Thucydides, lib. 1. Anno 470. Xerxes 16. fleet of 200 fail, paffed over to the coafts of Afia; where, having augmented it with 100 fail more from the allies, he took in all the maritime parts of Caria and Lycia, driving the Perfians out of all the cities they were poffeffed of in thofe parts; and then hearing that they had a great fleet on the coafts of Pamphylia, and were alfo drawing down thither as great an army by land for fome expedition, he haftened thither with 250 of his beft fhips in queft of them; and finding their fleet, confifting of 350 fail, at anchor in the mouth of the river Eurymedon, and their land army encamped on the fhore by, he firft affaulted their fleet; which being foon put to the rout, and having no other way to fly but up the river, were all taken, every thip of them, and 20,000 men in them, the reft having either escaped to land, or been flain in the fight. After this, while his forces were thus flushed with fuccefs, he put them afhore, and fell on the land army, and overthrew them alfo with a great flaughter; whereby he got two great victories in the fame day, of which one was equal to that of Salamis, and the other to that of Platea. And having gotten information, that there were eighty more. Phoenician fhips coming to join the Perfian fleet, he furprised them in the harbour, before they had any notice of the late defeat, and deftroyed every fhip of them; and all the men on board were either drowned or flain in the fight. After which fuccefs, Cimon returned home in great triumph, and very much en-, riched and adorned Athens with the fpoils get in this expedition. Xerxes 17. The next year Cimon failed to the Hellefpont; and, falling on the Perfians, who had taken poffeffion of the Thracian Cherfonefus, drove them out thence, and Anno 469. fubjected their country again to the Athenians; though in truth (it having been the principality of his father Miltiades) he had the beft right to it himself. After this he fubdued the Thafians, who had revolted from the Athenians, and then, landing his army on the oppofite fhore of Thrace, he feized all the gold mines on thofe coafts, and brought under him all that country as far as Macedon, and thereby opened a way for the conquering of that realin alfo, would he have purfued the opportunity for the omitting of which, he was afterwards, on his return, brought to trial for his life before the Athenians, as if he had been corrupted by the Macedonians to fpare them, and hardly efcaped being cordemned for it. : Xerxes, being at laft daunted and wholly difcouraged by the continued feries of fo many loffes and defeats, gave over all R 2 thoughts * Plutarchus in Cimone. Plutarchus in Cimore. thoughts of any longer carrying on the Grecian war; and therefore, from this time, a no more of his fhips were feen in the Ægean fea, or any of his forces on the coafts adjoining to it, all the remainder of his reign. Xerxes 21. After this, Xerxes giving himself wholly up to luxury and eafe, minded nothing but the gratifying of his pleaAnno 456. fures and his lufts; whereby growing into contempt b with the people, ↳ Artabanus, the captain of his guards, and one who had been long in prime favour and authority with him, confpired against him, and having drawn Mithridates, one of his eunuchs that was his chamberlain, into the plot, by his means got into his bed-chamber, and there flew him, while he flept in his bed; and then, going to Artaxerxes, his third fon, acquainted him of the murder, and accufed Darius his elder brother to be the author of it, telling him, that it was done to make his way to the throne; that it was his defign to cut him off next to fecure himself in it; and that therefore it behoved him to look to himself. All which Artaxerxes, as being then a very young man, rafhly believing, without any farther examination, to be true, and being irritated thereby in fuch a manner as Artabanus intended, went immediately to his brother's apartment, and there, by the affiftance of Artabanus and his guards, flew him alfo. And this he did, as he thought, by way of just revenge for the death of his father, and for the fecuring of his own fafety, being impofed on and deceived by the craft of the traitor, who excited him hereto. The next heir was Hyftafpes the fecond of Xerxes; but he being abfent in Bactria, of which province he was governor, Artabanus took Artaxerxes, as being next at hand, and put him on the throne; but with defign to let him fit on it no longer than till he had formed a party ftrong enough to feize it for himfelf. He having been long in great authority, had made many creatures, and he had alfo teven fons all grown up to be men of robust bodies, and advan-` ced to great dignities in the empire; and his confidence in thefe was that which put his ambition on this defign: but while he was haftening it to a conclufion, Artaxerxes, having got a full difcovery of the whole plot, by the means of Megabyzus, who had married one of his fifters, was before hand with him in a counterplot, and cut him off before his treafon was fully ripened for execution; whereby having fecured himself in thorough poffeffion of the kingdom, he held it 41 years. He is faid to have been the handfomet perfon of the age * Plutarchus in Cimone.. Ctelias. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. Juftin. lib. 3. c. 1. C Strabo, lib. 15. 5. 735 b in which he lived, and to have been a prince a of a very mild and generous difpofition; he is called by the Greek hiftorians Maxgozeg, or Longimanus (i. e. the long-handed) by reafon of the more than ordinary length of his hands; for they were fo long, that, on his ftanding upright, he could touch his knees with them. But in fcripture he hath the name of Ahasuerus, as well as that of Artaxerxes, and was the fame who had Efther for his queen. I acknowledge there are two very great men, whofe opinion differ from me herein, Archbishop Ufher, and Jofeph Scaliger. The former holdeth that it was Darius Hyftafpes that was the king Ahasuerus who married Efther; and that Atoffa was the Vashti, and Artyftona the Efther of the holy fcriptures. But all that is faid of those persons by the hiftorians who have writ ten of them is wholly inconfiftent herewith: for Herodotus pofitively tells us, that Artyftona was the daughter of Cyrus, and therefore he could not be Efther; and that Atoffa had four fons by Darius, befides daughters, all born to him by her after he was king; and therefore he could not be that queen Vashti, who was divorced from the king her husband in the third year of his reign, nor he that Ahafuerus that divorced her. Furthermore, Atoffa is faid to have had that predominant interest with Darius even to the time of his death, that it was by her means that, in the last act of his life, & he was influenced to fettle the fucceffion of his crown on Xerxes her fon, to the difinheriting of all his elder fons, who were born to him by a former wife; where as the Ahasuerus of the book of Efther had removed Vashti both from his bed and from his prefence by an unalterable decree: and therefore never could admit her again to either all his life after. That which chiefly induced the learned archbishop to be of this opinion was, that whereas it is faid of Ahafuerus in the book of Efther, that he laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the ifles, the fame is alfo faid of Darius Hyftafpes by Herodotus; and therefore he thought, that they were both the fame perfon. But Strabo, who is an author of as good, if not better credit, attributeth this to Longimanus. It must be acknow ledged, that in the printed copies which we now have of that author, it is read Darius Longimanus in the place which 1 refer to. But the title Longimanus, and the defcription of the perfon af a Plutarch. in Artaxerxe Mnemone. b Plutarch, et Strabo, ib. In Annalibus Veteris Teftamen ti, fub anno J. P. 4193. !d Herodot, lib. 3. et lib. 7. Heredet. lib. 7. fub initio. f Ffther i. 3. g Herodot, lib. 7. tex |