THE ད་ OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT CONNECTED, IN THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS AND NEIGHBOURING NATIONS, FROM The Declension of the Kingdoms of ISRAEL and JUDAH, to the Time of CHRIST. A BOOK V. An. 464. Artax. I. RTAXERXES having, by the death of Artabanus, removed one grand obftacle to his quiet poffeffing of the throne, had ftill two others to ftruggle with, his brother Hyftafpes in Bactria, and Artabanus's party at home. And this laft being nearest at hand, gave him the first trouble: for a although Artabanus was dead, he had left behind him feven fons, and many parti-, zans, who immediately gathered together to revenge his death; whereon a fierce conflict enfued between them and those who ftood by Artaxerxes, in which many noble Perfians were flain; but at length Artaxerxes having prevailed, did cut off all that were concerned in this confpiracy; and efpecially he took a fignal revenge of every one of those who had an hand in the murder of his father, and particularly of the eunuch Mithridates that betrayed him, whom he caufed to be boated to death. VOL. II. * Ctefias. A The The manner of this punishment was thus: the person condemned to it being laid on his back in a boat, and having his hands ftretched out, and tied faft to each fide of it, had another boat put over him, his head only being left out through a place made fit for it. In this pofture they fed him, till the worms which were bred in the excrements that he voided as he thus lay, did eat out his bowels, and fo caufed his death; which was ufually this way 20 days in effecting, the criminal lying all this while in exquifite torments. b Artaxerxes, having mastered this difficulty, was at leifure to fend an army into Bactria against his brother. But there he did not meet with fo eafy fuccefs; for a fierce battle enfuing, though Hyftafpes did not get the victory, yet he did fo well make good his ground, that no advantage was got against him; but both armies parted with equal fuccefs, and each retired to make better preparations for a fecond encounter. Artax. 2. But the next year 4 Artaxerxes having drawn together a much stronger army, as having the greateft part of An. 463. the empire at his devotion, overpowered Hyftafpes, and utterly overthrew him in a second battle; whereby having removed all difficulties and oppofitions, he now became fully poffeffed of the whole empire, and the better to secure himself in it, he removed all thofe governors of cities and provinces of whom he had any fufpicion, that they had been concerned with, or any way well affected to either of the parties which he had fuppreffed, and put into their places only fuch as he had a thorough confidence in. After this he did fet himself to reform all the abufes and diforders of the government; whereby he gained to himself much credit and authority throughout all the provinces of the empire, and throughly eftablished himself in the affections of the people, wherein lieth the surest interest of princes. An. 462. Artax. 3. After Artaxerxes had obtained thefe fucceffes, and thereby firmly fettled himself in the peaceable poffeffion of the whole Perfian empire, f he appointed a folemn rejoicing on this account, and caufed it to be celebrated in the city of Shufan or Sufa in feaftings and fhows, for the term of 180 days, on the conclufion of which he made a great feast for all the princes and people that were then in Shufhan for feven days. And Vahti the queen at the fame time made Plutarchus in Artaxerxe. That Hyftafpes was governor of Bactria, at his father's death, is at tefted by Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. p. 53. • Ctefias. d Ibid. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. f Efther i. Jofephus Antiq. lib. 11. c. 6. 2 a like feast in her apartment for the women. On the 7th day, the king's heart being merry with wine, he commanded his seven chamberlains to bring queen Vathti before him with the crown royal on her head, that he might fhew to the princes and people her beauty; for the was exceeding fair. But for her thus to fhew herself in fuch an affembly, being a contrary to the ufage of the Perfians, and appearing to her (as indeed it was) very indecent, and much unbecoming the modefty of a lady, as well as the dignity of her station, the refufed to comply herewith, and would not come; whereon the king, being very much incenfed, called his feven counsellors to take advice with them about it, who fearing this might be of ill example through the whole empire, in encouraging women to contemn and disobey their hufbands, advised that the king fhould put Vashti away forever from him, and give her royal ftate to another that fhould be better than the, and by his royal edict give command throughout the whole empire, that all wives fhould pay honour and obedience to their husbands, and that every man fhould bear rule in his own house. Which advice pleafing the king, he commanded it accordingly to be put in execution, and Vashti never more after that came again into the king's prefence: for the decree whereby fhe was removed from him was registered among the laws of the Medes and Perfians, and therefore it could never again be altered. After this orders were given out through the whole empire, for the gathering together to the palace at Shufhan all the fair virgins in every province, that out of them one might be chofen whom the king should beft like, to be made queen in her place. At the time when this collection of virgins was made, there lived in Shufhan a certain Jew, named Mordecai, who Artax. 4. was of the defcendants of thofe who had been carried An. H. Col. captive to Babylon with Jeconiah king of Judah, and, by his attendance at the king's gate, feems to have been one of the porters of the royal palace. He having no children, did breed up Hadaffah, his uncle's daughter, and adopted her for his own. This young woman, being very beautiful and fair, was made choice of among other virgins on this occafion, and was carried to the king's palace, and there committed to the care of Hegai the king's chamberlain, who was appointed to have the custody of these virgins; whom she pleased fo well by her good carriage, that he ihewed her favour before all the other virgins under his care; and therefore he affigned her the best apartment of the houfe, and provided her of the first with those things that were requifite for her purification. For A 2 Jofephus Antiq. lib. 11. c. 6. the the custom was, that every virgin thus taken into the palace for the king's ufe, was to go through a course of purification by fweet oils and perfumes for a whole year; and therefore Hadaffah having been by the favour of the chamberlain, of the earlieft provided with thefe things, was one of the first that was prepared and made ready for the king's bed, and therefore was one of the fooneft that was called to it. The term therefore of her purification being accomplished, her turn came to go in unto the king, who was fo well An. 460. Artax. 5. pleafed with her, that he often again called her by name; which he used not to do, but to thofe only of his women whom he was much delighted with. From this time she seems to have had the name of Efther; for it is of a Perfian original; the fignification of it is not now known. a The Egyptians being very impatient of a foreign yoke, in order to deliver themfelves from it, rebelled against Artaxerxes, and, making Inarus prince of the Lybians, their king, called in the Athenians to their affiftance, who, having then a fleet of 200 fail at Cyprus, gladly laid hold of the invitation, and forthwith failed for Egypt, looking on this as a favourable opportunity for the crushing of the Perfian power, by driving them out of that country. Artaxerxes, on the hearing of this revolt, made ready an army of 300,000 men for the fupprefling of it, propofing himfelf to march into Egypt at the head of them; but being diffuaded from hazarding his perfon in this expedition, he committed it to the care of Achæmenides, one of his brothers. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus fay, that it was Achæmines, the brother of Xerxes, and uncle of Artaxerxes, the fame who afore had the government of Egypt in the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, that had the conduct of this war: but herein they were deceived by the fimilitude of the names; for it appears by Ctefias, that he was the fon of Hameftris, whom Artaxerxes fent with his army into Egypt. An. 459. Achaemenides, being arrived in Egypt with his numerous army, encamped on the river Nile. In the interim, "the Athenians having beaten the Perfian fleet at fea, and destroyed or taken 50 of their fhips, failed up the Nile, and, having landed their forces, under the command of Charitimis, their general, joined Inarus and the Egyptians; whereon, falling on Achæmenides with their joint forces, they overthrew Thucydides, lib. 1. Ctefias. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. Ctefias. Herodot. lib. 3. et. lib. 7. d Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. Thucydides, lib. 1. Ctefias. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11, overthrew him in a great battle, killing rec,000 of his men, and among them Achaemenides himfelf. The remainder fled to Memphis, where the victors purfuing them, took two parts of the town: but the Perfians fecuring themselves in the third, called the white wall, which was by much the largest and the ftrongest part, there fuffered a fiege of near three years; during all which time they valiantly defended themfelves against their affailants, till at length they were fuccoured by thofe who were fent to their relief. b Anno 458. Artaxerxes having received an account of the defeat of his ar my in Egypt, and what part the Athenians bore in the effecting of it, in order to divert their forces from being thus employed against him, he sent an ambaffador to the Lacedæmonians, with great fums of money, to induce them to make war upon the Athenians; but, they not being by any means to be wrought to it, Artaxerxes refolved to endeavour this diverfion another way, by fending himself an army into Attica, with Themistocles at the head of it; which he thought could not fail of making them recal their forces out of Egypt, because then they would need them at home for their own defence. And accordingly orders were fent to Themiflocles to prepare for the expedition; and an army and a fleet were drawing towards the Ionian coaft to be committed to his conduct for this purpose. But Themiftocles not knowing how to decline the command, by reafon of the great benefits he had received from the king, and the promifes he had made of ferving him on any fuch occation, and, on the other hand, abhorring the bringing of a war upon his country, to extricate himself from this difficulty, refolved to put an end to his life; and therefore, inviting all his friends together, and having facrificed a bull, he drank a large draught of his blood, and fo died. But there are others that fay, this was done not fo much out of a love to his country, as out of a fear of encountering the valour and good fortune of Cimon, who, being then general of the Athenians, carried victory with him wherever he went. But, had this been all the matter, fo wife and valiant a man would have feen enough in this cafe not to have run upon fo fatal a refolution. It is poffible he might have beaten Cimon; if not, it would have been time enough for him to have faved his credit this way, by dying in battle when vanquished; and therefore he needed not to have anticipated it by a poisonous draught. In the interim, Artabazus Thucydides, lib. 1. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 11. b Plutarchus in Themiftocle. с Thucydides, lib. 1. Plutarchus in Themistocle et Cimonę. |