THE

Old and New Testaments

CONNECTED, &c.

BOOK IV.

b

THE Samaritans, still carrying on their former spite and rancour against the Jews, gave them new trouble on this occasion. The tribute of Samaria An. 514, had been assigned firsta by Cyrus, and afterDarius 8. wards by Darius, for the reparation of the temple at Jerusalem, and the furnishing of the Jews with sacrifices, that oblations and prayers might there daily be offered up for the king, and the royal family, and for the welfare and prosperity of the Persian empire. This was a matter of great regret and heartburning to the Samaritans, and was in truth the source and the true original reason of all the oppositions which they made against them: for they thought it an indignity upon them to be forced to pay their tribute to the Jews; and therefore they did,d by bribes and other underhand dealings, prevail with the ministers, and other officers, to whose charge this matter belonged, during the latter part of the reign of Cyrus, and all the time of Cambyses, to put a stop to this assignment, and did all else that they could wholly to quash it. But the grant being again renewed by Darius, and the execution of it so strictly enjoined in the manner as hath been before related, the tribute was thenceforth annually paid, to the end for which it was assigned, without any more gainsaying, till this year.

a Joseph. Antiq. lib. 11, c. 1. b Joseph. lib. 11, c. 4.

c Ezra vi, 8-10.

d Ezra iv, 5. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 11, c. 2.

e Ezra vi

But now, on pretence that the temple was finished, (though the out-buildings still remained unrepaired, and were not finished till many years after,) they f refused to let the Jews any longer have the tribute; alleging, that it being assigned them for the repairing of their temple, now the temple was repaired, the end of that assignment was ceased, and that consequently the payment of the said tribute was to cease with it, and for this reason would pay it no longer to them. Whereon the Jews, to right themselves in this matter, sent Zerubbabel the governour, with Mordecai and Ananias, two other principal men among them, with a complaint to Darius of the wrong that was done them, in the detaining of his royal bounty from them, contrary to the purport of the edict which he had in that behalf made. The king, on the hearing of the complaint, and the informing of himself about it, issued out his royal order to his officers at Samaria, strictly requiring and commanding them to take effectual care, that the Samaritans observe his edict, in paying their tribute to the temple of Jerusalem, as formerly, and no more, on any pretence whatsoever, give the Jews any cause for the future to complain of their failure herein. And after this we hear no more of any opposition or contest concerning this matter, till the time of Sanballat; which was many years after.

From the time of the reduction of Babylon, Darius had set himself to make great preparations for a war against the Scythians, that inhabited those countries which lie between the Danube and the Tanais: his pretence for it was to be revenged on them for their having invaded Asia, and held it in subjection to them twenty-eight years, as hath been afore related. This was in the time of Cyaxares, the first of that name, king of Media, about one hundred and twenty years before. But for want of a better colour for that which his ambition and thirst for conquest only led him to, this was given out for the reason of the war. In order whereto, having drawn together an army of seven hundred thousand men, he marched with them to the

f Joseph. Antiq. lib. 11, c. 4.

☛ Herodotus, lib. 4. Justin, lib. 2, c. 5. Cornelius Nepos in Miltiade.

An. 513.

Darius 9.

Thracian Bosphorus, and having there passed over it on a bridge of boats, he brought all

Thrace in subjection to him; and then marched to the Ister or Danube, where he appointed his fleet to come to him, (which consisted mostly of Ionians, and other Grecian nations, dwelling in the maritime parts of Asia, and on the Hellespont ;) he there passed over another bridge of boats into the country of the Scythians, and having there, for three months time, pursued them through several desert and uncultivated countries, where they drew him by their flight of purpose to harass and destroy his army, he was glad at last to return with one half of them, having lost the other half in this unfortunate and ill-projected expedi tion. And, had not the Ionians, by the persuasion of Hestiæus, prince of Miletus, (or tyrant, as the Grecians call him,) contrary to the opinion of others among them, staid with the fleet to afford him a passage back, he and all the rest must have perished also. Miltiades, prince of the Thracian Chersonesus, which lies at the mouth of the Hellespont, being one of those who attended Darius with his ships, was earnest for their departure, and the first that moved it, telling them, that, by their going away and leaving Darius and his army to perish on the other side of the Danube, they had a fair opportunity of breaking the power of the Persians, and delivering themselves from the yoke of that tyranny which would be to the advantage of every one of their respective countries. This was urged by him in a council of the chief commanders; and would certainly have taken place, but that Hestiæus, in answer hereto, soon made them sensible, what a dangerous risk they were going to run; for he convinced them, that if this were done, the people of each of their cities, being freed from the fear of the Persians, would immediately rise upon them to recover their liberties; and this would end in the ruin of every one of them, who now, with sovereign authority, under the protection of Darius, securely reigned over them: which being the true state of their case, this argument prevailed with them; so that they all resolved to stay: and this gave Darius the

means of again repassing the river into Thrace, where having left Megaby zus, one of his chief commanders, with part of his army, to finish his conquests in those parts, and thoroughly settle the country in his obedience, he repassed the Bosphorus with the rest, and retired to Sardis, where he staid all the winter, and the most part of the ensuing year, to refresh his broken forces, and resettle his affairs in those parts of his empire, after the shock that had been given them, by the baffle and loss which he had sustained in this ill-advised expedition.

An. 512.

Darius 10.

Megabyzus, having reduced most of the nations of Thrace under the Persian yoke, returned to Sardis to Darius, and b from thence accompanied him to Susa, whither he marched back about the end of the year, after having appointed Artaphernes, one of his brothers, governour of Sardis, and Otanes chief commander of Thrace, and the maritime parts adjoining, in the place of Megabyzus. This Otanes was the son of Sisamnes, one of the royal judges of Persia, who having been convicted of bribery and corruption by Cambyses, there is related this remarkable instance of that king's justice towards him, that he caused him to be flayed alive, and making with his skin a covering for the seat of the tribu- . nal, made this his son, whom he appointed to succeed him in his office, to sit thereon, that being thus put in mind of his father's punishment, he might thereby be admonished to avoid his crime.

An. 510.

Darius 12.

The Scythians, to be revenged on Darius for his invading their country, passed over the Danube, and ravaged all those parts of Thrace, that had submitted to the Persians, as far as the Hellespont; whereon Miltiades, to avoid their rage, fled from the Chersonesus; but, on the retreat of the enemy, he returned, and was again reinstated in his former power by the inhabitants of the country.

h Herodotus, lib. 5.

i Herodotus, lib. 5. Valerius Maximus, lib. 6, c. 3. Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 24.

An. 509.

About this time Darius, being desirous to enlarge his dominions eastward, in order to the conDarius 13. quering of those countries, laid a design of first making a discovery of them; for which purpose having built a fleet of ships at Caspatyrus, a city on the river Indus, and as far up upon it as the borders of Scythia, he gave the command of it to Scylax a Grecian of Caryandia, a city in Caria, and one well skilled in maritime affairs; and sent him down the river, to make the best discoveries he could of all the parts which lay on the banks of it on either side; ordering him, for this end, to sail down the current, till he should arrive at the mouth of the river, and that then, passing through it into the Southern ocean, he should shape his course westward, and that way return home: which orders he having exactly executed, he returned by the straits of Babelmandel and the Red sea, and, on the thirtieth month after his first setting out from Caspatyrus, landed in Egypt, at the same place from whence Necho, king of Egypt, formerly sent out his Phoenicians to sail round the coasts of Africa, which it is most likely was the port where now the town of Suez stands, at the hither end of the said Red sea. And from thence he went to Susa, and there gave Darius an account of all the discoveries which he had made. After this Darius entered India with an army, and brought all that large country under him, and made it the twentieth prefecture of his empire; from whence he annually received a tribute of three hundred and sixty talents of gold, according to the number of the days of the then Persian year, appointing a talent to be paid him for every day in it. This payment was made him according to the standard of the Euboic talent, which was near the same with the Attic; and therefore, according to the lowest computation, it amounted to the value of one million ninety-five thousand pounds of

our money.

I Herodotus, lib. 4.

m Herodotus, lib. 3.

n For, according to the lowest valuation, an Attic talent of gold amounts to three thousand pounds of our money.