seas, they shaped their course directly for Eretria; and, after a siege of seven days, took the city by the treachery of some of its chief inhabitants, and burned it to the ground, making all that they found in it captives. And then, passing over into Attica, they were led, by the guidance of Hippias, the late tyrant of Athens, into the plain of Marathon; where being met and fought with by ten thousand Athenians, and one thousand Plateans, under the leading of Miltiades, who was lately prince of the Thracian Chersonesus, they were there overthrown by this small number with a great slaughter, and forced to retreat to their ships, and sail back again into Asia with baffle and disgrace, having lost in this expedition, saith Trogus, by the sword, shipwreck, and other ways, two hundred thousand men. But Herodotus tells us, they were no more than six thousand four hundred that were slain in the field of battle; of which Hippias was one, who was the chief exciter and conductor of this war.

Datis and Artaphernes, on their return into Asia,➡ that they might shew some fruit of this expedition, sent the Eretrians they had taken to Darius to Susa; who, without doing them any farther harm, sent them to dwell in a village of the region of Cissia, which was at the distance of about a day's journey from Susa, * where Apollonius Tyaneus found their descendants still remaining a great many ages after.

Darius on his hearing of the unsuccessful return of

An. 490.

his forces from Attica, instead of being disDarius 32. Couraged by that or the other disasters that had happened unto him in his attempts upon the Grecians, added the defeat of Marathon to the burning of Sardis as a new cause to excite him with the greater vigour to carry on the war against them. And therefore, resolving in person to make an invasion upon them with all his power, he sent orders through all the provinces, to arm the whole empire for it. But, after three years had been spent in making these preparations, a

k Justin, lib. 2, c. 9. 1 Herodotus, lib. 6. m Ibid.

n Philostratus, lib. 1, c. 17.

p Herodotus, lib. 7.

An. 487. Darius 35.

new war broke out in the fourth by the revolt of the Egyptians. But Darius' heart was so earnestly set against the Grecians, that resolving his new rebels should not divert him from executing his wrath upon his old enemies, he determined to make war against them both at the same time; and that, while part of his forces were sent to reduce Egypt, he would in person with the rest fall upon Greece. But he being now an old man, and there being a controversy between two of his sons, to which of them two the succession did belong, it was thought convenient, that the matter should be determined before he did set out on this expedition, lest otherwise, on his death, it might cause a civil war in the empire ; for the preventing of which it was an ancient usage among the Persians, that, before their king went out to any dangerous war, his successor should be declared. The matter in dispute Pstood thus. Darius had three sons by his first wife, the daughter of Gobrias, all born before his advancement to the throne, and four others by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who were all born after it. Of the first Artabasanes (who is by some called Artemines, and by others Ariamenes) was the eldest, and of the latter Xerxes. Artabasanes urged that he was the eldest son; and therefore, according to the usage and custom of all nations, he ought to be preferred in the succession before the younger. To this Xerxes replied, that he was the son of Darius by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who was the first founder of the Persian empire; and therefore claimed in her right to succeed his father in it; and that it was much more agreeable to justice, that the crown of Cyrus should come to a descendant of Cyrus, than to one who was not. And he farther added, that it was true, Artabasanes was the eldest son of Darius; but that he was the eldest son of the king: for Artabasances was born while his father was only a private person, and therefore by that primogeniture could claim no more than to be heir to his private fortunes: but as to him, he was the first-born after his father was king, and

p Herodotus, lib. 7. Justin, lib. 2, c. 10. Plutarchus in Artaxerxe et in Apophthegm, περὶ φιλαδελφίας.

therefore had the best right to succeed him in the kingdom. And for this he had an instance from the Lacedæmonians, with whom it was the usage, that the sons of their kings, who were born after their advancement to the throne, should succeed before those who were born before it. And this last argument he was helped to by Damaratus, formerly king of Lacedæmon, who, having been unjustly deposed by his subjects, was then an exile in the Persian court. Hereupon Xerxes was declared the successor, though not so much by the strength of his plea, as by the influence which his mother Atossa had over the inclinations of Darius, who was absolutely governed in this matter by the authority she had with him. That which was most remarkable in this contest was, the friendly and amicable manner with which it was managed: for, during the whole time that it lasted, all the marks of a most entire fraternal affection passed between the two brothers; and, when it was decided, as the one did not insult, so neither did the other repine, or express any anger or discontent on the judgment given; and although the elder brother lost the cause, yet he cheerfully submitted to the determination, wished his brother joy, and, without diminishing his friendship or affection to him, ever after adhered to his interest, and at last died in his service, being slain fighting for him in the Grecian war; which is an example very rarely to be met with, where so great a prize is at stake, as that of a crown; the ambitious desire of which is usually of that force with the most of mankind, as to make them break through all other considerations whatsoever, where there is any the least pretence to it, to reach the attainment.

After the succession was thus settled, and all were ready to set out both for the Egyptian, as well as the Grecian war, 4 Darius fell sick and died, in the second year after the Egyptian revolt, having then Darius 36. reigned thirty-six years; and Xerxes, according to the late determination, quietly

An. 486.

q Herodotus, lib. 7.

r

Ptolm. in Canone, Africanus, Euseb. &c.

8

succeeded in the throne. There are writers, who place this determination after the death of Darius, and say, that it was settled by the judgment of Artabanus, uncle to the two contending princes, who was made the arbitrator between them in this contest. But Herodotus, who lived the nearest those times of all that have written of it, positively tells us, that it was decided by Darius himself a little before his death. And his decision being that which was most likely to have the greatest authority in this matter, Herodotus' account of it seemeth the much more probable of the two.

Darius was a prince of wisdom, clemency, and justice, and hath the honourt to have his name recorded in holy writ, for a favourer of God's people, a restorer of his temple at Jerusalem, and a promoter of his worship therein for all which, God was pleased to make him his instrument: and in respect hereof, I doubt not, it was, that he blessed him with a numerous issue, a long reign, and great prosperity; for although he were not altogether so fortunate in his wars against the Scythians and the Grecians, yet every where else he had full success in all his undertakings, and not only restored and thoroughly settled the empire of Cyrus, after it had been much shaken by Cambyses and the Magian, but also added many large and rich provinces to it, especially those of India, Thrace, Macedon, and the isles of the Ionian sea.

The Jews" have a tradition, that in the last year of Darius died the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; that thereon ceased the spirit of prophecy from among the children of Israel; and that this was the obsigillation or sealing up of vision and prophecy spoken of by the prophet Daniel. And, from the same tradition, they tell us, that the kingdom of the Persians ceased also the same year; for they will have it, that this was the Darius whom Alexander conquered; and that the whole continuance of the Persian empire was only fifty-two years; which they reckon thus: Darius

s Justin, lib. 2, c. 10. Plutarchus rep pinadexpias.

t Ezra v, and in the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah.

u Abraham Zacutus in Juchasin, David Ganz in Zemach David. Sedar Plam Zuta, &c. x Dan. ix, 24.

the Median reigned one year, Cyrus three years, Cambyses (who they say was the Ahasuerus who married Esther) sixteen years, and Darius (whom they will have to be the son of Esther) thirty-two years. And this last Darius, according to them, was the Artaxerxes who sent Ezra and Nehemiah to Jerusalem, to restore the state of the Jews; for they tell us, that Artaxerxes, among the Persians, was the common name of their kings, as that of Pharaoh was among the Egyptians. This shews how ill they have been acquainted with the affairs of the Persian empire. And their countryman Josephus, in the account which he gives of those times, seems to have been but very little better informed concerning them.

In the time of his reign first appeared in Persia the famous prophet of the Magians, whom the Persians call Zerdusht, or Zaratush, and the Greeks, Zoroas tres. The Greek and Latin writers much differ about him, some of themy will have it, that he lived many ages before, and was king of Bactria, and others that there were several of the name, who lived in several ages, all famous in the same kind. But the oriental writers, who should best know,a all unanimously agree, that there was but one Zerdusht or Zoroastres; and that the time in which he flourished, was while Darius Hystaspes was king of Persia. It is certain he was no king, but one born of mean and obscure parentage, who did raise himself wholly by his craft in carrying on that imposture with which he deceived the world. They who place him so high as the time of Ninus, by whom, they say, he was slain in battle, follow the authority of Justin for it. But Diodorus Siculus, out of Ctesias, tells us, that the king of Bactria, with whom Ninus had war, was called Oxyartes: and there are some ancient manuscripts of Justin in which it is read Oxyartes, and perchance that was the genuine reading, and Zoroastres came into the text instead of it, by the error of the copier, led thereto perchance

y Justin, lib. 1, c. 1. Diog. Laertius in Proœmio, Plin. lib. 30, c. 1. z Plin. lib. 36, c. 1. See Stanley of the Chaldaic philosophy, c. 2. a Abulfaragius, Ishmael Abulfeda, Sharestani, &c. vide etiam Agathiam, lib. 2. et Thomam Hyde de Religione veterum Persarum, c. 24.

b Lib. 2, p. 94.

c So saith Ligerius.