DARIUS' CONQUEST OF INDIA, &c.

ABOUT the same time, which was in the 13th year of Darius' reign, this prince, having an ambition to extend his dominion eastward, first resolved, in order to facilitate his conquests, to get a proper knowledge of the country. To this end, he caused a fleet to be built and fitted out at Caspatyra, a city upon the Indus, and did the same at several other places on the same river, as far as the frontiers of Scythia. The command of this fleet was given to Scylax, a Grecian of Caryandia, a town of Caria, who was perfectly well versed in maritime affairs. His orders were to sail down the river, and get all the knowledge he possibly could of the country on both sides, quite down to its mouth; to pass from thence into the southern ocean, and to steer his course afterwards to the west, and so return back that way to Persia. Scylax, having exactly observed his instructions, and sailed quite down the river Indus, entered the Red Sea by the straits of Babelmandel; and after a voyage of thirty months from the time of his setting out from Caspatyra, he arrived in Egypt at the same port, from whence Nechao, king of Egypt, had formerly sent the Phoenicians, who were in his service, with orders to sail round the coasts of Africa. Very probably this was the same port where now stands the town of Suez, at the farther end of the Red Sea. From thence Scylax returned to Susa, where he gave Darius an account of all his discoveries. Darius afterwards entered India with an army, and subjected all that vast country. The reader will naturally expect to be informed of the particulars of so important a war. But Herodotus says not one word about it; he only tells us that India made the twentieth province, or government of the Persian empire, and that the annual revenue of it was worth three hundred and sixty talents of gold to Darius, which amounts to near eleven millions of livres, French money, something less than five hundred thousand pounds sterling.

Darius, after his return to Susa from his Scythian expedition, had given his brother Artaphernes the government of Sardis, and made Otanes commander in Thrace, and the adjacent countries along the sea coast, in the room of Megabysus.

From a small spark, kindled by a sedition at Naxus, a great flame arose, which gave occasion to a considerable war. Naxus was the most important island of the Cyclades in the Ægean Sea, now called the Archipelago.

Darius immediately sent away Datis and Artaphernes, whom he had appointed generals in the room of Mardonius. Their instructions were, to give up Eretria and Athens to be plundered; to burn all the houses and temples therein; to make all the inhabitants of both places prisoners, and to send them to Darius; for which purpose they went provided with a great number of chains and fetters. They set sail with a fleet of five or six hundred ships, and an army of five hundred thousand men. After having made themselves masters of the isles in the Ægean Sea, which they did without difficulty, they turned their course towards Eretria, a city of Euboea, which they took after a siege of seven days by the treachery of some of the principal inhabitants; they reduced it entirely to ashes, put all the inhabitants in chains, and sent them to Persia. Darius, contrary to their expectation, treated them kindly, and gave them a village in the country of Cissia for their habitation, which was but a day's journey from Susa, where Apollonius Tyaneus found some of their descendants six hundred years afterwards. (Rollin.)

ALEXANDER.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, the son of Philip, succeeded to the throne of Macedonia, at the age of 20 years. He passed out of Europe into Asia and began to lay waste the Persian empire 330 years B. C., and 206 years from the time of Cyrus the Great.

Alexander marched toward Jerusalem, intending to besiege it. Jaddus the high priest, hearing of it, put on his priestly ornaments, and accompanied with the people all in white, went out to meet him. Alexander, seeing his habit, fell prostrate before him, saying, that whilst he was in Macedonia, a man appeared unto him in the very same habit, who invited him to come into Asia, and promised to deliver the Persian empire into his hands. Af

ter this he went to the temple, and offered sacrifice according to the high priest's direction. They showed him the prophecy of Daniel, that a Grecian should come and destroy the Persians; whereby he was mightily confirmed in his persuasion that he himself was the man. Lastly, he bestowed on the Jews whatever favors they desired and departed.

THE OVERTHROW OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. ITs fate was decided in the battle of Arbela, fought between Alexander and Darius. In this battle Darius is said to have lost 300,000 men. Two other battles had been previously fought between Alexander and the Persian monarch, in both of which the former was successful. Darius soon afterwards being betrayed by one of his own satraps, was cruelly murdered.

Alexander had taken up his father's project of conquering Persia, and was in like manner appointed by the Grecian states commander in chief of their forces. He took with him only 35,000 men, and with this small force he not only conquered Persia, but Syria, Egypt and India, and remained universal monarch of the eastern world. Alexander meditated the design of proceeding to the eastern ocean.

His army refusing to second his wishes, he was obliged to return, after having penetrated to the Ganges. Stung with mortification at the limits assigned to his conquests, which he vainly believed would be commensurate with the globe, he abandoned himself to every excess of luxury. While he tarried at Babylon on his return home, he suddenly died, in a fit of debauch, in the 33d year of his age, and 13th of his reign. [Jos. Ant. 1. 11. c. viii.]

THE HISTORY OF XERXES.

He was the son of Darius by Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who reigned twelve years king of Persia. Xerxes having ascended the throne, employed the first year of

his reign in carrying on the preparations, begun by his father, for the reduction of Egypt. He also confirmed to

the Jews at Jerusalem all the privileges granted to them by his father, and particularly that which assigned them the tribute of Samaria, for the supplying of them with victims for the temple of God.

In the second year of his reign he marched against the Egyptians, and having reduced and subdued Egypt, he made the yoke of their subjection more heavy; then giving the government of that province to his brother Achæmenes, he returned about the latter end of the year to Susa.

Xerxes, puffed up with this success against the Egyptians, determined to make war against the Grecians. He did not intend, he said, to buy the figs of Attica, which were very excellent, any longer, because he would eat no more of them till he was master of the country.

The war being resolved upon, Xerxes, that he might omit nothing which might contribute to the success of his undertaking, entered into a confederacy with the Carthaginians, who were at that time the most potent people of the west, and made an agreement with them, that whilst the Persian forces should attack Greece, the Carthaginians should fall upon the Grecian colonies that were settled in Sicily and Italy, in order to hinder them from coming to the aid of the other Grecians. The Carthaginians made Amilcar their general, who did not content himself with raising as many troops as he could in Africa, but with the money that Xerxes had sent him, engaged a great number of soldiers out of Spain, Gaul, and Italy, in his service; so that he collected an army of three hundred thousand men, and a proportionate number of ships, in order to execute the projects and stipulations of the league.

Thus Xerxes, agreeably to the prophet Daniel's prediction, having through his power and his great riches stirred up all the nations of the then known world against the realm of Greece, that is to say, of all the west under the command of Amilcar, and of all the east, that was under his own banner, set out from Susa, in order to enter upon this war, in the fifth year of his reign, which was the tenth after the battle of Marathon, and marched

towards Sardis, the place of rendezvous for the whole land army, whilst the fleet advanced along the coasts of Asia Minor towards the Hellespont.

Xerxes had given orders to have a passage cut through mount Athos. This is a mountain in Macedonia, now a province of Turkey in Europe, which extends a great way into the Archipelago, in the form of a peninsula. It is joined to the land only by an Isthmus of about half a league over. It will be noticed, that the sea in this place was very tempestuous, and occasioned frequent shipwrecks. Xerxes made this his pretext for the orders he gave for cutting through the mountain: but the true reason was the vanity of signalizing himself by an extraordinary enterprize, and by doing a thing that was extremely difficult; as Tacitus says of Nero; erat incredibilium cupitor. Accordingly Herodotus observes, that this undertaking was more vainglorious than useful, since he might with less trouble and expense have had his vessels carried over the Isthmus, as was the practice in those days. The passage he caused to be cut through the mountain was broad enough to let two galleys with three banks of oars each pass through it abreast. This prince, who was extravagant enough to believe, that all nature and the very elements were under his command, in consequence of that opinion, wrote a letter to mount Athos in the following terms:

Athos, thou proud and aspiring mountain, that liftest up thy head unto the heavens, I advise thee not to be so audacious as to put rocks and stones, which cannot be cut, in the way of my workmen. If thou givest them that opposition, I shall cut thee entirely down, and throw thee headlong into the sea.

Xerxes, as we have already related, advanced towards Sardis. Having left Cappadocia and passed the river Halys, he came to Celene, a city of Phrygia, near which is the source of the Mæander. Pythius, a Lydian, had his residence in this city, and next to Xerxes was the most opulent prince of those times. He entertained Xerxes and his whole army with an incredible magnificence, and made him an offer of all his wealth towards defraying the expenses of his expedition. Xerxes, surprised and charmed at so generous an offer, had the