3

Manners and cuf

tems.

THE Medes were once a very warlike race, as will appear from their hiftory; but in procefs of time became one of the most effeminate nations of Afia. In war they used the fame armour as the Perfians, whom they are faid to have taught the art of war, efpecially to handle with dexterity the bow; and likewise to have been the firft that introduced luxury into Perfia, which at laft occafioned the downfal of that empire, as it had before been the ruin of the Medes 4. Polygamy was fo far from being difreputable among them, that they were bound by law to maintain at least seven wives, and thofe women were looked upon with contempt who maintained fewer than, five hufbands. In war, they poifoned their arrows with a bituminous liquor called naphta, whereof there was great plenty in Media, Perfia, and Affyria. The arrow, being fteeped in it, and fhot from a flack bow (for a fwift and violent motion took off from its virtue), burnt the flesh with fuch violence, that water rather increased than extinguished the malignant flame: duft alone could put a stop to it, and, in fome degree, allay the unspeakable pain it occafioned. They are likewife faid to have bred a number of large dogs, to whom they used to throw the bodies of their friends, parents, and relations, when at the point of death, looking upon it as difhonourable to die in their beds, or be laid in the ground.

u

SOME writers charge the Medes with being the first authors of making eunuchs; but others impute this execrable practice to the Perfians, and even name the place where it first took rife (I). The custom of confirming alliances with the blood of the contracting parties, which obtained among all the eastern nations, even in the Roman times, was originally peculiar to the Medes ". When they were

to ftrike alliances, they used to tie together, with an hard bandage, the thumbs of their right hands, till the blood, ftarting to the extremities, was, by a flight cut, discharged. This they mutually fucked; and a league, thus confirmed, was esteemed moft awful, as mysteriously folemnized with the blood of the parties *.

THE laws and religion of the Medes were much the fame with those of the Perfians: wherefore we shall defer what may be faid of them, till we come to the hiftory of the Perfians, from the oriental writers. We fhall only Laws, reobferve here, that, when a law was once enacted, it was ligion, &c. not in the king's power to repeal it, or to reverse a decree he had once made; whence the laws of the Medes are, in

X * TACIT. annal. xii.

(21) Jofeph. antiquit. 1. x. c. 16.
(23) Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xiv.

niel.
(25)C laudian. in Eutrop. I. i.
(27) Xenoph, Cyrpad, I, vii,

(28) Plato

holy writ, called unchangeable . A modern writer tells us, that thofe only were admitted to the crown, who were remarkable, above others, for their ftrength or ftature 2. But that there was no fuch law, is plain from the regular fucceffion of father and fon, without regard to any perfonal quality whatsoever. Some law of this nature may perhaps have obtained among them before they were conquered by the Affyrians; but we are quite in the dark as to the state of Media in thofe early times.

THEY paid their kings the greatest respect imaginable, putting them upon the level even with their gods. They thought it an high offence either to fpit or laugh in their prefence. They honoured their fovereign with the haughty title of great king, or king of kings; which stile was afterwards adopted by the Perfian monarchs, and their proud fucceffors the Parthians, whose king, even in the time of the emperor Conftantius, retained that title, writing himself, in a letter to that prince, Sapor, king of kings, allied to the ftars, brother to the fun and moon, &c. When they appeared in public, which feldom happened, they were always attended by mufic, and numerous guards, confifting of the prime nobility; their wives, children, and concubines, being part of their retinue, even when they headed their armies in the field.

C

As to their arts, learning, and trade, we are quite in the dark. Their country abounded with many excellent productions, as well for the ufe of the inhabitants them-felves, as for foreign exportation; but, whether they ever applied themselves to trade, is what we find no-where recorded: the contrary feems rather to appear, from the character which the prophet gives them of defpifing gold and filver, and delighting in the bloody trade of war. Neither do we find any mention made by the antients of their arts or fciences. During the fhort time of their monarchy, they seem to have applied their thoughts only to warlike exercises, namely, to the arts of managing an horse, and handling the bow; in which they furpaffed all other nations, the Median horfe being no lefs celebrated by the antients, than were in after-ages. the Perfian foot. Thus much we have thought neceffary to say apart of the Medes,

Y DAN. vi. 8. a HERODOT. 1. i. c. 99. ISAI. xiii. 17, & feq..

Z ALEXAND. ab ALEX. I. iv. c. 23. b. AMMIAN. MARCELLIN. 1. xvii. d XENOPH. Cугоpæd. 1. i. c. 7.

and their country. What elfe may be added thereto, we defer to the sections of the following chapter, which will be no more than a continuation of this.

The chronology of the Medes, to the translation of their empire to the Perfians.

WE

E have formerly fhewn how Ctefias and his followers have darkened the chronology of the Affyrians, Babylonians, and Medes with fuch enormous anachronifms," that it is no easy matter to ascertain the rife or fall of thofe potent monarchies. To proceed with all the clearness and perfpicuity fo perplexed a subject will allow, we shall diftinguish, in the chronology of the Medes, three remarkable occurrences, which will give birth to as many different æras, viz. the recovery of their liberty after they had been fubdued by the Affyrians; the rife of their kingdom after fome years of anarchy; and the beginning of their empire, which, it is agreed on all hands, rofe on the ruins of the Affyrian monarchy. The first king of the Affyrians, who brought the Medes under fubjection, was either Pul, according to us, the founder of the Affyrian empire, or his immediate fucceffor Tiglath-pilefer: for this prince, having, at the request of Ahaz king of Judah, made war upon Rezin king of Damafcus, and reduced that capital, transplanted its inhabitants to Kir in Media ; whence it is plain, that the Medes were then fubject to the Affyrians; and confequently that they must have been fubdued either in the reign of Pul, or foon after the acceffion of Tiglathpilefer to the crown; for the empire of the Affyrians was already grown great, and the GOD of Ifrael stirred up thể Spirit of Pul king of Affyria, and the fpirit of Tiglathpilnefer king of Affyria.8, to make war. Pul makes his first appearance in Scripture during the reign of Menahem king of Ifrael, in the year of the flood 1577. before Chrift 771. Tiglath-pilefer, who is fuppofed to have been his fon, fucceeded him in the year of the flood 1608. Fefore Chrift 740. That there was no Affyrian empire before the days of Pul, is plain, both from the Scripture, and from the particular hiftories of each kingdom; fo that the Medes could not be fubdued by them before the time we have mentioned. g Chron. v. 26.

f 2 Kings xvi. 7. 9.

VOL. V.

C

From

3'

1

From the time of Pul, or Tiglath-pilefer, they continued in fubjection to the Affyrians till the reign of Sennacherib, which began about the year of the flood 1635, before Chrift 713 (L). They took advantage, it is likely, of his long and diftant abfence, or of the fudden flaughter of his army near Egypt, and, fhaking off the yoke, defended their liberty, by dint of arms, against the power of the Affyrians, which was now in its decline. Thefe are the troubles which prevented Tobit from going into Media, according to his cuftom; and they must have happened about the latter end of Sennacherib's reign, that is, about the year of the flood 1638. before Chrift 710, The Medes, having thus refcued their country from the Affyrian bondage, fell into a kind of anarchy, as Herodotus informs us; which gave Efar-baddon or Affar-badon, who fucceeded Sennacherib, and was both a valorous and fortunate prince, an opportunity of bringing great part of Media, if not the whole country, anew under fubjection. How long the anarchy may have lafted, is hard to determine. Some include the years of the anarchy in the fifty-three, which Dejoces, their firft king, is faid to have reigned. If we fuppofe the Medes to have revolted in the year before "Chrift 710. and allow fifty-three years to the reign of Dejoces, the anarchy cannot have lafted above one year: for Dejoces, who, in the book of Judith, is called Arphaxad', was killed by Saofduchinus or Nebuchadonofor, in the year 656. which was the twelfth of Saofduchinus's reign, who came to the crown in the year 668, before the chriffian æra. But the reign of Dejoces, who, as we read in Herodotus had fome time exercised the office of judge, before he was

113

1 TOBIT i. 15. HERODOT. Lia96 Judith m HERODOT. ubi fupra,

i...

Naphtali, with Anna his wife, and Tobias his fon, into Affyria; but the rest of his brethren were carried into Media, and planted there, particularly Gabael in Rages, and Raguel in Ecbatan (31); which proves Media to have been in the time of Shalmanezer fubject to the king of Affyria.

(31) Tobit i. 10, & Jegg

chofen