can come up with their ship.) But I call the gods to witness that I do not intend to pursue them, neither shall any one say, that while people are with me, I use their service; but that, when they desire to leave me, I seize them, treat them ill, and rob them of their fortunes. Let them go therefore, and remember they have behaved themselves worse to me than I to them. Their wives and children are under a guard at Tralles; however, not even these shall they be deprived of, but shall receive them in return for the gallant behaviour they have formerly shown to my service." The Greeks, if any before showed a backwardness to the enterprise, seeing this instance of Cyrus's virtue, followed him with greater pleasure and cheerfulness.

After this, Cyrus, in four days' march, made twenty parasangs, and came to the river Chalus, which is one hundred feet broad, and full of large tame fish, which the Syrians

2

1 Ιόντων. The use of the genitive case plural of the participle is very common with the Attic writers, instead of the third person plural of the imperative mood in the same tense, unless irway, according to the opin. ion of some critics, is upon those occasions to be understood. Diogenes Laertius gives a remarkable instance of something like this: it relates to the trial of Socrates, where Plato offering to speak to the judges in defence of his master, began his speech in this manner: NiraTOS ὢν, ὦ ἄνδρες Αθηναίοι, τῶν ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα ἀναβάντων, upon which the judges interrupted him by calling out zaraBártov for zaráßn, and made him come down. But the Attic authors are not singular in the use of this phrase: Homer says ·

—κήρυκες μὲν ̓Αχαιών χαλκοχιτώτων
Λαὸν κηρύσσοντες ἀγερόντων κατὰ νέας,

be hurt any more than pigeons. The villages in which they encamped belonged to Parysatis, and were given to her for her table.3 Thirty parasangs more, in five days' march, brought him to the source of the river Daradax, the breadth of which was one hundred feet, having near it the palace of Belesis, who was formerly governor of Syria, with a very large and beautiful park, producing every thing proper to the season. Cyrus laid waste the park, and burned the palace. From thence, in three days' march, he made fifteen

adds, that Semiramis, when a child, was fed by pigeons, king's herds, took her home to his own house, and caltill a person who had the superintendency over the

led her Semiramis, a name derived, as he says, from pigeons, in the Syrian language; and that this was the occasion of the worship the Syrians paid to pigeons. goddess called Derceto by the Greeks, and Atargatis by It may not be improper to acquaint the reader, that the the Syrians, was looked upon by the last as the mother of Semiramis, and worshipped as a goddess in Bambyce, by them called Magog. Lucian says she was represent. ed in Phoenicia as a woman to the waist, and from thence as a fish; which made Selden of opinion, that Derceto and Dagon who was also represented in the same manner, were the same divinity, though it is certain that Dagon was looked upon as a god, and Derceto as a goddess. Had D'Ablancourt considered these matters, he would not have been so hasty in condemn. ing Xenophon of too great credulity; neither would he have thought himself under any obligation of soften. ing, as he calls it, these facts, for fear of corrupting the truth of history: particularly since Diodorus Siculus also says, the fabulous tradition of Derceto being changed into a fish, prevailed so far, that the Syrians, even in his time, abstained from fish, and honoured them as gods.

the best authors.

;

2 Пanen d'ix Díav μszázav, &c. Lucian, in his trea. tise of the Syrian goddess, has a passage that will explain this of Xenophon; he says, the Syriaus looked upon fish as a sacred thing, and never touched them and that they ate all birds but pigeons, which they es teemed holy he adds, these superstitions were owing to their respect for Derceto and Semiramis, the first of whom had the shape of a fish, and the other was changed into a pigeon. That author has affected to write this treatise in the Ionic style, his words are these: ixúar, χρῆμα ἱρὸν νομίζουσι καὶ οὔκοτε ιχθύων ψαύουσι καὶ ὄρνιθας τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους σιτέονται, περιστερὴν δὲ μούνην οὐ σιτέονται, ἀλλὰ σφίσι ἥδε ἰρή. Τὰ δὲ γιγνόμεναι δοκέει αὐτοῖς ποιείσθαι Δερκετούς, καὶ Σεμιράμιος εἵνεκα τὸ μὲν, ὅτι Δερκετώ μορφὴν ἰχθύος ἔχει τὸ δὲ, ὅτι τὸ Σεμιράμιος τέλος, ἐς περιστερὴν ἀπίκετο. This tradition is somewhat varied by Diodorus Siculus; who says, that Derceto being brought to bed of Semiramis, threw herself into a lake, and was changed into a fish; for which reason, he says, the Syrians worship fish as gods. The same author

script, has followed Muretus and Jungermannus in read. ing ζώνην instead of ζωήν. Indeed the passages he has supported this correction with, out of Tully, Plato, and Herodotus, show plainly that the kings of Persia used to give some particular cities to their queens to find them in girdles, others to find them in necklaces, and others in shoes: so that it cannot be denied but i

is here very proper: but it is as certain from those authors he has quoted, and indeed from every author who has treated of the affairs of Persia, that the Persian kings also assigned particular cities to those whom they had a mind to honour, to find them in bread, others to find them in wine, and others in meat, or, as some will have it, in fish. In this manner Artaxerxes Maπρόχεις distinguished Themistocles, εἰς ἄρτον καὶ οἶνον καὶ όψον, as Plutarch and Thucydides say; so that it is not at all improbable the villages our author here speaks of, might be assigned to Parysatis to supply her table: but if the reader prefers ¿vy it must then be translated, that these villages were given to Parysatis to find her in girdles.

1

3

Araxes, that runs through this part of Syria: for every body knows there are rivers of this name in other parts

of Asia, so I must submit it to the learned, whether this river is the Aboras of Marcellinus, which Strabo calls Adippas, and Ptolemy Xaßgas, and the Arabians Al

Chabur.

1 Διὰ τῆς ̓Αραβίας. The inhabitants of this part of Arabia are called by Strabo Eviras "Açaßss; they were a vagabond people, and, like most of their countrymen, great robbers. Nomades, infestioresque Chaldæo rum, Scenitæ, says Pliny, a tabernaculis cognominati : they were afterwards called Saracens, which name Scaliger derives from Saric, which, in Arabic, signifies a robber. Those who have travelled through Asia will not think this etymology forced.

2 Αγειοὶ ὄνοι. All authors, both ancient and modern, agree, that wild asses are exceeding swift. Appian, in his Treatise of Hunting, calls the wild ass rod, swift as the wind, an epithet given by Homer to the horses which Jupiter bestowed on the father of Ganymede, to make him some amends for the loss of his son. The wild ass is very different, both in its shape and colour, from the common ass. There is a skin of this animal at the college of Physicians in London; another I have seen among many other curiosities, natural and artificial, ancient and modern, belonging to my neighbour Sir Andrew Fontaine. The first of these is stuffed, and by that the creature appears to have been between twelve and thirteen hands high; the colour of every part about him is composed of white and chesnut stripes, his ears, mane, and tail, like those of a common ass; his forehead is long and thin, his shoulders fine, his back straight, his body full, his hoofs a little bound, his legs perfectly fine; seems a little goose-rumped; his quarters are thin, and lying under him, and his hams bent inward; to these three last shapes he very probably owes his speed. This doctrine I know all sportsmen will not allow; but many observations in sporting have convinced me of its truth. Wild asses were sometimes made use of by the ancients to cover mares, in order to breed mules: but all their authors agree, that the best stallion for that purpose was an ass bred between a wild male ass, and a female of the common kind. Pliny tells us also, that the foals of wild asses were called lalisiones, and were delicate meat. Wild asses are common in the deserts of Numidia and Libya, and particularly in Arabia; they are sold at an excessive price when reclaimed, and it is said the kings of Persia have always stables of them. When they are young, their flesh is like that of a hare, and when old, like red venison.

3 Στρουθαί αἱ μεγάλοι. Ostriches are animals very well known; they are common in Africa, South

for they flew far away, as they fled, making use both of their feet to run, and of their wings, when expanded, as a sail to waft them along. As for the bustards, they may be

America, and many parts of the Levant, as Arabia and Mesopotamia, &c. I remember to have seen two that were shown at London; we were informed they came from Buenos Ayres; they answered the description given of them in books. Their feathers, in so great request for several kinds of ornaments, particularly upon the stage, and anciently in war, conos galeasque ador. nantes pennæ, says Pliny; these, I say, come from their tail and wing, and are generally white. The feather of an ostrich was among the Egyptians the emblem of justice. All authors agree, that in running they assist themselves with their wings, in the manner described by Xenophon. Some have thought that this compound motion, which contains both of flying and running, gave occasion to the fiction of the poetical horse, Pegasus. It is said they eat iron, which is so far true, that in those dissected in the Academy of Sciences at Paris, they found several pieces of iron-money in them more than half diminished; but this was occasioned by the mutual attrition of those pieces, and not by digestion, for they swallow iron to grind their meat, as other birds swallow pebbles for the same purpose.

4 Ωτίδες. Bustards are very well known to sportsmen; we have great numbers of them in Norfolk; they are remarkable for having no more than three claws, like the dotterel, and some few other birds: they are scarce to be approached by any contrivance, as I have been taught by many disappointments: possibly this may be owing to their exquisite sense of hearing; no bird having, in proportion to its size, so large an aper. ture to convey it. What Xenophon says concerning their short flights, can only be understood of them before they are full grown; for, when they are so, they make flights of five or six miles with great ease. Pliny and Xenophon, like many other people, differ in their taste with relation to bustards; the first calls them damnatus in cibis, the last, we find, commends them.

5 Acgxáds. We have no roe-deer in the south of England. They are common in France, des chevreuils : I have often seen them hunted there; they run the foil more than a hare, and hunt shorter; they have great speed, but, as they do not run within themselves, but often tapise, and consequently give frequent views, they seldom stand long even before their hounds. They are vastly less than our fallow deer, and are very good meat, when fat, which seldom happens.

short flights, like partridges, and are soon tired. Their flesh was very delicious.

In marching through the country they came to the river Masca, a hundred feet in breadth, surrounding a large city uninhabited, called Corsote; whence, after continuing three days, making their provisions, he made ninety parasangs in thirteen days' march, through a desert, still keeping the Euphrates on his right, and came to Pyle; during which marches, many sumpter horses died of hunger, there being no grass, nor any other plant, but the whole country entirely barren; the inhabitants being employed near the river with digging "mill-stones, which they afterwards fashioned and conveyed to Babylon for sale, to buy provisions for their support. By this time the army wanted corn, and there was none to be bought, but in the Lydian market, which was in the camp of the Barbarians, belonging to Cyrus, where a capithe of wheat or barleymeal was sold for four Sigli. The Siglus is worth seven Attic oboli 10 and a half; and the capithe holds two Attic "choenixes; so that the soldiers lived upon. flesh. Some of these marches were very long, when Cyrus had a mind his army should go on till they came to water or forage. And once where the road was narrow and so deep, that the carriages could not pass without difficulty, Cyrus stopped with those about him of the greatest authority and fortune, and ordered Glus and Pigres to take some of the Barbarians belonging to his

9

Β Ονους ἀλέτας. "Ονος ὁ ἀνώτερος λίθος τοῦ μύλου. So that ἕνα ἀλέται signify properly the Phavorinus.

upper mill-stones.

7 Kasín. From this passage it appears that the nasin held two Attic chonixes.

S'A. Hutchinson has, with great judgment, supported the Greek text against Muretus, who wanted to strike out ¿λtúęwy, as signifying the same thing with çira; whereas Phavorinus, from the scholiast of Eschylus, plainly distinguishes &λg from qira, showing that the first signifies the flour of wheat, and the other that of barley. "Awga nugíws rà in círou, ἄλφιτα τὰ ἐκ κριθῶν ἄλευρα. Phavorinus.

9. This was a Persian coin. Hesychius and Phavorinus make it worth eight deλsì, but this passage shows it was worth but seven and a half.

10 Οβολούς. The Boos was the sixth part of a drachm; it was called so from its resemblance to a spit. See in a preceding note concerning the Greek coins.

11 Xov. A dry measure containing three zorúdai, which were equal to one and a half of the gir; the x contained 49,737 solid inches.

thinking they went slowly about it, he commanded, as in anger, the most considerable Persians, who were with him, to assist in hastening on the carriages, which afforded an instance of their ready obedience; for, throwing off their purple "robes, where each of them happened to stand, they ran, as if it had been for a prize, even down a very steep hill, in their costly vests, and embroidered 13 drawers, some even with chains about their necks, and bracelets round their wrists; and, leaping into the dirt with these, they lifted up the carriages, and brought them out sooner than can be imagined. Upon the whole, Cyrus appeared throughout to hasten their march, stopping no where unless to get provisions, or for other things that were very necessary; he judging the quicker he marched, the more unprepared the king would be to encounter him, and the slower, the more numerous would be the king's army; for it was obvious to any person of attention, that the Persian empire, though strong with regard to the "extent of country, and numbers of men, was however weak by reason of the great distance of places, and the division of its forces, when surprised by a sudden invasion.

In their march through the desert, they discovered a large and populous city situated on the other side of the Euphrates, called Car

12 Κάνους. Κάνδυς, χιτῶν Περσικός. A Persian robe. 13 'Αναξυρίδας. Αναξυρίδες were also part of the dress of the old Gauls, according to Diodorus Siculus, who says, they called them Beάxas, which Braccæ, it is certain, gave name to a very considerable part of France, called from thence, Gallia Braccata, the same with Gallia Narbonensis. The French language has retained this word, Bragues, which is softened into a more modern one, Brayes. I leave it to some profound antiquary, who may be disposed to employ his idle labour in this inquiry, to consider how far this dress, from which Persius calls the Medes, Medos Braccatos, and which Ovid calls Persica Bracca; how far, I say, this dress, which we find to have been common both to the Per

sians and Gauls of old, may be a proof of their being descended originally from the same people, that is, the Scythians, who, after they had conquered the Medes, continued masters of that part of Asia for eight and twenty years: particularly since we find in Herodotus, that among the Persians there was a people called Teguávia, Germans.

14 Ia0es. This word signifies quantity in this place, when applied to the country; and number, when ap plied to the men; it is frequently used, by the best authors, in the first sense as well as the last.