Imatges de pàgina
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THE

HISTORY

OF THE

PERSIANS AND GRECIANS.

PLAN.

This Book contains the History of the Persians and Grecians, in the reigns of Darius I. and Xerxes I. du ring the space of forty-eight years, from the year of the world 3483, to the year 3531.

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORY OF DARIUS, CONNECTED WITH THAT OF THE GREEKS.

BEFORE Darius came to the throne he was called Ochus. At his accession he took the name of Darius, which, according to Herodotus, in the Persian language, signifies an avenger, or a man that defeats the schemes of another; probably because he had punished and put an end to the insolence of the Magian impostor. He reigned thirty years.*

SECTION 1. DARIUS'S MARRIAGES. THE IMPOSITION OF TRIBUTES. THE IN

SOLENCE AND PUNISHMENT OF INTAPHERNES. THE DEATH OF ORETES. THE STORY OF DEMOCEDES, A PHYSICIAN. THE JEWS PERMITTED TO CARRY ON THE BUILDING OF THEIR TEMPLE. THE GENEROSITY OF SYLOSON REWARDED.

BEFORE Darius was elected king, he had married the daughter of Gobryas, whose name is not known. Artabarzanes, his eldest son by her, afterwards disputed the empire with Xerxes.

When Darius was seated on the throne, the better to secure himself therein, he married two of Cyrus's daughters, Atossa and Aristona. The former had been wife to Cambyses, her own brother, and afterwards to Smerdis the Magian, during the time he possessed the throne. Aristona was still a virgin, when Darius married her, and, nd, of all his wives, was the person he most loved. He likewise married Parmys, daughter of the true Smerdis, the brother of Cambyses; as also Phedyma, daughter of Otanes, by whose management the imposture of the Magian was discovered. By these wives he had a great number of children of both sexes.t

We have already seen, that the seven conspirators, who put the Magian to death, had agreed among themselves, that he whose horse, on a day appointed, first neighed at the rising of the sun, should be declared king; and that Darius's horse, by an artifice of his groom, procured his master that honour. The king, desiring to transmit to future ages his gratitude for this signal and extraordinary service, caused an equestrian statue to be set up with this inscription; "Darius, the son of Hystaspes, acquired the kingdom of Persia by means of his horse, (whose name was inserted,) and of his groom, Œbares." There is in

† A. M. 3483. Ant. J. C. 521. Herod. 1. iii. c. 88.

Herod. 1. vi. c. 98. Val. Max. 1. ix. c. 2.

+ Ibid.

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