Truth, temperance, and wisdom sprung from
When Arimanins blacken'd all the soul
With falsehood and injustice, with desires
Insatiable, with violence and rage,

Malignity and folly. If the hand

Of Horomazes on precarious life

Reject thy proffer'd clemency. They choose To magnify thy glory by their fall."

The monarch, turning to his brothers, spake.
Say, Hyperanthus, can thy soul believe
These tidings? Sure these slaves have never dar'd
To face the Grecians, but delude our ears
With base impostures, which their fear suggests."
He frown'd, and Hyperanthes calm reply'd.
"O from his servants may the king avert
His indignation! Greece was fam'd of old
For martial spirit, and a dauntless breed.

I once have try'd their valour. To my words
Abrocomes can witness. When thy sire
And ours, Darius, to Athenian shores
With Artaphernes brave and Datis sent

With wild excess, or av'rice blasts the joy.
"Thou Horomazes, victory dost give.

By thee with fame the regal head is crown'd.
Great Xerxes owns thy succour. When in storms
The hate of direful Arimanius swell'd
The Hellespont; thou o'er its chafing breast
The destin'd master of the world didst lead,
This day his promis'd glories to enjoy:
When Greece affrighted to his arms shall bend;
Ev'n as at last shall Arimanius fall
Before thy might, and evil be no more."
The Magi ceas'd their harmony. Behold,
From her tall ship between a double row
Of naval warriors, while a golden ray
Shoots from her standard, Artemisia lands.
In her enrich'd accoutrements of war,

The full-wrought buckler, and high-crested helm,
In Caria first devis'd, across the beach
Her tow'ring form advances. So the pine,
From Taurus hewn mature in spiry pride,
Now by the sailor in its canvass wings
Voluminous, and dazzling pendants dress'd,
On Artemisia's own imperial deck
Is seen to rise, and overtop the grove
Of crowded masts surrounding. In her heart
Deep scorn of courtly counsellors she bore,
Who fill with impious vanity their king;
As when he lash'd the Hellespont with rods,
Amid the billows cast a golden chain
To fetter Neptune. Yet her brow severe
Unbent its rigour often, as she glanc'd
On her young son, who, pacing near in arms
Of Carian guise, proportion'd to his years,
Look'd up, and waken'd by repeated smiles
Maternal fondness, melting in that eye,
Which scowl'd on purpled flatterers. Her seat
At the right hand of Xerxes she assumes,
Invited; while in adoration bow'd
Tigranes and Phraortes. Prone they lay,
Across their foreheads spread their servile palms,
As from a present deity, too bright
For mortal vision, to conceal their eyes.
At length in abject phrase Tigranes thus.

"O Xerxes, live for ever! Gracious lord,
Who dost permit thy servants to approach
Thy awful sight, and prostrate to confess
Thy majesty and radiance. May the pow'r
Of Horomazes stretch thy regal arm
O'er endless nations from the Indian shores
To whose wide floods, which beat Iberian strands,
From northern Tanais to the source of Nile!
Still from thy head may Arimanius bend
Against thy foes his malice! Yonder Greeks,
Already smit with frenzy by his wrath,

How weak the hope, that numbers could dismay
A foe, resolv'd on victory or death.
Yet not, as one contemptible, or base,
Let me appear before thee. Though the Greeks
With such persisting courage be endu'd,
Soon as the king shall summon to the field,
He shall behold me in the dang'rous van
Exalt my spear, and pierce the hostile ranks,
Or sink beneath them." Xerxes swift rejoin'd.
Why over Asia, and the Libyan soil,
With all their nations doth my potent arm
Extend its sceptre? Wherefore do I sweep
Across the Earth with millions in my train?
Why shade the ocean with unnumber'd sails?
Why all this pow'r, unless th' almighty's will
Decreed one master to the subject world;
And that the Earth's extremity alone
Should bound my empire? He for this reduc'd
The Nile's revolted sons, enlarg'd my sway
With sandy Libya, and the sultry clime
Of Ethiopia. He for this subdu'd
The Hellespontic foam, and taught the sea
Obedience to my nod. Then dream no more,
That Heav'n, deserting my imperial cause,
With courage, more than human, will inspire
Yon despicable Grecians, and expunge
The common fears of nature from their breasts."
The monarch ceas'd. Abrocomes began.
"The king commands us to reveal our thoughts.
Incredulous he hears. But time and truth
Not Horomazes can arrest. Thy beams

To instant light'ning, Mithra, mayst thou change
For my destruction; may th' offended king
Frown on his servant, cast a loathing eye;
If the assertion of my lips be false:
Our further march those Grecians will oppose."
Amid th' encircling peers Argestes sat,
A potent prince. O'er Sipylus he reign'd,
Whose verdant summits overlook'd the waves
Of Hermus and Pactolus. Either stream,
Enrich'd by golden sands, a tribute pay'd
To this great satrap. Through the servile court
Yet none was found more practis'd in the arts
Of mean submission; none more skill'd to gain
The royal favour; none, who better knew
The phrase, the look, the gesture of a slave;
None more detesting Artemisia's worth,
By her none more despis'd. His master's eye
He caught, then spake. "Display thy dazzling state,
Thou deity of Asia. Greece will hide
Before thy presence her dejected face."

Last Artemisia, rising stern, began. "Why sits the lord of Asia in his tent, Unprofitably wasting precious hours

In vain discussion, whether yonder Greeks,
Rang'd in defence of that important pass,
Will fight, or fly? A question by the sword
To be decided. Still to narrow straits
By land, by sea thy council hath confin'd
Each enterprise of war. In numbers weak
Twice have th' Athenians in Eubœa's frith
Repuls'd thy navy-But whate'er thy will,
Be it enforc'd by vigour. Let the king
The diff'rence see, by trial in the field,
Between smooth sound and valour. Then dissolve
These impotent debates. Ascend thy car.
The future stage of war thyself explore,
Behind thee leave the vanity of hope,
That such a foe to splendour will submit,
Whom steel, not gold, must vanquish. Thou provide
Thy mail, Argestes. Not in silken robes,
Not as in council with an oily tongue,
But spear to spear, and clanging shield to shield,
Thou soon must grapple on a field of blood."

The king arose "No more. Prepare my car.
The Spartan exile, Demaratus, call.
We will ourselves advance to view the foe."

The monarch will'd; and suddenly he heard His trampling horses. High on silver wheels The iv'ry car with azure sapphires shone, Cerulean beryls, and the jasper green, The emerald, the ruby's glowing blush, The flaming topaz with its golden beam, The pearl, th' empurpled amethyst, and all The various gems, which India's mines afford To deck the pomp of kings. In burnish'd gold A sculptur'd eagle from behind display'd His stately neck, and o'er the royal head [steeds, Outstretch'd his dazzling wings. Eight gen'rous Which on the fam'd Nisæan plain were nurs'd In wintry Media, drew the radiant car. Not those of old, to Hercules refus'd By false Laomedon, nor they, which bore The son of Thetis through the scatter'd rear Of Troy's devoted race, with these might vie In strength, or beauty. In obedient pride They hear their lord. Exulting, in the air They toss their foreheads. On their glist'ning chests The silver manes disport. The king ascends. Beside his footstool Demaratus sits. The charioteer now shakes th' effulgent reins, Strong Patiramphes. At the signal bound Th' attentive steeds; the chariot flies: behind, Ten thousand horse in thunder sweep the field. Down to the sea-beat margin, on a plain Of vast expansion, in battalia wait

The eastern bands. To these th' imperial wheels, By princes follow'd in a hundred cars, Proceed. The queen of Caria and her son With Hyperanthes rode. The king's approach Swift through the wide arrangement is proclaim'd. He now draws nigh. Th' innumerable host Roll back by nations, and admit their lord With all his satraps. As from crystal domes, Built underneath an arch of pendent seas, When that stern pow'r, whose trident rules the floods, With each cerulean deity ascends, Thron'd in his pearly chariot, all the deep Divides its bosom to th' emerging god; So Xerxes rode between the Asian world, On either side receding: when, as down Th' immeasurable ranks his sight was lost, A momentary gloom o'ercast his mind, While this reflection fill'd his eyes with tears;

That, soon as time a hundred years had told,
Not one among those millions should survive.
Whence to obscure thy pride arose that cloud?
Was it, that once humanity could touch
A tyrant's breast? Or rather did thy soul
Repine, O Xerxes, at the bitter thought,
That all thy pow'r was mortal? But the veil
Of sadness soon forsook his brightning eye,
As with adoring awe those millions bow'd,
And to his heart relentless pride recall'd.
Elate the mingled prospect he surveys
Of glitt'ring files unnumber'd, chariots scyth'd,
On thund'ring axles roll'd, and haughty steeds,
In sumptuous trappings clad, barbaric pomp.
While gorgeous banners to the Sun expand
Their streaming volumes of relucent gold,
Preeminent amidst tiaras gemm'd,

Engraven helmets, shields emboss'd, and spears
In number equal to the bladed grass,
Whose living green in vernal beauty clothes
Thessalia's vale. What pow'rs of sounding verse
Can to the mind present th' amazing scene?
Not thee, whom Rumour's fabling voice delights,
Poetic Fancy, to my aid I call;

But thou, historic Truth, support my song,
Which shall the various multitude display,
Their arms, their manners, and their native seats.
The Persians first in scaly corselets shone,

A gen'rous nation, worthy to enjoy
The liberty their injur'd fathers lost,
Whose arms for Cyrus overturn'd the strength
Of Babylon and Sardis. Pow'r advanc'd
The victor's head above his country's laws.
Their tongues were practis'd in the words of truth,
Their limbs inur'd to ev'ry manly toil,
To brace the bow, to rule th' impetuous steed,
To dart the javelin; but, untaught to form
The ranks of war, with unconnected force,
With ineffectual fortitude they rush'd,
As on a fence of adamant, to pierce
Th' indissoluble phalanx. Lances short,
And osier-woven targets they oppos'd
To weighty Grecian spears, and massy shields.
On ev'ry head tiaras rose like tow'rs,
Impenetrable. With a golden gloss
Blaz'd their gay sandals, and the floating reins
Of each proud courser. Daggers on their thighs,
Well-furnish'd quivers on their shoulders hung,
And strongest bows of mighty size they bore.
Resembling these in arms, the Medes are seen,
The Cissians and Hyrcanians. Media once
From her bleak mountains aw'd the subject east.
Her kings in cold Ecbatana were thron'd.
The Cissians march'd from Susa's regal walls,
From sultry fields, o'erspread with branching palms,
And white with lilies, water'd by the floods
Of fam'd Choaspes. His transparent wave
The costly goblet wafts to Persia's kings.
All other streams the royal lip disdains.
Hyrcania's race forsook their fruitful clime,
Dark in the shadows of expanding oaks,
To Ceres dear and Bacchus. There the corn,
Bent by its foodful burden, sheds, unreap'd,
Its plenteous seed, impregnating the soil
With future harvests; while in ev'ry wood
Their precious labours on the loaden boughs
The honey'd swarms pursue. Assyria's sons
Display their brazen casques, unskilful work
Of rude barbarians. Each sustains a mace,
O'erlaid with iron. Near Euphrates' banks

Within the mighty Babylonian gates

They dwell, and where still mightier once in sway
Old Ninus rear'd its head, th' imperial seat
Of eldest tyrants. These Chaldæa joins,
The land of shepherds. From the pastures wide
There Belus first discern'd the various course
Of Heav'n's bright planets, and the clust'ring stars
With names distinguish'd; whence himself was
The first of gods. His sky-ascending fane [deem'd
In Babylon the proud Assyrians rais'd.

Drawn from the bounteous soil, by Ochus lav'd,
The Bactrians stood, and rough in skins of goats
The Paricanian archers. Caspian ranks
From barren mountains, from the joyless coast
Around the stormy lake, whose name they bore,
Their scimitars upheld, and cany bows.
The Indian tribes, a threefold host compose.
Part guide the courser, part the rapid car;
The rest on foot within the bending cane
For slaughter fix the iron-pointed reed.
They o'er the Indus from the distant verge
Of Ganges passing, left a region, lov'd

By lavish Nature. There the season bland
Bestows a double harvest. Honey'd shrubs,
The cinnamon, the spikenard, bless their fields.
Array'd in native wealth, each warrior shines.
His ears bright-beaming pendants grace; his hands,
Encircled, wear a bracelet, starr'd with gems.
Such were the nations, who to Xerxes sent
Their mingled aids of infantry and horse.

Now, Muse, recite, what multitudes obscur'd
The plain on foot, or elevated high
On martial axles, or on camels beat
The loosen'd mould. The Parthians first appear,
Then weak in numbers, from unfruitful hills,
From woods, nor yet for warlike steeds renown'd.
Near them the Sogdians, Dadices arrange,
Gandarians and Chorasmians. Sacian throngs
From cold Imaus pour'd, from Oxus' wave,
From Cyra, built on laxartes' brink,

A bound of Persia's empire. Wild, untam'd,
To fury prone, their deserts they forsook.
A bow, a falchion, and a pond'rous axe
The savage legions arm'd.
A pointed casque
O'er each grim visage rear'd an iron cone.
In arms like Persians the Saranges stood.
High, as their knees, the shapely buskins clung
Around their legs. Magnificent they trod
In garments richly tinctur'd. Next are seen
The Pactian, Mycian, and the Utian train,
In skins of goats rude-vested. But in spoils
Of tawny lions, and of spotted pards
The graceful range of Ethiopians shows
An equal stature, and a beauteous frame.
Their torrid region had imbrown'd their cheeks,
And curl'd their jetty locks. In ancient song
Renown'd for justice, richies they disdain'd,
As foes to virtue. From their seat remote,
On Nilus' verge above th' Egyptian bound,
Forc'd by their king's malignity and pride,
These friends of hospitality and peace,
Themselves uninjur'd, wage reluctant war
Against a land, whose climate, and whose name
To them were strange. With hardest stone they
The rapid arrow. Bows four cubits long, [point
Form'd of elastic branches from the palm,
They carry; knotted clubs, and lances, arm'd
With horns of goats. The Paphlagonians march'd,
From where Carambis with projected brows
O'erlooks the dusky Euxin, wrapt in mists,

From where through flow'rs, which paint his vary'd banks,

Parthenius flows. The Ligyan bands succeed;
The Matienians, Mariandenians next;
To them the Syrian multitudes, who range
Among the cedars on the shaded ridge
Of Libanus; who cultivate the glebe,
Wide-water'd by Orontes; who reside
Near Daphne's grove, or pluck from loaded palms
The foodful date, which clusters on the plains
Of rich Damascus. All, who bear the name
Of Cappadocians, swell the Syrian host,
With those, who gather from the fragrant shrub
The aromatic balsam, and extract

Its milky juice along the lovely side

Of Jordan, winding, till immers'd he sleeps
Beneath a pitchy surface, which obscures
Th' Asphaltic pool. The Phrygians then advance,
To them their ancient colony are join'd,
Armenia's sons. These see the gushing founts
Of strong Euphrates cleave the yielding earth,
Then, wide in lakes expanding, hide the plain;
Whence with collected waters, fierce and deep,
His passage rending through diminish'd rocks,
To Babylon he foams. Not so the stream
Of soft Araxes to the Caspian glides;
He, stealing imperceptibly, sustains
The green profusion of Armenia's meads.
Now strange to view, in similar attire,
But far unlike in manners to the Greeks,
Appear the Lydians. Wantonness and sport
Were all their care. Beside Caijster's brink,
Or smooth Maæander, winding silent by,
Beside Pactolean waves, among the vines
Of Timolus rising, or the wealthy tide
Of golden sanded Hermus, they allure
The sight, enchanted by the grateful dance;
Or with melodious sweetness charm the air,
And melt to softest languishment the soul.
What to the field of danger could incite
These tender sons of luxury? The lash
Of their fell sov'reign drove their shiv'ring backs
Through hail and tempest, which enrag'd the main
And shook beneath their trembling steps the pile,
Conjoining Asia and the western world.
To them Moonia hot with sulph'rous mines
Unites her troops. No tree adorns their fields,
Unbless'd by verdure. Ashes hide the soil;
Black are the rocks, and ev'ry hill deform'd
By conflagration. Helmets press their brows.
Two darts they brandish. On their woolly vests
A sword is girt; and hairy hides compose
Their bucklers round and small. The Mysians left
Olympus wood-envelop'd, left the meads,
Wash'd by Caïcus, and the baneful tide
Of Lycus, nurse to serpents. Next advance
An ancient nation, who in early times
By Trojan arms assail'd, their native land
Esteem'd less dear than freedom, and exchang'd
Their seat on Strymon, where in Thrace he pours
A freezing current, for the distant flood
Of fishy Sangar. These, Bithynians nam'd,
Their habitation to the sacred feet
Of Dindymus extend. Yet there they groan
Beneath oppression, and their freedom mourn
On Sangar now, as once on Strymon lost.
The ruddy skins of foxes cloth'd their heads.
Their shields were fashion'd like the horned Moon.
A vest embrac'd their bodies; while abroad,
Ting'd with unnumber'd hues, a mantle flow'd.

But other Thracians, who their former name
Retain'd in Asia, fulgent morions wore,
With horns of bulls in imitating brass,
Carv'd o'er the crested ridge. Phoenician cloth
Their legs infolded. Wont to chase the wolf,
A hunter's spear they grasp'd. What nations still
On either side of Xerxes, while he pass'd,
Their huge array discov'ring, swell his soul
With more than mortal pride? The cluster'd bands
Of Moschians and Macronians now appear,
The Mosynœcians, who, on berries fed,
In wooden tow'rs along the Pontic sands
Repose their painted limbs; the mirthful race
Of Tibarenians next, whose careless minds
Delight in play and laughter. Then advance
In garments, buckled on their spacious chests,
A people, destin'd in eternal verse,
Ev'n thine, sublime Moonides, to live.
These are the Milyans. Solymi their name
In thy celestial strains, Pisidia's bills
Their dwelling. Once a formidable train
They fac'd the strong Bellerophon in war.
Now doom'd a more tremendous foe to meet,
Themselves unnerv'd by thraldom, they must leave
Their putrid bodies to the dogs of Greece.
The Marians follow. Next is Aria's host,
Drawn from a region horrid all in thorn,
A dreary waste of sands, which mock the toil
Of patient culture; save one favour'd spot,
Which from the wild emerges like an isle,
Attir'd in verdure, intersper'd with vines
Of gen'rous nurture, yielding juice which scorns
The injuries of time: yet Nature's hand
Had sown their rocks with coral; had enrich'd
Their desert hills with veins of sapphires blue,
Which on the turban shine. On ev'ry neck
The coral blushes through the num'rous throng.
The Allarodians and Sasperian bands,
Equipp'd like Colchians, wield a falchion small.
Their heads are guarded by a helm of wood,
Their lances short, of hides undress'd their shields.
The Colchians march'd from Phasis, from the strand,
Where once Medea, fair enchantress, stood,
And, wond'ring, view'd the first advent'rous keel,
Which cut the Pontic foam. From Argo's side
The demigods, descended. They repair'd
To her fell sire's inhospitable hall.
His blooming graces Jason there disclos'd.
With ev'ry art of eloquence divine

He claim'd the golden fleece. The virgin heard,
She gaz'd in fatal ravishment, and lov'd.
Then to the hero she resigus her heart.
Her magic tames the brazen-footed bulls.
She lulls the sleepless dragon. O'er the main
He wafts the golden prize, and gen'rous fair,
The destin'd victim of his treach'rous vows.
The hostile Colchians then pursu'd their flight
In vain. By ancient enmity inflam'd,
Or to recall the long-forgotten wrong
Compell'd by Xerxes, now they menace Greece
With desolation. Next in Median garb
A crowd appear'd, who left the peopled isles
In Persia's gulf, and round Arabia strewn.
Some in their native topaz were adorn'd,
From Ophiodes, from Topazos sprung;
Some in the shells of tortoises, which brood
Around Casitis' verge. For battle range
Those, who reside, where, all beset with palms,
Erythras lies entomb'd, a potent king,
Who nam'd of old the Erythræan main.

On chariots scyth'd the Libyans sat, airay'd
In skins terrific, brandishing their darts
Of wood, well-temper'd in the hard'ning flames.
Not Libya's deserts from tyrannic sway
Could hide her sons; much less could freedom dwell
Amid the plenty of Arabia's fields:

Where spicy Cassia, where the fragrant reed,
Where myrrh, and hallow'd frankincense perfume
The Zephyr's wing. A bow of largest size
Th' Arabian carries. O'er his lucid vest
Loose floats a mantle, on his shoulder clasp'd.
Two chosen myriads on the lofty backs
Of camels rode, who match'd the fleetest horse.
Such were the numbers, which, from Asia led,
In base prostration bow'd before the wheels
Of Xerxes' chariot. Yet what legions more
The Malian sand o'ershadow? Forward rolls
The regal car through nations, who in arms,
In order'd ranks unlike the orient tribes,
Upheld the spear and buckler. But, untaught
To bend the servile knee, erect they stood;
Unless that, mourning o'er the shameful weight
Of their new bondage, some their brows depress'd,
Their arms with grief distaining. Europe's sons
Were these, whom Xerxes by resistless force
Had gather'd round his standards. Murm'ring here,
The sons of Thrace and Macedonia rang'd;
Here on his steed the brave Thessalian frown'd;
There pin'd reluctant multitudes, of Greece
Redundant plants, in colonies dispers'd
Between Byzantium, and the Malian bay.

Through all the nations, who ador'd his pride,
Or fear'd his pow'r, the monarch now was pass'd;
Nor yet among those millions could be found
One, who in beauteous feature might compare,
Or tow'ring size with Xerxes. O possess'd
Of all but virtae, doom'd to show how mean,
How weak without her is unbounded pow'r,
The charm of beauty, and the blaze of state,
How insecure of happiness, how vain!
Thou, who couldst mourn the common lot, by Heav'n
From none withheld, which oft to thousands proves
Their only refuge from a tyrant's rage;
Which in consuming sickness, age, or pain
Becomes at last a soothing hope to all:
Thou, who couldst weep, that Nature's gentle hand
Should lay her weary'd offspring in the tomb;
Yet couldst remorseless from their peaceful seats
Lead half the nations, victims to thy pride,
To famine, plague, and massacre a prey;
What didst thou merit from the injur'd world?
What suff'rings to compensate for the tears
Of Asia's mothers, for unpeopled realms,
For all this waste of Nature? On his host
Th' exulting monarch bends his haughty sight,
To Demaratus then directs his voice.

"My father, great Darius, to thy mind Recall, O Spartan. Gracious he receiv'd Thy wand'ring steps, expell'd their native home. My favour too remember. To beguile Thy benefactor, and disfigure truth, Would ill become thee. With consid'rate eyes Look back on these battalions. Now declare, If yonder Grecians will oppose their march." To him the exile. "Deem not, mighty lord, I will deceive thy goodness by a tale To give them glory, who degraded mine. Nor be the king offended, while I use The voice of truth. The Spartans never fly." Contemptuous smil'd the monarch, and resum'd.