valent in him already, pause; and in that it disposed and accustomed his mind still to carry his views and desires beyond his present fortune, still to be aiming at something farther, and to set no bounds to his ambition, † This is the predominate passion of those men whom we usually call Conquerors; and whom according to the language of the holy scripture, we might call, with greater propriety, t" robbers of nations," If you consider and examine the whole succession of Persian kings, says Seneca, will you find any one of them that ever stopped his career of his own accord? that was eyer satisfied with his past conquests; or that was not forming some new project or enterprise, when death surprised him? Nor ought we to be astonished at such a disposition, adds the same author, for ambition is a gulph and a bottomless abyss, wherein every thing is lost that is thrown in, and where, though you were to heap province upon province, and kingdom upon kingdom, you would never be able to fill up the mighty void.. SECTION. II. XERXES BEGINS HIS MARCH, AND PASSES FROM ASIA INTO EUROPE, BY CROSSING THE STRAITS OF THE HELLESPONT UPON A BRIDGE OF BOATS. 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, * Ὡς κανον έτη διδάσκειν την ψυχην πλέον τι δέξεσθαι αιτί έχειν τῇ παρέοντος Nec hoc Alexandri tantum vitium fuit, quem per Liberi Herculis.: que vestigia felix temeritas egit; sed omnium, quos fortuna irritavit implendo. Totum regni Persici stemma percense: quem invenies, cui modum imperii satietas fecerit} qui non vitam in aliqua ulterius. procedendi cogitatione finierit? Nec id mirum est. Quicquid cupiditati contigit, penitus hauritur et conditur, nec interest quantum eo, quod inexplebile est, congeras. Senec, 1. vii. de benef. c. 3. + Jer. iv. 7. A. M. 353. Ant. J. C. 481. › 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 300,000 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 great 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. Wo have already taken notice, 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 signalising himself by an extraordinary enterprise, 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 vain-glorious than useful, since he might, with less trouble and expence, 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 gallies with three banks of oars each pass through it a-breast. § This prince who was extravagant enough to believe, that all nature, and the very elements, were under his command, in consequence of that cpinion, writ 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 Dan. xi. 2. Herod. I. vii. c. 26. A. M. 3524. Ant. J. C. 480. + Herod. vii. c. 21, 24. Plut. de ira cohib. p. 455. "thee entirely down, and throw thee headlong into the sea.” *At the same time, he ordered his labourers to be whipped, in order to make them carry on the work the faster. A traveller, who lived in the time of Francis the First, and who wrote a book in Latin concerning the singular and remarkable things he had seen in his travels, doubts the truth of this fact, and takes notice, that as he passed near mount Athos, he could perceive no traces or footsteps of the work we have been speaking of. Xerxes, as we have already related, advanced towards Sardis. Having left Cappadocia, and passed the river Halys, he came to Cylene, a city of Phrygia, near which is the source of the Maander. 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 expences of his expedition. Xerxes, surprised and charmed at so generous an offer, had the curiosity to enquire to what sum his riches amounted. Pythius made answer, that having the design of offering them to his service, he had taken an exact account of them, and that the silver he had by him amounted to 2000 $ talents, which make 6,000,000 French money; and the gold to 4,000,000 of darics, wanting 7000, (that is to say, to 40,000,000 of livres, wanting 70,000, reckoning ten livers French money to the daric). All this money he offered him, telling him, that his revenues were sufficient for the support of his household. Xerxes made him very hearty acknowledgements, entered into a particular friendship with him, and that he might not be undone in generosity, instead of accepting his offers, obliged him to accept of a present of the 7000 darics, which were wanting to make up his gold to a round sum of 4,000,000. After such a conduct as this, who would not think that Pythius's peculiar character and particular virtue had been generosity and a noble contempt of riches? And yet he was one of the most penurious princes in the world, and who, besides his sordid avarice with regard to himself, was extremely cruel and inhuman to his subjects, whom he kept continually employed in hard and fruitless labour, always digging in the * Plut. de anim. tranq. p. 470. † Bellon. singul. rer. observ. p. 78. Herod. I. vi. c. 26-29. About L. 255,000 Sterling. About L. 1,700,000 Sterling. Plutarch calls him Pythis. Plut. de virt. mulier. p. 262. gold and silver mines which he had in his territories. When he was absent from home, all his subjects went with tears in their eyes to the princess his wife, laid their complaints before her, and implored her assistance. Commiserating their con dition, she made use of a very extraordinary method to work upon her husband, and to give him a clear sense and a kind of palpable demonstration of the folly and injustice of his conduct. On his return home,she ordered an entertainment to be prepar ed for him, very magnificent in appearance, but which, in reality, was no entertainment. All the courses and services were of gold and silver, and the prince, in the midst of all these rich dishes and splendid rarities, could not satisfy his hunger. He easily divined the meaning of this enigma, and began to con sider, that the end of gold and silver was not merely to be looked upon, but to be employed and made use of; and that to neglect, as he had done, the business of husbandry and the tilling of lands, by employing all his people in digging and working of mines, was the direct way to bring a famine both upon himself and his country. For the future, therefore, he only reserved a fifth part of his people for the business of mining. Plutarch has preserved this fact in a treatise, wherein he has collected a great many others, to prove the ability and industry of ladies. We have the same disposition of mind designed in fabulous story, in the example of a prince who reigned in this very country, for whom every thing that he touched was immediately turned into gold, according to the request which he himself had made to the gods, and who by that means was in danger of perishing with hunger. †The same prince, who had made such obliging offers to Xerxes, having desired as a favour of him some time afterwards, that out of his five sons who served in his army, he would be pleased to leave him the eldest, in order to be a support and comfort to him in his old age; the king was so enraged at the proposal, though so reasonable in itself, that he caused the eldest son to be killed before the eyes of his father; giving the latter to understand, that it was a favour he spared him and the rest of his children; and then causing the dead body to be cut in two, and one part to be placed on the right, and the other on the left, he made the whole army pass between them, as if he meant to purge and purify it by such a sacrifice. What a monster in nature is a prince of this kind? * Midas, king of Phrygia. † Herod. 1. viii.. 38, 39. Sen. de ira. l. iii. c. 17. How is it possible to have any dependence upon the friendship of the great, or to rely upon their warmest professions and protestations of gratitude and service? *From Phrygia Xerxes marched, and arrived at Sardis, where he spent the winter. From hence he sent heralds to all the cities of Greece, except Athens and Lacedæmon, to require them to give him earth and water, which, as we have taken notice before, was the way of exacting and acknowledging submission. As soon as the spring of the year came on, he left Sardis, and directed his march towards the Hellespont. † Being arrived there, he was desirous to see a naval engagement for his curiosity and diversion. To this end, a throne was erected for him upon an eminence, and, in that situation, seeing all the sea crowded with his vessels, and the land covered with his troops, he at first felt a secret joy diffuse itself through his soul, in surveying with his own eyes the vast extent of his power, and considering himself as the most happy of mortals; but reflecting soon afterwards, that of so many thousands, in an hundred years time there would not be one living soul remaining, his joy was turned into grief, and he could not forbear weeping at the uncertainty and instability of human things. He might have found another subject of reflection, which would have more justly merited his tears and affliction, had he turned his thoughts upon himself, and considered the reproaches he deserved for being the instrument of shortening that fatal term to millions of people, whom his cruel ambition was going to sacrifice in an unjust and unnecessary war. Artabanes, who neglected no opportunity of making himself useful to the young prince, and of instilling into him sentiments of goodness for his people, laid hold of this moment, in which he found him touched with a sense of tenderness and humanity, and led him into further reflections upon the miseries with which the lives of most men are attended, and which render them so painful and unhappy, endeavouring, at the same time, to make him sensible of the duty and obligation of princes, who, not being able to prolong the natural life of their subjects, ought at least to do all that lies in their power to alleviate the pains and allay the bitterness of it. In the same conversation, Xerxes asked his uncle, if he still persisted in his first opinion, and if he would still advise him not to make war against Greece, supposing he had not seen * Herod. J. vii. c 30-32. Ibid. c. 44 et 46. |