robe of a very coarse stuff, they were seized with an immoderate disposition to laugh, and applied to him the fable of the mountain in labour. When he met king Tachos, and had joined his troops with those of Egypt, he was very much surprised at not being appointed general of the whole army, as he expected, but only of the foreign troops, that Chabrias was made general of the sea forces, and that Tachos retained the command in chief to himself, which was not the only mortification he had experienced. Tachos came to a resolution to march into Phoenicia, thinking it more advise able to make that country the seat of war, than to expect the enemy in Egypt. Agesilaus, who knew better, represented to him in vain, that his affairs were not sufficiently established to admit his removing out of his dominions; that he would do much better to remain in them, and content himself with acting by his generals in the enemy's country. Tachos despised this wise counsel, and expressed no less disregard for him on all other occasions. Agesilaus was so much incensed at such conduct, that he joined the Egyptians, who had taken arms against him during his absence, and had placed Nectanebis his cousin* upon the throne. Agesilaus, abandoning the king, to whose aid he had been sent, and joining the rebel who had dethroned him, alleged in justification of himself, that he was sent to the assistance of the Egyptians; and that they, having taken up arms against Tachos, he was not at liberty to serve against them without new orders from Sparta. He despatched expresses thither; and the instructions he received, were to act as he should judge most advantageous for his country. He immediately declared for Nectanebis. Tachos, obliged to quit Egypt, retired to Sidon, from whence he went to the court of Persia. Artaxerxes not only forgave him his fault, but added to his clemency the command of his troops against the rebels. Agesilaus covered so criminal a conduct with the veil of public utility. But, says Plutarch, remove that delusive blind, the most just and only true name which can be given to the action, is that of perfidy and treason. It is true, the Lacedæmonians, making the glorious and the good consist principally in the service of that country which they idolized, knew no other justice than what tended to the augmentation of the grandeur of Sparta, and the extending of its dominions. I am surprised that so judicious an author as Xenophon should endeavour to palliate a conduct of this kind, by saying only, that Agesilaus attached himself to that of the two kings, who seemed the best affected to Greece. At the same time a third prince of the city of Mendes set himself up, to dispute the crown with Nectanebis. This new competitor had an army of one hundred thousand men to support his pretensions. Agesilaus gave his advice to attack them, before they were exercised and disciplined. Had that counsel been followed, it had been easy to have defeated a body of people, raised in haste, and without any experience in war. But Nectanebis imagined, that Agesilaus only gave him this advice to betray him afterwards, as he had done Tachos. He therefore gave his enemy time to discipline his troops, who soon after reduced him to retire into a city, fortified with good walls, and of very great extent. Agesilaus was obliged to follow him thither, where the Mendesian prince besieged them. Nectanebis would then have attacked the enemy before the works which he had begun were far advanced, and pressed Agesilaus to that purpose; but he refused his compliance at first, which extremely augmented the suspicions conceived of him. At length, when he saw the work in sufficient forwardness, and that there remained only as much ground between the two ends of the line, as the troops within the city might occupy, drawn up in battle, he told Nectanebis that it was time to attack the enemy; that their own lines would prevent their surrounding him; and that the interval between them was exactly the space he wanted, for ranging his troops in such a manner that they might all act together effectively. The attack was executed c cording to the expectation of Agesilaus; the besiegers were beaten; and from *Diodorus calls him his son; Plutarch his cousin. thenceforth Agesilaus conducted all the operations of the war with so much success, that the enemy was always overcome, and the prince at last taken prisoner. The following winter, after having well established Nectanebis, he embarked to return to Lacedæmon, and was driven by contrary winds upon the coast of Africa, into a place called the port of Menelaus, where he fell sick and died, at the age of eighty-four years. He had reigned forty-one of them at Sparta; and of those forty-one, he had passed thirty with the reputation of the greatest and most powerful of all the Greeks, and had been looked upon as the leader and king of almost all Greece, till the battle of Leuctra. His latter years did not entirely support the reputation he had acquired; and Xenophon, in his eulogy of this prince, wherein he gives him the preference to all other captains, had been found to exaggerate his virtues, and extenuate his faults, too much.* The body of Agesilaus was carried to Sparta. Those who were about him not having honey, with which it was the Spartan custom to cover the bodies they would embalm, made use of wax in its stead. His son Archidamus succeeded to the throne, which continued in his house down to Agis, who was the fifth king of the line of Agesilaus. Towards the end of the Egyptian war, the greatest part of the provinces in subjection to Persia revolted. Artaxerxes Mnemon had been the involuntary occasion of this defection. That prince, of himself, was good, equitable, and benevolent. He loved his people, and was beloved by them. He had much mildness and sweetness of temper in his character; but that easiness degenerated into sloth and luxury, and particularly in the latter years of his life, in which he discovered a dislike for all business and application; from whence the good qualities, which he otherwise possessed, as well as his beneficent intentions, became useless and without effect. The nobility and governors of provinces, abusing his favour and the infirmities of his great age, oppressed the people, treated them with insolence and cruelty, loaded them with taxes, and did every thing in their power to render the Persian yoke insupportable. The discontent became general, and broke out, after long suffering, almost at the same time on all sides. Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, and many other provinces, declared themselves openly, and took up arms. The principal leaders of the conspiracy were Ariobarzanes prince of Phrygia, Mausolus king of Caria, Orontes governor of Mysia, and Autophradates governor of Lydia. Datames, of whom mention has been made before, and who commanded in Cappadocia, was also engaged in it. By this means, half the revenues of the crown were on a sudden diverted into different channels, and the remainder did not suffice for the expenses of a war against the revolters, had they acted in concert. But their union was of no long continuance; and those who had been the first and most zealous in shaking off the yoke, were also the foremost in resuming it, and in betraying the interests of the others, to make heir peace with the king. The provinces of Asia Minor, on withdrawing from their obedience, had entered into a confederacy for their mutual defence, and had chosen Orontes, governor of Mysia, for their general. They had also resolved to add twenty thousand foreign troops to those of the country, and had charged the same Orontes with the care of raising them. But when he had got the money for that service into his hands, with the addition of a year's pay, he kept it for himself, and delivered to the king the persons who had brought it from the revolted provinces. Reomithras, another of the chiefs of Asia Minor, having been sent into Egypt to negotiate succours, committed a treachery of a like nature. Having brought from that country five hunded talents and fifty ships of war, he assembled the principal revolters at Leucas, a city of Asia Minor, under pretence of giving *A. M. 3643. Ant J C. 361. Diodorus says he was sent to Tachos, but it is more likely that it was to Nectanebis. them an account of his negotiation, seized them all, delivered them to the king to make his peace, and kept the money he had received in Egypt for the confederacy. Thus this formidable revolt, which would have brought the Persian empire to the very brink of ruin, dissolved of itself, or, to speak more properly, was suspended for some time. SECTION XI. TROUBLE OF The court of aXTAXERXES CONCERNING HIS SUCCESSOR. DEATH OF THAT PRINCE. The end of the reign of Artaxerxes abounded with cabals.* The whole court were divided into factions in favour of one or other of his sons, who pretended to the succession. He had one hundred and fifty by his concubines, who were in number three hundred and sixty, and three by his lawful wife Atossa; Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus. To put a stop to these practices, he declared Darius, the eldest, his successor. And to remove all cause of dis puting that prince's right after his death, he permitted him to assume from thenceforth the title of king, and to wear the royal tiara. But the young prince was for having something more real. Besides which, the refusal of Artaxerxes to give him one of his concubines, whom he had demanded, had extremely incensed him, and he formed a conspiracy against his father's life, wherein he engaged fifty of his brothers. It was Tirabasus, of whom mention has been made already, who contributed the most to his taking so unnatural a resolution from a like subject of discontent against the king; who, having promised to give him first one of his daughters in marriage, and then another, broke his word both times, and married them himself; such abominable incests being permitted at that time in Persia, the religion of the nation not prohibiting them. The number of the conspirators was already very great, and the day fixed for the execution, when a eunuch, well informed of the whole plot, discovered it to the king. Upon that information, Artaxerxes thought it would be highly imprudent to despise so great a danger by neglecting a strict inquiry into it, but that it would be much more so, to give credit to it without certain and unquestionable proof. He assured himself of it with his own eyes. The conspirators were suffered to enter the king's apartment, and then seized. Darius and all his accomplices were punished as they deserved. After the death of Darius, the cabals began again. Three of his brothers were competitors, Ariaspes, Ochus, and Arsames. The two first pretended to the throne in right of birth, being the sons of the queen. The third had the king's favour, who tenderly loved him, though only the son of a concubine. Ochus, prompted by his restless ambition, studied perpetually the means to rid himself of both his rivals. As he was equally cunning and cruel, he employed his cunning and artifice against Ariaspes, and his cruelty against Arsames. Knowing the former to be extremely simple and credulous, he made the eunuchs of the palace, whom he had found means to corrupt, threaten him so terribly in the name of the king his father, that expecting every moment to be treated as Darius had been, be poisoned himself to avoid it. After this there remained only Arsames to give him umbrage; because his father, and all the world, considered that prince as most worthy of the throne, from his ability and other excellent qualities. He caused him to be assassinated by Harpates, son of Tiribasus. This loss, which followed close upon the other, and the exceeding wickedness with which both were attended, gave the old king a grief that proved mortal: nor is it surprising, that at his age he should not have strength enough to support so great an affliction. He sunk under it into his tomb, after a reign of forty-three years, which might have been called happy, if not interrupted by many revolts. That of his successor will be no less disturbed with them.1 Plut. in Artax. p. 1024-1027. Diod. 1. xv. p. 400. Justin. 1. x. c. 1, 2 upright upon it. All ours wore Ant. J. C SECTION XII-CAUSES OF THE FREQUENT INSURRECTIONS AND REVOLTS IN THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. I HAVE taken care, in relating the seditions that happened in the Persian empire, to observe from time to time the abuses which occasioned them. But as these revolts were more frequent than ever in the latter years, and will be more so, especially in the succeeding reign, I thought it would be proper unite here, under the same point of view, the different causes of such insurrections, which foretell the approaching decline of the Persian empire. to I. After the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, the kings of Persia abandoned themselves more and more to the charms of voluptuousness and luxury, and the delights of an indolent and inactive life. Shut up generally in their palaces among women, and a crowd of flatterers, they contented themselves with enjoying, in soft effeminate ease and idleness, the pleasure of universal command, and made their grandeur consist in the splendid glare of riches, and an expensive magnificence. II. They were besides princes of no great talents for the conduct of affairs, of little capacity to govern, and void of taste for glory. Not having a sufficient extent of mind to animate all the parts of so vast an empire, nor ability to support the weight of it, they transferred to their officers the care of public business, the fatigues of commanding armies, and the dangers which attend the execution of great enterprises; confining their ambition to bearing alone the lofty title of the great king, and the king of kings. III. The great offices of the crown, the government of the provinces, the command of armies, were generally bestowed upon people without either service or merit. It was the influence of the favourites, the secret intrigues of the court, the solicitations of the women of the palace, which determined the choice of the persons who were to fill the most important posts of the empire, and appropriated the rewards due to the officers who had done the state real service to their own creatures. IV. These courtiers, often out of a base, mean jealousy of the merit that gave them umbrage, and reproached their mean abilities, removed their rivals from public employments, and rendered their talents useless to the state. Sometimes they would even cause their fidelity to be suspected by false informations, bring them to trial as criminals against the state, and force the king's most faithful servants, for their defence against their calumniators, to seek their safety in revolting, and in turning those arms against their prince, which they had so often made to triumph for his glory, and the service of the empire.* V. The ministers, to hold the generals in dependence, restrained them under such limited orders, as obliged them to let slip the occasions of conquering, and prevented them, by waiting for new orders, from pushing their advantages. They also often made them responsible for their bad success, after having let them want every thing necessary to the service. VI. The kings of Persia had extremely degenerated from the frugality of Cyrus, and the ancient Persians, who contented themselves with cresses and sallads for their food, and water for their drink. The whole nobility had been infected with the contagion of this example. In retaining the single meal of their ancestors, they made it last during the greatest part of the day, and prolonged it far into the night by drinking to excess; and far from being ashamed of drunkenness, they made it their glory, as we have seen in the example of young Cyrus. VII. The extreme remoteness of the provinces, which extended from the Caspian and Euxine to the Red Sea and Ethiopia, from the rivers Ganges and Indus to the Agean sea, was a great obstacle to the fidelity and affection of the people, who never had the satisfaction to enjoy the presence of their mas ders; who knew them only by the weight of their taxations, and by the pride * Pharnabasus, Tiribasus, Datames, &c. and avarice of their satraps or governors: and who, in transporting themselves to the court, to make their demands and complaints there, could not hope to find access to princes, who believed it contributed to the majesty of their per sons to make themselves inaccessible and invisible. VIII. The multitude of the provinces in subjection to Persia, did not compose a uniform empire, nor the regular body of a state, whose members were united by the common ties of interests, manners, language, and religion, and animated with the same spirit of government, under the guidance of the same laws. It was rather a confused, disjointed, tumultuous, and even forced assemblage of different nations, formerly free and independent, some of whom, who were torn from their native countries and the sepulchres of their forefathers, saw themselves with pain transported into unknown regions, or among enemies, where they persevered to retain their own laws and customs, and a form of government peculiar to themselves. These different nations, who not only lived without any common tie or relation among them, but with a diversity of manners and worship, and often with antipathy of characters and inclinations, desired nothing so ardently as their liberty, and re-establishment in their own countries. All these people, therefore, were unconcerned for the preservation of an empire, which was the sole obstacle to their so ardent and just desires, and could not affect a government that treated them always as strangers and subjected nations, and never gave them any share in its authority or privileges. IX. The extent of the empire, and its remoteness from the court, made it necessary to give the viceroys of the frontier provinces a very great authority in every branch of government; to raise and pay armies; to impose tribute; to adjudge the differences of cities, provinces, and vassal kings, and to make treaties with the neighbouring states. A power so extensive, and almost independent, in which they continued many years without being changed, and without colleagues or council to deliberate upon the affairs of their provinces, accustomed them to the pleasure of commanding absolutely, and of reigning. In consequence of which, it was with great reluctance they submitted to be removed from their governments, and they often endeavoured to support themselves in them by force of arms. X. The governors of provinces, the generals of armies, and all the otherofficers and ministers, thought it for their honour to imitate, in their equipages, tables, moveables, and habits, the pomp and splendour of the court in which they had been educated. To support so destructive a pride, and to furnish expenses so much above the fortunes of private persons, they were reduced to oppress the subjects under their jurisdiction with exorbitant taxes, flagrant extortions, and the shameful traffic of a public venality, that set those offices to sale for money, which ought to have been granted only to merit. All that vanity lavished, or luxury exhausted, was made good by mean arts, and the violent rapaciousness of an insatiable avarice. These gross irregularities, and many others, which remained without remedy, and which were daily augmented by impunity, tired the people's patience, and occasioned a general discontent among them, the usual forerunner of the ruin of states. Their just complaints, long despised, were followed by the open rebellion of several nations, who endeavoured to do themselves that justice by force, which was refused to their remonstrances. In such a conduct, they failed in the submission and fidelity which subjects owe to their sovereigns; but paganism did not carry its lights so far, and was not capable of so sublime a perfection, which was reserved for a religion that teaches, that no pretext, no injustice, nor vexation, can ever authorize the rebellion of a people against their prince. END OF VOL. II. |