2-56 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



tlon prefixed to the Excerpts from Ctefias, which Photius has 

 preferved to us, has fufficiently vindicated him from the impu- 

 tation of falichood^. And, indeed, the account which Diodorus 

 gives of him, that he refided i6 years in the court of Perfia, was a 

 favourite of Artaxerxes, the king, on account of his medical know- 

 ledge, and had an opjxjrtunity of perufmg the royal records of Per- 

 fia, containing their mofl antient hiftory, and which, Diodorus fays, 

 he examined very accurately, is fufficient, in my opinion, to vindi- 

 cate him from any imputation of either falfehood or inaccuracy, ef- 

 peciaily when 1 fee that his authority is called in queftion, not in 

 refpedt of what he relates of the affairs of men, but as to what he 

 relates of certain ftrange animals in India. Upon the authority of 

 this author, Diodorus relates, that Ninus, the Affyrian Emperor, in- 

 vaded Badriana with an army of 1,700,000 foot, 210,000 horfe, 

 and chariots to the number of about 10,600*; and that Semiramis 

 invaded the fame country with an army of 3,000,000 foot, 500,000 

 horfe, and 100,000 chariots f. Thefe numbers, fays our author, 

 may appear incredible to men now a days, but not to thofe who 

 confider what a vaft country Afia is, and by what a number of na- 

 tions it is inhabited ; for, fays he, fetting afide Darius's expedition 

 into Scythia, with 800,000 men, and Xerxes's expedition into 

 Greece with innumerable multitudes, if we confider what happen- 

 ed in Europe not long ago, we fhall not think thefe numbers incre- 

 dible. In Sicily, Dionyfius, from the fmgle town of Syracufe, 

 brought forth an army of 120,000 foot, and 12,000 horfe; and, 

 from one port, he fitted out 400 fhips of war : And the Romans,^ 

 at the time they were invaded by Hannibal, muflered an army of 

 their citizens and allies very little (hort of a million of men. And 



yet, 



* Sec this differtation annexed to an edition of Herodotus, publifhed 7<\, Frankfort 

 »y Jungermannus in 1608, p. 630. 



* Diodorus, Lib. 2. Cap. 5. f Ibid, Cap. 1-7, 



