[ 187 ] 



Susa that the Grecian states were then only not formidable to 

 Persia when she was distracted with internal dissensions, and to 

 keep their passions in ferment, and their respective interests and 

 powers so properly balanced against each other, that neither side, 

 if it were possible, should materially preponderate, would be the 

 line of sound policy for her invariably to pursue. Such appear to 

 have been the constant maxims that swayed the two predecessors 

 of Darius Nothos, and such was the wise conduct of the satraps of 

 Sardis, till the unfortunate period when the younger Cyrus, in the 

 inexperienced ardour of early youth, was invested with the com- 

 mand of that important province, with positive orders, which his 

 impetuous disposition scarcely needed, by calling forth all the 

 resources of that rich satrapy to destroy that equipoise, and secure 

 to Laoedaemon a decided superiority over Athens. The result was, 

 what might easily have been foreseen. The orders, if ever in reality 

 given, (for, doubts may very reasonably be entertained,) were a 

 disgrace to the policy of the hitherto cautious court of Susa. The 

 Peloponnesian war, stained as it was with the blackest perfidies and 

 the most barbarous massacres on either side, through the influence 

 of Persian gold, ended in the complete subjugation of Athens. But 

 this important event, while it crushed the ancient and sworn foe 

 of Persia, exalted its antagonist to that height of glory and power, 

 which in the end would have undoubtedly proved fatal to their 

 protectors, had they not resorted to the very same means as before 

 for dividing, and consequently weakening, the authority which they 

 dreaded ; and had they not squandered the treasures of Sardis in the 

 profusest bribery, and conquered Agesilaus, as he himself confessed, 

 with an army not of thirty thousand men, but of thirty thousand 

 darics. 



However deficient we may be in authentic Persian records to 

 guide us through the train of events that distinguish the present 



2 A 2 



