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of the Persian throne, have neglected, by public manifestos, to urge 

 his hereditary claim ; or \vould he have paid that affectionate 

 regard, which, to his honour as a son, he ever did pay to Olympias, 

 not only when first disgracefully repudiated by his father, on ac- 

 count of imputed infidelity, but through life- 



Extravagant as they are, such are the Asiatic statements ; and, 

 in fact, according to them, it was the determination of Escander 

 to assert his maternal right to the Persian throne, added to the 

 invitation of the nobles of Persia disgusted at the vices and cruelty 

 of Darius the Second, which induced him to invade that empire. 



Whatever improbability there may be in the accounts given by 

 Oriental writers concerning the immediate descent of Alexander, 

 there is no reason wholly to discredit their relations concerning an 

 actual and violent war carried on for some time between the two 

 monarchs, Darius Ochus and Philip, or Filikous, as they denomi- 

 nate the latter, on account of his refusal to pay the accustomed 

 tribute. That it terminated adversely to Philip, perpetually engaged 

 as he was in attempts to subjugate the Grecian states, is also not 

 incredible ; but that he was compelled to purchase peace of the 

 Persian sovereign, by consenting to pay an increased annual tribute 

 of forty thousand pieces of gold*, as recorded by Mirkhond and the 

 historians cited in D'Herbelot, is an assertion that partakes far 

 more of the air of Eastern fable than of sober historic truth-f-. It is 

 not, however, so much the magnitude of the sum as the degrada- 

 tion of Philip's martial character, by so servile a compromise, that 

 renders this account improbable; for, Diodorus acquaints us, that 

 he received yearly, from the mines of Philippi, a thousand talents 

 of gold J, which amount to nearly three millions sterling, and could 



* Mirkhond apud Texeira, p. 79. t D'Herbelot, under the article Escander, ubi supra. 



1 Diod. Sic. lib. xvi. p. 260. 



2 C 2 



