GG1 
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their rebelling a fecond time, beat down the walls of that 
metropolis to the height of fifty cubits. Three thoufand 
of the moft aflive in the rebellion.were impaled ; the reft 
pardoned. As they had deftroyed moft of their women, 
the neighbouring nations were commanded to furnifh 
them with wives, and 50,000 women were fent to that 
city, by which means it was prevented from being depo¬ 
pulated. Zopyrus was rewarded with the higheft ho¬ 
nours, and had the whole revenues of Babylon beftowed 
on him for life. 
After the reduction of Babylon, Darius undertook a 
Scythian expedition, direfled againft thofe nations which 
lie between the Danube and the Tanais. His pretext for 
this war was, to revenge the calamities which thefe nations 
had brought upon Alia about 120 years before, when they 
invaded and fubdued Media; keeping it in fubjeftion for 
the fpace of twenty-eight years. In this expedition he 
was attended by an army of 700,000 men. With thefe 
he marched to the Thracian Bofphorus; which having 
pafl'ed on a bridge of boats, he reduced all Thrace. From 
Thrace he advanced to the Danube, where he had ap¬ 
pointed his fleet to meet him. This river he pafl'ed on 
another bridge of boats, and entered Scythia. His ene¬ 
mies, however, were too wife to oppofe fuch a formidable 
power, in the open field ; and therefore retired before him, 
wafting the country as they went along, till at laft the 
king, Jenfible of the danger he was in, refolved to give 
over the enterprife and return home. In order to do fo 
with fafety, he lighted a great number of fires in the 
night-time, and decamped ; leaving behind him the old 
men and the fick, who fell into the hands of their ene¬ 
mies. The Scythians, perceiving that Darius was gone, 
detached a confiderable body to the bridge over the Da¬ 
nube; and, as they were well acquainted with the roads, 
they got thither before the Perfians. The Scythians 
had fent exprefi'es before-hand to perfuade the Ionians, 
whom Darius had left to guard the bridge, to break it 
down and retire to their own country; and this they 
prefi'ed the more earneltly, that, as the time prefcribed to 
Darius was now expired, they were at liberty to return 
home without breaking their word, or being wanting in 
their duty. Miltiades, prince of the Cherfonefus of 
Thrace, was for embracing fo favourable an opportunity 
of cutting off Darius’s retreat, and fliaking off the Perfian 
yoke at once : all the other commanders agreed with him, 
except Hyftiteus prince of Miletus; who reprefented to 
the Ionian chiefs, that their power was connected with 
that of Darius, fince it was under his protection that each 
of them was lord in his own city ; and that the cities of 
Ionia would not fail to depofe them and recover their li¬ 
berty, if the Perfian power fhould fink or decline. This 
fpeech made a deep impreflion on the reft, and it was at 
Jaft determined that they fnould wait for Darius ; and, in 
order to deceive the Scythians, they began to break down 
the bridge, but advifed them to return back and defeat 
Darius. They did fo, but miffed him ; and he, having 
thus fafely efcaped fo great a danger, immediately re¬ 
paired the Bofphorus, and took up hi v s winter-quarters at 
Sardis, leaving Megabyzus, one of his chief generals, to 
complete the conqueft of Thrace. 
The-king, having fufficiently refrefhed his troops, who 
had fuffered extremely in the Scythian expedition, began 
to think of extending his dominions eaftward. With this 
view, he can fed a fleet to be built and equipped at Caf- 
patyrus, a city on the river Indus. The command of this 
fleet he gave to one Scylax, a Grecian of Caryandia, a city 
of Caria, who was well verfed in maritime affairs. Him 
he ordered to fail down the current, and make the belt 
difeoveries he could of the countries lying on either fide 
of the river, till he arrived at the Southern Ocean; - from 
whence he was to fleer his courfe weftward, and that way 
return toPerfia. Scylax, having exadlly obferved his in- 
ltruftions, and failed down the river Indus, entered the 
Red Sea by the ftraits of Babelmandel, and, on the thir¬ 
tieth month from his firft fetting out, landed at the fame 
S I A. 
place from which Necho king of Egypt formerly fent out 
the Phoenicians who circumnavigated Africa. From thence 
Scylax returned to Sufa, where he gave a full account of 
his difeoveries; upon which Darius, marching into India 
at the head of a powerful army, reduced that large coun¬ 
try, and made it a province of the Perfian empire, draw¬ 
ing from thence an annual tribute of 360 talents of gold. 
Soon after the expedition of Darius againft India, hap¬ 
pened the revolt of the Ionians, which gave occalion to 
his expedition into Greece; an account of which is given 
under the articles Attica, Greece, Sparta, &c. The 
ill fuccefs which attended him here, however, was fo far 
from making him drop the enterprife, that it only made 
him the more intent on reducing the Grecians; and he 
refolved to head his army in perfon, having attributed his 
former bad fuccefs to the inexperience of his generals. 
But, while he W3S employed in making the neceffary pre¬ 
parations for this purpofe, he received intelligence that the 
Egyptians had revolted, fo that he was obliged to make 
preparations for reducing them alfo ; and, before this 
could be done, the king died, after having reigned thirty- 
fix years, leaving the throne to his fon Xerxes. 
This prince afeended the throne of Perfia in the year 
485 B. C. and his firft enterprife was to reduce the Egyp¬ 
tians; which he effe&ually did, bringing them into a 
worfe ftate of flavery than they ever had experienced be¬ 
fore. After this he refolved' on an expedition into 
Greece ; the unfortunate event of which is related under 
the article Attica, vol. ii. p. 508, 9. By his misfortunes 
in the Grecian expedition, he became at laft fo difpirited, 
that he thenceforth abandoned all thoughts of war and 
conquefts; but growing tyrannical, and opprefling his 
fubjedts, he was murdered in his bed, in the year 464 B.C. 
and twenty-firft of his reign; and was fucceeded by his 
third fon Artaxerxes, furnamed Longimanus on account 
of the great length of his arms. 
This prince is named Ahafuerus in Scripture, and is the 
fame who married Either, and during the whole of his 
reign (bowed the greateft kindnefs to the Jewilh nation. 
In the beginning of his reign he was oppofed by Hyftafpes, 
the fecond fon of Xerxes, whom however he overcame, 
though not without confiderable difficulty. After this 
he applied himfelf to the fettlement of the affairs of go¬ 
vernment, and reformed many abufes which had crept in; 
and then, being fully eltabliftied on the throne, he ap¬ 
pointed feafts and rejoicings to be made for 180 days in 
the city of Sufa; at one of which he refolved to divorce 
his queen for difobedience; and afterwards married 
Eftber, as we find it recorded in the facred writings. 
In the fifth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, the Egyp¬ 
tians revolted anew', and, being aflifted by the Athenians, 
held out for fix years ; but were again obliged to fubmit, 
and continued in fubjeflion during the whole of his reign. 
Nothing elfe remarkable happened during the life of Ar¬ 
taxerxes Longimanus, who died in the forty-firft year of 
his reign ; and was fucceeded by Xerxes II. the only fon 
he had by his queen, though by his concubines lie had 
feventeen. Xerxes, having drunk immoderately at an 
entertainment immediately after his acceffion, retired to a 
chamber in order to refrelh himfelf with deep ; but here 
he was murdered by Sogdianus, the fon of Artaxerxes by 
one of his concubines, after he had reigned only forty-five 
days. 
Sogdianus was fcarcely feated on the throne when he 
put to death Bagorazus, the moft faithful of all his father’s 
eunuchs ; by which, and the murder of his fovereign, he 
became generally odious. Upon this, fenfible of the dan¬ 
gerous fituation in which he was, he fent for one of his 
brothers named Ochus, whom he fufpeiled, with a defign 
to murder him the moment he arrived. Ochus, however 
underftanding his defign, put off, by feveral pretences, 
his coming, till he had drawn together a powerful army, 
with which he advanced to the confines of Perfia. Here 
he openly declared, that his defign was to revenge his 
brother’s death 5 which brought over to him many of the 
nobility. 
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