swum in the Greekish seas. Cimon having in one day obtained two great victories, the one by the sea and the other by land, was very soon presented with a third. For fourscore sail of Phoenicians, (who were the best of all seamen under the Persian command,) thinking to have joined themselves with the fleet before destroyed, arrived upon the same coast, ignorant of what had passed, and fearing nothing less than what ensued. Upon the first notice of their approach Cimon weighed anchor, and meeting them at an headland called Hydra, did so amaze them, that they only sought to run themselves on ground; by which means preserving few of their men, they lost all their ships. These losses did so break the courage of the Persian, that, omitting all hope of prevailing upon Greece, he condescended to whatsoever articles it pleased the Athenians to propound, granting liberty unto all the Greeks inhabiting Asia; and further covenanting, that none of his ships of war should sail to the westward of the isles called Cyanea and Chelidoniæ.

This was the most honourable peace that ever the Greeks made; neither did they in effect, after this time, make any war that redounded to the profit or glory of the whole na tion, till such time as under Alexander they overthrew the empire of Persia; in which war few, or perhaps none of them, had any place of great command, but served altogether under the Macedonians.

SECT. III.

The death of Xerxes by the treason of Artabanus. BESIDES these losses, which could not easily have been repaired, the troubles of the empire were at this time such, as gave just cause to the Persian of seeking peace upon any terms not altogether intolerable. For Artabanus, the uncle of Xerxes, perceiving that the king his master did easily take small occasions to shed the blood of such as in kindred or place were near unto him, began to repose less hope of safety in remaining faithful, than of obtaining the sovereignty, by destroying a prince that was so hated for his cruelty, and despised for his cowardice and misfortunes.

Having conceived this treason, he found means to execute it, by Mithridates an eunuch, in such close manner, that (as if he himself had been innocent) he accused Darius the son of Xerxes, and caused him to suffer death as a parricide. Whether it be true, that by this great wickedness he got the kingdom, and held it seven months; or whether, intending the like evil to Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes, he was by him prevented and surprised, it were hard to affirm any certainty. But all writers agree upon this, that taken he was, and with his whole family put to death by extreme torments, according to the sentence, whereof the truth is more ancient than the verse,

Raro antecedentem scelestum
Deseruit pede pæna claudo.

Seldom the villain, though much haste he make,
Laine-footed Vengeance fails to overtake.

SECT. IV.

The banishment of Themistocles; his flight to Artaxerxes newly reigning in Persia, and his death.

ARTAXERXES being established in his kingdom, and having so compounded with the Athenians as the present necessity of his affairs required, began to conceive new hopes of better fortune against the Greeks, than he or his predecessors had ever hitherto found. For the people of Athens, when the Persians were chased out of Greece, did so highly value their own merits in that service, that they not only thought it fit for themselves to become the commanders over many towns and islands of the Greeks, but even within their own walls they would admit none other form of government than merely democratical. Herein they were so insolent, that no integrity nor good desert was able to preserve the estate of any such as had borne great office, longer than, by flattering the rascal multitude, he was contented to frame all his words and deeds to their good liking.

This their intolerable demeanour much offended Themistocles; who, though in former times he had laid the founRALEGH, VOL. III.

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dations of his greatness upon popularity, yet now, presuming upon his good services done to the state, he thought that with great reason they might grant him the liberty to check their inordinate proceedings. But contrariwise, they were so highly offended with his often rehearsing the benefits which they had received from him, that they laid upon him the punishment of ostracism, whereby he was banished for ten years, as a man overburdensome to the commonwealth.

Before the time of his return was half expired, a new accusation was brought against him by the Lacedæmonians, who charged him of consulting with Pausanias about betraying the whole country of Greece unto Xerxes. Hereupon Themistocles, finding no place of security against the malice of two such mighty cities, was driven, after many troublesome flights and dangerous removings, to adventure himself into Persia; where he found Artaxerxes newly settled, and was by him very honourably entertained. But the great hope which Artaxerxes had conceived of advancing his affairs by the counsel and assistance of Themistocles proved altogether fruitless. For when the Athenians, in favour of Inarus the Libyan, (who infested Egypt, causing it to rebel against the Persian,) had sent a fleet to sea, landing an army in Egypt, and scouring those eastern seas, to the great hinderance of Artaxerxes, and (for ought that I can understand) to the manifest breach of that peace, which to their great honour they had concluded with Xerxes; then did the king send his letters to Themistocles, requiring him to make good the hopes which he had given, of assuring the Persian estate against the Greeks.

But whether Themistocles perceived much unlikeliness of good success, in leading a great army of dastardly Persians against the warlike people of Greece; or else (as in favour of his virtue it is more commonly reported) the love of his country would not permit him to seek honour by the ruin of it; sure it is, that being appointed by Artaxerxes to undertake the conduct of great forces against the Athenians, he decided the great conflict between thankfulness to

his well-deserving prince, and natural affection to his own ill-deserving people, by finishing his life with a cup of poison.

SECT. V.

How the Athenians, breaking the peace, which to their great honour they had made with the Persian, were shamefully beaten in Egypt.

THEN was Artaxerxes driven to use the service of his own captains in the Egyptian war, wherein it appeared well, that a just cause is a good defence against a strong enemy. An Athenian fleet, of two hundred sail strong, was sent forth under Cimon, to take in the isle of Cyprus; which conquest seemed easy both to make and to maintain, the Persian being utterly broken at sea, and thereby unable to relieve the island. Now although it were so, that a peace had been concluded, which was likely to have been kept sincerely by the Persian, who had made so good proof of the Grecian valour, that he was nothing desirous to build any ships of war, (without which the Greeks could receive no harm from him,) whereof if any one should be found sailing towards Greece, the peace was immediately broken, and if not, his whole estate; yet all the sea-coast (no small part of his dominions) exposed to the waste of an enemy too far overmatching him. Yet whether the Athenians were in doubt, lest the league, which in his own worser fortunes he had made with them, he would break in theirs, and therefore sought to get such assurance into their hands as might utterly disable him from attempting ought against them; or whether the increase of their revenues and power, by adding that rich and great island to their empire, caused them to measure honour by profit, they thought it the wisest way to take whilst they might whatsoever they were able to get and hold, and he unable to defend.

The isle of Cyprus, lying in the bottom of the straits between Cilicia, Syria, and Egypt, is very fitly seated for any prince of state, that being mighty at sea, doth either seek to enrich himself by trade with those countries, or to infest one or more of them when they are his enemies. And this

being the purpose of the Athenians, their ambition, which had already devoured in conceit this island, was on the sudden well nigh choked with a greater morsel, to snatch at which they let Cyprus alone, which they might easily have swallowed and digested. For Inarus king of the Libyans, confining Egypt, having found how greatly the country was exhausted by the late wars, and how weakly defended by very slender Persian garrisons, conceived rightly, that if such small forces as the satrapa or viceroy could make on the sudden of his own guards, or levy out of the ordinary garrisons, were by him defeated, the naturals of the country, not long since oppressed by Cambyses, and after a revolt very lately subdued by Xerxes, would soon break faith with him who had no other title to that kingdom than a good sword. Further, he persuaded himself that the people, unable to defend themselves against the Persian without his assistance, would easily be drawn to accept him, the author of their deliverance, for king. Neither did this hope deceive him; for having taken and cruelly slain Achæmenes the viceroy, divers cities forthwith declared themselves for him, and proclaiming him king, shewed the most of their endeavour for prosecution of the war. But he considering his own weakness, and that the means of the Egyptians his adherents were not answerable to their desires, perceived well, that to resist the power of Artaxerxes far greater forces than his and theirs were to be procured, at what price soever he obtained them. Therefore hearing of the great Athenian fleet, and knowing well the virtue of the soldiers therein embarked, he invited the commanders to share with him the kingdom of Egypt, as a far greater reward of their adventure than such an addition as that of Cyprus could be to their estate. Whether he or they (if things had wholly sorted according to their expectation) would have been contented with an equal share, and not have fallen out in the partition, were perhaps a divination unnecessary: he was possessed of the people's love; they were of most power. But the issue of those affairs was such as left them nothing to communicate