were called by the kings their slaves, and so did style themselves, in speaking unto these great monarchs. That upon every light occasion of displeasure they were handled as slaves, it is easy to be discerned in that example of cruelty practised by Xerxes upon his own brother Masistes, which hath been formerly noted in place more convenient. As for the satrapæ, or governors of the provinces, it is needless to cite examples, proving them to have been mere slaves it may suffice, that their heads were taken from them at the king's will; that is, at the will of those women and eunuchs, by whom the king was governed.

To this want of nobility in Persia may be added the general want of liberty convenient among the people; a matter no less available, in making easy and sure the conquest of a nation, than is the cause assigned by Machiavel. For as Esop's ass did not care to run from the enemies, because it was not possible that they should load him with heavier burdens than his master caused him daily to bear; so the nations that endure the worst under their own princes are not greatly fearful of a foreign yoke; nor will be hasty to shake it off, if by experience they find it more light than was that whereunto they had been long accustomed. This was it that made the Gascoigns bear such faithful affection to the kings of England, for that they governed more mildly than the French: this enlarged the Venetian jurisdiction in Lombardy; for the towns that they won, they won out of the hands of tyrannous oppressors: and this did cause the Macedonians, with other nations that had been subject unto the posterity of Alexander's followers, to serve the Romans patiently, if not willingly; for that by them they were eased of many burdens which had been imposed upon them by their own kings.

rent.

So that of this tameness, which we find in those that had been subjects of the Persian kings, the reasons are appaYet some of these there were, that could not so easily be contained in good order by the Macedonians; for they had not indeed been absolutely conquered by the Persians. Such were the Sogdians, Bactrians, and other nations

about the Caspian sea. dering upon Syria, against whom Antigonus sent part of his army; thinking therewith to bring them under, or rather to get a rich booty. The captain that he sent fell upon the Nabathæans, at such time as they were busied in a great mart, wherein they traded with the more remote Arabians for myrrh, frankincense, and other such commodities. All, or most of these rich wares, together with five hundred talents of silver, and many prisoners, the Macedonians laid hold upon; for their coming was sudden and unexpected. But ere they could recover Syria the Nabathæans overtook them, and finding them weary with long marches, made such a slaughter, that of four thousand foot and six hundred horse only fifty horse escaped. To revenge this loss, Demetrius was set out with a greater power, yet all in vain; for he was not resisted by any army, but by the natural defence of a vast wilderness, lack of water, and of all things necessary. Therefore he was glad to make peace with them, wherein he lost not much honour; for they craved it, and gave him presents. Returning from the Nabathæans, he viewed the lake Asphaltites, whence he conceived hope of great profit that might be raised by gathering the sulphur. With this good husbandry of his son Antigonus was well pleased, and appointed men to the work; but they were slain by the Arabians, and so that hope vanished.

Such also were the Arabians bor

These petty enterprises, with the ill success accompanying them, had much impaired the good advantage against Ptolomy; when the news of Seleucus's victories in the high countries marred all together. For neither was the loss of those great and wealthy provinces a matter to be neglected; neither was it safe to transport the war into the parts beyond Euphrates, whereby Syria and the Lower Asia should have been exposed to the danger of ill-affected neighbours. A middle course was thought the best; and Demetrius, with fifteen thousand foot and three thousand horse, was sent against Seleucus. These forces being sent away, Antigonus did nothing, and his son did less. For Seleucus was

then in Media; his lieutenants about Babylon withdrew themselves from necessity of fight; some places they fortified and kept; Demetrius could hold nothing that he got, without setting in garrison more men than he could spare; neither did he get much; and therefore was fain to set out the bravery of his expedition by burning and spoiling the country; which he did thereby the more alienate, and, as it were, acknowledge to belong unto his enemy, who thenceforth held it as his own assured.

Antigonus had laid upon his son a peremptory commandment to return unto him at a time prefixed; reasonably thinking, as may seem, that in such an unsettled state of things, either the war might be ended by the fury of the first brunt, or else it would be vain to strive against all difficulties likely to arise, where want of necessaries should frustrate the valour that by length of time was like to become less terrible to the enemy. Demetrius therefore, leaving behind him five thousand foot and a thousand horse, rather to make show of continuing the war, than to effect much, where himself with greater forces could do little more than nothing, forsook the enterprise, and went back to his father.

SECT. IX. A general peace made and broken. How all the house of Alexander was destroyed.

THESE ambitious heads, having thus wearied themselves with uneffectual travail, in seeking to get more than any one of them could hold, were contented at length to come to an agreement; wherein it was concluded, that each of them should hold quietly that which at the present he had in possession. As no private hatred, but mere desire of empire had moved them to enter into the war; so was it no friendly reconciliation, but only a dulness growing upon the slow advancement of their several hopes, that made them willing to breathe a while, till occasion might better serve to fight again.

Besides that main point, of retaining the provinces which every one held, there were two articles of the peace that RALEGH, VOL. III.

gave a fair, but a false colour to the business; that the son of Alexander by Roxana should be made king, when he came to full age; and, that all the estates of Greece should be set at liberty. The advancement of young Alexander to his father's kingdom seems to have been a matter forcibly extorted from Antigonus; in whom was discovered a purpose to make himself lord of all. But this indeed more nearly touched Cassander. For in his custody was the young prince and his mother: neither did he keep them in sort answerable to their degree; but as close prisoners, taken in that war, wherein they had seen the old queen Olympias taken and murdered, that sought to have put them in possession of the empire. The mutual hatred and fear between them, rooted in these grounds, of injuries done and revenge expected, upon this conclusion of peace, grew up faster than any time before in the heart of Cassander; who saw the Macedonians turn their favourable expectation towards the son of their late renowned king.

All this either little concerned Antigonus, or tended greatly to his good. The young prince must first have possession of Macedon, whereby Cassander should be reduced to his poor office of captain over a thousand men, if not left in worse case. As for them that held provinces abroad, they might either do as they had done under Aridæus, or better, as being better acquainted with their own strength. He in the mean time, by his readiness to acknowledge the true heir, had freed himself from that illfavoured imputation, of seeking to make himself lord of all that Alexander had gotten.

The like advantage had he in that article, of restoring the Greeks to their liberty. This liberty had hitherto been the subject of much idle discourse, but it never took effect. Antigonus held scarce any town of theirs; Cassander occupied most of the country: which if he should set free, he must be a poor prince; if not, there was matter enough of quarrel against him, as against a disturber of the common

peace.

In the mean season, the countries lying between Eu

phrates and the Greek seas, together with a great army, and money enough to entertain a greater, might serve to hold up the credit of Antigonus, and to raise his hopes as high as ever they had been.

With much disadvantage do many men contend against one that is equal to them all in puissance: Cassander's friends had left him in an ill case, but he could not do withal: for where every one man's help is necessary to the war, there may any one make his own peace; but no one can stand out alone, when all the rest are weary. The best was, that he knew all their affections; which tended to no such end as the becoming subjects unto any man, much less to the son of an Asiatic woman, of whom they had long since refused to hear mention. Therefore he took a short course, and caused both the child and his mother to be slain; freeing thereby himself in a trice from the dangerous necessity of yielding up his government, which he must have done when the child had come to age. Roxana was a lady of singular beauty, which was perhaps the cause why Perdiccas desired to have her son, being as yet unborn, proclaimed heir to the great Alexander. Immediately upon the death of Alexander, she had used the favour (if it were not love) of Perdiccas to the satisfying of her own bloody malice upon Statira, the daughter of king Darius; whom Alexander had likewise married, according to the custom of those countries, wherein plurality of wives is held no crime. For having by a counterfeit letter, in Alexander's name, gotten this poor lady into her hands, she did, by assistance of Perdiccas, murder her and her sister, and threw their bodies into a well, causing it to be filled up with earth. But now, by God's just vengeance, were she and her son made away in the like secret fashion; even at such time as the near approaching hope of a great empire had made her life, after a wearisome imprisonment, grow dearer unto her than it was before.

The fact of Cassander was not so much detested in outward show, as inwardly it was pleasing unto all the rest of the princes. For now they held themselves free lords of